Why were Central Africans conscripted to help build the Congo-Ocean Railway?

The French colonial administration conscripted Central Africans to construct the Congo-Ocean Railway as part of a broader system of forced labour used to develop infrastructure and support the colonial economy in French Equatorial Africa.312

During the colonial era, the French government sought to avoid the costs of developing its territories by relying on forced labor, head taxes, and the compulsory production of cash crops. The construction of the railway, which ran from Pointe-Noire to Brazzaville between 1921 and 1934, was a massive project driven by the colonial administration's preoccupation with acquiring labor. This project was exceptionally lethal, resulting in the deaths of an estimated 15,000 to 20,000 Africans.32