Dubious political headwinds inhibiting Africa’s maritime development
WHAT would the maritime picture look like if Africa could develop to its economic potential? Apart from its oil and gas that could propel parts of the continent to ultimate prosperity, so much still awaits development.
Some will recall shipping services to west Africa 60 years ago, in the pre-oil era, when the region’s economy centred on coffee, cocoa, latex, timber and some minerals.
Operating on infrequent services, vessels of several countries traded to the region, arriving full, but sailing with low-volume cargoes of bagged cocoa, sawn timber and huge logs. In their deeptanks were consignments of latex and palm oil. Even after the discovery of oil in the Niger delta in 1956, trade volumes did not increase notably, apart of course from oil, exported from Nigeria for the first time in 1958.
Then came the appalling carnage of the Biafran war that impeded the development of Nigeria’s oil industry. The end of that war coincided with a worldwide increase in oil prices and the country’s economy began to grow, with shipping services expanding accordingly.
The Cape Town coasting company Thesens had ships going to Matadi on the Congo River from the 1930s – their Cape Coast was destroyed by fire while in the river in 1952 – and operating in the wake of those ships in later years were several Unicorn vessels. On a southbound voyage, the freighter Horizon was stemmed to call at a tiny “port” – in reality no more than a small wooden jetty – to load frozen fish into her refrigerated number five hold. With no pilot in sight, the master brought his vessel towards the jetty very slowly, dropped the starboard anchor to allow the ship to swing onto the jetty, and manoeuvred Horizon so that number five hatch was opposite the jetty from which the fish would be loaded. While tidal flows played havoc with his ship’s movements, at the back of the master’s mind were serious doubts about the accuracy of the charts for the area.
Such voyages to these strange “ports” demonstrated the high quality of seamanship and ingenuity of the ships’ officers.
For its West African trade, Unicorn chartered the fine German-owned freighters Paul and Tilly with a large bale capacity to carry huge logs, and were often overbooked in the mid-1980s as they meshed their operation with various feeder services to west African ports. An evocative watercolour in the Grindrod Durban headquarters shows Tilly in one of those west African creeks, surrounded by logs in the water, and the ship’s 30-ton derrick lifting one directly from the water.
For local ship-spotters, the bright red-and-blue livery of Unicorn’s specially-purchased SD-14 vessels, Horizon (the company’s third vessel bearing this name) and the company’s seventh vessel called Frontier, provided great photographic opportunities. For the company’s growing west African service, they offered additional cargo space until two larger East German-built ships replaced them within two years.
Modern containerships now ply the routes, edging around sandbanks in the distributaries of the Niger delta as they proceed to various upstream terminals. On Monday, over 50 ships were at anchor and numerous bulkers and containerships were working cargo at the quaintly-named Tin Can Island terminals to the west of Apapa where other bulkers and containerships were also busy.
Although similar modern container and bulk terminals now dot the West African coast, how much further could so many countries – including our own beloved land – have progressed had they not been plagued by political turmoil, leaders’ greed and dodgy deals? And imagine where shipping could be without such headwinds inhibiting its growth.
Where is Africa’s Singapore?