Communications in Africa, 1880–1939
Editor: David Sunderland
Advisory Editor: Godfrey N Uzoigwe
Britain and Africa
978 1 84893 064 3: 234x156mm: £450.00/$795.00
To transport products from the interior of Africa to docks, from where they were exported, and to move imported machinery and domestic goods to towns, mines and farms within the continent, the British had to construct a sophisticated transport and communications infrastructure. This collection presents rare and difficult-to-access documents relating to the development of various forms of communication. The first four volumes will concentrate on the continent’s railway system, investigating the proposed reasons for building lines, their finance and construction, the rolling stock used, and the operation and economic impact of completed works. The final volume will consider the construction of Africa’s road network, river navigation, harbour construction, shipping, and the arrival of aviation and postal, telegraph and telephone services.
Contents
Volume 1: Railways: Proposals
East Africa
The Beira Railway. Report of Proceedings of the Various Meetings held in Salisbury, Rhodesia, on the above Question, Salisbury, 1895; C S Betton, ‘Prospective railway development in British Equatorial Africa’, Journal of the Society of Arts, July 4, 1902; Suggested Branch Railway Lines. Economic and Technical Reports Laid on the Table of the Legislative Council on March 16th, 1926, Government Press, Nairobi, 1926; A Projected Branch Line in the Northern Province from Sanya to Engare Nairobi. Memoranda by the Chief Engineer, Tanganyika Railways, and the Director of Agriculture, Presented to Council by Order of the Governor, Government Printer, Dar es Salaam, 1929
South Africa
Reports on Inspections Made to Ascertain the Best Lines of Possible Railway Extension in the Colony. No. 1, Possible extensions of the Western and Midland systems, Cape Town, 1879; Correspondence Having Reference to Construction of Railways in Territory of Bechuanaland, Cape Town, 1889; CO 879/56/2, Delagoa Bay Railway, Memorandum by Mr G Fiddes including brief history of the railway, 1895; R Walker, The Union of South Africa. In the Matter of the Grand Junction Railways Ltd of South Africa. Did the Supreme Court ... "Keep Downing Street out of South Africa" or ... "Trample Underfoot the National Reputation"? An Inquiry, Aberdeen University Press, 1919; Report of the Railways & Harbours Board on Proposed Experimental Stronach-Dutton Roadrail, Government Printers, Cape Town, 1923; Report of the Railways and Harbours Board Relative to the Construction of a Railway Line between Hercules and Koedoespoort, the Regrading and Deviation of the Cape Eastern Main Line between Amabele and Imvani, Cape Times Ltd, Cape Town, 1939
West Africa
Sir Frederick Cardew, Railway Schemes for the Colony of Sierra Leone. An Address before the African Trade Section of the Liverpool Chamber of Commerce, 2 August 1895, Liverpool Chamber of Commerce, Liverpool 1895; CO 879/49/2, No 185a. Wassau (Gold Coast) Mining Co. Ltd to Colonial Office, 19th August 1897, Tarkwa Railway; Informal Conference ... on the Subject of the Lagos Railway, held at the Exchange Station Hotel, on Monday, April 27th, 1903, African Trade Section of the Incorporated Chamber of Commerce, Liverpool, 1903; The Right Railway System and the Best Outlets for Nigeria, 1906, Marsden and Co. Ltd, London, 1906
Volume 2: Railways: Construction
Construction of Specific Lines
A G Dalton, A Report and Estimate Concerning the Construction and Equipment of a Railway Between Oudtshoorn and Klipplaat station via Willowmore with Full details, Cape Town, 1894; CO 879/49/2, No.190, Crown Agents to Colonial Office 23rd August 1897 letter, plus copy of Shelford’s Tarkwa (Gold Coast) Railway Survey; G S Owen, Report and Estimate in Connection with Caledon Surveys, With a View to the Construction of a Line of Railway, Cape Town, 1897; CO 879/61/612. Sierra Leone (Kwalu) Railway Survey. Report of Messrs Shelford and Son, 15Tth November 1899; F L O’ Callaghan, Uganda Railway, Royal Engineers Institute, London, 1900; CO 879/76/695, No. 41. Sir F Lugard to Colonial Office, Febuary 25th 1903. Railway construction in Nigeria; CO 879/86/3. Construction of foreign railways in West Africa, Papers with graphs showing progress on French and Belgian and on British railways, 1903; E H Smith Wright, Railways in Rhodesia. A Few Notes on their Construction and on the Country Through Which They Pass, London, 1904; CO 879/93/5. Railway Construction in Nigeria. Memorandum by Mr Winston S Churchill 1906; Railway Construction. Zoutpansberg District, Pretoria, 1909; A R Seymour, Tropical Railways (unpublished manuscript), 1925
Methods and Forms of Construction
Report of the Select Committee on Railway Labourers, Cape Town, 1863; E R Calthrop, ‘Light Railways in the Colonies’, Royal Colonial Institute Proceedings, xxix (1897–8); CO 879/76/695, No.156. Governor Egerton, January 6th 1905. Oshogbo Lagos Railway Extention. Remarks on the System on which the Line should be Constructed; Frederic Shelford, Some Features of West African Railways, Institution of Civil Engineers, London, 1912; Sir W De Frece, The Failure of Officialdom, London, 1923; CO 766/1. Written Evidence. No. 52, Memorandum for Private Enterprise Committee by the Hon. Gideon Murray, Master of Elibank, 1923
Finance of Lines
CO 879/7/19. Natal. Draft law to raise a loan for the construction and equipment of certain railways, 1875; CO 879/121/3. Tanganyika Territory. Proposed loan for railway and harbour development, 1923-4
Construction Contracts and Agreements
Convention for the Construction and Working of the Hamilton-Kimberley Railway made between the Inter-Colonial Council, the Cape government and the Natal government, Bell & Nixon, Johannesburg, 1908; Central Africa Railway Company Limited and Shire Highlands Railway Nyasaland Limited and The Crown Agents for the Colonies on behalf of the Nyasaland Government: Conditional Agreement, 1930
Volume 3: Railways: Operation
East Africa
Lieutenant-Col F D Hammond, Report on the Railway Systems of Kenya, Uganda and Tanganyika, Crown Agents for the Colonies, London, 1921; Lieutenant-Col F D, Report on the Railway System of Southern Rhodesia under the Railways Enquiry Act, 1924, Salisbury, 1925; Lieutenant-Col F D Hammond, Report on the Railway System of Tanganyika Territory, London, 1930
South Africa
J H Smith, Special Railway Commissioner, upon the Administration, Organisation and Working of the Natal Government Railways, London, 1903; F B Glasier, Report by the General Manager, Lagos Railway, on the British South African Railways, Government Printer, Lagos, 1909
West Africa
Lieutenant-Col F D Hammond, Report on the Railway System of the Gold Coast, Crown Agents for the Colonies, London, 1922; Lieutenant-Col F D Hammond, Report on the Sierra Leone Government Railway, Crown Agents for the Colonies, London, 1922; T N Goddard, Summary of Proceedings of a Conference on Railway Revenue and Expenditure, Sierra Leone, 1931
Volume 4: Railways: Operation and Economic Impact
Aspects of Operation
CO 879/76/695 No. 94, Governor Sir W MacGregor to Colonial Office, 9th January 1904 plus enclosures; CO 879/86/763, No. 75, Birmingham Chamber of Commerce to Crown Agents, 24th March 1905 with enclosure; Agreement as to the Division of Traffic between the Cape, Natal, and Central South African Railway Administrations, Dated 2nd February, 1909, Government Printing and Stationery Office, Pretoria, 1909; CO 879/115/1016, No. 97. Governor of Uganda to Colonial Office, March 27th 1914. Views on the Amalgamation of Uganda Protectorate Railways and the UgandaRailway plus enclosures; W W Hoy, 'State Ownership and Operation of Railways, A Digest of the Evidence Given before a Commission of Inquiry in South Africa', Railway Gazette, London, 1919; Report of the Customs Tariffs and Railway Rates Committee, Government Printer, Entebbe (Uganda), 1929; Sir Harry Osborne Mance, Report on the Co-ordination of Transport in Kenya, Uganda and the Tanganyika Territory, Government Printer, Nairobi, 1937
Rolling Stock
‘Some typical modern locomotives and rolling stock for African railways’, Railway Gazette, November 28th 1911
Economic Impact
Robert T Williams, The Cape to Cairo Railway from the Point of View of African Development: A Paper Read Before the Central Asian Society, 5th April, 1922; John Wyatt Spiller, ‘The Respective Merits of Roads and Railways for Colonial Development’, Minutes of Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers, vol. 237, 1935; John Wyatt Spiller, Colonial Railways 1928-38: An Economic Review, Institution of Civil Engineers, London, 1941
General
F W Emett, ‘Some curiosities of the Uganda Railway’, Wide World Magazine, April 1901; Report on the Baro-Kano Railway, Waterlow & Sons, London, 1912; The Nigerian Railway. Some General Particulars, a Short Historical Sketch and Interesting Statistics, Lagos, mid 1920s; Lieutenant-Col Sir Edward Grigg, Memorandum on Railway Development, Government Press, Nairobi, 1926; 'British African railways', Railway Gazette, November 21 1927 & December 5th 1927
Volume 5: Other Forms of Communication
Roads:
Road Construction
CO 766/1. Written Evidence. No. 11. Replies to Questions of the Private Enterprise Committee by the Governor of Sierra Leone, 1923; Notes on Road Construction, Government Printer, Lagos, 1933; C Willmot, Report on Investigations into Modern Road Construction in South Africa and Southern Rhodesia, Government Printer, Entebbe (Uganda), 1936
Road Conditions
R J Van Reenan, The Free State Roads. Report on the Condition of Roads in the Orange Free State, Bloemfontein, 1914; The Union of South Africa, Province of Transvaal, Report of the Commission on Roads, Pretoria, 1921; Notes on the General Position with Regard to Roads in the Northern Provinces, Government Printer, Kaduna (Nigeria), 1931
Rivers
J Stevenson, The Water Highways of the Interior of Africa, with Notes on Slave Hunting and the Means of its Suppression, Glasgow, 1883; CO 879/38/451. Part 2. No 41 Sir W B Griffith 2nd June 1890. Reports on a Conference with Representatives of the Mining Companies on the Subject of Steps to be Taken to Improve Communication between Tarkwa (Gold Coast) and the River Bonsa and of the Waterways of the Ankobra and Bonsa Rivers plus enclosures; CO 879/110/2. Transport policy to develop the Northern Provinces of Northern Nigeria. Reports by Captain H O Mance including notes on the River Niger and its navigable tributaries, the trade of Sokoto, Borgu and Kontagora, anticipated trade development, trade routes from Sokoto, and possible French trade competition, 1911
Aviation
F Tymms, Prospects of Civil Aviation in East Africa, London, 1929; P E L Gethin, Report on Aviation in the Uganda Protectorate, Goverment Press, Entebbe, 1936
Shipping
H H Clarke, The Shipping Ring and the South African Trade, Ward Lock & Co., London, 1898; J R Galloway, Shipping Rings and the Manchester Cotton Trades. A Paper Read at a Meeting of the British Association 12th August 1898, London, 1898; CO 96/474/34032. Crown Agents to Colonial Office, 15 September 1908 with enclosure Freelands to Crown Agents, 29th August 1908
Harbours
Report on the Control and Working of Mombasa (Kilindini) Harbour, Kenya Colony, London, 1926
Postal and Telegraph Services
Cape of Good Hope, Report of the Post Master General for the Year 1893, Cape Town, 1894; Report of the Committee Appointed to Consider the Whole Question of Rural Telephones, of the Terms on which they Should be Installed and Operated, and of their Connection with Trunk lines, Kenya, 1929
General
Transport in Africa. East African Commission’s Recommendations, British Cotton Growing Association, Manchester, 1925