Historiography 1918-Today (Africa)

By Christian Koller

1914-1918 Online

Internal Encyclopedia of the First World War

This text is licensed under Creative Commmons Licence

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Table of Contents

- 1 Introduction

- 2 Africa as a ‘Sideshow’

- 3 Increasing Attention to the Global Aspects of the War

- 4 A New Narrative of a Global War?

- 5 Conclusion

- Notes

- Selected Bibliography

- Citation

Introduction

Africa’s role in World War I has traditionally been an issue (although for a long time a relatively minor one) in the historiography on both the First World War and the modern history of Africa (or more generally European colonialism). Recently it has also attracted the attention of scholars working in the fields of global history and transcultural studies. Topics focused on include warfare in Africa and its social, economic and ecological impact, recruitment of African soldiers and war workers and their deployment overseas, the role of African colonies in the imperialist powers’ war economies, and more generally the impact of World War I on colonialism in Africa and possible links to decolonisation four to five decades later. This article will outline the development from a general neglect of Africa in early historiography on World War I and treatment of the continent as a mere sideshow, to increasing attention to the war’s global dimensions beginning in the age of decolonisation, to recent attempts to integrate Africa’s role into a new narrative of a global war.

Africa as a ‘Sideshow’

Several ‘African’ aspects of the war had already been intensely discussed in Europe between 1914 and 1918, most prominently the use of hundreds of thousands of African troops on European battlefields by the French, the extension of warfare to Africa and the possible repartition of Africa by those European powers who would eventually win the war. The first post-1918 publications have to be seen in the same context, namely French attempts to justify their use of African troops in Europe (which continued with the occupation of the German Rhineland until 1930), and German agitation against the loss of their colonies, the "Kolonialraub" of Versailles. Early publications in the immediate post-war years included memoirs covering both fighting in East Africa[1] and African participation on European battlefields[2], in addition to plenty of mostly official and semi-official French books and articles about the colonies’ economic and military contributions.[3] Popular German histories of the fighting in Africa[4] were countered by British and French accounts mainly authored by senior military officials.[5]

During the 1930s and early 1940s publications would again discuss the deployment of African troops in Europe. Whereas heroization still dominated in France,[6] a critical article by the colonial officer and geographer Emmanuel de Martonne (1875–1955) questioned official casualty figures as far too low.[7] After the outbreak of World War II, some Nazi propaganda publications again reminded the German and international audience of the use of African troops and their alleged atrocities in the previous World War.[8] The later half of the 1930s also saw some more German publications on the fighting in Africa.[9]

Scholarly historiography in the interwar period paid little attention to Africa’s role in the First World War. In 1920, Scottish novelist, historian and politician John Buchan (1875–1940), who before the war had lived in South Africa and between 1914 and 1918 contributed to British propaganda working as correspondent in France for The Times, published a history of the (exclusively white) South African forces in France.[10] George Louis Beer (1872–1920), American historian, colonial advisor to the Wilson administration during World War I, participant at the Paris Peace Conference and afterwards a member of League of Nations Mandate Commission, dealt with the African questions at the peace negotiations in a 1923 publication.[11] Wolfgang Foerster (1875–1963), a senior staff member of the German Reichsarchiv, published numerous documents related to the African theatres of war in his 1931 source collection Kämpfer an vergessenen Fronten.[12] And in 1934, American political scientist Shelby Cullom Davis (1909–1994) completed a PhD thesis on the history of French West African troops at the Graduate Institute of International Studies in Geneva.[13]

On balance, Africa’s role in World War I until 1945 was much more a political than a historiographical topic. The ‘general’ historiography of the war - scholarly, military and popular - was very strongly euro-centric. Africa in these narratives was a sideshow, at best. In numerous writings on World War I the continent was neglected altogether.

Increasing Attention to the Global Aspects of the War

While the overall notion of Africa as a sideshow to World War I persisted in the first decades after 1945, increasingly more attention was paid to its role due to the ongoing process of decolonisation, which for many contemporaries, including historians, was traced back to the experience of the two World Wars. Swiss historian Rudolf von Albertini (1923-2004), who already in 1966 had published a voluminous study of decolonisation,[14] in a seminal 1969 article entitled The Impact of two World Wars on the Decline of Colonialism adopted a perspective of global history, arguing that decolonisation could not be seen as a mere by-product of the wars in Europe, but as an integral part of a structural change in world politics, characterised both by a transfer of power from Europe to the non-European world and a Europeanization or Westernization of this latter world.[15]

Africa’s role in World War I now attracted increasing attention from military and colonial historians as well as those in the fields of international history and the history of Africa. Contributions from military history (in a wider sense) first included many publications on the operations in the African theatres and on the history of individual colonial units.[16] The increasing influence of social history and the emergence of the "War and society" paradigm from the late 1960s on widened perspectives on social, political and economic aspects, including such topics as recruitment, war-related migration and the social and ethnic composition of African units.[17] International history contributed several studies of imperialist powers' war aims in Africa and on the colonial repartition in 1919.[18] 'General' histories of World War I, however, largely neglected the conflict's African aspects.

Colonial and African history, increasingly overlapping with military history and widening its perspectives, concentrated on topics such as the impact of World War I on individual societies and communities[19] as well as on Africans’ politicisation[20], anti-colonial resistance during the war,[21] and the role of returned veterans in post-war societies[22]. Senegalese historian and politician Abdoulaye Ly and Guinean historian Ibrahima Baba Kaké emphasized the use of Africans in European colonial units as a special type of imperialist exploitation.[23] The space dedicated to World War I in general histories of Africa or individual regions varied considerably. The French Germanist and historian Pierre Bertaux in his 384-page volume on Africa in Fischer’s German-language world history series in 1966 addressed World War I in a mere three pages,[24] whereas Kenneth Ingham’s 1962 History of East Africa had twenty-five pages on the years 1914 to 1918 and John Iliffe in his 1979 Modern History of Tanganyika dedicated a thirty-three-page chapter to the conflict.[25] Two classics of the early 70s nearly disregarded of World War I: The 1972 bestseller How Europe Underdeveloped Africa by the Guyanese Marxist historian and politician Walter Rodney dedicated only a few lines to the African theatres of war and mentioned the far too low figure of 25,000 ‘French’ Africans who lost their lives on European battlefields.[26] In the same year Burkinabé socialist politician and historian Joseph Ki-Zerbo in his Histoire de l’Afrique Noire covered African involvement in World War I in one single line and claimed that World War II brought many more Africans in contact with the wider world than its predecessor.[27] The seventh volume of the UNESCO General History of Africa (1985), on the other hand, contained a solid twenty-nine-page chapter on World War I by Michael Crowder. It summarized the war on African soil, the European exodus caused by the war, African involvement in the war, African challenges to European authority as well as the war’s economic and socio-political consequences, and elevated World War I to a “turning-point in African history”.[28]

The late 1960s, 70s and 80s also saw the publication of more comprehensive works on several aspects of Africa during World War I. Several scholars provided studies abundantly based on primary material that synthesized the war experience of French colonies and protectorates: Charles-Robert Ageron in 1968 for Algeria,[29] Maurice Gontard in 1969 for Madagascar,[30] Daniel Goldstein in 1978 for Tunisia,[31] Gilbert Meynier in 1981 again for Algeria[32] and Marc Michel in 1982 for French West Africa.[33] Combining political, social and military history, these books quickly became standard works for the regions covered. In 1981, Christopher M. Andrew and A. S. Kanya-Forstner published a synthesis of World War I, focusing in particular on events in the Middle East, as the climax of France’s colonial expansion.[34] In addition some parts of Africa under British control were covered by monographs, including Nigeria by Akinjide Osuntokun in 1979,[35] and South Africa by Albert Grundlingh in 1987.[36] Furthermore, the history of military units composed of Black Africans, including their deployment during World War I, was the subject of several publications.[37] Two seminal article collections, a special issue of the Journal of African History in 1978 (based on a 1977 conference at the School of Oriental and African Studies, London)[38] and a 1987 volume, edited by Melvin E. Page[39], provided outlines of the manifold topics and issues linked to Africa in World War I. Furthermore, a number of articles tried to summarize the war years either for the whole of Africa or for individual parts of it.[40]

A New Narrative of a Global War?

From the late 1980s onwards, historiography on Africa in the First World War was affected by several overlapping ‘turns’ and historiographical developments. The ‘cultural turn’ brought the study of history closer to disciplines such as cultural anthropology, linguistics, cultural and gender studies, rather than, as with previous social history, to social sciences and economics. The trend towards transnational and global history focused attention on transcultural exchange and intercontinental entanglements. And the ‘new military history’ took an open approach to the study of war and collective violence in the past, expanding the purview of military history to include social and cultural factors that help shape wars.

The cultural turn in the study of ‘African’ aspects of World War I resulted in an increased interest in war experiences ‘from below’, mutual perceptions of Africans and Europeans, the role of gender, and memorial cultures emerging from the war experience. A good example for both the interest in war experiences from below and memorialisation of the war is Joe Harris Lunn’s Memoirs of the Maelstrom (1999), an oral history based on interviews with eighty-five Senegalese World War I veterans conducted in 1982-83, which represented about half of the veterans still living at that time.[41] Other studies covered different African communities’ varying war experiences both in Africa and overseas.[42]

The study of European perceptions of African soldiers, which had hitherto concentrated on the "Black Horror" campaign against the use of French colonial troops in the post-war occupation of the Rhineland,[43] was boosted by the seminal interdisciplinary volume Tirailleurs sénégalais, edited by the two German scholars of French literature, Jànos Riesz and Joachim Schultz in 1989.[44] The 2001 monograph "Von Wilden aller Rassen niedergemetzelt" by Swiss historian Christian Koller for the first time analysed European and North American perceptions of African and Asian colonial soldiers deployed in Europe from a strictly comparative perspective, arguing that under the surface of propagandistic antagonism common racist preconceptions can be observed on both sides of the Western front.[45] Several more studies concentrated on German perceptions of African soldiers individually and in the French colonial armies and French racial preconceptions about their own African soldiers as well as public representations.[46]

The study of gender aspects also largely focussed on the use of African soldiers in Europe and their perceptions by Europeans.[47] Whereas World War I’s impact on gender in African societies has only partly been discussed in more comprehensive works, it has not been systematically analysed as an overall research focus.[48] The study of memorial cultures includes work on the collective memory of the war and Spanish influenza in different African societies,[49] on African and European autobiographical writing,[50] on official commemorations and the use of monuments in colonial and postcolonial West Africa,[51] and on representations of African soldiers in both French literature and popular culture.[52]

Imperial and colonial warfare as a topic at the intersection of "new military history", global history and imperial and colonial history has attracted increased attention in recent years and resulted in a range of new studies on the African theatres of war. This is especially true for the East African campaigns, emphasizing, for instance, the peculiarities of transcultural warfare (most notably in Tanja Bührer’s 2011 book).[53] Several studies analysed the personality and the myth of General Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck (1870–1964), commander of the German troops in East Africa.[54] At the same time, a number of French books continued to celebrate the heroism of African troops in both World Wars,[55] several studies recounted the overseas experience of South African troops,[56] and Mohammed Bekraoui’s 2009 book provided an overview on Moroccan participation in World War I.[57] The most comprehensive syntheses in this field of research are Hew Strachan’s First World War in Africa (2004) that covers all African theatres of war,[58] and Jacques Frémaux’s Les colonies dans la Grande Guerre (2006) that covers all French colonies.[59]

In a programmatic article in the very first issue of the new journal First World War Studies in 2010, Hew Strachan has characterised World War I as a “global war”.[60] But how strongly has this view materialised in a new narrative that no longer sees World War I as a European conflict with some overseas dimensions, but as an event to be studied from the perspective and through the methods of global history? And how has this new view affected the historiographical coverage of Africa’s role? Several recent volumes have emphasized the war’s global character and the manifold transcultural processes it triggered, prominently involving Africa.[61] Contributions to these volumes, however, overwhelmingly stem from a small (though expanding) group of specialists in the field, mostly historians of Africa and Asia.

Yet, what of 'general' histories of World War I? While many of them still strongly focus on Europe, a number of edited volumes published during the last two decades at least include individual contributions an African and other extra-European aspects.[62] The seminal encyclopaedia of the First World War edited by Gerhard Hirschfeld, Gerd Krumeich and Irina Renz, published in German in 2003 and in English in 2012, includes entries on ‘African’ topics such as colonial warfare, colonial troops in Europe, South Africa, German South West Africa, German East Africa, North Africa, and Lettow-Vorbeck as well as an introductory article on the war’s global aspects. Yet the latter is located amongst articles on the course of the war, whilst the articles on systematic aspects (such as economy, women, etc.) and individual countries solely concentrate on Europe.[63] Also monographs and textbooks, as a few examples show, display an ambivalent picture. Niall Ferguson in his 1998 bestseller The Pity of War discussed imperialism and colonial expansion in his pre-1914 chapter, but completely left out Africa’s and Asia’s role in the war itself and the war’s impact on colonial societies and European dominance in Africa and Asia.[64] On the other hand, Leonard V. Smith, Stéphane Audoin-Rouzeau and Annette Becker in their 2003 book France and the Great War 1914–1918 (which exclusively deals with events in metropolitan France) cover the presence and perceptions of African troops relatively well.[65] Lawrence Sondhaus in his 2011 textbook World War One. The Global Revolution dedicates at least eleven of total 544 pages to ‘African’ aspects.[66] Furthermore, the last ten years saw the publication of several syntheses attempting to reconsider World War I from the perspective of global history.[67]

On balance, research on Africa’s role in the First World War has rapidly expanded during the last three to four decades both quantitatively and methodologically. Building on this research and profiting from the recent boom in global history, steps towards a new narrative of the War have been undertaken. Nonetheless, there is still a long way to go.

Conclusion

Historiography on Africa in the First World War, having emerged from political debates during the war and immediately afterwards, has massively developed in the second half of the 20th and the beginning of the 21st century, following the methodological tendencies and innovations that shaped the study of history in general during these five or six decades. While much has been achieved, there are still some blind spots and desiderata. Furthermore, it is striking that most syntheses and many detailed studies are still done by European and North American historians, whereas the perspective of African scholars is still underrepresented – a fact that seems to reflect persisting general asymmetries regarding the possibilities of historical research in Europe, North America and large parts of Africa. Stronger emphasis on African scholarship as well as the currently increasing, but still insufficient integration of Africa into a general narrative of World War I as a global conflict will be important tasks for the years to come.

Christian Koller, Universität Zürich

Section Editors : Melvin E. Page; Richard Fogarty

Notes

1. ↑ Deppe, Ludwig: Mit Lettow-Vorbeck durch Afrika, Berlin 1919; Lettow-Vorbeck, Paul von: Meine Erinnerungen aus Ostafrika, Leipzig 1920; idem: Heia Safari! Deutschlands Kampf in Ostafrika, Leipzig 1920.

2. ↑ Gaillet, Léon: Deux ans avec les Sénégalais, Paris 1918; Cousturier, Lucie: Des Inconnus chez moi. Tirailleurs Sénégalais, Paris 1920; Diallo, Bakary: Force-Bonté, Paris 1926.

3. ↑ Bocquet, Léon/Hosten Ernest: Un fragment de l'Epopée sénégalaise. Les tirailleurs noirs sur l'Yser, Brussels et al. 1918; Lapradelle, Albert Geouffre de: Les troupes de couleur à la guerre, Paris 1918; Mercier, Gustave: Les Indigènes Nord-Africains et la Guerre, in: Revue de Paris 25 (1918), pp. 203-222; Besson, Maurice/Perreau-Pradier, Pierre: L'Afrique du Nord et la Guerre, Paris 1918; Besson, Maurice/Perreau-Pradier, Pierre: L'Effort Colonial des Alliés, Nancy et al. 1919; Larchain, Michel: Tirailleurs Sénégalais. Leur valeur – Leur entraînement – Leur emploi, in: Revue indigène 14 (1919), pp. 27-32; D., R.: Les Troupes Coloniales à l'Honneur, in: La Revue Indigène 14 (1919), pp. 35-42; Séché, Alphonse: Les Noirs. D'après des documents officials, Paris 1919; Garbit, H.: L'effort de Madagascar pendant la guerre au point de vue financier, économique et militaire: Européens et indigenes, Paris 1919; Guignard, Alfred: Les troupes noires pendant la guerre, in: Revue des Deux Mondes 89 (1919), pp. 849-879; Basquel, Victor: Coloniaux en avant! C'est pour la France, Paris 1920; Bosiboissel, Yves Marie Jacques Guillaume de: Peaux noires, Cœurs blancs. Sous les couleurs de France et le fanion de Mangin, Paris 1921; Basquel, Victor: Le livre d'or de l'effort colonial français pendant la Grande Guerre (1914–1918), 2 vols., Paris 1922; Laboure, Georges: Un monument aux troupes noires, in: Revue indigène 17 (1922), pp. 249-254; Dutreb, Maurice: Nos Sénégalais pendant la guerre, Metz 1922; Section technique des troupes colonials (ed.): Histoire des troupes coloniales pendant la guerre 1914–18, Paris 1923; Sonolet, Louis: Soldats de la France lointaine, Paris 1923; Bernard, Augustin: L'Afrique du Nord pendant la guerre, Paris 1926; Nogaro, Bertrand/Weil, Lucien: La main-d'œuvre étrangère et coloniale pendant la guerre, Paris 1926; Varet, Pierre: Du concours apporté à la France par ses Colonies et Pays de Protectorat au cours de la Guerre de 1914, Paris 1927.

4. ↑ See for example Hennig, Richard: Deutsch-Südwest im Weltkriege, Berlin 1920; Schreckenbach, Paul: Die deutschen Kolonien vom Anfang des Krieges bis Ende des Jahres 1917, in: idem: Der Weltbrand. Illustrierte Geschichte aus grosser Zeit, vol. 3, Leipzig 1920, pp. 864-876.

5. ↑ Buhrer, Jules: L'Afrique orientale allemande et la guerre de 1914–1918, Paris 1922; Gorges, E. Howard: The Great War in West Africa, London 1923; Moberly, Frederick James: Military operations. Togoland and the Cameroons, 1914–1916, London 1931; Charbonneau, Jean: La grande guerre sous l’équateur. Quelques enseignements de la Campagne du Cameroun, in: Revue militaire française 102 (1932), pp. 397-420; Aymérich, Joseph Gauderique: La Conquête du Cameroun. 1er août 1914 – 20 février 1916, Paris 1933.

6. ↑ Charbonneau, Jean et al. (ed.): Les troupes coloniales pendant la Guerre 1914–1918, Paris 1931; Mennerat, M.: Tunisiens héroïques au service de la France. L'épopée du 4e Tirailleurs sur le Front Français, Guerre 1914–1918, Paris 1939.

7. ↑ Martonne, Edouard de: La Vérité sur les Tirailleurs Sénégalais, in: Outre-Mer 7 (1935), pp. 27-45.

8. ↑ Dammert, Rudolf: Der Verrat an Europa. Die Greueltaten der farbigen Truppen Frankreichs im Weltkrieg, Stuttgart et al. 1940; Mangold, Ewald Karl Benno. Schwarze vor die Front! Berlin 1940.

9. ↑ Mentzel, Heinrich: Die Kämpfe in Kamerun 1914–1916. Vorbereitung und Verlauf, Berlin 1936; Student, Erich: Kameruns Kampf 1914/16, Berlin 1937.

10. ↑ Buchan, John: The history of the South African forces in France, London 1920.

11. ↑ Beer, George Louis: African Questions at the Paris Peace Conference, New York 1923.

12. ↑ Foerster, Wolfgang (ed.): Kämpfer an vergessenen Fronten. Feldzugsbriefe, Kriegstagebücher und Berichte. Kolonialkrieg, Seekrieg, Luftkrieg, Spionage, Berlin 1931.

13. ↑ Davis, Shelby Cullom: Reservoirs of Men. A History of the Black Troops of French West Africa, Geneva 1934.

14. ↑ Albertini, Rudolf von: Dekolonisation. Die Diskussion über Verwaltung und Zukunft der Kolonien 1919–1960, Cologne at al. 1966.

15. ↑ Albertini, Rudolf von: The Impact of two World Wars on the Decline of Colonialism, in: Journal of Contemporary History 4 (1969), pp. 17-35.

16. ↑ See, for example, Niessel, A.: Les troupes marocaines de l'armée française, in: Revue internationale d'histoire militaire 8 (1950), pp. 179-189; Boell, Ludwig: Die Operationen in Ost-Afrika. Weltkrieg 1914–1918, Hamburg 1951; Brelsford, W.V. (ed.): The Story of the Northern Rhodesia Regiment, Lusaka 1954; Schulz, Johannes: Heia Safari. Lettow-Vorbecks Schutztruppe kämpft in Ostafrika, Munich 1958; Davenport, T.R.H.: The South African Rebellion, 1914, in: English Historical Review 78 (1963), pp. 73-94; Mosley, Leonard: Duel for Kilimanjaro. An Account of the East African Campaign, 1914–1918, New York 1964; Grove, Eric J.: The first shots of the Great War: The Anglo-French conquest of Togo, 1914, in: The Army Quarterly and Defence Journal 106 (1976), pp. 308-323; Devantour, Paul/Pradel de Lamaze, Jean de: L'Armée d'Afrique dans la guerre 1914-1918 et les campagnes d'après-guerre (1918–1939), in: Huré, Robert (ed.): L'Armée d'Afrique 1830–1962, Paris 1977, pp. 263-319; Miller, Charles: Battle for the Bundu. The First World War in East Africa, London 1974; Hoyt, Edwin Palmer: Guerilla. Colonel von Lettow-Vorbeck and Germany’s East African Empire, New York 1981; Stephenson, William: Der Löwe von Afrika. Der legendäre General Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck und sein Kampf um Ostafrika, Munich 1984; Farwell, Byron: The Great War in Africa, 1914–1918, New York et al. 1986; Hodges, Geoffrey: The Carrier Corps. Military labor in the East African campaign, 1914–1918, New York et al. 1986.

17. ↑ See, for example, Munro, J. Forbes/Savage, Donald C.: Carrier Corps Recruitment in the British East Africa Protectorate 1914–1918, in: Journal of African History 7 (1966), pp. 313-342; Crowder, Michael: Blaise Diagne and the Recruitment of African Troops for the 1914–1918 War, in: Colonial West Africa. Collected Essays, London 1978, pp. 104-121; Thomas, Roger: Military Recruitment in the Gold Coast during the First World War, in: Cahiers d'Etudes Africaines 15 (1975), pp. 57-83; D'Almeida-Topor, Hélène: Les populations dahoméens et le recrutement militaire pendant le première guerre mondiale, in: Revue française d'histoire d'outre-mer 60 (1973), pp. 196-241; Johnson, R.W./Summes, Anne: World War I. Conscription und social change in Guinea, in: Journal of African History 19 (1978), pp. 25-38; Clarke, Peter Bentley: West Africans at war, 1914–18/1939–45. Colonial propaganda and its cultural aftermath, London 1986; Barret, John: The rank and file of the Colonial Army in Nigeria, 1914–18, in: Journal of Modern African Studies 15 (1977), pp. 105-115; Killingray, David/Matthews, James: Beasts of burden. British West African carriers in the First World War, in: Canadian Journal of African Studies 13 (1979), pp. 5-23; Hoges, Geoffrey W.T.: The Carrier Corps. Military Labour in the East African Campaign of 1914 to 1918, Westport 1986.

18. ↑ Louis, William Roger: Great Britain and the African Peace Settlement of 1919, in: American Historical Review 71 (1966), pp. 875-892; Kaspi, André: French War Aims in Africa 1914–1919, in: Louis, William Roger/Gifford Prosser (ed.): France and Britain in Africa. Imperial Rivalry and Colonial Rule, New Haven et al. 1971, pp. 369-396; Digre, Brian: Imperialism's new clothes. The repartition of tropical Africa, 1914–1919, New York 1990.

19. ↑ See, for example, Hatton, P.H.: The Gambia, the Colonial Office and the opening months of the First World War, in: Journal of African History 7 (1966), pp. 123-131; Killingray, David: Repercussions of World War I in the Gold Coast, in: Journal of African History 19 (1978), pp. 39-59; Page, Melvin E.: The Great War and Chewa Society in Malawi, in: Journal of Southern African Studies 6 (1979), pp. 171-182.

20. ↑ See, for example, Johnson, Wesley G.: The emergence of black politics in Senegal. The struggle for power in the four communes, 1900–1920, Stanford 1971; Heine, Peter: Sâlih ash-Shârif at-Tûnisî. A North African Nationalist in Berlin during the First World War, in: Revue de l'Occident Musulman et de la Méditerranée 33 (1982/83), pp. 89-95; Esoavelomandroso, F. V.: La Grande Guerre vue d'outre-mer. Patriotisme français et patriotisme malgache, in: Revue française d'histoire d'outre-mer 73 (1986), pp. 129-141.

21. ↑ See, for example, Garcia, Luc: Les mouvements de resistance au Dahomey (1914–1917), in: Cahiers d'Etudes Africaines 10 (1970), pp. 144-178; Gnankambary, Blamy: La révolte bobo de 1916 dans le cercle du Dedougou, in: Notes et Documents voltaïques 3 (1970), 56-87; Hébert, Jean: Révoltes en Haute Volta de 1914 à 1918, in: Notes et Documents voltaïques 3 (1970), pp. 3-54.

22. ↑ See, e. g., Matthews, James K.: Clock Towers for the Colonized. Demobilization of the Nigerian Military and the Re-Adjustment of its Veterans to Civilian Life, 1919–1925, in: International Journal of African Studies 14 (1981), pp. 254-271, idem: World War I and the rise of African nationalism. Nigerian veterans as catalysts of change, in: Journal of Modern African Studies 20 (1982), pp. 493-502.

23. ↑ Ly, Abdoulaye: Mercenaires noires. Notes sur une forme de l'exploitation des Africains, Paris 1957; Kaké, Ibrahima Baba: Mémoire de l'Afrique, vol. 1. Les Légions noires, Paris 1976.

24. ↑ Bertaux, Pierre: Afrika. Von der Vorgeschichte bis zu den Staaten der Gegenwart, Frankfurt 1966, pp. 251-253.

25. ↑ Ingham, Kenneth: A History of East Africa, London 1962, pp. 245-269; Iliffe, John: A Modern History of Tanganyika, Cambridge 1979, pp. 240-272.

26. ↑ Rodney, Walter: How Europe Underdeveloped Africa, Cape Town et al. 2012, p. 187.

27. ↑ Ki-Zerbo, Joseph: Histoire de l’Afrique Noire. D’Hier à Demain, Paris 1972, p. 470.

28. ↑ Crowder, Michael: The First World War and its consequences, in: Boahen, A. Adu (ed.): General History of Africa, vol. VII. Africa under Colonial Domination 1880–1935, Paris at al. 1985, p. 309.

29. ↑ Ageron, Charles-Robert: Les Algériens musulmans et la France, 1871–1919, 2 vols., Paris 1968.

30. ↑ Gontard, Maurice: Madagascar pendant la Première Guerre Mondiale, Tananarive 1969.

31. ↑ Goldstein, Daniel: Libération ou annexion aux chemins croisés de l'histoire tunisienne (1914–1922), Tunis 1978.

32. ↑ Meynier, Gilbert: L'Algérie révélée. La guerre de 1914–1918 et le premier quart du XXe siècle, Geneva 1981.

33. ↑ Michel, Marc: L'appel à l'Afrique. Contributions et réactions à l'effort de guerre en A.O.F., Paris 1982.

34. ↑ Andrew, Christopher M./Kanya-Forstner, A.S.: France Overseas. The Great War and the climax of French expansion, London 1981.

35. ↑ Osuntokun, Akinjide: Nigeria in the First World War, London 1979.

36. ↑ Grundlingh, Albert: Fighting their own war. South African Blacks and the First World War, Johannesburg 1987.

37. ↑ Balesi, Charles John: From Adversaries to Comrades-in-Arms. West Africans and the French Military, 1885–1918, Waltham 1979; Clayton, Anthony: France, Soldiers and Africa, London et al. 1988; Echenberg, Myron Joël: Colonial conscripts. The Tirailleurs Sénégalais in French West Africa, 1857–1960, Portsmouth 1991; Willan, B.P.: The South African Native Labour Contingent 1916–1918, in: Journal of African History 19 (1978), pp. 61-86.

38. ↑ Journal of African History 19/1 (1978).

39. ↑ Page, Melvin E. (ed.): Africa and the First World War, London 1987.

40. ↑ Rathbone, R.: World War I and Africa. Introduction, in: Journal of African History 19 (1978), pp. 1-9; Andrew, Christopher M./Kanya-Forstner A. S.: France, Africa und the First World War, in: Journal of African History 19 (1978), pp. 11-23; Crowder, Michael: West Africa and the 1914–1918 War, in: Bulletin de l'Institut Fondamental de l'Afrique Noire 30 (1968), pp. 226-245; idem: The 1914–1918 European War and West Africa, in: idem/Ade Ajayi, Jacob Festus (eds..): History of West Africa, vol. 2, London 1974, pp. 484-513; Hargreaves, John: French West Africa in the First World War, in: Journal of African History 24 (1983), pp. 285-288; Garson, N.G.: South Africa and World War I, in: Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History 8 (1979), pp. 68-85; Katzenellenbogen, S. E.: Southern Africa and the War of 1914–1918, in: Foot, M.R.D. (ed.): War and Society. Historical essays in honour and memory of J.R. Western 1928–1971, London 1973, pp. 107-121.

41. ↑ Lunn, Joe Harris: Memoirs of the Maelstrom. A Senegalese Oral History of the First World War, Portsmouth et al. 1999.

42. ↑ See, for example, Page, Melvin E.: The Chiwaya War. Malawians and the First World War, Boulder 2000; Fogarty, Richard S.: Race and War in France. Colonial Subjects in the French Army, 1914–1918, Baltimore 2008; Winegard, Timothy C.: Indigenous Peoples of the British Dominions and the First World War, Cambridge 2012; Höpp, Gerhard: Die Privilegien der Verlierer. Über Status und Schicksal muslimischer Kriegsgefangener und Deserteure in Deutschland während des Ersten Weltkrieges und in der Zwischenweltkriegszeit, in: idem (ed.): Fremde Erfahrungen. Asiaten und Afrikaner in Deutschland, Österreich und in der Schweiz bis 1945, Berlin 1996, pp. 185-210.

43. ↑ See Reinders, Robert C.: Racialism on the Left. E. D. Morel and the “Black Horror on the Rhine”, in: International Review of Social History 13 (1968), pp. 1-28; Nelson, Keith S.: Black Horror on the Rhine. Race as a factor in post-World War I diplomacy, in: Journal of Modern History 42 (1970), pp. 606-627; Marks, Sally: Black Watch on the Rhine. A study in propaganda, prejudice and prurience, in: European Studies Review 13 (1983), pp. 297-333; Lebzelter, Gisela: Die “Schwarze Schmach”. Vorurteile – Propaganda – Mythos, in: Geschichte und Gesellschaft 11 (1985), pp. 37-58.

44. ↑ Riesz, Jànos/Schultz, Joachim (eds.): "Tirailleurs sénégalais". Zur bildlichen und literarischen Darstellung afrikanischer Soldaten im Dienste Frankreichs, Frankfurt et al. 1989.

45. ↑ Koller, Christian: "Von Wilden aller Rassen niedergemetzelt". Die Diskussion über die Verwendung von Kolonialtruppen in Europa zwischen Rassismus, Kolonial- und Militärpolitik (1914–1930), Stuttgart 2001.

46. ↑ Le Naour, Jean-Yves: La honte noire. L'Allemagne et les troupes coloniales françaises, 1914–1945, Paris 2003; Wigger, Iris: Die “Schwarze Schmach am Rhein”. Rassistische Diskriminierung zwischen Geschlecht, Klasse, Nation und Rasse, Münster 2006; Kettlitz, Eberhardt: Afrikanische Soldaten aus deutscher Sicht seit 1871. Stereotype, Vorurteile, Feindbilder und Rassismus, Frankfurt at al. 2007; Michels, Stefanie: Schwarze deutsche Kolonialsoldaten. Mehrdeutige Repräsentationsräume und früher Kosmopolitismus, Bielefeld 2009; Martin, Peter: Die Kampagne gegen die "Schwarze Schmach" als Ausdruck konservativer Visionen vom Untergang des Abendlandes, in: Höpp, Gerhard (ed.): Fremde Erfahrungen. Asiaten und Afrikaner in Deutschland, Österreich und in der Schweiz bis 1945, Berlin 1996, pp. 211-224; Martin, Gregory: German and French Perceptions of the French North and West African contingents, 1910–1918, in: Militärgeschichtliche Mitteilungen 56 (1997), pp. 31-68; Campt, Tina et al.: Germans, and the Politics of Imperial Imagination, 1920–1960, in: Friedrichsmeyer, Sara et al. (eds.): The Imperialist Imagination. German Colonialism and Its Legacy, Ann Arbor 1998, pp. 205-229; Lunn, Joe Harris: "Les Races Guerrières". Racial Preconceptions in the French military about West African Soldiers during the First World War, in: Journal of Contemporary History 34 (1999), pp. 517-536; Bancel, Nicolas/Blanchard Paul: Sauvage ou assimilé? Quelques réflexions sur les représentations du corps des tirailleurs sénégalais (1880–1918), in: Africultures 8/25 (2000), pp. 36-42; Nagl, Tobias: “Die Wacht am Rhein”. “Rasse” und Rassismus in der Filmpropaganda gegen die “schwarze Schmach” (1921–1923), in: Hertzfeld, Hella/Schäfgen, Katrin (eds.): Kultur, Macht, Politik. Perspektiven einer kritischen Wissenschaft, Berlin 2004, pp. 135-154; Zehfus, Nicole: From Stereotype to Individual. World War I Experiences with Tirailleurs Sénégalais, in: French Colonial History 6 (2005), pp. 137-157; Roos, Julia: Women’s Rights, Nationalist Anxieties, and the “Moral” Agenda in the Early Weimar Republic. Revisiting the “Black Horror” Campaign against France’s African Occupation Troops, in: Central European History 42 (2009), pp. 473-508; Collar, Peter George: German Propaganda against the French Occupation of the Rhineland 1919–1924. Agencies, Personalities and Themes, PhD dissertation, University of London 2011; Van Galen Last, Dick: De Zwarte Schande. Afrikaanse Soldaten en Europa, 1914–1922, Amsterdam 2012.

47. ↑ See Mass, Sandra: Weisse Helden, schwarze Krieger. Zur Geschichte kolonialer Männlichkeit in Deutschland, 1918–1964, Cologne 2006; eadem: Das Trauma des weissen Mannes. Afrikanische Kolonialsoldaten in propagandistischen Texten, 1914–1923, in: L'Homme 12/1 (2001), pp. 11-33; Melzer, Annabelle: Spectacles and Sexualities. The "Mise-en-Scène" of the "Tirailleur Sénégalais" on the Western Front, 1914–1920, in: Melman, Billie (ed.): Borderlines. Genders and Identities in War and Peace, 1870–1930, New York et al. 1998, pp. 213-244; Koller, Christian: Enemy Images. Race and Gender Stereotypes in the Discussion on Colonial Troops – A Franco-German Comparison, 1914–1923, in: Hagemann, Karen/Schüler-Springorum, Stefanie (eds.): Home/Front. The Military, War and Gender in Twentieth-Century Germany, Oxford et al. 2002, pp. 139-157; Levine, Philippa: Battle Colors. Race, Sex, and Colonial Soldiery in World War I, in: Journal of Women's History 9/4 (1998), pp. 104-130; Riesz, Jànos: Les femmes des "Tirailleurs Sénégalais". Histoire et histoires, in: Antoine, Régis (ed.): Carrefour de Cultures. Mélanges offerts à Jacqueline Leiner, Tübingen 1993, pp. 385-402.

48. ↑ See, Zimmerman, Sarah: Living Beyond Boundaries. West African Servicemen in French Colonial Conflicts, 1908–1962, PhD Dissertation, University of California, Berkeley, 2011; idem: Mesdames Tirailleurs and Indirect Clients. West African Women and the French Colonial Army, 1908–1918, in: International Journal of African Historical Studies 44/2 (2011), pp. 299-324.

49. ↑ Lunn: Memoirs; Page, Melvin E.: The Great War in Malawian Memory, in: Centennial Review 21 (1977), pp. 321-332; Maghraoui, Driss: Moroccan Colonial troops. History, Memory and the Culture of French Colonialism, PhD dissertation, University of California, Santa Cruz 2000; Mann, Gregory: Native Sons: West African Veterans and France in the Twentieth Century, Durham 2006; Echenberg, Myron: 'The dog that did not bark'. Memory and the 1918 influenza epidemic in Senegal, in: Phillips, Howard/Killingray, David (eds.): The Spanish influenza pandemic of 1918–19. New perspectives, London 2003, pp. 230-238.

50. ↑ Riesz, Jànos: The Tirailleur Sénégalais Who Did Not Want to Be a "Grand Enfant". Bakary Diallo's Force Bonté (1926) Reconsidered, in: Research in African Literatures 27 (1996), pp. 157-197; idem: Die Probe aufs Exempel. Eine afrikanische Autobiographie als Zivilisations-Experiment, in: Willems, Herbert/Hahn, Alois (eds.): Identität und Moderne, Frankfurt 1999, pp. 433-454; Koller, Christian: Representing Otherness. African, Indian, and European soldiers’ letters and memoirs, in: Das, Santanu (ed.): Race, Empire and First World War Writing, Cambridge 2011, pp. 127-142; idem: Wartime Europe as seen by others – Indian and African soldiers in Europe in WW1, in: Pinheiro, Teresa et al. (eds.): Ideas of / for Europe. An Interdisciplinary Approach to European Identity, Frankfurt/M 2012, pp. 516-528.

51. ↑ Michel, Marc: "Mémoire officielle", discours et pratique coloniale. Le 14 Juillet et le 11 Novembre au Sénégal entre les deux guerres, in: Revue française d'histoire d'outre-mer 77 (1990), pp. 145-158; Reinwald, Brigitte: Recycling the Empire’s Unknown Soldier. Contested Memories of French West African Colonial Combatants’ War Experience, in: Sengupta, Indra (ed.): Memory, History, and Colonialism. Engaging with Pierre Nora in Colonial and Postcolonial Contexts, London 2009, pp. 37-70.

52. ↑ Riesz, Jànos: Die Heimkehr des Helden. Zur Gestalt des "Tirailleur Sénégalais" in der französischen Kriegs- und Kolonialliteratur nach dem Ersten Weltkrieg (1919–1939), in: Kohl, Karl-Heinz et al. (eds.): Die Vielfalt der Kultur. Ethnologische Aspekte von Verwandtschaft, Kunst und Weltauffassung. Ernest Wilhelm Müller zum 65. Geburtstag. Berlin 1990, pp. 441-454; Roger, Claudine: Il était un fois... Banania, in: Négripub. L'image des noirs dans la publicité depuis un siècle, Paris 1987, pp. 144-157; Chalaye, Sylvie: La mascotte Y-a-bon à l'affiche. Invention coloniale, propagande militaire et récuperation publicitaire, in: Africultures 8/25 (2000), pp. 50-57.

53. ↑ Krech, Hans: Die Kampfhandlungen in den ehemaligen deutschen Kolonien in Afrika während des 1. Weltkrieges (1914–1918), Berlin 1999; Abbott, Peter: Armies in East Africa 1914–1918, Oxford 2002; Anderson, Ross: The forgotten front. The East African campaign, 1914–1918, Stroud 2004; Stapleton, Tim: The Rhodesia Native Regiment and the East Africa Campaign of the First World War, Waterloo 2005; Samson, Anne: Britain, South Africa and the East Africa campaign, 1914–1918. The Union comes of age, London 2006; eadem: World War I in Africa: The Forgotten Conflict Among the European Powers, London/New York 2012; Nuhn, Walter: Auf verlorenem Posten. Deutsch-Südwestafrika im Ersten Weltkrieg, Bonn 2006; Paice, Edward: Tip and run. The untold tragedy of the Great War in Africa, London 2007; Michels, Stefanie: Totale Mobilmachung in Afrika – der Erste Weltkrieg in Kamerun und Deutsch-Ostafrika, in: Bauerkämper, Arnd/Julien Elise (eds.): Durchhalten! Krieg und Gesellschaft im Vergleich 1914–1918, Göttingen 2010, pp. 238-259; Pesek, Michael: Das Ende eines Kolonialreiches. Ostafrika im Ersten Weltkrieg, Frankfurt 2010; Bührer, Tanja: Die Kaiserliche Schutztruppe für Deutsch-Ostafrika. Koloniale Sicherheitspolitik und transkulturelle Kriegführung, 1885 bis 1918, Munich 2011; Schulte-Varendorff, Uwe: Krieg in Kamerun. Die deutsche Kolonie im Ersten Weltkrieg, Berlin 2011; Lenssen, H. E.: Die Jahre 1914 und 1915, in: idem: Chronik von Deutsch-Südwestafrika, Windhoek 1988, pp. 212-251.

54. ↑ Michels, Eckard: Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck. Der Held von Deutsch-Ostafrika. Ein preussischer Kolonialoffizier, Paderborn 2008; Stratis, John C.: A Case study in leadership. Colonel Paul Emil von Lettow-Vorbeck, Springfield 2002; Crowson Thomas A.: When elephants clash. A critical analysis of Major General Paul Emil von Lettow-Vorbeck in the East African Theatre of the Great War, Washington D. C. 2003; Schulte-Varendorff, Uwe: Kolonialheld für Kaiser und Führer. General Lettow-Vorbeck – Mythos und Wirklichkeit, Berlin 2006; Bührer, Tanja: Staatsstreich im Busch. Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck (1870–1964), in: Förster, Stig et al. (eds.): Kriegsherren der Weltgeschichte. 22 historische Portraits, Munich 2006, pp. 287-304.

55. ↑ Rives, Maurice: Héros meconnus. 1914–1918, 1939–1945. Mémorial des combattants d'Afrique noire et de Madagascar, Paris 1990; Valensky, Chantal: Le soldat occulté. Les Malgaches de l’armée française, 1884–1920, Paris 1995; Razafindranaly, Jacques: Les soldats de la grande île. D’une guerre à l’autre, 1895–1918, Paris 2000; Kamian, Bakari: Des tranchées de Verdun à l'église Saint-Bernard. 80'000 combattants maliens au secours de la France (1914–18 et 1939–45), Paris 2001; Deroo, Eric/Champeaux, Antoine: La force noire. Gloire et infortunes d'une légende coloniale, Paris 2006; Montagon, Pierre: L’Armée d’Afrique. De 1830 à l’indépendence de l’Algérie, Paris 2012.

56. ↑ Digby, Peter. K.: Pyramids and Poppies. The 1st SA Infantry Brigade in Libya, France and Flanders. 1915–1919, Rivonia 1993; Nasson, Bill: Springbocks on the Somme: South Africa in the Great War 1914–1918, Johannesburg 2007.

57. ↑ Bekraoui, Mohammed: Les Marocains dans la Grande Guerre 1914–1919, Rabat 2009.

58. ↑ Strachan, Hew: The First World War in Africa, Oxford 2004.

59. ↑ Frémeaux, Jacques: Les colonies dans la Grande Guerre. Combats et épreuves des peuples d’outre-mer, Paris 2006.

60. ↑ Strachan, Hew: The First World War as a global war, in: First World War Studies 1/1 (2010), pp. 3-14.

61. ↑ Dendooven, Dominiek/Chielens, Piet (eds.): World War I. Five continents in Flanders, Tielt 2008; Liebau, Heike et al. (eds.): The World in World Wars. Experiences, Perceptions and Perspectives from Africa and Asia, Leiden et al. 2010; Das, Santanu (ed.): Race, Empire and First World War Writing, Cambridge 2011.

62. ↑ See, for example, Petter, Wolfgang: Der Kampf um die deutschen Kolonien, in: Michalka, Wolfgang (ed.): Der Erste Weltkrieg. Wirkung, Wahrnehmung, Analyse, Munich 1994, pp. 392-411; Waites, Bernard: Peoples of the Underdeveloped World, in: Liddle, Peter Hammond/Hugh, Cecil (eds.): Facing Armageddon. The First World War Experienced, London 1996, pp. 596-614; Cornelissen, Christoph: Europäische Kolonialherrschaft im Ersten Weltkrieg, in: Kruse, Wolfgang (ed.): Eine Welt von Feinden. Der Grosse Krieg 1914–1918, Frankfurt 2002, pp. 43-53; Michels, Totale Mobilmachung; Killingray, David: The War in Africa, in: Horne, John (ed.): A Companion to World War I, Oxford 2010, pp. 112-126.

63. ↑ Hirschfeld, Gerhard et al. (eds.): Enzyklopädie Erster Weltkrieg, Paderborn 2003; idem et al. (eds.): Brill's Encyclopedia of the First World War, Leiden 2012.

64. ↑ Ferguson, Niall: The Pity of War. Explaining World War One, London 1998.

65. ↑ Smith, Leonard V. et al.: France and the Great War 1914–1918, Cambridge 2003.

66. ↑ Sondhaus, Lawrence: World War One. The Global Revolution, Cambridge 2011, pp.111-121.

67. ↑ See Morrow, John H.: The Great War. An Imperial History, New York 2004; Neiberg, Michael S.: Fighting the Great War. A Global History, Cambridge MA 2006; Storey, William Kelleher: The First World War. A Concise Global History, New York 2010.

Citation

Koller, Christian: Historiography 1918-Today (Africa) , in: 1914-1918-online. International Encyclopedia of the First World War, ed. by Ute Daniel, Peter Gatrell, Oliver Janz, Heather Jones, Jennifer Keene, Alan Kramer, and Bill Nasson, issued by Freie Universität Berlin, Berlin 2014-10-08. DOI: 10.15463/ie1418.10426.

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Table of Contents

Table of Contents

Introduction

Africa as a ‘Sideshow’

Increasing Attention to the Global Aspects of the War

A New Narrative of a Global War?

Conclusion

Selected Bibliography

Citation

Content