Grt North Rd Project: Kenya, TZ lag behind

11/01/2010 – Cecil Rhodes dream to unify Africa by building a road that links Cairo and Cape Town is about to be achieved with Egyptian and Sudanese plan to link their countries through a 400-km road stretch.

The project comes into implementation after an Egyptian and Sudanese company signed an agreement on Tuesday to build a key section of the Cape-to-Cairo highway, an Egyptian official said.

Known as the Great North Road, it cuts Tanzania through a long stretch of land, running from the border post of Tunduma in Mbeya Region to Namanga in Arusha Region in the north. The legendary road’s history dates as far back as the 18th century, according to records, but its completion has been hindered by many social, political and economic factors.

The dream road agenda was especially pushed by the British, who wanted a road built to connect their colonies in Africa. Under the latest agreement, the 400-km stretch of highway will be built between Aswan in Egypt and Dongola in Sudan at a cost of USD500m, Osama Saleh, chairman of the Egyptian General Authority for Investment, told reporters.

Last section

This is the last section to be built between Khartoum and Cairo, although major gaps remain unfinished in East Africa, according to sources. South Africa, Botswana and Zimbabwe are already joined by the road, most of which is tarmacked, while in Tanzania, the only section that remains untarmacked is the stretch between Iringa and Babati, now under government plans for construction.

The other part that is yet to be constructed is the northern part of Kenya that joins Sudan and Southern Sudan to the capital Khartoum.

“The project aims to connect Egypt’s Alexandria and Cape Town in South Africa,” Saleh said.
Egypt’s state Holding Company for Construction and Sudan’s privately owned Zawaya Group for Development and Investment signed the memorandum of understanding for implementing the project on Tuesday.

Records in Zambia tell a more detailed story about the history of the Great North Road, a construction agenda which has been very close to the heart of Rhodes, the Briton whose name was also given to both Zambia and Zimbabwe.

Northern Rhodesia

Before independence, Zimbabwe was called Southern Rhodesia, while Zambia was called Northern Rhodesia, named after this man who wanted Africa connected by this road. Zambian records say the original plan of the Great North Road were in the hearts and minds of the early European pioneers who headed off in search of adventure and a better life.

The Great North Road may well have been intended to run from Cape Town to Cairo, but a section of the continental Great North Road that spears northward from Cape Town and — north of Kenya — reaches Cairo only by playing hop-scotch over deserts and vast tracts of bush and swampland. For all practical purposes it peters out in boggy ground north of Nairobi, records show.

In Zambia, the road starts its journey at Chirundu, about 160km south east of Lusaka. For about 320 km, from Rhodesia as far north as Kapiri Mposhi, it is the continuation of a well-tarred highway. Then, degenerating to dust and gravel, it meanders off to the north east. After a further 1040 km of devious twists and turns around watersheds, hills and swamps, it emerges in Tunduma — the border with Tanzania and last lap to the sea.

Source: The Guardian