Tanzania iende kibiashara kama enzi za ukoloni wa Belgium Burundi ilivyochagiza kutumia bandari za Tanganyika chini ya Muingereza za Kigoma na Dar es Salaam kwa tozo
nafuu ikiwemo uhakikisho wa kutumia reli ya kati ,maghala na gati yake kwa upendeleo.
Hii iliwezesha Burundi kutumia kwa uhakika miundo mbinu ya bandari na reli ya kati wakati huo wa Ukoloni na sasa 2021 tufufue uhusiano ya makubaliano ya nchi huru za Burundi na Tanzania ili kuchochea matumizi ya reli, bandari , customs, ajira n.k
Mkataba wa kikoloni 1921 ambao uliona mbali umuhimu wa mashiriakiano katika ya nchi zenye bandari na zile zisizo na bandari
By another convention signed in March 1921 Belgium obtained the right of transit of goods free of all custom duties over the railway from Kigoma (the lake terminus of the line) to Dar es Salaam, and in general by any other route adapted for transit, together with areas (on payment of nominal rent) at both ports for wharfs, bonded warehouses, etc. The districts which Belgium had temporarily administered but which fell within the British mandatory area were formally transferred to the British administration on March 22 1921.
Historical
During the First World War, Belgian maritime bases were created on the Indian Ocean (in Mombasa and Dar-es-Salaam) to ensure the supply of troops.
After the war and the decision of the great powers to entrust the territories of Ruanda and Urundi to Belgium, Great Britain and Belgium signed, in 1921, the “Belbase Agreement” (Belgian base).
This agreement grants the Belgians several locations in the transit port of Dar-es-Salaam, and later in Kigoma with a lease in perpetuity. Born from this agreement, the Belbase company experienced its real beginnings in 1919 via SA Bunge, the Belgian maritime companies and the Compagnie centrale d'Outre-mer. Based in Dar-es-Salaam, it was then called the Belgian East African Commercial Agency.
In Kigoma, the concession is managed by the CFL (Compagnie des Chemins de Fer du Congo Supérieur aux Grands Lacs Africains) and the customs controller.
Following financial difficulties, two new shareholders are added to the base consortium: the International Plantation Company and the Intertropicale Comfina. The company obtains from the colony the management of the site leased to Belgium for a period of 25 years, and thus forms the Belgian concession of Dar-es-Salaam, or "Belbase".
In 1927, the International Maritime Agency AMI, based in Antwerp, took over the part of Intertropicale Comfina and eliminated Belbase's commercial activities in favor of the handling and transit of goods.
The name of the company therefore becomes “Belgian East African Agency”. During the crisis of the thirties and the Second World War, the Belbases suffered from a drop in traffic via the eastern route.
In 1931, the Kigoma and Dar-es-Salaam entities came under unified management. After the war, strong global economic growth forced the British and Belgian authorities to expand the facilities at the ports of Dar-es-Salaam and Kigoma.
In the 1950s, the perpetuity lease was replaced by a 99-year emphyteutic lease and a new 25-year management contract was signed between the colony and the Belbases with the approval of the British.
The period of independence at the beginning of the sixties coincides with a period of diplomatic immobility. Shortly after its independence in 1961, Tanganyika wanted the Belbases sites to be evacuated by the Belgians. But it is without knowing that the Congo, independent Rwanda and Burundi ensured the payment of the nominal rent as well as the work carried out at Belbases. Therefore, Tanganyika should have compensated its African neighbors for evacuating the sites.
Reluctant to attack its African compatriots, Tanganyika abandons the idea and the situation remains as such. In 1971, in order to resolve this diplomatic dispute, Tanganyika (which became Tanzania in 1964) asked the Agence Maritime Internationale (AMI), heir to the manager Belbase, to continue operating the sites, this time on behalf of the Tanzania.
In 1995, after almost 75 years of service, the manager of the AMI put an end to his port management activities to set up outside the port as commissioner-forwarder.
Sources: DARCIS L., “The Belbases: a little-known achievement of Belgian expansion in East Africa”, in: Bulletin of sessions, Royal Academy of Overseas Sciences, 2007, vol. 53, no. 2, pp. 131-146.
Source :
Agence belge de l’Est africain. Belbase | AfricaMuseum - Archives