BELBASE

In 1482, the Portuguese traveller Diego Cão discovered the mouth of the Congo River and since then, Portuguese traders resided at the mouth of the river. At the Berlin Conference in 1885, when Africa was divided between the various European powers, Portugal acquired, among other things, the colony of Angola, on the left bank of the Congo River, and the protectorate of Cabinda (Portuguese Congo) on the right bank at the mouth of the river.

The Congo River was the only access to the sea for the Belgian Congo, but the Portuguese presence made this route uncertain.

Even though the Berlin Conference provided for freedom of trade in the Congo Basin, Belgium was not reassured and very early on looked for a second route via the Indian Ocean. The experience of the various blockades of the Scheldt by the Netherlands, making access to the port of Antwerp impossible, was not unrelated to this.

The Eastern Road

At the end of the 19th century, in about twenty years, means of transport in Africa had indeed made enormous progress. In the Congo, where the Belgians achieved a remarkable feat in 1868, bypassing the cataracts of the Congo River, an insurmountable obstacle for explorers for centuries, and building a railway line between Matadi and Kinshasa (then Leopoldville).

Apart from the road via Matadi, the Congo, in its vastness, has always suffered from one defect: that it had no export route on its territory to the sea, which it itself controlled 100%. Hence the search for an alternative route to the Indian Ocean.

Before the First World War, Germany had developed the port of Dar es Salaam so that it could serve its East African possessions. It also built a 1,252-kilometre-long railway (Tanganjikabahn) between Dar es Salaam and Kigoma to transport goods to and from Ruanda-Urundi. (Ruanda-Urundi was the name of part of the former colony of German East Africa, until it gained independence in 1962 as the separate countries of Rwanda and Burundi.)

During World War I, at the Battle of Tabora (8–19 September 1916), the Force Publique led by Belgian colonial officer General Charles Tombeur defeated the German army in East Africa ( Deutsch Ost-Afrika - now Tanzania).

In April 1916, three brigades of the Force Publique from the Belgian Congo, led by General Charles Tombeur, entered German East Africa. ^{[3] [4] [5]}

• The northern brigade led by Colonel Philippe Molitor set out from north of Lake Kivu and captured Rwanda.
• The Southern Brigade led by Lieutenant Colonel Olsen marched between Lake Kivu and Lake Tanganyika and captured Urundi.
• The Third Brigade, led by Lieutenant Colonel Moulaert, was active on the Tanganyika front, fighting against the troops of General Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck.
  Von Lettow-Vorbeck had an army of some 3,000 Germans and 11,000 local warriors and porters.
  Moulaert's Southern Brigade consisted of 8,000 Force Publique soldiers, 5,000 porters ^(*) and 100 oxcarts.

Note ^(*): These were 5,000 military porters, the thousands of other requisitioned Congolese civilians were not included in any statistics.

On 28 July 1916, Kigoma, the largest German base on Lake Tanganyika and the terminus of the railway line through Tabora to Dar es Salaam, fell. ^[6]

Captain Piers led the front of the battle column along the railway and was the first to reach Tabora. This was followed by the Battle of Tabora. The fight was decided on 19 September. He discovered 129 captured soldiers of the Force Publique, including two white officers.
One of them had managed to conceal a Belgian flag, which was hoisted in place of the white flag that the Germans had hung at their headquarters as a sign of surrender.

The Belgian flag would fly over Tabora for five months, until the town was handed over to the British on 25 February 1917.

During the First World War, troops under Belgian command had conquered parts of German East Africa as far as Morogoro, less than 200 km from the Indian Ocean coast. However, it was only in the westernmost part of the colony, including Kigoma and its port, that they set up an occupation government, leaving the rest of the territory to the British. ^[7]

After the war, the dismemberment of the former German colonies would of course take place, and Belgium was determined to take part in the discussions, with a view to obtaining fair compensation for the military and financial efforts it had made in East Africa

Curiously, Belgium had little interest in its conquests in East Africa. Above all, she was concerned with using it as a bargaining chip, in exchange for an enlargement of her exit via the port of Matadi, by obtaining part of the left bank of the river, occupied by the Portuguese.

The Peace Conference opened in Paris in January 1919. It would result in the Treaty of Versailles, which distinguished the "Great Powers", namely France, Great Britain, the United States and Italy, and the "Other Powers" including smaller countries such as Belgium, Portugal, Serbia and Romania.

Belgium was kept out of the discussions on the colonial zones and complained strongly when it learned that the Great Powers had decided to give Great Britain a mandate over the entire former East African territory of Germany and that Belgium was receiving nothing.

Britain recognised the valuable assistance that Belgium had given in the fight against German forces and new negotiations were resumed between the great powers as well as bilateral talks between Belgium and Britain.

The results obtained during these second negotiations are:

• Britain will not reimburse Belgium for the costs incurred in moving its troops and repairing German railway infrastructure, as it has already financially supported Belgium for the transport costs of part of its army.
• Britain is opposed to addressing the issue of the left bank of the Congo, believing that the diplomatic repercussions will completely bog down any agreement.
• Britain demands the complete surrender of the part of Tanganyika liberated by Belgian troops.
• In return, Britain offered to grant Belgium governance of the territories of Rwanda. After much insistence, Belgium obtained that it also obtain the management of Urundi.
• Belgium will also receive as consolation commercial concessions at both ends of the Dar es Salaam/Kigoma railway line.

An agreement in principle was reached on May 30, 1919, but the final signing of the agreement took another 2 years.

From the agreement in principle of 1919 was born the company Agence Commerciale Belge de l'Est Africain , founded by SA Bunge, t he Entreprises Maritimes Belges and the Compagnie Centrale d'Outre-Mer, with head office in Dar-es-Salaam.

In Kigoma, the site was operated by the CFL (Compagnie des Chemins de Fer du Congo Supérieur aux Grands Lacs Africains); the Belgian customs controller in Kigoma was its administrator.

The Belgian-British agreement was finally signed on March 15, 1921, after two years of discussions and the Agence Commerciale Belge de l'Est Africain (ABEA) became the de facto manager of the Dar es Salaam site, but without yet a contract with the Belgian government. This was the beginning of the Belgian concession in Dar-es-Salaam, or "Belbase".

After financial difficulties, two new shareholders were attracted in 1927: International Plantation Company and Intertropicale Comfina. Shortly afterwards, the Antwerp-based International Maritime Agency took over Comfina's shares.

Pierre Ryckmans – as "Resident" of Urundi and Royal Commissioner ad interim in Ruanda-Urundi – was the first person responsible for the administration of the Belgian bases in Kigoma and Dar es Salaam. ^[9]

Ryckmans opposed a private concession on the Belgian bases in Kigoma and Dar es Salaam and advocated for a Belgian representation with accredited diplomats and Belgian customs officers in both cities. ^[10]

The risk of a blurred line between the (formal) presence of a Belgian representation or only the (operational) presence of a base manager on its territory, would lead to several confrontations with the British authorities as well as with some private companies in the next decade. It is likely, although never explicitly confirmed, that this explains why Belgium hesitated for a whole decade before finally formalizing the operation of the Belbase.

In 1931, the Belgian bases were ceded by concession to the ABEA, although de facto the ABEA of Dar es Salaam and the CFL in Kigoma had already been operating the sites since the early 1920s. .

Paradoxically, the decade of improvisation would prove to be a golden decade.

The pragmatic attitude of the 1920s was replaced by a strict formalism in accordance with the letter of the 1921 convention.
The privatization and formalization of the Belbase operation triggered disputes over customs procedures, delays in customs clearance and the handling of shipments.

With the onset of an economic recession in the 1930s, traffic to the sites declined.

Dar es Salaam

Originally, the site had a total surface area of 2200 m₂ , with covered warehouses (780 m₂), a storage area (570 m²) , a 15-metre quay with two old steam cranes. Sea-going ships could not dock there as the quays were not deep enough; cargo was transported by barges between the ships anchored in the bay and the quay.

In February 1922, Albert Baschwitz left for Dar es Salaam, where he became director of the Belgian East African Agency. This Belgian concession, although very modestly established, was very well managed by Mr Baschwitz. He served three terms, from February 1922 to mid-1924; from November 1924 to March 1927 and from October 1927 to 1930.

The commercial activities of the Belgian East African Commercial Agency were replaced by the handling and transit of goods. The Belgian base in Dar es Salaam was granted a monopoly on the transit of goods by rail to and from the Congo and Ruanda-Urundi.

Over the years, the large stores in Dar es Salaam had become too small and expansions were necessary. An agreement was reached between Great Britain and Belgium, which would finance the expansion works between 1927 and 1929. The port and facilities at Kigoma were also modernised in 1927.

Kigoma

The site was located on a plot of land 250 m wide and 70 m deep along Lake Tanganyika. In February 1921, the site was equipped with a 55 x 15 meter corrugated iron warehouse for general merchandise and a few small stone warehouses, rented on request to merchants.

At the beginning of 1922, the Belgian government asked the CFL to build a 50 meter long and 4 meter wide wooden quay. (At the time, the cost was 24,000 francs).

In 1926, the CFL started with the construction of a 200 meter long reinforced concrete quay. After the construction of the quay wall in 1929, it was decided to complete the infrastructure with a two-storey warehouse measuring 84 x 21 meters.

The quay was equipped with 5 steam cranes with a capacity of 5 tonnes each and a manual derrick of 25 tonnes.
The 200-metre long deep-water quay allowed CFL ships to moor directly (of course, ships on Lake Tanganyika have a shallower draught than seagoing vessels).

In 1931, the two entities of Dar es Salaam and Kigoma came under unified management.

1929 - Official management agreement

Although the Belgian East African Agency has been managing the Dar es Salaam site since 1921, the first official management contract between the Belgian colonial government and the Belgian East African Agency for the management of the Belgian sites was signed on 11 December 1929.
Among other things, the following provisions were agreed:

Article 2
The Belgian government pays for the infrastructure and repairs.
The Company takes charge of the development and maintenance of the superstructure (defined in Article 3 as the surface, rails and handling equipment ...).

Article 7
The Company is authorized to carry out other activities, on its own account or on behalf of third parties, provided that the proper management of the sites is not disrupted.

Article 14
The agreement ends on 31 December 1954

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1934 - New management agreement

The 2nd management agreement was signed on June 21, 1934. The following amendments were made to the 1929 agreement:

Article 2
The Company ensures the administrative follow-up inherent in the management of the sites, such as:

• Infrastructure maintenance: it is specified that no modification can be made to the infrastructure without the prior agreement of the Belgian colonial government.
• The collection for the Belgian colonial government of «all duties, charges or taxes according to the rates approved by the government».

Article 8
The company receives 250,000 F per year for management costs. This amount must cover, among other things, the salaries of local and expatriate staff.
The company also receives 125,000 F for operating costs, such as electricity, water, maintenance of cranes and infrastructure ...

Article 9
This second agreement comes into force on January 1, 1934 and is subject to tacit annual renewal unless notified by registered letter 2 months before the expiry of the term. There is therefore no longer an end date defined in the management agreement.

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Adjustment of compensations

Adjustment of compensations Several adjustments were made in the later years regarding compensations.

• 1936 - The company receives 2,400 pounds sterling per year for management costs instead of 250,000 francs. This is the result of the strong devaluation of the Belgian franc during this period. The amount of the operational costs remains unchanged.
• 1947 - Due to the increase in traffic (especially exports) in the previous (war) years, more staff was needed. The company now receives 4,000 pounds sterling per year to cover management costs.
• 1952 - On 1 February, the compensation for management costs was increased to £6,000.

During the Second World War, the ports of Kigoma and Dar es Salaam continued to ensure a smooth export of raw materials (copper, rubber... but also coffee) to support the war efforts of the Allied powers.

From 1947 onwards, the Belgian colonial government reimbursed all operational costs incurred by the company for electricity, water, crane repairs, maintenance of the superstructure, etc.

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1951 - Major changes at Dar es Salaam

Until now, ships had to anchor in the bay and cargo to and from the ships was transported by barges; but the ships were growing and traffic was increasing. A deep-water quay where ships could moor and load and unload directly on the quay became more than necessary.

On 6 April, an agreement was signed between the Belgian colonial government and Great Britain for the construction of a deep-water quay at Dar es Salaam. The following arrangements were agreed:

• The UK will replace the original Belgian site with a new site, adjacent to the deep-water quay, to be built by East African Rails and Harbours (EAR&H).
• The lease is perpetual for a symbolic annual rent of one Belgian franc, in accordance with the 1921 convention.

As Article 102 of the Charter of the United Nations provides that no treaty or international agreement is valid until it has been registered with the Secretariat of the Organization, the above Convention was registered under No 1496.

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1955 - A new mandate

The 1921 agreement between Great Britain and Belgium stipulates that a management agreement for the exploitation of the sites must be limited in time: 25 years.

Article 9 of the 1934 management agreement between the Belgian colonial government and the Belgian East African Agency mentions a « tacit annual renewal, unless notice is given by registered letter 2 months before the expiry of the period «.

From 1953, contacts took place between the Belgian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the British government. The British government did not oppose the extension of the management contract for the Belgian colonial sites of Dar es Salaam and Kigoma with the Belgian East African Agency. The new management contract took effect on 1 January 1955 for a further period of 25 years ^[11]

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1956 - Finally a deep water quay

The deep-water quay, agreed in 1951, was finally put into service in 1956.
Quay No. 1 , 180 metres long, now covers a third of the port of Dar es Salaam. This indicates the importance of traffic to and from the Belgian colonies.

In 1956, the equipment of the port of Dar es Salaam consisted of:

• A 180-meter deep-water quay, accessible to vessels with a maximum draft of 30 feet (9.15 meters);
• Quay cranes – the same for the entire port, which makes maintenance easier;
• A single-storey warehouse with a storage capacity of 12,000 m²;
• 20 000 m² outdoor storage space;
• A 2-storey administrative building.

The value of the new concession is estimated at 228 million Belgian francs.

At the same time, a modernisation programme for the port of Kigoma is underway and the old 3 to 5 tonne wooden cranes are being replaced by three 5 to 7 tonne electric cranes. The quay is being extended to 230 m, the hangar is being renovated, the 25 tonne Titan manual crane is being electrified. The new Fiorentini mobile cranes complete the equipment. The Belbase area in Kigoma now covers around 17,000 m².

The annual tonnages handled by the port company have increased from 5,000 tonnes in 1922 to a maximum of around 200,000 tonnes in 1971, including 90,000 tonnes of copper from Congo and 25,000 tonnes of coffee from Burundi.

When Congo gained independence on June 30, 1960, the Belbase sites became joint property of Congo and Ruanda-Urundi, in proportion to the investments made previously: 97.5% for Congo and 2.5% for Ruanda-Urundi.
This same ratio was used to distribute the income and maintenance costs of the Belbase sites between the countries.

A subsequent protocol changed the coefficients to 76% for the Republic of Congo, 12% for Burundi and 12% for Rwanda.

Tanganyika gained independence on December 9, 1961, Burundi and Rwanda on July 1, 1962. It is clear that these changes would have consequences for the survival of Belbase.

Tanganyika's President, Julius Nyerere, sent a note to the Belgian government in early 1963 demanding that the Belbase sites be evacuated by 31 December 1963.
Belgium's reaction surprised the president.
Since the Belbase sites were under the authority of the Belgian colonial government, they now automatically came under the joint authority of Congo, Burundi and Rwanda. Furthermore, the Congolese government had paid the nominal rent of 1 franc in 1961 and the work carried out at the Belbase sites had been included in the budgets of Congo, Rwanda and Burundi. The latter were therefore the only ones involved and Belgium was no longer interested in the matter.

A difficult situation, because at that time attacking the interests of neighbouring, recently independent countries was difficult. The situation temporarily led to a status quo between all parties who ultimately all trusted the site manager. The latter continued to handle the cargoes to everyone's satisfaction.

On November 7, 1963, the Belbase management received a letter from the Congolese Ministry of Foreign Affairs stating: ^[12] :

• The Congolese government is negotiating a new agreement with the governments of Tanganyika, Burundi and Rwanda to replace the 1921 and 1951 agreements between the United Kingdom and Belgium.
• Negotiations between Congo, Tanganyika, Burundi and Rwanda are not progressing at the required speed. The ministry is therefore asking the East African Agency to continue managing the sites « as in the past, until a new agreement is reached.»
• This new agreement is due to come into force on 1 January 1964 and will amend the management agreement granted by the Belgian colonial government to the Agency.

The conditions were accepted by the East African Agency ^[13]; the response also informs of the change of name of the East African Agency to Agence Maritime Internationale (East Africa) SA , for short AMI (EA) .

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1964 - Brussels Conference

From 13 to 23 May 1964, a conference was held in Brussels between representatives of the governments of Congo, Burundi and Rwanda regarding the sites of Dar es Salaam and Kigoma. But apparently without success, because the parties informed the AMI (EA) that:

• They have not yet agreed on which Commission will assess the value of the sites.
• The credit balance of operations for the period 1960-1964 must be shared at the end of 1964 between the three countries, in proportion to the income generated by each country during this period. This will be done by the AMI (EA).

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1970 - Dar es Salaam Conference

Between January 13 and 16, at a new conference in Dar es Salaam, Zambia attempted to mediate between Congo, Burundi, Rwanda and Tanzania.

Zambia intervenes in this matter due to the previous closure of the port of Beira (Mozambique), forcing goods from and to Zambia to transit via the port of Dar es Salaam. A significant portion of this cargo is handled by Belbase in Dar es Salaam.

The proposal included:

• The change of the perpetual lease contract into a right of occupancy for the East African Railways in Kigoma and the East African Harbours in Dar es Salaam.
• The governments of Congo, Burundi and Rwanda transfer all assets of the former Belgian site in Dar es Salaam to East African Harbours and the assets of the Kigoma site to East African Railways.
• The Government of Tanzania will compensate the Governments of Congo, Burundi and Rwanda for the above assets, after a joint assessment under UN supervision.

However, the 4 countries concerned fail to reach an agreement.

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1971 - Nationalization

In the absence of an agreement with Congo, Burundi and Rwanda, Tanzania nationalised the Belbase sites in Dar es Salaam and Kigoma.

On 26/01/1971, the Secretary General of the Ministry of Communications and Transport informed AMI(EA) of the nationalisation and asked them to « continue the management of the site as in the past - until further notice ». ^[14] :
AMI (EA) accepted the conditions.

At the request of the government of Zaire (the Republic of Congo having changed its name in 1971), the Belgian Agency for Development Cooperation commissioned an evaluation of the Belbase sites in 1971.
The report was written by 3 Belgian experts, Messrs. De Wilde, Theues and Massadt. Below is the summary of the evaluation.

values in USD	Dar es Salaam	Kigoma
Infrastructure	1 578 546	422 067
Superstructure	1 647 000	414 800
Total par site	3 225 546	836 867
Grand Total	4 062 413 USD

By way of comparison, following the break-up of the East African Community (EAC) in 1977, all former EAC assets in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania were valued by a mediation team appointed by the World Bank. The Belbase facility in Dar es Salaam was valued at Sh25.1 million as at 30 June 1977. The Kigoma facility does not appear to have been valued on that occasion.

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1974 - AMI Tanzania

Reorganization of the Belgian company Agence Maritime Internationale (East Africa) and registration of the Tanzanian company AMI Tanzania Ltd , abbreviated to AMI (T). AMI (T) acquires the assets and liabilities of AMI (EA)..

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1981 / 82 - Expansion of ports

Thanks to an agreement in 1981 between AMI and THA (Tanzania Port Authority), cargo handling activities to and from Congo, Rwanda and Burundi in the port of Dar es Salaam can also take place on the other quays of the port.

In 1982, a Crash Program was decided to upgrade the «central corridor». The European Union invested in the superstructure and cargo handling equipment in Kigoma. The last element of this program, a 20-foot container gantry, was not installed until 1991. This gantry was operational from April 1992.

But the Belbase equipment lacked spare parts and the financial situation in Tanzania was so difficult that no replacement could be financed.

The German-built railway had seen its best days and needed a complete overhaul. The transit time had become so long that it no longer met the expectations of importers and exporters.

The door was therefore wide open for the transport of goods by road, more expensive but safer and faster than rail. Several shippers took advantage of this to intervene in this transit traffic to Congo, Burundi and Rwanda, thus removing the monopoly that the concessions had enjoyed since their creation, the Belbase being linked to rail transport.

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1995 / 96 - End of operations

The transit zone gradually lost its economic importance and, certainly after the riots of 1991 (Congo) and 1994 (Rwanda), traffic from Central Africa stopped. Between 1994 and 1995, the AMI began discussions on an 'honorable end' to the management agreement. In 1996 Tanzania took over management of the sites.

At the same time, the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), adopted in 1982 and entered into force on 16 November 1994. It includes provisions to ensure that landlocked countries have access to and return from the sea. As a result, the Belbase Convention became a relic of the colonial past.

1. Académie Royale des Sciences d'Outre-Mer – Bulletin 53 (2007-2): 131-146
2. Franz Balzer: Die Kolonialbahnen mit besonderer Berücksichtigung Afrikas. Berlin 1916. Nachdruck: Leipzig 2008. ISBN 978-3-8262-0233-9
3. Belgische-Congolese troepen veroveren Kigali, VRT NWS 4 mei 2016, Lien
4. Pierre Daye, Avec les vainqueurs de Tabora. Notes d'un colonial belge en Afrique Orientale Allemande, Paris, Perrin, 1918
5. Les campagnes coloniales belges, 1914-1918, vol. II, La campagne de Tabora, Service historique de l'Armée, Bruxelles, 1929
6. Jonathan Lefèvre, 1916, de Grote Oorlog aan de Grote Meren, Lien
7. Geert Castryck, The Belgian Base at Kigom's Railhead (1920s–1930s). Comparativ - Zeitschrift für Globalgeschichte und vergleichende Gesellschaftsforschung 25 (2015) Heft 4, S. 70–86.
8. Tabora, een Belgische overwinning in Afrika, VRT NWS 19 september 2016, Link
9. The management of the Belgian bases of Kigoma and Dar es Salaam had been entrusted to the administration of Ruanda-Urundi and not to that of the Belgian Congo
   (Archives Africaines, Bruxelles, AE/II, 2948 (713), Letter from the Resident of Urundi to the Minister of Colonies, 29 août 1921
10. Archives Africaines, Bruxelles, AE/II, 2948 (713), Letter from the Resident of Urundi to the Minister of Coloniess, 29 août 1921
11. The Secretary General of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Belgium confirms by registered letter referenced P / Geo 7 - N. Afrique / 2985 and dated 23.11.62 that he contacted the British Government in 1953 regarding art. 6 of the 1921 agreement, more precisely the clause limiting the third-party management agreement to 25 years.
    The British Government did not oppose the extension of the management contract for the Belgian leased sites in Dar es Salaam and Kigoma with the Belgian East African Agency.
12. Letter from the Secretary General of the Congolese Ministry of Foreign Affairs with reference 123/06779.
13. Letter from AMI (East Africa) with reference C.1 / 6-JLB / GV dated du Novembre 13, 1963.
14. Letter from the Tanzanian Ministry of Transport with reference CWC 69850/363 , personal archives G. Fallentheyn
15. Fallentheyn Guido, archives personelles