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ISBN : 978-2-322-08794-5

© Dépôt légal : Avril 2018.

To mom,

For your encouragements and infinite love.

Acronyms and abbreviations

List of figures

List of tables.

Summary

• Introduction

1. Railway in Africa
   1. From the pre-colonial to the present days
   2. The Railway Market
   3. The Limits of Railway Growth in Africa
2. The concept of integrated logistical support and the state of railway infrastructure in Africa.
   1. Problem of support for large systems
   2. Application of Integrated Logistics Support to Railways
   3. Stakes and challenges of implementation of the SLI approach in railway in Africa
   4. Cost of railway projects
3. Logistical support as a vector of regional and sub-regional integration
   1. Concept of regional integration
   2. Development of rail transports as a lever for integration and development accelerator.
   3. Outlook for 2050

• Conclusion

Foreword

From the world of engineering, but passionate about politics and international relations, I have chosen, within the framework of this work, to bring a scientific dimension, in favor of integration in Africa. This study starts from the observation that many failures in Africa are due not only to the lack of political will but also to a lack of knowledge of some engineering tools.

In this engineering approach, we want to demonstrate that the financing of a project is not enough for it to be viable. We also want to demonstrate that acquiring second-hand systems, or, gratisly receiving an aircraft, a locomotive, a ship or any other large system in diplomatic relations is not in itself a good deal, as long as the support system for the operation of this system is not well dimensioned in the user. From this point of view, it will be understood that the acquisition of second hand locomotives, almost obsolescent to their acquisition, for the African railway after independences, has been detrimental to the survival of these national companies already plagued by many difficulties.

To achieve this, it was necessary to understand the genesis of the construction of these networks, from the colonial period to the independence. Then, by analyzing the current functioning and the causes of the decline, develop a strategy that can bring to this sector its letters of nobility. We are convinced that, considering the prospects of population growth, rail will have to play a very important role in the integration of peoples, through its capacity of mass transport of people, and the transport of heavy materials, with a better carbon footprint than other modes of transport.

Introduction

Most of Africa's railways, for almost a century (19-20s), are experiencing a decline that is unparalleled. After the hours of glory during colonization, then privatization in the last two decades, through nationalizations in the years of independence (1960), the railway in sub-Saharan Africa is today the shadow of itself.

Old rail infrastructures, inoperative tracks, locomotives of another time, whose costs of keeping in line of circulation are exorbitant, under the disastrous management of state companies. This is the actual image of this heritage.

Only, face to predominantly rainy climatic conditions, on average five months a year, and impassable roads, the railway has long been the ideal way to dispose of agricultural products, at the same time it was used for the transport of heavy materials and passengers.

Despite the ecological impact of roads, over the years this mode of transport has taken the ascendancy on the railway, because it operates in a zero-sum system, where the land gained by road was lost by the railway. Some transnational routes have been set up, particularly in West Africa. Projects are underway for a road corridor in eastern Africa.

Central Africa is at the heart of a ’conflictogenic’ environment, facing instability with ethno-religious connotations in the Central African Republic, inter-ethnic rivalries in Burundi and Rwanda, and new types of conflicts with the emergence of the Boko Haram sect in Nigeria and Cameroon, that does not facilitate economic development and free movement of goods and people.

Gathered within the ECCAS (Economic Community of Central African States), these countries in a prospective vision, must now think of peace in terms of integration of peoples, rapprochement of values, and economic development.

Thus, considering sustainable development aspects, what role can railways play in this integration of peoples? Is the disintegration of rail in Africa reversible? What tools of diplomacy and engineering can enable the development of railways in sub-Saharan Africa?

In the world of globalization, peoples' mixing has become a pillar of stability and tolerance. Moving people requires controlling the communication channels, including fast lanes that drive the economy. However, putting these challenges into practice assumes, beyond the political will, the mastery of a specific approach to system engineering: the integrated logistical support. This approach makes it possible to take in consideration the specificities of support from the conception up to the dismantling.

In order to decipher these research questions, we will first tackle the history of railway in order to make a comparison with the existing and the possible market in a prospective momentum. Then, we will present the stakes of the control of integrated logistical support in the management of major projects with a long-life cycle (30-50 years minimum). And finally, we will present how this can promote integration of peoples, economic development and be a vector of peace, face to the beautiful perspective of the role to play by this region in the world over the coming decades.

I) Rail in Africa

Understanding the African railway requires to analyse as a matter of priority, all the genesis of its construction, from the operation of pre-colonial Africa, investments from the colonial era that structured the current railway, and then the post-independence decline. This development of the railway is inseparable not only from the traditional functioning of precolonial African societies, but also from the policy that each colonizer will apply in territories of domination. The railway legacy of the young independent states in the 1960s will be the fruit of this history. Far from the strategic objectives and ambitions of the colonizer, the life of the African railway was therefore to continue. Poorly thought and managed, in an absurd absence of strategy, these African railways will undergo a decline, which will paradoxically make of the colonial period, "the golden age of the African railway".

In this section, we briefly retrace the history of precolonial Africa in order to understand the functioning of this society as seen by the West before the beginning of colonization (see map appendix 1), then the conquest of territories and the sharing of Africa at the 1885 Berlin Conference. In each of these territories we shall list the activities and achievements of the railways.

We do not pretend to list all the lines constructed during the colonial era. This is practically impossible, since micro-lines with a gauge of less than one meter existed and intended for use in the transport of heavy loads over very short local distances. Lastly, we will mainly mention lines that seem to be conducive to our understanding of the current scale of the existing railway lines in order to reflect better future prospects as a vector of integration.

1) From the pre-colonial period to the present day

Long before the states of Europe began to explore Africa, first in exploration, then in the conquest of territories, African, European and Arab contacts existed in Africa. The political and cultural state of this era has always been unknown or little known. Indeed, as no more than the Celts, Africans have not valued much writing to give a testimony of their past. The report of travellers and conquerors through their experiences, are the main sources that relate the history of these peoples.

The African coast has been mapped since the end of the 15th century (see appendix 2, map of the great African kingdoms since the 1000s). In the 1600s, Europeans were interested in the slave trade and the African coast (see appendix 3, slave trade). Indeed, unlike the countries of the Aztecs or the Incas, Africa apparently has no resources. European countries come there for the slave trade that has run for at least a millennium on the east coast.

Since the seventeenth century, when the coastline is definitely under control, the interior remains a mystery. Inaccessibility makes the representation of inner rivers mysterious.

In the middle of the nineteenth century, despite the condemnation of the slave trade by the treaty of Vienna of 1815, then the one of Aachen and Verona, trade continues its ravages on the African soil. This treaty will be definitively eradicated by the convention of Saint-Germain-en-Laye (1909), then that of 1926 taken within the framework of the League of Nations. According to Anne stamm: “Fighting against slave trade could only take place once States, individuals, and slave traders had found replacement goods for their trade. The English discovered a use of coconut oil: that of lubricating machines; The French succeed in extracting an edible oil from peanuts. Beets sugar replacing that of cane, one of the pillars of the triangular trade collapses. "¹

This is the starting point of colonization, with the first aim of conquering the land and thus the establishment of a market for the colonizer and the capture of raw materials for the metropolis.

1-1 Colonial Africa

Landing in Africa, the first clash of the colonizers was cultural. The old African societies, having their way of life and their traditional functioning, will be totally disrupted. This contact would be fatal to them, even if, in general, the colonizers did not intend to attack traditional heritage, except for what they considered unacceptable².

Convinced of the superiority of European civilization, the colonizers felt that the only legitimate needs were theirs. They were animated by needs of several orders:

• The need to provide a living space for a surplus population;
• Desire to consume exotic foods and spices;
• Obligation to satisfy a certain spirit of adventure;
• The call to fulfill a civilizing or religious mission;
• The need to conquer commercial markets or pursue a policy of prestige.

For each of the colonizing countries, the motives will be different. Indeed, some will choose for a leitmotiv, a religious orientation while others will see a quest and conquest of market shares. Others will cumulate many of these motives. The main European colonizing countries are as follows (see appendix 4):

• Italy
• France
• Great Britain
• Germany
• Portugal
• Spain
• Belgium

Each of these countries will have a different influence that will change the social, infrastructural and organizational structure of the society that covers its area of competence.

1-1-1 The Italian colonization

The colonial history of Italy began late compared to other European countries. As the Italian peninsula was facing strong demographic growth, the president of the council, Francesco CRISPI, had led his country in the conquest of territories with the primary objective of relying on the nearby Mediterranean cord. Indeed, Italy did not have the material resources to undertake an expansion in line with other European countries. This colonization was more the result of a political will of prestige and ideology, than the resultant of economic interests.

After defeats in Tunisia, and especially of what became known as the "disaster of the Battle of Adoua" in 1896, Crispi resigned, and Italy had only a footing in Tripolitania where it had for many years strong commercial interests. It will also lose this hold between 1913 and 1914 after a revolt of the Senoussis, supported by the Ottomans and will retreat until the coast.

Benito Mussolini, who became president of the council in the years 1920-1922, will have these remarks reported in the Popolo d'Italia which set the tone of his ambitions in Africa: "imperialism is the eternal and immutable law of life". He added that it was necessary to make the Mediterranean “an Italian lake”. In this impulse, after making definitively the present Lybia, an Italian colony (Cyrenaica and Tripolitania) consequent to a laborious reconquest, it continues to have authority on Somalia it has been managing since 1905.

The stock market crash of 1929 will accentuate the economic decline of the states and the lack of financial resources of Italy. Restrictions on the reception of Italian immigrants by European countries and the USA naturally push them towards the colonies. Thus, Mussolini will covet Ethiopia, a vast region with favourable climate, and a considerable agricultural potential capable of accommodating Italian immigrants. According to the Franco-Anglo-Italian tripartite agreement of 1906, only Ethiopia is an independent state. This country has good commercial relations with France in particular. This economic cooperation had made it possible to build the Djibouti / Addis Ababa railway line between 1898 and 1915. Ethiopia has been a member of the League of Nations (SDN) since September 1923. In the framework of cooperation between States, Italy had signed the Italo-Ethiopian treaty during a journey of Ras Tafari to Rome, which for Mussolini constituted an opportunity for a gentle penetration of that country.

In spite of this treaty, Haïlé Sélassié will not cease to be wary of Italy and will continue to favour his economic contacts with France, which had been favourable to him concerning his admission to the League of Nations.

From then on, Mussolini will be looking for a casusbelli to carry out the reconquest of the land he covets so much. The occasion will be given to him following the incidents in the city of Ual-Ual, on December 5, 1934, located in Ogaden, in eastern Ethiopia, bordering Somalia, which is under Italian control. An incursion by the Italian forces will lead, in fine, to exchanges of fire between the armed forces of the two countries.

Despite the mediation of the League of Nations, whose principles were based on “cooperation among nations” to guarantee “peace and security”, and had as objectives “the abandonment of secret diplomacy, International armaments and the territorial integrity of all the member states”, Italy will engage an open war in October 1935 against this member of the League of Nations. It will seize Addis Ababa in 1936, and will proclaim Ethiopia as an Italian colony. The great European countries will each hasten to acknowledge this annexation.

In 1936, we can distinguish the Italian East Africa formed as early as June by Eritrea, Somalia and Ethiopia, as for Libya, it was directly attached to Italy. Italian colonization enters in its most glorious phase from that period. In three years, almost 120,000 Italians settled in Libya while nearly 200,000 came to settle in East Africa. Italy devoted nearly 12.5 per cent of its budget to its settlements, and from January 1938 onwards, there were 3224 kilometers of roads in Ethiopia and 1000 kilometers of railways for the whole of the country East Africa.

Fig 1: Italian Eastern Africa³

1-1-2 The French colonization

Driven by an ideal of assimilation, French colonization is mainly marked by this desire to carry a model of life, a quest for the other that one wants to bring closer to oneself, in an impulse of equality among all humans. According to Anne Stamm, "This tendency to intellectualism pushes the French to legislate in the abstract".

In general, French colonization in Africa took place in several phases:

• 1534-1830: first colonial expansion;
• 1830-1870: second takeover;
• 1879-1910: expansionism.

It will be noted that after Britain, France will be the European country that has annexed many territories.

1534-1830: first colonial expansion;

It was in 1534 that France began its expansion in Canada through trade and fishing. Then, from the seventeenth century, it installed its counters in the West Indies. During the same period, it will also settle in Senegal, the island of meeting and in India.

However, at the end of the Franco-British war marked by the Paris Treaty of 1763, France renounced to its colonies, especially Canada and its establishments in Senegal. Napoleon would throw in the sponge and renounce colonization following many defeats, and especially after the French Revolution. This will mark the end of the first French colonial epic.

1830-1870: second takeover;

This second wave of colonization began in 1830 with the conquest of Algiers. Little by little, it will proceed to the reconquest of several territories. In 1860, it finally managed to conquer Algeria and continued its expansion in black Africa: Guinea, Gabon, Côte d'Ivoire. Then settled in Cochin China, Vietnam, and Cambodia in Asia.

After the failure of the first wave of expansion, despite a relative lack of interest, France succeeded once again in rising to the rank of second colonizing power in only 40 years.

1879-1910: expansionism.

After the French defeat in the Franco-Prussian war in 1871, the need to rebuild France also depended on the assertion of its power and the conquest of new territory. Indeed, the hegemony of a power was measured at that time by territories under control, its influence on world trade, and for France, its social influence through education of natives. Thus, it will in turn carry out the reconquest of Tunisia, Morocco, and Madagascar.

With this presence in Africa, France will pursue its mission of education in a spirit of assimilation. Thus, "the status of a French citizen is granted to the inhabitants of the four Senegalese communes: Saint-Louis, Gorée, Rufisque, Dakar, who elect and send a deputy to the metropolitan parliament from 1848 to 1852 and then continuously from 1871”⁴. This configuration will only be applied in various ways to other African subjects.

To better govern its territories on the African continent, France has grouped them in regions.

• French West Africa in 1895 comprising in 1920: Senegal, Guinea, Côte d'Ivoire, Dahomey, Sudan, Upper Volta, Mauritania and Niger;
• French Equatorial Africa in 1908, comprising: Gabon, the Middle Congo, Oubangui-Chari and Chad.

Fig 2: French West and Equatorial Africa⁵.

From an operation initially political and ideological at the outset, the idea of an economic colonization settled gradually in the minds of the French. The identification of exportable products is accompanied, despite the Great War that drastically reduces budgets, by the construction of road and railway infrastructure. (See appendix 5, the colonial economy)

Thus, the construction of railways to connect the interior of the land with the port areas and to get them out of the isolation is launched. Despite the exorbitant costs and the difficulty of penetration, nevertheless there will be in 1940, almost 3800 km of railway tracks in French West Africa.

With the support of the forced labourers, the Congo-Ocean railway line was built between 1922 and 1934, in a particularly difficult geographical area made up of mountains and dense forests.

Equatorial Africa will benefit from little investment in infrastructure. Indeed, the forest is very difficult to access and quickly resumes its rights, on poorly maintained road arteries.

This emerging economy is subject to the metropolis which is in fact the main customer of exports. In 1938, for example in French West Africa, 78% of the products were exported to France, and 80% of imports came from France. One might even think that the remaining 20%, although originating from other countries, are under French brokerage. (See appendix 6, Treatment of African Wealth in Europe).

The colonies are developing economies under the impetus of the metropolis, which will specialize countries by sector. There is therefore a strong growth of banana cultivation in Guinea, cocoa cultivation in Côte d’Ivoire and Gabon, oil palm in Dahomey⁶, cotton in Oubangui and southwestern Chad, mining explorations begin, and the export of wood is flourishing.

1-1-3 The British colonization

The expansion of Great Britain has responded first and foremost to a strategic will to secure the major maritime trade routes. (See appendix 7). Indeed, it is observed that the points of attachment to the Gulf of Guinea allow to have supports towards the Cape, and opens by the eastern coast, the safe access to the Indian Ocean. From there, the Malaysian trading posts give access to the Straits of Malacca, for a serene entry into China Sea.

For example, in the west, the trading posts in Gambia, Sierra Leone, Gold Coast, Nigeria, are developing communications along the lines of trade to and from India. These trading posts can only enter into relations with one another by sea.

There was originally no will like France, to unite large spaces under British control. It will colonize Southern Africa almost reluctantly to counterbalance Dutch influence. Between 1814 and 1888, it bought the Cape to Dutch, annexed Natal, Kimberly diamond district, Transvaal, Bechouanaland⁷, and established its protectorate on Mashonaland⁸.

It thus became the first colonial power with a scattered installation which allowed it to control the territories by positioning the military in each home port and ensure prosperous commercial traffic.

According to Britain: “political independence and financial dependence were incompatible”. This presupposes that the colonies must be able to support themselves. This policy of self-centred development has had a great positive effect on the indigenous societies, the British colonies. Thus, it recruited a few in-house executives to support British officials from the metropolis. Out of 250,000 civil servants in more than fifty colonial territories, only 5,000 or 6,000 are recruited from Great Britain or the Dominions9. On the other hand, the social edifice was to some extent respected, and the order of the existing social classes had been incorporated as such into the colonial administration.

Fig 3: British Empire in 1930

1-1-4 The German colonization

While Bismarck had declared: “I am not a colonial”, it is while he is Chancellor that we are witnessing the merger of the German Colonial Association and the Society for German Colonization into a single society Known as the Deutsche Kolonial gesellschaft.

However, in this denial of colonialism, it will keep a rather explanatory guideline of its policy: “the merchant must precede the soldier".

Germany will succeed in establishing itself in the following regions in Africa:

a) North-West Africa:

In this part of Africa, the German territories are Togo and Cameroon.

Togo

The territory of Togo is located on the African Coast, populated in 1908 with 168 whites, and has about 900,000 natives. German colonial societies will invest in schools for the education of Togolese youth (boys). They maintain commercial relations and educate the population through education.

Three lines of railways are installed: one on the coast, one webbed, the other towards Atak-pamé.

Cameroon

The territory of Cameroon is located in Central Africa, populated in 1908 with 1128 whites and about three million indigenous. Germany is setting up large trade exchanges with Cameroon, promoting education for young people and trying to inculcate the values of Western society, in particular the fight against polygamy.

To promote trade, the Douala-Nkongsamba railway line is built.

b) South-West Africa

Current Namibia, the Germans set up their trading posts in this area between the Portuguese colony of Angola in the north and the English colony in Cape Town. As elsewhere, schools are created for the education of the natives.

c) German Eastern Africa

This territory is located between the Portuguese colony of Mozambique, English Rhodesia, the Belgian Congo, and English East Africa. Offering about 500 kilometers of coastline on the Indian Ocean, this proximity to the coast is a wealth for trade. It represents the present Tanzania.

Fig 4: German Colony in Africa

1-1-5 The Portuguese colonization

The Portuguese colonial empire is one of the oldest in the world. It begins in 1415, the date of the conquest of Ceuta by the dynasty of Aviz, but it is not until 1910 that the present Portuguese republic will administer the African territories.

Few Portuguese are thus less driven by the need to emigrate a surplus of population. On the other hand, they wish to evangelize populations by teaching them the Bible and their way of life. They also proceed by assimilation. It easily accepts ethnic mixing. Baptism becoming for them the sign of total assimilation. Nationality is granted unconditionally at first to all Africans who get baptize.

The Portuguese are mainly settled in Angola and Mozambique. The lack of financial resources makes it impossible to invest heavily and settle in the long term, all the more so as the inhospitable climate and harsh living conditions discourage possible candidates for this emigration. Thus, to find personnel to send on the spot, the central power send missionaries in difficulties with their hierarchy or political condemned ones who are called “degradados”. Portuguese colonial policy is therefore based on the fact that: “Portugal has endeavoured to unite, if not to merge, with the peoples discovered and to constitute with them the integral elements of one and the same country", Says President Salazar in 1956. It will therefore not practice either a policy of domination (in principle) or a policy of education oriented towards an independent and foreign constitution.

Fig 5: Portuguese colony in Africa⁹

1-1-6 The Belgian colonization

In 1876, after a conference of geographers in Brussels, King Leopold II, reigning over Belgium, decided to create an African international association, the aim of which was to stop the slave trade in Africa, By the Arabs.

This mission was a follow-up to Stanley’s journey¹⁰ that had traveled from east to west, Equatorial Africa, and discovered the sources of the Congo River.

This expedition will be a success, and by 1879 it occupies the ground and, as at that time, the delimitation of the boundaries is not clear, it will lead to a conflict with the other countries which have settled in this region of Africa These rivalries were at the origin of the Berlin conference, convened by Bismarck. A peace of the brave is drawn and the different powers now agree on their areas of competence. This conference will recognize the Congo as being independent, placed by the Belgian parliament as early as 1885 under the reign of Leopold II.

Assimilation is forbidden and even proscribed, and the Kingdom of Belgium seeks not to confuse conversion and Europeanization. This vision to at least one advantage is that it tends to preserve the existing social fabric. Primary education is provided in the vernacular language (lingala). The traditional chieftains are maintained in a low link, certainly, but still exist within the society.

In addition to this space, as large as four and a half times France, whose only common point is the Congo River and its tributaries, which cross virtually the entire territory, Belgium will be entrusted with the tutelage of Rwanda and Burundi after the First World War.

To promote mining and agricultural exports and the importation of manufactured goods, the Matadi railway line on the Léopoldville estuary is built.

Fig 6: Belgian colony in Africa

1-2 Railway development during colonization

In the colonization movement which began in the late nineteenth century, the great asset of the first colonizing power (Great Britain) was the control of the seas. With varying degrees of success in this area, all countries relied on navigators to update maps as they progressed in this quest for the unknown. Indeed, maritime traffic flows mainly from the banks of the United Kingdom and Portugal to Cape Town, via the Gulf of Guinea, and then the Indian Ocean by the eastern coast. Malaysia's leap into the Malacca Strait to reach India, with whom trade cooperation is highly strategic.

The first stake was to secure this maritime rope to India and thus, to position military personnel on the coast. Gradually, and this being valid for all the colonizers, they will be interested in countries and will seek to access the back which was still a mystery. The lack of communication made this appropriation difficult or almost impossible. In fact, there are fewer than five major rivers whose tributaries open into the interior of African lands.

In order to gain access to the interior of the land, railway lines will be built, precisely to enable the advance of the troops. This was the case in French Sudan on the Upper Nile, in Rhodesia and in the Belgian Congo.

Once the interior lands were explored, the question of development was quickly posed, thus highlighting, a fact that had hardly been sold until then: an economy of colonization. Thus, in the context of this development, the need to create transport routes which are cheap, fast and capable of withstanding the heavy rainy seasons, to induce the colonizing powers to invest on railway lines.

In order to ensure the transport of the products to the ports, it was therefore necessary to create railway lines of penetration, essentially local, to ensure an opening on the hinterland and allow export.

Some intellectuals of the time defended the idea of an investment both private and public, profitable in the colonies. France, in particular, with the great savings of its population during the whole of the French revolution, finds itself with large capital which Duponchel proposes to promote by opening up to Africa: “what England is pursuing with so much success in India and Australia, the United States on the North America continent, Russia in the Center of Asia, would it not be possible to do so by their example, to find in our turn a continent on which We could predominate our beneficent influence, where we could find, at the same time, a large use of our unproductive capital, a new outlet for our industrial and manufactured products, as well as a vast agricultural production center capable of supplying us at low prices foreign raw materials to our soil, which we now find it difficult to procure by foreign intermediaries?"¹¹.