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| Colonial Claims in Africa at the Time of the War |
By Dr. Anne Samson
Back in 2004, Ross Anderson’s The Forgotten Front: the East African Campaign 1914-1918 was published. Three years later, Edward Paice’s Tip and Run: the Untold Tragedy of the Great War in Africa hit the shelves, and in 2005 my own Britain, South Africa and the East Africa Campaign 1914-1918: The Union Comes of Age was published. All three drew heavily on primary source or archive material, there not being much else to work with other than such mainstream works like those by Brian Gardner, On to Kilimanjaro: the Bizarre Story of the First World War (1963), and Charles Miller, Battle for the Bundu: The First World War in East Africa (1974) with Hew Strachan’s The First World War in Africa (2004). (My book deals more with politics than the military and local conditions). In those days, a Yahoo search (before Google) returned about 20,000 hits on East Africa. Today a Google Search returns over 20,000 pages.
Since then and with the advent of the Great War centenary, many others have come to hear about the East Africa theater with the result that around five books telling the grand story have appeared in print. Of these, few have made use of archival sources, the result being simply that a rehash of events in the theater, some of fairly decent quality, others not.
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| British Soldiers with Native Bearers |
Alongside these "grand narratives," are more local studies—generally well researched as authors had to access primary material as little, if anything, had been published before. Here, specifically, Northern Rhodesia (Britain, Northern Rhodesia and the First World War: Forgotten Colonial Crisis, Edmund J. York, 2015 and Forged in the Great War: People, Transport and Labour, the Establishment of Colonial Rule in Zambia, 1890-1920, Jan-Bart Gewald, 2015), the Malawi (The Chiwaya war: Malawians and the First World War, Melvin E. Page, 2000), Tsavo (Guerrillas of Tsavo: an Illustrated Diary of a Forgotten Campaign in British East Africa 1914-1916, James Wilson, 2012) come to mind as does Michelle Moyd’s work on the German askari (Violent Intermediaries: African Soldiers, Conquest, and Everyday Colonialism in German East Africa, 2014).
In addition, many individual accounts, often privately published, have come to light as people looked to see what ‘dad’ or ‘granddad did in the war’. 17 Letters to Tatham: a WW1 surgeon in East Africa (Ann Crichton-Harris, 2002) began to shed light on the medical front, a case furthered by On Call in Africa in War and Peace 1910-1932 by Norman Parsons Jewell (2016). Julia and Anthony Seth-Smith published Donald's War: The diary of a settler in the East Africa Campaign in 2018, while Fiona Claire Capstick’s Between Two Fires—The African Saga of Margarete Trappe came out in 2012, both settler accounts, the first British East Africa, the second German East Africa.
More creatively, the number of novels on the war in Africa have risen exponentially, from 63 in 83 years (1916–1999) to 23 in fewer than 20 years (2005–2020). The most popular topics being Lake Tanganyika and the zeppelin and Wilbur Smith being the most prolific author. Of the total 86 known titles, only 12 do not touch on the war in East Africa.
It is therefore difficult to see how East Africa can still be regarded as a forgotten front as some recent authors have tended to do—even with books published in 2023. Rather than forgotten, there remain hidden aspects of the campaign, such as unit histories detailing the different experiences, accounts of the different home fronts. Eight countries were directly involved in the campaign and at least 275 different communities. Yet, we remain focused on the grand narrative with an infatuation for the German commander Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck—whose memoirs were the only German accounts translated until recently. Reliance on his work can only skew the narrative, as few English authors engage with the German texts, not to mention the Portuguese and Belgian.
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| German Schutztruppe with SMS Königsberg Gun |
There is much still to be discovered around the Great War in Africa—if researchers are wiling to get their hands dirty, so to speak, and into the archives. It’s painstakingly slow work but so rewarding. What do you know about:
• German South West Africa (Namibia) which fell to South African forces in July 1915?
• Togoland—the first German colony to fall to the allies, as early as the end of August 1914?
• German Cameroon—where the campaign ended in March 1916 with many German troops escaping into neighbouring Spanish territory?
• Egypt and the campaigns against the Senussi?
• The neutral countries which by all accounts supported Germany in Africa? Spain’s Fernando Po.
• The home fronts and West African countries?
More is coming to light about French West Africa’s role in Europe, but how much do we know of what they did in Africa? And Belgian Congo’s role in West Africa as well as East?
There are a few academics in Africa who have written about the war, yet their work has not made it into the wider market—with the result that the local experience is being lost, despite all the talk of equality and the value of diversity.
Having followed Roads to the Great War, almost since its inception, it’s been great to see Africa increase in mention, yet disappointing that so much of what it conveys is "more of the same." That no doubt is the fault of us researchers who for whatever reason do not share our obscure discoveries, causing others to think there is still little known about the East Africa campaign.
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| British Camp |
It is well known that the archives are difficult to access, not least because of costs. With this in mind, the Great War in Africa Association (GWAA) has started to publish primary source accounts such as the Lake Tanganyika Expedition 1914-1917: a Primary Source Chronology, Melvin E Page’s oral interviews of Malawian veterans from World Wars I and II (Chiwaya War Voices and Chiwaya War Echoes), with more to come in the near future including translations of German and Scandinavian works. The GWAA has a growing Bibliography of publications mentioning the war in Africa covering all theaters (over 2,000 titles) and a list of people known to have been involved in the war in and from Africa (British related including Portuguese, German and Belgian), as well as some books for sale not available through other retailers. (See GWAA link below.)
With a wider range of primary source material coming into the market and with digital access of war diaries by the UK National Archives (https://nationalarchives.gov.uk—search on Africa war diaries), it is hoped that more diverse accounts of the First World War in Africa will start to come to light. Keep your eye on the GWAA (https://gweaa.com) and Roads to the Great War.
Anne Samson (dr)
Co-ordinator Great War in Africa Association: https://gweaa.com
Independent historian: https://thesamsonsedhistorian.wordpress.com
South Africa WWI: https://southafricaww1.com
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