September 23, 2025 • 44 mins
Greetings, history enthusiasts. I'm Steve Matthews, and welcome back to WW2 Stories. Today, we're going to explore one of the most overlooked chapters of the Second World War – the story of more than a million African soldiers who served in colonial armies during the conflict. These men fought across multiple theaters of war – in Africa, Europe, the Middle East, and as far as Myanmar and the Pacific Islands – yet their contributions remain largely unacknowledged in mainstream historical narratives.
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Greetings history enthusiasts. I'm Steve Matthews and welcome
back to WW2 Stories. Today we're going to explore one
of the most overlooked chapters of the Second World War, the
story of more than a million African soldiers who served in
colonial armies during the conflict.
These men fought across multipletheaters of war in Africa,
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Europe, the Middle East, and as far as Myanmar and the Pacific
Islands, yet their contributionsremain largely unacknowledged in
mainstream historical narratives.
While the heroism of American, British and Commonwealth troops
from Australia, New Zealand and Canada is rightfully celebrated,
the sacrifices of African soldiers have been relegated to
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the footnotes of history. Today, we'll bring their story
to the forefront, a story of courage, endurance and
sacrifice, but also one of exploitation, discrimination and
historical erasure. The scale of African military
participation in World War 2 wastruly staggering.
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More than a million Africans served as combatants, war
workers and carriers for colonial powers, primarily
Britain, France and Belgium. The British Empire alone
recruited upwards of half a million African troops, while
French forces included approximately 200,000 men from
sub-Saharan Africa, known collectively as the Tire Years
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Senegalese, though they were drawn from various French
colonies, not just Senegal. Belgian colonial forces
contributed significantly as well, with the force public
numbering over 40,000 men at itspeak in 1943.
At the start of the Second WorldWar there were approximately
12,830 African soldiers in British service, but by the end
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almost 500,000 had served. This massive expansion speaks to
the growing desperation of colonial powers.
As the war progressed and casualties mounted, Africa
became an increasingly importantsource of manpower as European
nations found their own populations insufficient to meet
the demands of global conflict. The human dimension of this
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military mobilization is best understood through individual
stories. Kofi Mensa was a 19 year old
cocoa farmer from the Gold Coast, modern Ghana, when
British recruiters came to his village in 1941.
As he recounted in a rare recorded interview preserved in
the Imperial War Museum, they came with the local chief who
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had been told he must provide 20men from our area.
There was no choice in the matter.
Those who resisted were beaten. I had a young wife and a baby
daughter, but this meant nothingto them.
Within a day I was marched to a collection point with other men
from neighboring villages. Within a week I was in a
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training camp learning to be a soldier.
Within six months I was fightingin a land I had never heard of
before, Ethiopia, Sergeant JamesMwangi, A Kenyan veteran of the
King's African Rifles who foughtin Burma, recalled in a 1985
interview. We were many, so many.
From my village alone, 23 young men went to war from across
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Kenya, thousands. And we met others from Uganda,
from Tanganyika, from Nyasaland.And then there were the West
Africans, Nigerians, Gold Coast men, a great army of Africans
fighting in a white man's war. But who remembers us now?
Who tells our story? These African soldiers performed
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a full range of military tasks, including fighting in major
battles, transporting ammunitionand supplies, assisting wounded
soldiers, often while under fire, and building military
infrastructure such as bases, airfields, and roads.
Some also served in the Royal Navy, Merchant Navy, and Royal
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Air Force, though rarely in positions of authority or
prestige. Colonial propaganda of the era
portrayed African soldiers as enthusiastic volunteers eager to
defend the mother country and the principles of freedom and
democracy. Posters showed smiling African
soldiers proudly wearing Britishor French uniforms with slogans
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encouraging others to join them in the fight against fascism.
News reels depicted African troops marching smartly
alongside their European counterparts, suggesting
equality and shared purpose. The reality, however, was often
starkly different. Many African soldiers were
forcibly conscripted into colonial armies through various
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course of methods. Local chiefs and colonial
administrators were given quotasto fill, and they often resorted
to brutal tactics. To meet these requirements,
young men were rounded up in villages, at marketplaces or at
their workplaces and given no choice about their military
service. Albert Kanuku, who served as a
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Congolese corporal in the Belgian colonial army, described
the forced nature of his recruitment.
I was working in a textile company when they came to take
us away. Then they went to other
companies. All the young workers were
recruited. No one was younger than 30.
Now 97 years old, Kunyuku was one of the few surviving
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Congolese World War 2 veterans, and his testimony contradicts
the narrative of voluntary service that dominated colonial
propaganda. The methods of forced
recruitment varied across regions but shared a common
disregard for African autonomy in consent.
In some areas, colonial officials worked with local
chiefs who were pressured to provide a certain number of men
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from their communities. These chiefs faced penalties if
they failed to meet their quotas, creating a system where
they were compelled to become agents of colonial coercion
against their own people. Lieutenant Colonel Thomas
Williams, a British officer who oversaw recruitment in Kenya,
wrote candidly in his private journals.
The fiction of voluntary serviceis maintained for public
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consumption, but the reality is quite different.
We need the men and we will get them by whatever means
necessary. Local administrators understand
this perfectly well, even if London prefers a more palatable
version of events. In other regions, more direct
methods were employed. Armed patrols would sweep
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through villages, rounding up young men of fighting age.
Those who resisted could face imprisonment or corporal
punishment. Some communities develop
strategies to protect their young men, hiding them in the
Bush when recruitment parties approached or in some cases,
deliberately inflicting injuriesthat would render them unfit for
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military service. Musa Kaba, a village elder from
Guinea who survived the war period, described one such
episode in an oral history collected by French researchers
in the 1970s. When we heard the recruiters
were coming, the young men wouldflee to the forests.
Some would deliberately break fingers or toes, or create deep
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cuts on their legs to make themselves unfit for service.
One young man in our village puthis leg under the wheel of a
cart, asking his friend to driveover it.
Better a broken leg than to be taken to die in a distant land.
But the recruiters became lies to these tactics.
They would surround villages at dawn, giving no one a chance to
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escape. They would examine injuries
carefully, punishing anyone suspected of self harm.
They even took men with existingdisabilities, putting them to
work as carriers or cooks. Ibrahim Diallo, whose father was
conscripted from Guinea to servein the Tiriers Senegalese,
shared his family's story. My father told me they came to
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his village early in the morning.
All the young men were gathered in the central square.
Those who tried to run were beaten.
They were told they were now soldiers of France, though most
had never even seen a Frenchman before.
My father had no idea where Germany was or why he was
supposed to fight against it. He was simply taken, given a
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uniform and, after brief training, put on a ship to
Europe. This forced recruitment had
devastating effects on African communities.
The removal of young men, often the most physically capable
members of society, disrupted agricultural production, leading
to food shortages in some regions.
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Families lost breadwinners and protectors, creating economic
hardship and social instability.The arbitrary and coercive
nature of the process generated deep resentment toward colonial
authorities, seeds of discontentthat would later contribute to
independence movements across the continent.
The training African recruits received varied widely in
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quality and duration. In the early war years, when the
need for manpower was less desperate, training might last
several months, covering basic military skills, weapons
handling, and rudimentary tactics.
As the war progressed and demandfor troops increased, this
training period was often shortened dramatically,
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sometimes to as little as four to six weeks before men were
shipped to combat zones. Samuel Kojo, who served in the
Gold Coast Regiment and fought in Burma, described as brief
preparation for war. Our training lasted six weeks.
We learned to March, to shoot a rifle, to follow orders in
English. Many men in my unit could not
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understand the language, so those of us who spoke some
English had to translate. We had no idea what Burma was or
why we were going there. They showed us pictures of
Japanese soldiers and told us they were our enemy.
Then they put us on ships. Many men had never seen the
ocean before, let alone traveledon it.
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The journey took weeks, and manybecame terribly sick.
By the time we arrived, we were already exhausted, but the
fighting had only just begun. For us, the language barrier
presented a significant challenge.
Colonial armies operated primarily in European languages,
English, French, or Belgian French, which many African
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recruits did not speak or understand.
This communication gap could have lethal consequences in
combat situations where misunderstood orders or
inability to report enemy positions could result in
casualties. Some units developed improvised
systems of translation, with bilingual soldiers serving as
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intermediaries, but this was farfrom a perfect solution.
Once conscripted, African soldiers served in various
military units structured along colonial lines.
The British colonial forces included the King's African
Rifles, a multi battalion regiment that drew soldiers from
British East Africa including Kenya, Uganda, Tanganyika, now
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Tanzania and Nyasaland, now Malawi.
With around 300,000 men at its peak, the King's African Rifles
fought in various theaters of war, particularly distinguishing
themselves in the East African campaign against Italian forces
and later in the brutal jungle fighting in Burma.
French colonial forces included the previously mentioned tire
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years, Senegalese and significant numbers of troops
from North Africa. Around 300,000 soldiers from
Algeria, Tunisia and Morocco served in the French army.
These forces played crucial roles in campaigns across
Africa, the Middle East and Europe, particularly in the
liberation of France itself after years of German
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occupation, an ironic mission given their own status as
subjects of French colonial rule.
The Belgian Force Public was themilitary of the Congo Free State
and later the Belgian Congo from1885 to 1960.
During World War 2, it constituted the bulk of the Free
Belgian Forces. Like other colonial armies, it
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was racially segregated, led by 280 white officers and NC OS,
but otherwise comprised of indigenous black African
soldiers. The Force public fought
primarily in the East African Campaign, helping to defeat
Italian forces in Ethiopia and secure this region for the
Allies. All of these units shared a
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common characteristic rigid racial hierarchy.
European officers commanded African troops with very limited
opportunities for Africans to rise to positions of authority,
regardless of their ability, courage, or experience.
This structure reflected and reinforced the colonial
relationship, maintaining white supremacy even within the
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supposedly meritocratic context of military service.
Captain Richard Burton, a British officer in the King's
African Rifles, candidly described this dynamic in a
letter home. The African soldiers are brave
beyond question, and many show natural leadership abilities
that would surely earn quick promotion in a European
regiment. But the system does not permit
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this. An African Sergeant, no matter
how capable, will never command white troops or rise to
Commission rank. This is the unwritten rule,
broken only in the most exceptional circumstances and
even then with great reluctance.The experiences of African
soldiers vary dramatically depending on which theater of
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war they were sent to. Those who served in familiar
African environments generally fared better than those shipped
to distant foreign battlefields with unfamiliar climates,
terrain, food, and diseases. However, all face the common
challenges of racism, unequal treatment, and the psychological
burden of fighting for colonial powers that denied them basic
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rights and dignity in civilian life.
The East African Campaign of 1940 to 1941 was one of the
first major deployments of African troops in World War 2.
The campaign centered on the Horn of Africa, primarily in
Ethiopia, then called Abyssinia,which had been conquered by
Fascist Italy in 1935 to 1936. The Italian forces in the region
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numbered around 200,000 Italian troops and 250,000 indigenous
soldiers from Italian colonies. Against them.
The British assembled A multinational force that
included significant numbers of troops from Kenya, Uganda,
Tanganyika, Nigeria, Ghana, thenGold Coast, and other African
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colonies. Corporal Richard Muhinda of the
King's African Rifles participated in the crucial
Battle of Karen and modern Eritrea, a key engagement that
opened the way for the Allied advance into Ethiopia.
In an interview conducted in the1960s, he provided A vivid
account of this forgotten but strategically important battle.
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Karen was a fortress in the mountains.
The Italians held the high ground with many machine guns
and artillery pieces. They rained down fire on us as
we tried to advance for days. We attacked and were driven
back, attacked and were driven back.
The heat was terrible. Men collapsed from heat
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exhaustion as well as wounds. Water was scarce.
We fought alongside Indian troops and British soldiers, all
suffering the same hardships. On my third day of battle, we
were ordered to take a hill called Cameron Ridge.
As we advanced upward, the machine gunfire was so intense
it seemed like rain falling on the rocks around us.
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The man next to me was hit in the face and fell without a
sound. I kept climbing using boulders
for cover. When we reached the top it was
hand to hand fighting with bayonets and rifle bots.
I killed 2 Italian soldiers thatday, the first men I had ever
killed that night. We held the position expecting a
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counter attack at dawn. The Italians fought hard at
Karen, harder than anywhere elsein the campaign.
They were defending an empire. We were fighting for what?
Not for our freedom, not for ourland.
We were fighting for the BritishEmpire that ruled over us.
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This was the contradiction that many of us felt but could not
express. The East African campaign
culminated in the liberation of Ethiopia and the restoration of
Emperor highly zealously to his throne.
Ironically, African troops fighting under colonial flags
had liberated the only African nation that had maintained its
independence into the 20th century before the Italian
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conquest. The campaign, while successful,
came at a high cost, with thousands of African soldiers
killed, wounded, or incapacitated by disease.
Following success in East Africa, many African units were
redeployed to other theaters. Some were sent to North Africa
to face Rommel's Africa corpse, others to the Middle East, and
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still others, particularly troops from East and West
Africa, were shipped to the Far East to fight the Japanese in
Burma. This global deployment of
African soldiers highlighted their status as an imperial
resource to be utilized whereverthe strategic situation
demanded, regardless of the hardships involved in sending
them to unfamiliar environments thousands of miles from home.
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The Burma campaign represented one of the most brutal theaters
of the entire war, and it was here that 10s of thousands of
African troops would face their greatest challenges.
The terrain was a nightmare of dense jungle, steep mountains,
and swampy valleys crossed by numerous rivers that became
raging torrents during the monsoon season.
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Tropical diseases, malaria, dysentery, typhus, dengue fever,
and tropical ulcers caused more casualties than enemy action,
and the Japanese forces, fighting with fanatical
determination and skilled in jungle warfare, presented A
formidable enemy. Private Amateur Carbo, a Sierra
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Leonean soldier serving with theRoyal West African Frontier
Force in Burma, left a rare written account of his
experiences that was discovered among his possessions after his
death in 1988. The jungle was our enemy as much
as the Japanese. It was always wet, always hot,
always filled with insects that tormented us day and night.
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Leeches would attach themselves to any exposed skin and even
find their way through the eyelids of our boots to suck our
blood. Mosquitoes gave us malaria.
Nearly every man in my unit had recurring fevers.
The jungle paths were muddy tracks that exhausted us as we
marched with full equipment. Men would sink to their knees
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and mud, requiring others to help pull them out.
The Japanese were a terrible enemy, brutal when they captured
any of our men, but also brave and determined.
They would infiltrate our lines at night, slitting the throats
of sentries. They would hide in trees as
snipers, sometimes for days, without moving, waiting for a
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clean shot. They would scream and shout at
night to unnerve us, or play recordings of English voices
calling for help to lure our patrols into ambushes.
Our worst battle was at Imphal in 1944.
The Japanese had surrounded the city and we were ordered to
breakthrough to relieve the Garrison.
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For weeks we fought through jungle and mountains, always
under fire, often without propersupplies as air drops could not
reach us. Many men in my company died from
bullets, from artillery, from disease, from exhaustion.
We would bury them where they fell, with no markers except
perhaps a rifle stuck into the ground with a helmet placed on
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its stock. When we finally broke through
the impole, the survivors were like walking ghosts, thin,
hollow eyed, many suffering frommalaria or dysentery, but still
fighting because there was no alternative.
The Japanese were in worse condition than we were, starving
as their supply lines had been cut.
We found they're dead everywhere, some having
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committed suicide rather than surrender.
The Battle of Impol, along with the related Battle of Kohima,
represented a turning point in the Burma campaign.
African troops alongside British, Indian and Gurkha
forces inflicted the Japanese Army's greatest defeat to that
point in the war. Their victory prevented a
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Japanese invasion of India and set the stage for the Allied
reconquest of Burma. African units were at the
forefront of this advance, fighting through some of the
most difficult terrain and conditions faced by any Allied
troops in any theater of World War 2.
Lance Corporal Joseph Kaduna, A Nigerian serving in the 81st
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West African Division, describedthe advance through Burma toward
Rangoon. After Impol, we pursued the
Japanese southward. This was not a clean war of
moving lines on a map. It was countless small battles
and valleys on ridges, at river crossings.
The Japanese fought for every mile, setting ambushes, creating
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roadblocks, sacrificing themselves and suicidal stands
to delay our advance. We would often March for days
through jungle without seeing the enemy, then suddenly come
under fire from hidden positions.
Our scouts, men from tribes withhunting traditions who could
read the jungle like a book, would detect signs of Japanese
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presence that were invisible to the rest of us.
A disturbed pattern of leaves, an unusual bird call, the faint
smell of cooking rice. The worst were the river
crossings. The Japanese would always defend
these, knowing we had to cross. They would position machine guns
to create interlocking fields offire covering the water,
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crossing men, exposing yourself completely.
I remember 1 river, I don't recall its name now, where my
platoon was ordered to cross under heavy fire.
The water was only waist deep, but it might as well have been
an ocean for how difficult it was to reach the other side.
We lost eight men crossing that river.
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I can still see them falling as the bullets hit their bodies,
carried downstream by the current.
When we finally reached the far bank and drove off the Japanese
defenders, our Sergeant, a man from my own village who rarely
showed emotion, sat down and wept openly.
Not from fear, but from the waste of it all, the loss of
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good men for a few yards of mud in a country none of us had
heard of before the war. These personal accounts provide
a window into the experiences ofAfrican soldiers fighting
thousands of miles from home andsome of the war's most
challenging conditions. Their contributions to the
Allied victory in Burma were significant but have received
little recognition in most historical accounts of the
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campaign, which tend to focus onBritish, American, and Indian
forces. African soldiers served across
multiple theaters of war, often fighting far from their
homelands and conditions that tested their endurance and
adaptability to the extreme. Their contributions span the
global nature of the conflict, from the deserts of North Africa
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to the jungles of Southeast Asia.
The North African campaign lasted from June 1940 to May
1943 and included campaigns in the Libyan and Egyptian deserts,
in Morocco and Algeria, Operation Torch in Tunisia.
While often overshadowed by European and American
contributions, African soldiers played vital roles in these
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operations, particularly troops from French North Africa who are
familiar with the desert terrainand climate, Mohamed Belkasam,
an Algerian veteran who fought with French forces against
Rommel's Africa corpse, recalled.
We knew how to move in the desert, how to find water, how
to survive the extreme heat of day and cold of night.
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The European soldiers suffered terribly in these conditions,
but for us it was familiar. Yet in the histories you read
only of Montgomery and Rommel, of British and German troops.
The thousands of Algerians, Moroccans, Tunisians who fought
and died there are forgotten. Between 1940 and 1941, African
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soldiers were instrumental in the East African campaign,
fighting against Italian colonial forces in Ethiopia,
Somalia and parts of Kenya. Of the 88,500 Allied forces
fighting against more than 450,000 Italian and Axis forces,
19,000 were from East and West Africa.
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These soldiers fought alongside troops from South Africa,
Britain and British India, helping to secure a crucial
early Allied victory that prevented the Axis powers from
controlling the strategic Horn of Africa.
Corporal Joseph Karanja, A Kenyan soldier in the King's
African Rifles, describe the campaign in his memoirs.
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We marched hundreds of miles through difficult country,
mountains, deserts, places wherevehicles could not go.
Our knowledge of the land gave us advantage.
We could move at night without lights, find paths where
Europeans saw only wilderness. When we defeated the Italians at
Karen after fierce fighting, ourcommander said it was one of the
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hardest won battles of the entire war, but few people know
of it today. Perhaps one of the least
recognized contributions came inthe Burma Campaign, modern
Myanmar where 10s of thousands of African soldiers fought
against Japanese forces and someof the most difficult fighting
conditions of the entire war. The 81st and 82nd West African
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Divisions, known collectively asthe Royal West African Frontier
Force, RAAF, and the 11th East African Division, brought their
unique skills to the Far East. Their adaptation to tropical
conditions proved advantageous in the difficult terrain and
climate of Burma, where Europeantroops often suffered severely
from disease and environmental challenges.
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The Burma Campaign represented one of the most grueling
theaters of World War 2, with dense jungle, monsoon rains,
tropical diseases, and a determined Japanese enemy.
African troops, particularly those from East and West Africa,
were deployed there in large numbers based on the colonial
assumption that they would be better able to withstand the
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tropical conditions than European soldiers.
While there was some truth to their greater resistance to
certain tropical diseases, the campaign still extracted a
terrible toll on African units. Sergeant Emmanuel I Fujika, A
Nigerian who served with the Royal West African Frontier
Force in Burma, described the horrors of jungle warfare.
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The jungle was a place of constant danger.
Japanese snipers tied themselvesin trees, waiting for days to
shoot unwary soldiers. Booby traps were everywhere.
The rain never seemed to stop during monsoon.
We lived in permanent wetness, with fungus growing on our skin
and equipment. Malaria, dysentery, dengue
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fever. These killed more men than
Japanese bullets. At night, we could hear the
screams of wounded men being tortured by the Japanese.
Designed to break our morale, many of us believed we would
never see home again. Despite these unimaginable
hardships, African units performed admirably in Burma,
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participating in key battles like Impol and Kohima that turn
the tide against Japanese forces.
Their contributions were acknowledged by field commanders
at the time, but have since faded from popular historical
accounts of the campaign, which tend to focus on British,
American and Indian troops, as Albert Kanuku recalled of his
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service in Burma. In the trenches in Burma, we saw
Belgian officers fall to enemy bullets.
It was a real shock for us. This simple statement reveals
much about the expectations and experiences of African troops,
the surprise at seeing white officers vulnerable and mortal,
the shared danger that temporarily transcended racial
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hierarchies, and the psychological impact of combat
Far from home. African soldiers also served in
the European theater, though their presence there has been
largely erased from popular representations of the war.
Troops from French colonies played a significant role in the
liberation of Italy. In France itself.
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The French army that landed in province in August 1944 as part
of Operation Dragoon included large numbers of colonial troops
from North and West Africa. Despite fighting for the freedom
of their colonial masters, African soldiers faced
persistent discrimination and segregation throughout their
service. They were typically commanded by
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European officers, paid less than white troops, housed in
inferior facilities and subjected to different
disciplinary standards. African veterans remember the
racial segregation they endured even as they fought alongside
Europeans. As Kanuka put it, we were like
slaves because it was Belgium that brought us into this war.
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We could not say anything, another veteran, Daniel Miyuki,
observed poignantly. When the bombs began to fall,
white and black would die the same way.
This discrimination extended to every aspect of military life.
African troops received lower quality rations, often lacking
fresh meat, vegetables, or the luxury items that were standard
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in European units. Their medical care was inferior,
with fewer doctors assigned to African units and less access to
advanced treatments or evacuation to proper hospitals
when wounded. Their equipment was often
substandard, outdated weapons, insufficient ammunition and
inadequate protective gear, Captain James Wilson, a British
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medical officer who served with East African troops in Burma,
wrote with unusual candor in hisdiary.
The disparity in treatment between white and African
casualties is shameful. European wounded are prioritized
for evacuation regardless of theseverity of their injuries,
while African soldiers with lifethreatening wounds may wait days
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for transport to a field hospital.
The ration of medical supplies allocated to African battalions
is roughly half that provided toequivalent British units.
I have raised this matter with headquarters repeatedly, only to
be told that this is policy and not subject to discussion.
Field Marshall William Slim's comment that all the African
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soldiers needed was a handful ofrice and some Bush to crawl
under to sleep exemplifies the patronizing attitudes that
prevailed even when acknowledging their
contributions. Such views reflected deeply
ingrained colonial assumptions about the supposedly simpler
needs and lower expectations of African troops, assumptions that
justified their unequal treatment while simultaneously
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praising their stoicism and endurance.
The end of the war did not bringequality or proper recognition
for African veterans. Most returned home to continue
discrimination and inadequate compensation for their service.
Many found that promises made during recruitment of pensions,
land grants, preference for government employment, or
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educational opportunities were left unfulfilled or
significantly reduced from what had been offered until 2010.
African veterans received lower pensions than their French
counterparts. They were typically paid 3 times
less war pension than white comrades who had served in the
same theaters, held the same rank, and suffered the same
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injuries. Many did not receive their war
gratuity payments upon returningto Africa, with various
administrative obstacles and bureaucratic delays preventing
the disbursement of funds that European veterans received
promptly. Abdul Samba, a Senegalese
veteran who fought in Italy and France, described the bitter
homecoming. When we returned, we were heroes
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for a day. There was a parade, speeches by
colonial officials. Then we were forgotten.
The pensions promised never cameor were so small they barely
bought food for a week. Meanwhile, the French soldiers
who fought beside us received proper compensation and
recognition. We had risked their lives for
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France. But France did not remember this
when the war was over. In one of the most shameful
episodes of the post war period,dozens of West African soldiers
protested against unequal pay and pensions at a demobilization
camp in Fyroy, Senegal in December 1944.
French forces responded with horrific violence, opening fire
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on the unarmed veterans. The exact death toll of what
became known as the fiery massacre remains disputed.
Official French accounts initially acknowledged 35
deaths, but subsequent research and testimony from survivors
suggest the number may have beensignificantly higher,
potentially reaching into the hundreds.
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This violent suppression epitomized the colonial powers
unwillingness to treat African soldiers equally even after they
had fought for the Allied cause.The massacre was then
systematically covered up, excluded from official
histories, and only in recent decades has it begun to receive
acknowledgement in France. Ibrahim Thioi, whose uncle was
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among those killed at Phiroi, shared his family's perspective.
My uncle survived 4 years of warfighting the Germans in Europe,
only to be murdered by the French.
When he asked for the payment hewas owed.
The family received no compensation, no explanation.
For years we were not even permitted to speak of what
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happened. This is how France repaid those
who had helped liberate it from Nazi occupation.
The absence of African soldiers from victory celebrations
further symbolize their erasure from the official narrative of
World War 2. The victory parade in Paris in
1945 celebrating the liberation of France initially excluded
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colonial troops despite their crucial role in the campaign.
Only after protests from some French officers were a small
number of African representatives included a token
presence that failed to reflect their actual contribution to the
war effort, Amadouba, A Senegalese veteran who
participated in the liberation of Paris but was not selected
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for the victory parade, recalled.
We were good enough to die for France, but not good enough to
March in their celebration. They wanted a white victory to
show the world that France had liberated itself, but without
the African soldiers, there might have been no liberation at
all. We were, as one of our songs
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said, first to fight, last to berecognized.
Despite this official neglect, the participation of African
soldiers in World War Two had profound implications for the
future of the continent. For many African servicemen, the
war experience fundamentally changed their perspective on
colonial rule. Men who had traveled far from
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their villages, seen different societies, fought alongside
Europeans as equals in battle, and in some cases received
education and technical trainingduring their service returned
home with expanded horizons and higher expectations.
The war experience challenged colonial narratives of European
superiority. As one veteran observed, seeing
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a white soldier bleeding, screaming, and dying made them
realize that they were no different because we all bleed
red in the end. This realization undermine the
psychological foundations of colonial rule, which rested in
part on myths of European invincibility and natural
authority. Kofi Addo, a Ghanaian veteran
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who served in Burma, expressed this transformation.
Before the war. We had been taught that the
white man was superior in every way, smarter, braver, more
civilized. Then we saw them break down
under the same pressures that weendured.
We saw them make mistakes that cost lives.
We saved their lives and they saved ours.
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How could we return home and accept being treated as children
as less than full men? After that experience, many
veterans subsequently became keyfigures in independence
movements across Africa. Notable examples include Leopold
Cedar Sanger of Senegal, who served in the French army and
was captured by the Germans, later becoming the first
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president of independent Senegal, and a renowned poet.
Huaori Bulmuddin of Algeria, whose experience with colonial
inequities during the war deepened his commitment to
Algerian independence, eventually became that country's
second president after a long and bloody struggle against
French rule. These military veterans brought
particular assets to the independence movements.
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Organizational skills, leadership experience and
strategic thinking developed during their service.
Their global perspective and first hand knowledge of their
colonizers vulnerabilities made them effective leaders in the
struggle for independence. Having fought to liberate Europe
from fascist occupation, they returned determined to liberate
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their own countries from colonial domination.
John Okello, Ugandan veteran wholater became involved in his
country's independence movement,drew explicit parallels.
During the war, we were told we were fighting for freedom, for
the right of nations to determine their own destiny
without foreign domination. Those words stayed with me.
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If Belgium and France deserved freedom from German occupation,
why did Uganda not deserve freedom from British rule?
The principles were the same. The hypocrisy of the colonial
powers became impossible to ignore once you had seen the
world beyond your village. In recent decades, there have
been some attempts to acknowledge the contributions of
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African soldiers to the Allied victory in World War Two, though
these efforts often feel too little, too late for the
veterans themselves, most of whom have now passed away.
In 2017, French President Francois Hollande gave
citizenship to 28 African veterans who fought for France
in World War 2 and other conflicts, stating that France
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owed them a debt of blood. This symbolic gesture, while
welcome, addressed only a tiny fraction of the thousands of
surviving veterans who had been denied equal recognition for
decades. In 2020, France's Armed Forces
Ministry provided local authorities with a guide to 100
Africans who fought for France in World War 2 so that streets
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and squares could be named afterthem.
This initiative aimed to increase the visibility of
African contributions in the physical landscape of French
cities and towns. Creating permanent reminders of
their service and sacrifice. During the 75th anniversary of
the allied landing in province, President Emmanuel Macron
expressed gratitude for African soldiers.
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Thousands of people sacrificed themselves to defend a distant
land, an unknown land. A land they had until then never
trod. A land they have forever marked
with their blood. However, such recognition has
been inconsistent, as evidenced by Mccrone's 2025 comments
suggesting African leaders had forgotten to thank France for
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its military intervention in theSahel region, which provoked
significant diplomatic tension and revealed persistent colonial
attitudes. Cultural efforts to commemorate
African World War 2 veterans have included documentaries like
The Shadow of the Forgotten, which sought to honor surviving
veterans and bring their storiesto wider attention.
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These cultural initiatives help preserve the memories and
experiences of African World War2 veterans before they are lost
forever, creating records that future generations can access to
understand this overlooked aspect of the global conflict.
Academic historians have also played a crucial role in
documenting and analyzing the African experience of World War
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2, challenging the Eurocentric narratives that have dominated
scholarship on the conflict. Researchers like Myron
Eckenberg, David Killingray, andGregory Mann have published
important studies that center African perspectives and
experiences, drawing on oral histories.
Colonial Archives and the testimony of veterans themselves
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to construct a more complete picture of the war.
But these efforts, however valuable, cannot fully address
the historical injustice of how African soldiers were treated
during and after the war. For the few remaining veterans
now in their 90s or older, official recognition comes too
late to make a meaningful difference in lines shaped by
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decades of neglect and discrimination.
And for those who died without ever receiving proper
acknowledgement or compensation,no posthumous honors can restore
what was denied them in life. The story of Africa's million
plus World War Two soldiers represents a significant gap in
our collective historical memory.
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These men fought across multiplecontinents in a war not of their
making, often compelled to servecolonial powers that denied them
basic rights and equal treatment.
Their service accelerated the decline of colonialism and
contributed significantly to theglobal struggle against fascism.
Yet their contributions remain marginalized and popular
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understanding of the war overshadowed by Eurocentric
narratives that center wide experiences and perspectives.
Emmanuel Yowa, one of the last surviving Togolese veterans who
served in North Africa and Italy, expressed this sense of
historical erasure in a 2018 interview.
We are disappearing 1 by 1, taking our stories with us.
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When I watch films about the war, read books about the
battles I fought in, I rarely see faces that look like mine,
though we were there in thousands.
History has been written withoutus, but we were there, bleeding,
fighting, dying alongside all the others.
This is the truth I want the world to know before I join my
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comrades who never returned. The continued marginalization of
African contributions to World War 2 reflects broader patterns
of historical erasure that must be addressed.
As the few remaining veterans reach their final years, there
is an urgent need to document their experiences and integrate
their stories into mainstream historical narratives about the
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war. Acknowledging the forgotten
African armies of World War 2 isnot merely about historical
accuracy. It's about recognizing the
global nature of the conflict and honoring all those who
sacrificed for the Allied victory, regardless of their
origin or the color of their skin.
It's about understanding that World War 2 was truly a World
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War, fought by men and women from every continent, whose
diverse experiences and perspectives are essential to
comprehending the full impact and meaning of this pivotal
historical event. This has been Steve Matthews for
WW2 stories. Until next time, remember that
history is most complete when itincludes all voices, not just
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those with the power to ensure their stories are remembered.
Greetings history enthusiasts. I'm Steve Matthews and welcome
back to WW2 Stories. Today we're going to explore one
of the most overlooked chapters of the Second World War, the
story of more than a million African soldiers who served in
colonial armies during the conflict.
These men fought across multipletheaters of war in Africa,
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Europe, the Middle East, and as far as Myanmar and the Pacific
Islands, yet their contributionsremain largely unacknowledged in
mainstream historical narratives.
While the heroism of American, British and Commonwealth troops
from Australia, New Zealand and Canada is rightfully celebrated,
the sacrifices of African soldiers have been relegated to
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the footnotes of history. Today, we'll bring their story
to the forefront, a story of courage, endurance and
sacrifice, but also one of exploitation, discrimination and
historical erasure. The scale of African military
participation in World War 2 wastruly staggering.
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More than a million Africans served as combatants, war
workers and carriers for colonial powers, primarily
Britain, France and Belgium. The British Empire alone
recruited upwards of half a million African troops, while
French forces included approximately 200,000 men from
sub-Saharan Africa, known collectively as the Tire Years
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Senegalese, though they were drawn from various French
colonies, not just Senegal. Belgian colonial forces
contributed significantly as well, with the force public
numbering over 40,000 men at itspeak in 1943.
At the start of the Second WorldWar there were approximately
12,830 African soldiers in British service, but by the end
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almost 500,000 had served. This massive expansion speaks to
the growing desperation of colonial powers.
As the war progressed and casualties mounted, Africa
became an increasingly importantsource of manpower as European
nations found their own populations insufficient to meet
the demands of global conflict. The human dimension of this
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military mobilization is best understood through individual
stories. Kofi Mensa was a 19 year old
cocoa farmer from the Gold Coast, modern Ghana, when
British recruiters came to his village in 1941.
As he recounted in a rare recorded interview preserved in
the Imperial War Museum, they came with the local chief who
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had been told he must provide 20men from our area.
There was no choice in the matter.
Those who resisted were beaten. I had a young wife and a baby
daughter, but this meant nothingto them.
Within a day I was marched to a collection point with other men
from neighboring villages. Within a week I was in a
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training camp learning to be a soldier.
Within six months I was fightingin a land I had never heard of
before, Ethiopia, Sergeant JamesMwangi, A Kenyan veteran of the
King's African Rifles who foughtin Burma, recalled in a 1985
interview. We were many, so many.
From my village alone, 23 young men went to war from across
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Kenya, thousands. And we met others from Uganda,
from Tanganyika, from Nyasaland.And then there were the West
Africans, Nigerians, Gold Coast men, a great army of Africans
fighting in a white man's war. But who remembers us now?
Who tells our story? These African soldiers performed
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a full range of military tasks, including fighting in major
battles, transporting ammunitionand supplies, assisting wounded
soldiers, often while under fire, and building military
infrastructure such as bases, airfields, and roads.
Some also served in the Royal Navy, Merchant Navy, and Royal
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Air Force, though rarely in positions of authority or
prestige. Colonial propaganda of the era
portrayed African soldiers as enthusiastic volunteers eager to
defend the mother country and the principles of freedom and
democracy. Posters showed smiling African
soldiers proudly wearing Britishor French uniforms with slogans
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encouraging others to join them in the fight against fascism.
News reels depicted African troops marching smartly
alongside their European counterparts, suggesting
equality and shared purpose. The reality, however, was often
starkly different. Many African soldiers were
forcibly conscripted into colonial armies through various
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course of methods. Local chiefs and colonial
administrators were given quotasto fill, and they often resorted
to brutal tactics. To meet these requirements,
young men were rounded up in villages, at marketplaces or at
their workplaces and given no choice about their military
service. Albert Kanuku, who served as a
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Congolese corporal in the Belgian colonial army, described
the forced nature of his recruitment.
I was working in a textile company when they came to take
us away. Then they went to other
companies. All the young workers were
recruited. No one was younger than 30.
Now 97 years old, Kunyuku was one of the few surviving
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Congolese World War 2 veterans, and his testimony contradicts
the narrative of voluntary service that dominated colonial
propaganda. The methods of forced
recruitment varied across regions but shared a common
disregard for African autonomy in consent.
In some areas, colonial officials worked with local
chiefs who were pressured to provide a certain number of men
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from their communities. These chiefs faced penalties if
they failed to meet their quotas, creating a system where
they were compelled to become agents of colonial coercion
against their own people. Lieutenant Colonel Thomas
Williams, a British officer who oversaw recruitment in Kenya,
wrote candidly in his private journals.
The fiction of voluntary serviceis maintained for public
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consumption, but the reality is quite different.
We need the men and we will get them by whatever means
necessary. Local administrators understand
this perfectly well, even if London prefers a more palatable
version of events. In other regions, more direct
methods were employed. Armed patrols would sweep
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through villages, rounding up young men of fighting age.
Those who resisted could face imprisonment or corporal
punishment. Some communities develop
strategies to protect their young men, hiding them in the
Bush when recruitment parties approached or in some cases,
deliberately inflicting injuriesthat would render them unfit for
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military service. Musa Kaba, a village elder from
Guinea who survived the war period, described one such
episode in an oral history collected by French researchers
in the 1970s. When we heard the recruiters
were coming, the young men wouldflee to the forests.
Some would deliberately break fingers or toes, or create deep
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cuts on their legs to make themselves unfit for service.
One young man in our village puthis leg under the wheel of a
cart, asking his friend to driveover it.
Better a broken leg than to be taken to die in a distant land.
But the recruiters became lies to these tactics.
They would surround villages at dawn, giving no one a chance to
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escape. They would examine injuries
carefully, punishing anyone suspected of self harm.
They even took men with existingdisabilities, putting them to
work as carriers or cooks. Ibrahim Diallo, whose father was
conscripted from Guinea to servein the Tiriers Senegalese,
shared his family's story. My father told me they came to
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his village early in the morning.
All the young men were gathered in the central square.
Those who tried to run were beaten.
They were told they were now soldiers of France, though most
had never even seen a Frenchman before.
My father had no idea where Germany was or why he was
supposed to fight against it. He was simply taken, given a
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uniform and, after brief training, put on a ship to
Europe. This forced recruitment had
devastating effects on African communities.
The removal of young men, often the most physically capable
members of society, disrupted agricultural production, leading
to food shortages in some regions.
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Families lost breadwinners and protectors, creating economic
hardship and social instability.The arbitrary and coercive
nature of the process generated deep resentment toward colonial
authorities, seeds of discontentthat would later contribute to
independence movements across the continent.
The training African recruits received varied widely in
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quality and duration. In the early war years, when the
need for manpower was less desperate, training might last
several months, covering basic military skills, weapons
handling, and rudimentary tactics.
As the war progressed and demandfor troops increased, this
training period was often shortened dramatically,
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sometimes to as little as four to six weeks before men were
shipped to combat zones. Samuel Kojo, who served in the
Gold Coast Regiment and fought in Burma, described as brief
preparation for war. Our training lasted six weeks.
We learned to March, to shoot a rifle, to follow orders in
English. Many men in my unit could not
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understand the language, so those of us who spoke some
English had to translate. We had no idea what Burma was or
why we were going there. They showed us pictures of
Japanese soldiers and told us they were our enemy.
Then they put us on ships. Many men had never seen the
ocean before, let alone traveledon it.
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The journey took weeks, and manybecame terribly sick.
By the time we arrived, we were already exhausted, but the
fighting had only just begun. For us, the language barrier
presented a significant challenge.
Colonial armies operated primarily in European languages,
English, French, or Belgian French, which many African
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recruits did not speak or understand.
This communication gap could have lethal consequences in
combat situations where misunderstood orders or
inability to report enemy positions could result in
casualties. Some units developed improvised
systems of translation, with bilingual soldiers serving as
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intermediaries, but this was farfrom a perfect solution.
Once conscripted, African soldiers served in various
military units structured along colonial lines.
The British colonial forces included the King's African
Rifles, a multi battalion regiment that drew soldiers from
British East Africa including Kenya, Uganda, Tanganyika, now
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Tanzania and Nyasaland, now Malawi.
With around 300,000 men at its peak, the King's African Rifles
fought in various theaters of war, particularly distinguishing
themselves in the East African campaign against Italian forces
and later in the brutal jungle fighting in Burma.
French colonial forces included the previously mentioned tire
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years, Senegalese and significant numbers of troops
from North Africa. Around 300,000 soldiers from
Algeria, Tunisia and Morocco served in the French army.
These forces played crucial roles in campaigns across
Africa, the Middle East and Europe, particularly in the
liberation of France itself after years of German
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occupation, an ironic mission given their own status as
subjects of French colonial rule.
The Belgian Force Public was themilitary of the Congo Free State
and later the Belgian Congo from1885 to 1960.
During World War 2, it constituted the bulk of the Free
Belgian Forces. Like other colonial armies, it
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was racially segregated, led by 280 white officers and NC OS,
but otherwise comprised of indigenous black African
soldiers. The Force public fought
primarily in the East African Campaign, helping to defeat
Italian forces in Ethiopia and secure this region for the
Allies. All of these units shared a
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common characteristic rigid racial hierarchy.
European officers commanded African troops with very limited
opportunities for Africans to rise to positions of authority,
regardless of their ability, courage, or experience.
This structure reflected and reinforced the colonial
relationship, maintaining white supremacy even within the
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supposedly meritocratic context of military service.
Captain Richard Burton, a British officer in the King's
African Rifles, candidly described this dynamic in a
letter home. The African soldiers are brave
beyond question, and many show natural leadership abilities
that would surely earn quick promotion in a European
regiment. But the system does not permit
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this. An African Sergeant, no matter
how capable, will never command white troops or rise to
Commission rank. This is the unwritten rule,
broken only in the most exceptional circumstances and
even then with great reluctance.The experiences of African
soldiers vary dramatically depending on which theater of
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war they were sent to. Those who served in familiar
African environments generally fared better than those shipped
to distant foreign battlefields with unfamiliar climates,
terrain, food, and diseases. However, all face the common
challenges of racism, unequal treatment, and the psychological
burden of fighting for colonial powers that denied them basic
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rights and dignity in civilian life.
The East African Campaign of 1940 to 1941 was one of the
first major deployments of African troops in World War 2.
The campaign centered on the Horn of Africa, primarily in
Ethiopia, then called Abyssinia,which had been conquered by
Fascist Italy in 1935 to 1936. The Italian forces in the region
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numbered around 200,000 Italian troops and 250,000 indigenous
soldiers from Italian colonies. Against them.
The British assembled A multinational force that
included significant numbers of troops from Kenya, Uganda,
Tanganyika, Nigeria, Ghana, thenGold Coast, and other African
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colonies. Corporal Richard Muhinda of the
King's African Rifles participated in the crucial
Battle of Karen and modern Eritrea, a key engagement that
opened the way for the Allied advance into Ethiopia.
In an interview conducted in the1960s, he provided A vivid
account of this forgotten but strategically important battle.
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Karen was a fortress in the mountains.
The Italians held the high ground with many machine guns
and artillery pieces. They rained down fire on us as
we tried to advance for days. We attacked and were driven
back, attacked and were driven back.
The heat was terrible. Men collapsed from heat
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exhaustion as well as wounds. Water was scarce.
We fought alongside Indian troops and British soldiers, all
suffering the same hardships. On my third day of battle, we
were ordered to take a hill called Cameron Ridge.
As we advanced upward, the machine gunfire was so intense
it seemed like rain falling on the rocks around us.
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The man next to me was hit in the face and fell without a
sound. I kept climbing using boulders
for cover. When we reached the top it was
hand to hand fighting with bayonets and rifle bots.
I killed 2 Italian soldiers thatday, the first men I had ever
killed that night. We held the position expecting a
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counter attack at dawn. The Italians fought hard at
Karen, harder than anywhere elsein the campaign.
They were defending an empire. We were fighting for what?
Not for our freedom, not for ourland.
We were fighting for the BritishEmpire that ruled over us.
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This was the contradiction that many of us felt but could not
express. The East African campaign
culminated in the liberation of Ethiopia and the restoration of
Emperor highly zealously to his throne.
Ironically, African troops fighting under colonial flags
had liberated the only African nation that had maintained its
independence into the 20th century before the Italian
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conquest. The campaign, while successful,
came at a high cost, with thousands of African soldiers
killed, wounded, or incapacitated by disease.
Following success in East Africa, many African units were
redeployed to other theaters. Some were sent to North Africa
to face Rommel's Africa corpse, others to the Middle East, and
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still others, particularly troops from East and West
Africa, were shipped to the Far East to fight the Japanese in
Burma. This global deployment of
African soldiers highlighted their status as an imperial
resource to be utilized whereverthe strategic situation
demanded, regardless of the hardships involved in sending
them to unfamiliar environments thousands of miles from home.
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The Burma campaign represented one of the most brutal theaters
of the entire war, and it was here that 10s of thousands of
African troops would face their greatest challenges.
The terrain was a nightmare of dense jungle, steep mountains,
and swampy valleys crossed by numerous rivers that became
raging torrents during the monsoon season.
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Tropical diseases, malaria, dysentery, typhus, dengue fever,
and tropical ulcers caused more casualties than enemy action,
and the Japanese forces, fighting with fanatical
determination and skilled in jungle warfare, presented A
formidable enemy. Private Amateur Carbo, a Sierra
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Leonean soldier serving with theRoyal West African Frontier
Force in Burma, left a rare written account of his
experiences that was discovered among his possessions after his
death in 1988. The jungle was our enemy as much
as the Japanese. It was always wet, always hot,
always filled with insects that tormented us day and night.
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Leeches would attach themselves to any exposed skin and even
find their way through the eyelids of our boots to suck our
blood. Mosquitoes gave us malaria.
Nearly every man in my unit had recurring fevers.
The jungle paths were muddy tracks that exhausted us as we
marched with full equipment. Men would sink to their knees
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and mud, requiring others to help pull them out.
The Japanese were a terrible enemy, brutal when they captured
any of our men, but also brave and determined.
They would infiltrate our lines at night, slitting the throats
of sentries. They would hide in trees as
snipers, sometimes for days, without moving, waiting for a
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clean shot. They would scream and shout at
night to unnerve us, or play recordings of English voices
calling for help to lure our patrols into ambushes.
Our worst battle was at Imphal in 1944.
The Japanese had surrounded the city and we were ordered to
breakthrough to relieve the Garrison.
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For weeks we fought through jungle and mountains, always
under fire, often without propersupplies as air drops could not
reach us. Many men in my company died from
bullets, from artillery, from disease, from exhaustion.
We would bury them where they fell, with no markers except
perhaps a rifle stuck into the ground with a helmet placed on
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its stock. When we finally broke through
the impole, the survivors were like walking ghosts, thin,
hollow eyed, many suffering frommalaria or dysentery, but still
fighting because there was no alternative.
The Japanese were in worse condition than we were, starving
as their supply lines had been cut.
We found they're dead everywhere, some having
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committed suicide rather than surrender.
The Battle of Impol, along with the related Battle of Kohima,
represented a turning point in the Burma campaign.
African troops alongside British, Indian and Gurkha
forces inflicted the Japanese Army's greatest defeat to that
point in the war. Their victory prevented a
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Japanese invasion of India and set the stage for the Allied
reconquest of Burma. African units were at the
forefront of this advance, fighting through some of the
most difficult terrain and conditions faced by any Allied
troops in any theater of World War 2.
Lance Corporal Joseph Kaduna, A Nigerian serving in the 81st
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West African Division, describedthe advance through Burma toward
Rangoon. After Impol, we pursued the
Japanese southward. This was not a clean war of
moving lines on a map. It was countless small battles
and valleys on ridges, at river crossings.
The Japanese fought for every mile, setting ambushes, creating
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roadblocks, sacrificing themselves and suicidal stands
to delay our advance. We would often March for days
through jungle without seeing the enemy, then suddenly come
under fire from hidden positions.
Our scouts, men from tribes withhunting traditions who could
read the jungle like a book, would detect signs of Japanese
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presence that were invisible to the rest of us.
A disturbed pattern of leaves, an unusual bird call, the faint
smell of cooking rice. The worst were the river
crossings. The Japanese would always defend
these, knowing we had to cross. They would position machine guns
to create interlocking fields offire covering the water,
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crossing men, exposing yourself completely.
I remember 1 river, I don't recall its name now, where my
platoon was ordered to cross under heavy fire.
The water was only waist deep, but it might as well have been
an ocean for how difficult it was to reach the other side.
We lost eight men crossing that river.
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I can still see them falling as the bullets hit their bodies,
carried downstream by the current.
When we finally reached the far bank and drove off the Japanese
defenders, our Sergeant, a man from my own village who rarely
showed emotion, sat down and wept openly.
Not from fear, but from the waste of it all, the loss of
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good men for a few yards of mud in a country none of us had
heard of before the war. These personal accounts provide
a window into the experiences ofAfrican soldiers fighting
thousands of miles from home andsome of the war's most
challenging conditions. Their contributions to the
Allied victory in Burma were significant but have received
little recognition in most historical accounts of the
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campaign, which tend to focus onBritish, American, and Indian
forces. African soldiers served across
multiple theaters of war, often fighting far from their
homelands and conditions that tested their endurance and
adaptability to the extreme. Their contributions span the
global nature of the conflict, from the deserts of North Africa
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to the jungles of Southeast Asia.
The North African campaign lasted from June 1940 to May
1943 and included campaigns in the Libyan and Egyptian deserts,
in Morocco and Algeria, Operation Torch in Tunisia.
While often overshadowed by European and American
contributions, African soldiers played vital roles in these
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operations, particularly troops from French North Africa who are
familiar with the desert terrainand climate, Mohamed Belkasam,
an Algerian veteran who fought with French forces against
Rommel's Africa corpse, recalled.
We knew how to move in the desert, how to find water, how
to survive the extreme heat of day and cold of night.
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The European soldiers suffered terribly in these conditions,
but for us it was familiar. Yet in the histories you read
only of Montgomery and Rommel, of British and German troops.
The thousands of Algerians, Moroccans, Tunisians who fought
and died there are forgotten. Between 1940 and 1941, African
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soldiers were instrumental in the East African campaign,
fighting against Italian colonial forces in Ethiopia,
Somalia and parts of Kenya. Of the 88,500 Allied forces
fighting against more than 450,000 Italian and Axis forces,
19,000 were from East and West Africa.
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These soldiers fought alongside troops from South Africa,
Britain and British India, helping to secure a crucial
early Allied victory that prevented the Axis powers from
controlling the strategic Horn of Africa.
Corporal Joseph Karanja, A Kenyan soldier in the King's
African Rifles, describe the campaign in his memoirs.
(25:57):
We marched hundreds of miles through difficult country,
mountains, deserts, places wherevehicles could not go.
Our knowledge of the land gave us advantage.
We could move at night without lights, find paths where
Europeans saw only wilderness. When we defeated the Italians at
Karen after fierce fighting, ourcommander said it was one of the
(26:19):
hardest won battles of the entire war, but few people know
of it today. Perhaps one of the least
recognized contributions came inthe Burma Campaign, modern
Myanmar where 10s of thousands of African soldiers fought
against Japanese forces and someof the most difficult fighting
conditions of the entire war. The 81st and 82nd West African
(26:41):
Divisions, known collectively asthe Royal West African Frontier
Force, RAAF, and the 11th East African Division, brought their
unique skills to the Far East. Their adaptation to tropical
conditions proved advantageous in the difficult terrain and
climate of Burma, where Europeantroops often suffered severely
from disease and environmental challenges.
(27:04):
The Burma Campaign represented one of the most grueling
theaters of World War 2, with dense jungle, monsoon rains,
tropical diseases, and a determined Japanese enemy.
African troops, particularly those from East and West Africa,
were deployed there in large numbers based on the colonial
assumption that they would be better able to withstand the
(27:25):
tropical conditions than European soldiers.
While there was some truth to their greater resistance to
certain tropical diseases, the campaign still extracted a
terrible toll on African units. Sergeant Emmanuel I Fujika, A
Nigerian who served with the Royal West African Frontier
Force in Burma, described the horrors of jungle warfare.
(27:47):
The jungle was a place of constant danger.
Japanese snipers tied themselvesin trees, waiting for days to
shoot unwary soldiers. Booby traps were everywhere.
The rain never seemed to stop during monsoon.
We lived in permanent wetness, with fungus growing on our skin
and equipment. Malaria, dysentery, dengue
(28:09):
fever. These killed more men than
Japanese bullets. At night, we could hear the
screams of wounded men being tortured by the Japanese.
Designed to break our morale, many of us believed we would
never see home again. Despite these unimaginable
hardships, African units performed admirably in Burma,
(28:30):
participating in key battles like Impol and Kohima that turn
the tide against Japanese forces.
Their contributions were acknowledged by field commanders
at the time, but have since faded from popular historical
accounts of the campaign, which tend to focus on British,
American and Indian troops, as Albert Kanuku recalled of his
(28:51):
service in Burma. In the trenches in Burma, we saw
Belgian officers fall to enemy bullets.
It was a real shock for us. This simple statement reveals
much about the expectations and experiences of African troops,
the surprise at seeing white officers vulnerable and mortal,
the shared danger that temporarily transcended racial
(29:12):
hierarchies, and the psychological impact of combat
Far from home. African soldiers also served in
the European theater, though their presence there has been
largely erased from popular representations of the war.
Troops from French colonies played a significant role in the
liberation of Italy. In France itself.
(29:33):
The French army that landed in province in August 1944 as part
of Operation Dragoon included large numbers of colonial troops
from North and West Africa. Despite fighting for the freedom
of their colonial masters, African soldiers faced
persistent discrimination and segregation throughout their
service. They were typically commanded by
(29:54):
European officers, paid less than white troops, housed in
inferior facilities and subjected to different
disciplinary standards. African veterans remember the
racial segregation they endured even as they fought alongside
Europeans. As Kanuka put it, we were like
slaves because it was Belgium that brought us into this war.
(30:16):
We could not say anything, another veteran, Daniel Miyuki,
observed poignantly. When the bombs began to fall,
white and black would die the same way.
This discrimination extended to every aspect of military life.
African troops received lower quality rations, often lacking
fresh meat, vegetables, or the luxury items that were standard
(30:40):
in European units. Their medical care was inferior,
with fewer doctors assigned to African units and less access to
advanced treatments or evacuation to proper hospitals
when wounded. Their equipment was often
substandard, outdated weapons, insufficient ammunition and
inadequate protective gear, Captain James Wilson, a British
(31:03):
medical officer who served with East African troops in Burma,
wrote with unusual candor in hisdiary.
The disparity in treatment between white and African
casualties is shameful. European wounded are prioritized
for evacuation regardless of theseverity of their injuries,
while African soldiers with lifethreatening wounds may wait days
(31:23):
for transport to a field hospital.
The ration of medical supplies allocated to African battalions
is roughly half that provided toequivalent British units.
I have raised this matter with headquarters repeatedly, only to
be told that this is policy and not subject to discussion.
Field Marshall William Slim's comment that all the African
(31:45):
soldiers needed was a handful ofrice and some Bush to crawl
under to sleep exemplifies the patronizing attitudes that
prevailed even when acknowledging their
contributions. Such views reflected deeply
ingrained colonial assumptions about the supposedly simpler
needs and lower expectations of African troops, assumptions that
justified their unequal treatment while simultaneously
(32:08):
praising their stoicism and endurance.
The end of the war did not bringequality or proper recognition
for African veterans. Most returned home to continue
discrimination and inadequate compensation for their service.
Many found that promises made during recruitment of pensions,
land grants, preference for government employment, or
(32:30):
educational opportunities were left unfulfilled or
significantly reduced from what had been offered until 2010.
African veterans received lower pensions than their French
counterparts. They were typically paid 3 times
less war pension than white comrades who had served in the
same theaters, held the same rank, and suffered the same
(32:52):
injuries. Many did not receive their war
gratuity payments upon returningto Africa, with various
administrative obstacles and bureaucratic delays preventing
the disbursement of funds that European veterans received
promptly. Abdul Samba, a Senegalese
veteran who fought in Italy and France, described the bitter
homecoming. When we returned, we were heroes
(33:15):
for a day. There was a parade, speeches by
colonial officials. Then we were forgotten.
The pensions promised never cameor were so small they barely
bought food for a week. Meanwhile, the French soldiers
who fought beside us received proper compensation and
recognition. We had risked their lives for
(33:37):
France. But France did not remember this
when the war was over. In one of the most shameful
episodes of the post war period,dozens of West African soldiers
protested against unequal pay and pensions at a demobilization
camp in Fyroy, Senegal in December 1944.
French forces responded with horrific violence, opening fire
(33:59):
on the unarmed veterans. The exact death toll of what
became known as the fiery massacre remains disputed.
Official French accounts initially acknowledged 35
deaths, but subsequent research and testimony from survivors
suggest the number may have beensignificantly higher,
potentially reaching into the hundreds.
(34:20):
This violent suppression epitomized the colonial powers
unwillingness to treat African soldiers equally even after they
had fought for the Allied cause.The massacre was then
systematically covered up, excluded from official
histories, and only in recent decades has it begun to receive
acknowledgement in France. Ibrahim Thioi, whose uncle was
(34:42):
among those killed at Phiroi, shared his family's perspective.
My uncle survived 4 years of warfighting the Germans in Europe,
only to be murdered by the French.
When he asked for the payment hewas owed.
The family received no compensation, no explanation.
For years we were not even permitted to speak of what
(35:02):
happened. This is how France repaid those
who had helped liberate it from Nazi occupation.
The absence of African soldiers from victory celebrations
further symbolize their erasure from the official narrative of
World War 2. The victory parade in Paris in
1945 celebrating the liberation of France initially excluded
(35:24):
colonial troops despite their crucial role in the campaign.
Only after protests from some French officers were a small
number of African representatives included a token
presence that failed to reflect their actual contribution to the
war effort, Amadouba, A Senegalese veteran who
participated in the liberation of Paris but was not selected
(35:46):
for the victory parade, recalled.
We were good enough to die for France, but not good enough to
March in their celebration. They wanted a white victory to
show the world that France had liberated itself, but without
the African soldiers, there might have been no liberation at
all. We were, as one of our songs
(36:06):
said, first to fight, last to berecognized.
Despite this official neglect, the participation of African
soldiers in World War Two had profound implications for the
future of the continent. For many African servicemen, the
war experience fundamentally changed their perspective on
colonial rule. Men who had traveled far from
(36:28):
their villages, seen different societies, fought alongside
Europeans as equals in battle, and in some cases received
education and technical trainingduring their service returned
home with expanded horizons and higher expectations.
The war experience challenged colonial narratives of European
superiority. As one veteran observed, seeing
(36:50):
a white soldier bleeding, screaming, and dying made them
realize that they were no different because we all bleed
red in the end. This realization undermine the
psychological foundations of colonial rule, which rested in
part on myths of European invincibility and natural
authority. Kofi Addo, a Ghanaian veteran
(37:11):
who served in Burma, expressed this transformation.
Before the war. We had been taught that the
white man was superior in every way, smarter, braver, more
civilized. Then we saw them break down
under the same pressures that weendured.
We saw them make mistakes that cost lives.
We saved their lives and they saved ours.
(37:34):
How could we return home and accept being treated as children
as less than full men? After that experience, many
veterans subsequently became keyfigures in independence
movements across Africa. Notable examples include Leopold
Cedar Sanger of Senegal, who served in the French army and
was captured by the Germans, later becoming the first
(37:56):
president of independent Senegal, and a renowned poet.
Huaori Bulmuddin of Algeria, whose experience with colonial
inequities during the war deepened his commitment to
Algerian independence, eventually became that country's
second president after a long and bloody struggle against
French rule. These military veterans brought
particular assets to the independence movements.
(38:19):
Organizational skills, leadership experience and
strategic thinking developed during their service.
Their global perspective and first hand knowledge of their
colonizers vulnerabilities made them effective leaders in the
struggle for independence. Having fought to liberate Europe
from fascist occupation, they returned determined to liberate
(38:40):
their own countries from colonial domination.
John Okello, Ugandan veteran wholater became involved in his
country's independence movement,drew explicit parallels.
During the war, we were told we were fighting for freedom, for
the right of nations to determine their own destiny
without foreign domination. Those words stayed with me.
(39:02):
If Belgium and France deserved freedom from German occupation,
why did Uganda not deserve freedom from British rule?
The principles were the same. The hypocrisy of the colonial
powers became impossible to ignore once you had seen the
world beyond your village. In recent decades, there have
been some attempts to acknowledge the contributions of
(39:23):
African soldiers to the Allied victory in World War Two, though
these efforts often feel too little, too late for the
veterans themselves, most of whom have now passed away.
In 2017, French President Francois Hollande gave
citizenship to 28 African veterans who fought for France
in World War 2 and other conflicts, stating that France
(39:46):
owed them a debt of blood. This symbolic gesture, while
welcome, addressed only a tiny fraction of the thousands of
surviving veterans who had been denied equal recognition for
decades. In 2020, France's Armed Forces
Ministry provided local authorities with a guide to 100
Africans who fought for France in World War 2 so that streets
(40:08):
and squares could be named afterthem.
This initiative aimed to increase the visibility of
African contributions in the physical landscape of French
cities and towns. Creating permanent reminders of
their service and sacrifice. During the 75th anniversary of
the allied landing in province, President Emmanuel Macron
expressed gratitude for African soldiers.
(40:30):
Thousands of people sacrificed themselves to defend a distant
land, an unknown land. A land they had until then never
trod. A land they have forever marked
with their blood. However, such recognition has
been inconsistent, as evidenced by Mccrone's 2025 comments
suggesting African leaders had forgotten to thank France for
(40:51):
its military intervention in theSahel region, which provoked
significant diplomatic tension and revealed persistent colonial
attitudes. Cultural efforts to commemorate
African World War 2 veterans have included documentaries like
The Shadow of the Forgotten, which sought to honor surviving
veterans and bring their storiesto wider attention.
(41:13):
These cultural initiatives help preserve the memories and
experiences of African World War2 veterans before they are lost
forever, creating records that future generations can access to
understand this overlooked aspect of the global conflict.
Academic historians have also played a crucial role in
documenting and analyzing the African experience of World War
(41:34):
2, challenging the Eurocentric narratives that have dominated
scholarship on the conflict. Researchers like Myron
Eckenberg, David Killingray, andGregory Mann have published
important studies that center African perspectives and
experiences, drawing on oral histories.
Colonial Archives and the testimony of veterans themselves
(41:55):
to construct a more complete picture of the war.
But these efforts, however valuable, cannot fully address
the historical injustice of how African soldiers were treated
during and after the war. For the few remaining veterans
now in their 90s or older, official recognition comes too
late to make a meaningful difference in lines shaped by
(42:17):
decades of neglect and discrimination.
And for those who died without ever receiving proper
acknowledgement or compensation,no posthumous honors can restore
what was denied them in life. The story of Africa's million
plus World War Two soldiers represents a significant gap in
our collective historical memory.
(42:37):
These men fought across multiplecontinents in a war not of their
making, often compelled to servecolonial powers that denied them
basic rights and equal treatment.
Their service accelerated the decline of colonialism and
contributed significantly to theglobal struggle against fascism.
Yet their contributions remain marginalized and popular
(42:58):
understanding of the war overshadowed by Eurocentric
narratives that center wide experiences and perspectives.
Emmanuel Yowa, one of the last surviving Togolese veterans who
served in North Africa and Italy, expressed this sense of
historical erasure in a 2018 interview.
We are disappearing 1 by 1, taking our stories with us.
(43:20):
When I watch films about the war, read books about the
battles I fought in, I rarely see faces that look like mine,
though we were there in thousands.
History has been written withoutus, but we were there, bleeding,
fighting, dying alongside all the others.
This is the truth I want the world to know before I join my
(43:40):
comrades who never returned. The continued marginalization of
African contributions to World War 2 reflects broader patterns
of historical erasure that must be addressed.
As the few remaining veterans reach their final years, there
is an urgent need to document their experiences and integrate
their stories into mainstream historical narratives about the
(44:02):
war. Acknowledging the forgotten
African armies of World War 2 isnot merely about historical
accuracy. It's about recognizing the
global nature of the conflict and honoring all those who
sacrificed for the Allied victory, regardless of their
origin or the color of their skin.
It's about understanding that World War 2 was truly a World
(44:23):
War, fought by men and women from every continent, whose
diverse experiences and perspectives are essential to
comprehending the full impact and meaning of this pivotal
historical event. This has been Steve Matthews for
WW2 stories. Until next time, remember that
history is most complete when itincludes all voices, not just
(44:45):
those with the power to ensure their stories are remembered.
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