African Entrepreneurship Record

October 3, 1867.

Mbeya, Ininaya village.

Ayiguli Yahefu is preparing breakfast for her husband and herself.

Aygul Yagafu was an Armenian who was bought from the Ottoman Empire nobles by Arab slave traders and sold to the East African colonies.

She was awarded as a "prize" to Zhao Yizhan, a model model soldier recognized by the colonial government.

Zhao Yizhan is a Chinese immigrant. He was the first group of people to arrive in Mbeya. He was also the first group of Chinese immigrant troops organized in the colony.

At the beginning, Zhao Yizhan's group of 100 people, only 97 of them reached Mbeya alive, and three of his comrades died during the harsh march.

Later, Mbeya became the capital of the Upper Malawi Lake District, and the East African colonial government established villages and developed land throughout the colonial territory of East Africa.

There is also Ininaya Village near Mbeya, and Zhao Yizhan was assigned to Ininaya Village as a veteran team member and became a member of the Ininaya Village Security Team.

Zhao Yizhan was originally from Shandong. He was not short, reaching 1.78 meters (at the beginning of the 20th century, the average height per capita in many European and American countries was less than 1.7 meters). When he was in the Far East, he was a little skinny because he didn't have enough to eat. Looks like a large hemp straw

Although Zhao Yizhan was still malnourished when he first arrived in the East African colony, he was able to work like a tiger when he was well fed and drunk.

The whole person was in excellent mental condition. He was selected as a member of the first batch of Chinese soldiers in the first town, and finally embarked on the journey to conquer Mbeya.

During the year of Mbeyang's military service, Zhao Yizhan's obedience and resilience were also favored by his superiors, and he was appointed as the backbone of the newly established Ininaya Village (after all, there were only a few people in the village security team, and there was only one leader) The German village chief and a Hechingen student who led the team, so they are also very powerful in the village.)

Later, catching up with the "purge" movement, Mbeya was located on the traffic artery leading to the southwest (Zimbabwe and Zambia) for the indigenous people.

The local government of Mbeya not only has to maintain the smooth flow of the passage and ensure that the indigenous tribes will not stay, but also is responsible for expelling the local indigenous tribes. Therefore, Mbeya has a relatively heavy workload.

And in this way, Mbeya can gain more achievements. In the follow-up, he will take advantage when applying for the female quota. Zhao Yizhan also organized a militia (temporary expansion) during this purge campaign, which was more advantageous. Among many Outstanding among peers.

Becoming the first batch of people assigned a daughter-in-law, Ayiguli Yahefu married Zhao Yizhan at that time.

The East African colony, the Mbeya government, personally issued the couple's marriage certificate.

As an Armenian woman, Aygul Yahefu is actually not very good at handling East African ingredients.

The place where Armenians live is located in the Transcaucasus region of Western Asia. It has been historically influenced by Greek culture and Persian culture, so the food style is a mix of Greek, Persian, Turkish and Arabic cuisine.

The Armenians live in high mountains, valleys, and plateaus. The environment is harsh and the transportation is not very convenient.

Compared with West Asia, East Africa seems to be a bit of a "land of plenty".

East Africa is quite rich in products. All kinds of tropical fruits and vegetables are suitable for growing here. The fertile, flat and large areas of land provide sufficient food production. There are also many rivers and lakes, which can fly in the sky, run on the ground, and swim in the water. , all kinds of ingredients are available.

Many of them are things that Aygul Yahefu has never seen before. Fortunately, Mbeya mainly grows wheat. As an Armenian woman, Ayiguli Yahefu can make an Armenian version of baked bread as a snack. Staple food.

East Africa is currently promoting the use of fish as a meat supplement instead of wild animals, and Armenians are also good at handling fish.

But when it comes to many ingredients from East Africa, Ayiguli Yahefu still has no experience in handling them.

This is when Zhao Yizhan's advantage comes into play. As a Far Easterner, of course Zhao Yizhan can cook, but he only knows how to cook it, but he can't make it delicious.

Even so, he still taught Ayiguli Yahefu how to fry, fry, and make pancakes, noodles and other oriental cooking skills.

Although these seem simple, they can handle most foods.

Although the food in Zhao Yizhan's family is relatively simple, it reflects the combination of Chinese and Western food. Anyway, it is good to be full these days, and no one cares much about the taste of the food.

As an agricultural growing area, East Africa has considerable food production capacity. One person can get about a kilogram of food rations a day.

As a model model soldier and member of the security team, Zhao Yizhan can receive one and a half kilograms of food a day, and Ayiguli Yahefu, as a woman, can also receive close to seven taels of food. The two of them combined weighed just over two pounds.

In addition, there is an irregular supply of meat, vegetables grown by oneself, as well as wild vegetables and fruits in the field.

In this era, the living conditions of Zhao Yizhan's family far exceeded the world average, that is, in terms of clothing, housing and transportation, it was worse than that of the East African colonies, otherwise it was no different from Europe.

Today, Zhao Yizhan's breakfast consists of two pieces of toast, one fish soup, and one fried green vegetable.

Ayiguli Yahefu is responsible for handling the ingredients, while Zhao Yizhan is responsible for lighting the fire.

In addition to an Oriental stove, there is also a Western-style brick oven at home.

In the past, most of the pots and pans in the East African colonies were imported in bulk from the Far East and Europe.

Since the mainland part of the Zanzibar Sultanate was taken over, the brick kilns and handicraft workshops above were also taken over by the East African colonies and expanded to provide the entire East Africa with bricks and stone needed for stoves and industrial products such as clay pots and iron pots.

Of course, in addition to families like Zhao Yizhan who cook their own meals, there are also a large number of canteens built in East Africa. After all, there are still a lot of singles in East Africa who have not married (after getting married, they cannot eat in canteens.), so their dietary problems are solved by big pot meals.

However, as more and more people resolve their marriages and the number of family immigrants increases, the proportion of people who dine in has begun to gradually decrease.

Soon, the canteen in the village is likely to close down. Following instructions from above, future family immigrants will be prioritized in villages.

Male single immigrants will be arranged to enter the city first. The East African colonies are currently establishing a number of traditional handicraft workshops to provide simple daily necessities for the development of the East African colonies.

Moreover, cities can be more easily managed. Immigrants with families are naturally easier to rule than single immigrants. Therefore, currently, family immigrants are given priority to farms.

Single immigrants are first assigned to cities with stricter management. East African cities are not the conventional European cities, and citizens enjoy full freedom.

In fact, cities in East Africa are larger towns, or giant farms. They are only called cities administratively for the convenience of management and naming.

Its industry is still mainly agriculture, but the conditions and transportation of these cities are advantageous. Even if the East African colonial government interferes with their development, they will become regional centers in the future based on their own conditions.