Chapter 1078: Chapter 87: Black People’s Paradise
Even if Black people are included in East Africa’s total population figures, they only account for about five percent, whereas Black people in the United States make up roughly fourteen percent of the total U.S. population, already surpassing East Africa to become the world’s largest Black country.
Through East Africa’s "efforts," the United States has indeed become the country with the largest Black population in the world. Although West Africa is the homeland of Black people, the West African states are fragmented and further partitioned by European and American colonizers, so the Black population of any single West African country or colony cannot compare with East Africa or the United States.
East Africa may have only a little over seven million Black people left, but given the generally low level of productivity in West Africa, it is difficult for any single Black state there to exceed this number. Take Nigeria, for instance, which in the previous timeline was Africa’s most populous country; today Nigeria is still just a geographical concept, split among numerous states and tribes, as well as colonies of the United Kingdom and other powers.
Its total population may be over ten million, but it cannot be counted as one country; at the very least it can be divided among two British Nigeria protectorates, the Southern German Kingdom (which occupies part of it), and local indigenous forces.
The Abyssinia Empire’s population does exceed ten million, but Abyssinia is a Black–white mixed region, not a purely Black state. Especially after East Africa excised the southern Black areas that in the previous timeline lay within Ethiopia’s borders, the share of Black blood in the total Abyssinian population is actually even smaller.
"At present, we can at most continue using illegal labor for another ten years or so before they naturally die off. This also means that on the economic level our country’s development will face a transformation issue," said Derich, East Africa’s Minister of Transport.
The Black people in East Africa are basically adult males; even if East Africa wanted to treat them as "perpetual motion machines," their life expectancy would not allow it. Given their lifespan, surviving another ten-plus years would already count as longevity.
The decline in the number of Black people is obviously unfavorable for East Africa’s current industrial development, because Black people are East Africa’s cheapest labor force and have rendered outstanding service in the early development of East Africa and its subsequent industrial construction.
"Phasing out the role of Black people in our national industries is the inevitable path of our economic development. We cannot always pin our hopes on external labor to support our growth, and the work performed by Black people is concentrated in the lowest-end sectors and can be entirely replaced by our own people—it’s just that they are not as convenient to use as Black people."
"But this will not have too much impact on us. At present, the overall development and transformation of our country is basically complete; we have built a relatively systematic network of water conservancy projects, railways, and highways. This also means that the most difficult period has passed, and compared with other regions of the world, East Africa’s conditions in all respects are no longer poor," Sivert said.
Derich said, "According to this century’s preliminary development goals, our country still has at least one hundred thousand kilometers of railways and over a million kilometers of highways yet to be built, as well as many more water conservancy projects not yet constructed. Meanwhile, many high‑risk industries, such as mining, all require the labor of Black workers."
"Moreover, our level of mechanization is currently not high. Achieving a high degree of mechanization will take at least several more decades of development; until then, Black labor can greatly reduce our costs."
For East African government departments such as the Ministry of Transport, the Ministry of Water Resources, and the Ministry of Railways, the importance of Black labor is especially prominent. Before East Africa’s rise, there was not a single decent road within what is now East African territory, let alone a railway or canal, and it is no exaggeration to say that East Africa’s early transport, water conservancy, and agricultural development were all propped up by Black people.
Of course, as the population has grown, most sectors in East Africa no longer need Black people. In agriculture, for example, East Africa has already completely eliminated Black labor; at present East Africa’s use of Black people is mainly concentrated in infrastructure construction and extractive industries.
Sivert said, "Eliminating Black labor is a basic national policy. Many Black workers, because of their age, eat more than they work, so we cannot just wait for natural attrition. We also have to restore part of our maritime shipping business and send them to the West Africa region."
Because of major infrastructure projects, East Africa has not exported Black Slaves abroad for more than ten years; after all, the slave trade also carries enormous risks.
Still, as Sivert said, finding ways to ship these older Black people to West Africa is a good idea. These over‑age Black people basically have no use value for East Africa.
Simply exiling them to West Africa is also related to the slave trade, since the essence of trade is exchange, and East Africa gains no benefit in the process; in that sense, it cannot be called "slave trade."
Operationally, it is also relatively simple. Trade between East Africa and Western Europe and America is becoming ever more frequent, so most ships on the West Coast routes pass by West Africa; if each trip carries a small batch, these Black people can be dumped in West Africa.
East Africa is, after all, a "hell" for Black people; once in West Africa, they might still enjoy their old age. Although West Africa today is also the turf of various colonial powers, it is still better than East Africa, where there is not the slightest hint of human rights.
Looking around the world, Black people in the United States actually hold the third‑highest status among Black populations globally. First and second place belong to Haiti and Liberia, two countries with deep ties to the United States; Haiti falls within the sphere of U.S. economic influence, while Liberia is almost equivalent to an American Colony.
Black people on the African Continent today have basically lost their freedom, whereas Black people in the United States, though discriminated against by U.S. society, enjoy far more freedom than those in East Africa or West Africa.
The Black population in U.S. society alone exceeds ten million and is deeply involved in the construction of American agriculture and industry. As for their low political status—after all, in the United States, people are inherently divided into ranks. Aside from those of English descent and Jews, other groups such as the Irish, Germans, Italians, Indians, Japanese, and Chinese were all more or less in the same boat in the past.
Of course, with the rise of East Africa, Germany, and Austria-Hungary, the social status of Germans in the United States has now increased dramatically.
In the past, when Germany was not yet unified, Austria-Hungary was half‑dead, and because of Hungary could not be considered a true German Country, and East Africa was merely a small back‑of‑beyond colonial state, Germans in the United States were relatively weak.
Naturally, the improvement in the status of Germans in America is not only due to the rise of German Country; another major reason is that in the 1870s and 1880s, East Africa, through economic crises, siphoned off the poor German population from the United States. Under an economic crisis, those of German descent who managed to remain in America naturally had a certain social standing or a stable economic source.
Now it is mainly Italians and Neapolitans who have replaced the former ecological niche of Germans in the United States, becoming the main force of American gangs and violent organizations.
Relatively speaking, however, those truly at the bottom of society are still non‑European groups. East Africa does not count as a European country, so East Africans are also rather unwelcome in the United States, though not to the extent of suffering America’s "non‑national treatment."
Among them, native U.S. Black people and Asians are the true bottom of American society. Even so, the status of Black people in the United States is still far higher than that of Black people in East Africa.
At least they can freely look for work, and even take wives and have children—and the wives U.S. Black men marry may well be women whom East Africa once trafficked via Haiti.
In hindsight, the Black people whom East Africa sold to the United States back then can be said to have caught a lucky break. After the Civil War, Black people in the United States shed their slave status, and the United States, as one of the world’s great powers, enjoys social stability and strong economic capacity, so even Black people at the very bottom can usually manage to be half‑full.
Black people in other regions, by contrast, live lives worse than death. This includes West Africa, the homeland of Black people, where they are exploited by a native Black upper class and then flayed again by colonizers. Black people in East Africa are treated by East Africa as "pitiless" machines, stripped of the right to marry, have children, and enjoy personal freedom, and live in utter darkness. Viewed this way, the United States is indeed the only "paradise" currently available to Black people in the world.
