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The struggle for independence

“Vade Retro domum” - “Nolo Relinquere”

“ African peoples fought back against overbearing colonial demands during the First
World War. With few exceptions, Africans had played almost no role in the decisions and

acts that started the war, in defining war aims, or in determining how it would be
prosecuted. Yet European colonial powers expected African participation in the war
effort. They also expected Africans to demonstrate absolute loyalty to imperial causes.

The colonizers' wartime priorities and the large-scale abuses they unleashed exposed
the colonial state's exploitative capacities on a new scale. Many African polities fought

to challenge or overturn the colonial order. “

"Resistance and Rebellions (Africa)" 92
International Encyclopedia of the First World War (WW1)

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African Soldiers in WW1

World War I: The 'Black Army' that marched in from Africa

" Two million Africans were killed when the continent was drawn into the conflagration of
World War I. The war and its aftermath wrought seismic changes in Africa that remain at
the root of conflicts in many countries.

***
With World War I raging in Europe, African soldiers were forced to fight for their colonial

masters between 1914 and 1918. France recruited more Africans than any other colonial
power, sending 450,000 troops from West and North Africa to fight against the Germans
on the front lines.

***
During the war, around 30,000 Africans died fighting on the side of France alone. As

France and Mali remembered those African troops on Tuesday, French President
Emmanuel Macron paid tribute on Twitter to the "200,000 African soldiers from the
colonies" who were among "the youth of the whole world who fell 100 years ago in

villages whose names they did not know."

***
Battles, mass starvation in Africa
During the war, African troops were also deployed in Africa itself. A Senegalese infantry
helped France seize the German colony of Togo, and the British also fought alongside

African troops against the Germans until 1918. Africans served as scouts, porters and
cooks.