CHAPTER 176: CHAPTER 165 CULTURAL EXTINCTION

East Africa, relative to the entire world, Africa is also a desert of civilization; the splendid ancient Egyptian civilization supported the entire narrative of African civilization.

But Ernst never considered Egypt as part of Africa. When thinking of Africa, Ernst instinctively excludes all of North Africa. The vast Sahara Desert, like a galaxy, divides Africa into two worlds.

The indigenous people on the East African plains were not part of Ernst’s civilized world. They were too wild and unruly, making Ernst feel they merged with the vast African continent.

In his conscience, Ernst was not willing to break the indigenous way of life, which involved dance with beasts for thousands of years.

However, even without Ernst, other colonizers would disrupt the tranquility of this land; therefore, Western colonizers were the true destroyers of this world.

They forcibly integrated Africa into the world’s gears, and before their arrival, these indigenous people had no concept of human society. They followed the law of the jungle, like the animals on the East African plains, with truly simple minds, rich in the most primitive and wild thoughts.

Colonizers imposed so-called civilized world’s lies, deceit, selfishness, greed, and all evils upon the world of these indigenous people.

Yet they never educated them, nor imparted the great thoughts and good virtues of human sages to these indigenous people.

Of course, Ernst was not a good person. As someone worn out by society for decades, Ernst’s heart was also blackened.

Now, Ernst aimed to completely erase the traces of these indigenous people’s existence in East Africa. It was very simple to destroy traces of East African indigenous existence, especially in the savannah areas—a wild fire could completely burn away the traces of their existence.

However, Ernst’s main target this time was not these indigenous people but the Arab civilization that truly left traces of civilization in East Africa.

The East African colonies inherited a large amount of Arab civilization’s legacy. Arabs, Persians, Indians, and even the Great Ming of the Far East once visited the land of East Africa.

India, Persia, and the Far East were not worth worrying about; after all, they were only passersby in East Africa.

Those who truly took root in East Africa were the Arabs. The entire East African coast, and areas close to North Africa, retain many traces of Arab civilization.

This includes the buildings and cities left by the Sultanate of Zanzibar, which are just the tip of the iceberg. They also include areas in Kenya and regions in Buganda deeply influenced by North Africa.

Even in the 21st century of his previous life, archaeologists could still excavate traces left by ancient Arabs in the ruins of East Africa.

A unified Islamic architectural style is quite striking in East Africa, with many structures being products of the Middle Ages, classified as cultural heritage in Ernst’s previous life.

However, Ernst was not someone who cherished cultural relics, especially those that might impact the future legal territory of East African lands.

People always like to imagine, with many favoring the phrase "since ancient times." Many Arab cities were once established in East Africa.

In his previous life, Ernst had reason to believe that some Arabs would use this as a basis to press East Africa for explanations.

Not to mention the 21st century, such things were common even now, like the numerous European countries claiming to be heirs of Rome. If the French and Germans did it to declare.

Then Italy was daydreaming about restoring the Roman Empire, which was sheer delusion. Everyone knew Italy couldn’t actually hold on to that claim of Rome; were they hoping for the entire Mediterranean coast to be ceded to them?

Some Italians were like toads lusting after swan meat, gone completely crazy.

And the Turks played the pure clown, the Eastern Roman Empire was destroyed by the Ottoman Empire, and now the Ottomans claimed they were the rightful Roman lineage. At least the Germans accepted some Roman cultural heritage; the Ottomans were a completely foreign civilization, mortal enemies with ancient Rome, leaving Eastern Rome no way out, even annihilating its culture—how shameless.

Plus, Turkey wanted to wave the Roman banner while yearning for Arab civilization, later even engaging in Pan-Turkism, truly jumping up and down.

Therefore, as the times progressed, absurd things would only become more ridiculous. Ernst was just patching things up, preventing foreign states from nitpicking in the future as much as possible.

As for East Africa, if all historical relics were destroyed, future East African history books would replace that of America as the thinnest book, to which Ernst was indifferent.

Even if in his previous life America gathered all the world’s artifacts and culture, it couldn’t change the disdain of people from the Old Continent for America’s historical and cultural heritage.

East Africa, with even a shorter history, shouldn’t bother to deceive itself; it just lacked historical culture, accepting it outright, boldly admitting East Africa is a stitched-up monster.

Fisher’s work is of this sort, directing demolition work in Dar es Salaam.

All buildings left by the Sultanate of Zanzibar were demolished, and in their place, German-style buildings were constructed. This work simultaneously progressed in Mombasa and areas like Buganda.

In the future, German-style new cities will replace mosques and other typical Arab architecture, becoming East Africa’s new window to the outside world.

The fact that high-end talents like Fisher ended up in Africa was purely accidental. The "Stuttgart Evening Post" paper was actually owned by Ernst, and as German immigration slowed down, on a whim, he ran a job advertisement there.

He initially thought East Africa wouldn’t hold much allure for urban Germans, especially with not-high salaries and Africa’s poor reputation in Europe.

But Ernst underestimated the living conditions of the lower class in this era. Even in more economically developed cities, there were craftsmen like Fisher whose families were barely surviving.

However, don’t hope to attract a large crowd of workers through advertisements; most Germans still preferred living in Europe, moving away being a last resort.

Besides, East Africa didn’t yet have many positions to place these workers. Fisher fared better; the construction industry was in demand everywhere, with the only barrier being low technical requirements.

The European industry was currently saturated, and low technical barriers meant easy replacement. Combined with Fisher’s lack of formal education, relying entirely on inherited skills, and encountering an unscrupulous boss at the same time—these combined reasons led to Fisher losing his job and seeking employment in East Africa.

Such unfortunate souls were probably few in Germany. Even if he waited a bit longer, he likely would have found work. But coincidentally, Fisher had three mouths to feed at home, and they couldn’t wait.

Furthermore, the southwestern regions of Germany were indeed focal areas for East African immigration. With the precedent of farmer groups migrating to East Africa, this further fueled Fisher’s impulse to develop in East Africa.