Africa and the First World War

Abstract

War is an exciting socio-political game. It can create and destroy nations and a people. From time immemorial, mankind has always engaged in warfares either as pastime or for clearly defined goals. These wars took many forms such as local wars, civil wars, intra-state wars or inter-state wars. In all these war scenarios, it was only in the 20th century that the world witnessed the phenomena of World Wars which occurred in all continents of the world. The First World War took place between 1914 and 1918 and the Second World War occurred between 1939 and 1945. To be sure, these two World Wars occurred as a result of stresses and strains in European diplomacy, but ultimately their reverberations were felt in almost all corners of the globe. Africa as a continent was caught in the web of European politics throughout the first half of the 20th century and on account of this state of affairs it became a direct participant in the two World Wars. As the world today marks one hundred years of the occurrence of the First World War and as statesmen and Veterans of wars all over the world celebrate the event, especially in Europe, there is need to appreciate the roles of Africa and Africans in that war. This article, therefore, examines the roles of Africa in the First World War. A major argument in the work is that Africa was of strategic significance to the war efforts and Africans played key roles in the victory of the allied forces and the defeat of the axis forces.