The Tragedy of the Congo-Ocean Railroad

''Masterful'' The Economist

The Congo-Oc- railroad stands as one of the deadliest construction projects in history. It was completed in 1934, when Equatorial Africa was a French colony, and it stands as one of the deadliest construction projects in history. Colonial workers were subjects of an ostensibly democratic nation whose motto read -Liberty, Equality, Fraternity-, but liberal ideals were savaged by a cruelly indifferent administrative state.

African workers were conscripted at gunpoint, separated from their families and subjected to hellish conditions as they hacked their way through dense tropical foliage; excavated by hand thousand of tonnes of earth in order to lay down track; blasted their way through rock to construct tunnels; or risked their lives building bridges over otherwise impassable rivers. In the process, they suffered disease, malnutrition and rampant physical abuse, likely resulting in at least 20,000 deat