Chapter 87: The Northwestern Chaos
Lately, the Kingdom of Karawi has been going through hard times.
With a flood of tribes and refugees pouring into its territory from the east, public order in Karawi has steadily deteriorated.
As a slave state, Karawi was already weak in organization, lacking a strict legal or institutional framework.
Most of the East Bantu tribes being expelled by the East African colonists relied on hunting for survival and were physically robust.
Compared to the relatively developed African state of Karawi, this mass migration of Bantu people was no different than when ancient Rome faced the invasions of Germanic tribes.
These tribal units, led by their respective chieftains, rampaged across Karawi—killing, looting, and seizing land for themselves.
The eastern part of Karawi quickly descended into chaos.
The local nobility was furious, unable to understand why these savages were all heading west in such numbers.
The Kingdom of Burundi was also in a dire situation. As one of the gateways among the eight northwestern kingdoms, Burundi and Karawi bore the brunt of the East African colony's "cleansing" campaign.
The mass invasion of Bantu tribes created severe problems. Even neighboring countries like Rwanda and Buganda—previously neutral—were stirred into action, provoking frequent incidents along their borders.
Following the logic of "if you're heartless, don't blame me for being ruthless," Karawi and Burundi stopped trying to control the influx.
Unable to contain the flood, the two kingdoms opened up corridors and simply pushed the Bantu tribes farther west and north—letting other countries experience the same suffering.
The kings and nobles of both nations convened, and agreed to carve out routes through their lands to allow the Bantu to pass.
As for those who wanted to stay, that wasn't realistic—more and more Bantu tribes were on the way. Without the strength to hold the land, settling down was impossible.
Karawi and Burundi were still functioning states, relying on their size and terrain to maintain control. But the migrating Bantu tribes were a loose coalition of chieftains, not a unified force.
Without unity, they couldn't overthrow these kingdoms. Each chieftain led his own group—no one obeyed anyone else.
The strategy worked. With a mix of coercion and inducement, many Bantu tribes continued their march northward and westward.
Previously opportunistic states like Buganda, Igara, and Rwanda were suddenly overwhelmed.
The continuous influx of migrant groups shattered local order. Even the neutral Kingdom of Nkore suffered as its southeastern territories plunged into chaos.
Of the eight northwestern kingdoms, only the remote kingdoms of Turou and Gitarra remained unaffected. But even they increased military presence along their borders, fearing the wave of East Bantu incursions.
The East Bantu tribes, previously driven into a corner by colonial firepower, were now thriving in the northwestern kingdoms.
Where once they had to contend with wild animals and harsh survival on East Africa's plains, now they only needed to loot settled kingdoms to survive.
The settled peoples of the northwest had long adopted agriculture and sedentary living, no match in physical strength for the Bantu tribes.
The northwestern kingdoms' advantage was in social structure—they could feed larger populations and muster more manpower.
But once the Bantu flooded in, those advantages evaporated. Their governance collapsed.
Bantu tribes divided kingdoms, severing links between local and central authorities.
The centralized states, built with so much effort, quickly fell back into fragmented tribal warlordism.
The Bantu, seasoned in survival, thrived in the confusion.
They were used to sharing the savannah with predators in packs—lions, hyenas, jackals—and had learned to adapt to multi-threat environments.
Now, they simply robbed food from granaries. Years of agricultural storage by the kingdoms went straight into Bantu stomachs.
As the saying goes: "My neighbor stores grain—I store guns. Then my neighbor's granary becomes mine."
Local aristocrats couldn't sit by while their wealth was plundered. They raised armies to fight back.
What followed was a brutal, bloody conflict.
The population of the northwestern Great Lakes region began to dwindle under the weight of war.
The East African colonial government, who orchestrated all this, watched with satisfaction. As colonizers, they hungered for fertile land.
Unfortunately for the eight northwestern kingdoms, they occupied the most fertile land in all of East Africa.
Lake Victoria's vast expanse altered the climate, making it one of the rainiest and most livable places in the region.
Its elevated terrain, forming a transitional zone between mountains and high plateaus, was ideal for human settlement—especially in the tropics.
If one excludes Sudan and areas north of Kenya (impacted by the Ethiopian Highlands and the Sahara), the northwestern kingdoms contain over half the tropical savannah population of East Africa.
(In the 21st century, Uganda had over 47 million people, Burundi 12 million, and Rwanda 13 million—together around 80 million. The East African Community totals around 130 million, roughly equal to the eight kingdoms plus the colonial territories.)
Lake Victoria alone made these lands worth seizing.
At nearly 70,000 square kilometers, its freshwater reserves were invaluable. Humans always cluster around rivers and lakes.
East Africa's rivers were unimpressive in flow and length, especially compared to global giants.
The White Nile doesn't count—it belongs more to Sudan and Egypt, which are in North Africa.
East Africa's rift valleys, however, created world-class freshwater lakes—Tanganyika (Soren Lake) and Malawi among them.
Lake Victoria sits in a highland basin between two rift fault zones.
The region is dotted with smaller lakes as well. While not as prominent, they're still massive by East African standards.
For example, Lake Albert (Frederick Lake) spans over 5,000 km²—larger than China's biggest lake, Qinghai Lake (about 4,000 km²), which is also saline.
In contrast, these are all freshwater lakes, making them vastly more valuable.
This cluster of large lakes in East Africa is rivaled only by North America's Great Lakes. Saltwater lakes like the Caspian or Aral Seas aren't comparable.
(To offer perspective: Lake Victoria and all of China's freshwater hold roughly 2.8 trillion cubic meters. Lake Malawi holds 7.7 trillion, and Lake Tanganyika holds 18.9 trillion.)
Though East Africa's annual rainfall is only moderate—between northern and southern China—it is backed by enormous freshwater reserves.
Even if large-scale hydrological projects aren't yet feasible, population centers can be established near the lakes to reduce risk during droughts.
So taking control of the three great lakes and their surrounding lands is a set policy of the colonial government.
The east and south shores of Lake Victoria are already theirs. The eastern shore of Lake Tanganyika is fully under colonial control.
Only Lake Malawi presents future difficulty—it borders Portuguese colonial territory in the south.
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