In Australia we celebrate ANZAC (Australian New Zealand Army Corps) day which is a national remembrance day which commemorates all Australians and New Zealanders who served and died in all wars, conflicts, and peacekeeping operations and the contribution and suffering of all those who have served. Then we have November 11, Remembrance day which is a memorial day for Commonwealth countries marking the end of World War I on the eleventh day of the eleventh month at the eleventh hour. In the lead up to the days in primary school, we were always taught about the importance of those days. Many kids would say their grandfather, great grandfather or great-great grandfather served in a war. I always used to wonder if my great-great grandfather served in the war or the grandfather of my African friends. If so, why don’t we have medals like the other kids to prove it. I remember asking my Dad when I was probably about nine, but I don’t think he gave me a good answer, because I don’t remember.
I found out about African soldiers in the war only a few years ago when I read Destined to Witness: Growing Up Black in Nazi Germany by Hans-Jürgen Massaquoi. It didn’t even go into very much detail about African soldiers, but I got a bit of an idea. Still not enough.
Then today the questions came back to me when I went see the poppy installation at the Tower of London titled Blood Swept Lands and Seas of Red. An art installation marking 100 years since the beginning of World War 1. The installation features 888,246 ceramic poppies – one for every British and Commonwealth soldier who died during the conflict. The last poppy won’t be planted until November 11 which marks the end of World War I in 1918.
Some of my questions about African soldiers in the war were conveniently answered today when I read about this about the World War I in Africa project (as published on Africa is a Country):
WHAT HAPPENED IN AFRICA SHOULD NOT STAY IN AFRICA!
For the next four years, the world is celebrating the Centenary of World War I, and once again Africa is not invited to the party.
The story of Africans’ involvement in the Great War is unheard of outside of academia, and thus remains to be told: the tens of thousands of African lives lost at home and abroad, defending the interests of foreign powers and the lives of complete strangers; the forced recruitment of African soldiers to fight Europe’s war, and of African workers to replace the labour force gone to the front; the battles between colonies pitting Africans against each other on their own soil; the reshaping of Africa’s borders and inner workings after the war under new rulers.
It was supposed to be the “war to end all wars” and yet, by the proxy of colonial empires, it created war where no one cared for it, dragging an estimated two million Africans in the conflict, originating from Algeria to South Africa. Such bitter irony is lost on today’s France, Britain, Germany, Belgium and Portugal, all colonial powers who sat at the Berlin conference in 1885 to finalise the scramble for Africa.
Not only are the commemorations of the First World War becoming resolutely local, but the colour of memory remains essentially white. Even the small steps taken to remember the role of former colonies, like this year’s invitation to African troops to take part in the Bastille Day celebrations, amount to mere pats on the back for spilling their blood obediently.
The reality of World War I in Africa is messier. As early as September 1914, Britain faced a rebellion from some 12,000 of its own South African troops, Afrikaners for whom the Second Boer War remained an open wound, who went on to proclaim a free South African republic, some of them even joining forces with the Germans. And though France praised itself for being able to count on its “Black Force”, it faced significant resistance throughout the recruitment campaigns, which culminated in the Volta-Bani revolt where things escalated into an all-out anti-colonial war in 1915-16.
Yet when looking into Africa’s involvement in World War I, the draft of African soldiers constitute the smaller end of the telescope. Throughout the East Africa campaign, the longest and deadliest part of the war on the continent by far, both Britain and Germany relied heavily on porters, to the tune of four per one soldier. This translates into one million Africans under British command carrying, cooking, cleaning, and dying of exhaustion, malnutrition and disease, in a guerrilla war of short raids and long treks from present-day Kenya to Zambia over the course of four years.
Europe’s 20th century started in 1914, and the yoke of colonialism steered Africa along for the ride. Migration trends were set, economies transformed, borders redefined. The task we’ve given ourselves is to dig this heritage out: not to commemorate its passing, but to restore its meaning. We claim no expertise as we aim to educate ourselves as much as we hope to teach others. In light of current zeitgeists — a morbid obsession with the past in Europe and an unfeigned disdain for anything but the future in Africa — we believe the Centenary to be a fertile common ground for investigating the present. The next four years represent a window of opportunity to connect the dots and discuss the knots, to challenge the boilerplate narrative and change the usual narrators.
WHAT HAPPENED IN AFRICA SHOULD NOT STAY IN AFRICA!
You can find out more about this historic initiative at iAFRICA.
IMAGES: iAFRICA