WW1 Armistice Exhibition - Africa

From Armistice to Lausanne - Africa

• Several areas in Africa were active theatres of the war.
• The East African campaign was the longest anywhere in the world and involved large numbers of Africans as soldiers and porters.
• Many of the peoples of West Africa, from the Guinea Coast to Lake Chad, and south from the Sahara desert to the Atlantic Ocean, were also caught up in the war, particularly those recruited from the lower rungs of society, even in the remotest parts of the region. Many who seemed marginal members of society rose in influence after the war. They were responsible for the social transformations in the domains of entrepreneurship, evangelism, throughout West Africa.
• They brought new attitudes and their newly found prestige. Such roles played by African ex-soldiers as agents of social change have hitherto received insufficient attention from researchers.
• Recruitment in the British Gold Coast was guided by particular policies. Conscious efforts were made by the British Crown and local administrators to ensure that only members of designated ethnic groups and people with specialised skills were recruited into the colonial forces.
• Four categories of people were recruited for the military: slaves, traders, porters, and ordinary people who were lower in rung than the indigenous elites. Ethnically, the preference was for Hausa, Yoruba, Wangara, or from any of the “tribes” in Northern Ghana such as Grushi, Kanjarga (Bulsa), Dagomba, Gonja, Frafra, and Mossi.
• It was these soldiers who were partly responsible for social change in their respective territories after the war, through the foundation of new settlements, entrepreneurship, the introduction of New ideas And the spread of Christianity. On assuming the allied command in East Africa, General  SMUTS similarly authorised a massive recruitment effort throughout east and central Africa, with similar results.
• The East African campaign was the longest anywhere in the world and involved large numbers of Africans as soldiers and porters.
•  Many of the peoples of West Africa, from the Guinea Coast to Lake Chad, and south from the Sahara desert to the Atlantic Ocean, were also caught up in the war.Many who seemed marginal members of society rose in influence after the war. They were responsible for the social transformations in the domains of entrepreneurship, evangelism, throughout West Africa.
•  They brought new attitudes and their newly found prestige, and the ex-soldiers became significant agents for change

The following estimates of British Empire colonial military deaths, within contemporary borders, during World War I were made by a Russian journalist Vadim Erlikman in a 2004 handbook of human losses in the 20th century.

Erlikman's estimates are based on sources published in the Soviet Union.

Ghana (1914 known as the Gold Coast): 16,200
Kenya (1914 known as British East Africa): 32,000
Malawi (1914 known as Nyasaland): 3,000
Nigeria (1914 part of British West Africa): 85,000
Sierra Leone (1914 part of British West Africa): 1,000
Uganda (1914 known as the Uganda Protectorate): 1,500
Zambia (1914 known as Northern Rhodesia): 2,000
Zimbabwe (1914 known as Southern Rhodesia): 5,716 persons of European origin served in the war, 700 were killed, died of wounds or other causes. In Rhodesian units,127 were killed, 24 died of wounds, 101 died of disease or other causes and 294 were wounded. 31 Africans were killed in action, 142 died of other causes and 116 were wounded.

German colonies
The estimates of deaths, within contemporary borders, during World War I made by journalist Vadim Erlikman.

• Tanzania (1914 part of German East Africa): 50,000 (*mainly African, due British attacks)
• Namibia (1914 known as German South-West Africa): 1,000 (*mainly Germans)
• Cameroon (1914 known as Kamerun): 5,000 military and 50,000 (*Mainly African / Cameroon people, due French and British attacks)
• Togo (1914 known as German Togoland): 2,000 (mainly African, civilians, due French and British attacks) Germany had just 600 Togolese Police and about 30 German soldiers/officers stationed in Togo)
• Rwanda (1914 part of German East Africa) 15,000 (*Mainly African / civilians, fewer Germans, due French and British attacks)