THE FIRST CABLE connecting Africa to the growing network of international telegraph cables was proposed in 1879 and completed in 1880. It was laid from Aden in the Arabian Gulf along the East Coast of Africa to Durban, landing en route at Zanzibar, Mozambique and Delgoa Bay. The governments of Natal and the Cape contributed to the project together with the British and Portuguese.
In 1885 the African Direct Telegraph Company was formed to lay a cable to the West Coast of Africa and the existing route to St Vincent was extended to Bathurst in the Gambia and to Freetown, Accra and Bonny in Nigeria. A second line was laid on this route in 1889 and with the outbreak of the Boer war in 1899, a third was laid in deeper waters, making it less vulnerable to deliberate cutting or damage.
