Stationary Steam in Africa

Click here for the International Stationary Steam Index

Central African Republic

Tim Dray found this Robey compound stored in good condition in an abandoned cotton processing mill in Bouar, in November 2006. Click here for more pictures including a smaller Robey engine.

Ethiopia

I have been told by David Wood that the Wonji sugar mill (located near the large town of Nazareth, about 100 km south east from Addis Ababa) has/had a second hand mill engine from Java, installed by a Dutch company. Almost immediately I posted this I had an email from an old HVA employee, René van Slooten, who stated that the Stork engines at Wonji and Shoa had been replaced by turbines quite recently. And now he tells me (15th May 2007) "I was wrong. A Dutch journalist who was there last month told me that one of the original Stork engines from 1953 in the Wonji sugar mill is still in operation, the other two have been replaced by turbines. Here is a photo of this Stork that I scanned from the magazine."

Madagascar

Manfred Schoeler tells me that he recently saw a short sequence on German TV about a steam powered sugar mill on the island of Nosy - Be (12 km from the northwest coast of Madagascar). Apparently the equipment is 1923 vintage state-of-the-art including the distillery for producing rum. As always more information/pictures would be welcome..... I have since (30th June 2007) located a picture dating from October 2006 by Andre Costelli on the web which shows part of one engine which is preserved outside one of the 'ylang-ylang' distilleries which can be visited by tourists near the capital of the island at Hellville:

Mauritius

James Waite reported on his visit that month: "I think you're asking if any of the sugar mills are steam driven! We glimpsed St. Felix, in the south west of the island, from outside and which describes itself as the oldest surviving mill on the island, and Mon Desert Alma at Moka, about 6 miles south east of Port Louis, and both were very obviously steam driven and going flat out! I'm afraid we didn't go in - this was, after all, a family holiday! We did go round Beau Champ which was very modern and all-electric, and also Mon Tresor Mon Desert which was much more ancient but still electric. We also went past Mon Loisir and La Barraque, Savannah, which both looked to be electric, as did Highlands. That leaves four other mills on the island which we didn't see at all."

Torsten Schneider has revisited the island (report, 24th January 2007, pictures 25th January 2007) and has found some preserved stationary steam and at least one engine still in use - unfortunately it seems to have been outside the season which presumably will be June to September or thereabouts as the island is in the southern hemisphere.. 

Mayotte

Not much chance of this turning up in a video clip, but fascinating remains of old sugar mill equipment are shown here http://usines-sucrieres-de-mayotte2.over-blog.com. If like me, you didn't know where Mayotte was, then it is one of the Comoros islands in the Mozambique channel and remained a French territory when the other islands became independent. In fact as Laurent Lachery points out this is only the tip of the iceberg, check out http://usines-sucrieres-de-mayotte.over-blog.com/ for links to a massive archive of other industrial relics (23rd October 2007).

Mocambique

Trevor Heath has sent me this site - http://geoff-cooke.fotopic.net/c1439108.html - (this was a fotopic page and is now history) lovely pictures of Sena estates in 1975 with steam locos, steam traction engines and steam powered boats. (added 21st January 2008).

Réunion

This is another island with a fascinating industrial history and many ruins of interest. Le musée de Stella Matutina à Piton St Leu appears well worth a visit -
http://www.isle-bourbon.com/categorie-11046409.html and http://www.reunionvoyage.com/le-musee-de-stella-matutina-a-piton-st-leu/ - although the officialwebsite states that the museum is closed for reconstruction w.e.f. March 2011, http://www.stellamatutina.fr/ (3rd January 2012).

São Tomé

Thomas Kautzor visited here in January 2009, researching the remains of the colonial railways on the island (pictures added 17th March 2009), an absolutely fascinating read which includes observations of some remaining stationary steam.

Sudan

Trevor Heath and Thomas Kautzor tipped me off on this one - surviving stationary steam in south-west Sudan seen in 2002/3 (added 23rd April 2008). For an update on this please see John Ashworth's account of his March 2011 revisit (20th March 2011). There are two Robey underboiler engines, one of which was active until 2010, there is also an out of use Ruston portable here.

Tanzania

Thomas Kautzor (12th June 2011) found this preserved (former) portable in front of Kingfisher House, just south of Kigombe, which most probably comes from the nearby sisal factory. It dates from a period when the present Tanzania was a German colony, Lanz was a prolific producer of machinery, for a similar complete machine of the same age see http://www.flickr.com/photos/robertfish/5317275083/ and http://www.prestonservices.co.uk/portables.htm. For information on the company, now part of the John Deere Group see http://www.economypoint.org/h/heinrich-lanz-ag.html.

Uganda

Not stationary steam, but definitely active steam age are several boilers from the Cradley Boiler Company, West Midlands, UK, discovered active in cottonseed processing mills by René van Slooten (25th August 2011). See the pictures here - http://www.gracesguide.co.uk/Cradley_Boiler_Co. If anyone knows anything about them and their age, please get in touch, a web search got nowhere..