It was 75 years ago this month that Germany surrendered and the Allies celebrated VE (Victory in Europe) Day. Millions of people around the world had been killed and many more injured or captured. It was an end to war not just for Europeans, but their allies too, in countries across Africa. But its impact is still being felt decades later.
The world’s nations were divided into two opposing sides. The Allies comprising of Britain and her Commonwealth, France, most western European countries and the United States. Germany, Italy, and Japan (with support from Franco’s Spain), represented the Axis.
Since my childhood I have heard stories about this great war fought by white men. My own father could vividly remember as a young boy, his mother in her usual chat with other villagers, in the dusty village near the Ethiopian boarder with Kenya. They were saying something about a big country burning its enemy with a great fire. Years later my father came to learn that the burning of the great fire was caused by the atomic bombs dropped on Japanese cities in August 1945.
As a student I took great interest in the history of world wars and colonial Africa. World War II played a crucial role in shaping the societal norms in African communities. After the partition of Africa by the European powers, relatives suddenly found themselves to be citizens of different countries. Stories were told of ministers of three different African countries who were distant cousins meeting in the United Nations. My own ethnic group is scattered in four different African countries.
Great Britain had established colonies in vast majority of countries around the world prior to World War II. It is for this reason that it was said the sun never set on the British empire. Much of Africa and Asia was under this British rule.
In the Berlin Conference of 1885, major European powers convened to divide Africa for themselves. None of the 200 million Africans were invited. After that conference, majority of African countries were mostly under the British and French control.
During the Second World War, Britain did not hesitate to utilise the vast resources available in its African colonies. War was expensive; iron ore, tin, aluminium were needed to manufacture weapons, all of which were found in Africa. The empire needed men to fight, as more were needed to defend the empire. It is said that over half a million Africans served with the British soldiers.
Africans found themselves in a quagmire, fighting for their colonisers, those who had confiscated their lands and treated them with contempt. Not to fight for the colonisers meant that the Axis under Hitler and Mussolini could win the war.
The Axis believed in racial superiority; for Africans the two choices were not promising. This is probably what African American abolitionist Henry Highland Garnet had in mind when he said, “for black people the pharaohs are on both sides of the blood red waters.”
In these wars, Africans could not afford not to take sides. They were not technologically prepared to be on their own. For Africans, there was a lesson to be found in past echoes of their ancestors; “Be a mountain or lean on one”. The Africans had to lean on their colonisers. The dice was cast, Africans joined the armies of their colonial invaders against an axis who considered them as inferior.
Some historians claim that Africans had no choice but to join their colonial rulers in the war. However, most Africans were willing to fight against ideologies of racial supremacy, which were at the core of the axis war agenda. Sierra Leonean John Henry Smythe, on reading Mein Kampf decided to join the British Royal Air Force and flew bombers against German cities.
Over a quarter million African men were conscripted from Kenya, Tanzania, Malawi and Uganda under the King’s African Rifles. These soldiers fought in Europe, Africa and against the Japanese in far East countries. Although there has been not much recognition, The KAR were instrumental in putting an end to the Second World War.
African soldiers, like New Zealand soldiers, fought against tyranny and racial supremacy 75 years ago. Unlike Pakeha New Zealanders, Africans fought for those who treated them as second class citizens in their homeland. These land-grabbers were worth fighting for. If Hitler had won it would not only be lands but lives would be at stake, given the Nazi’s genocide against millions of Jews and other racial groups considered to be inferior.
Today, racial superiority has reared its head in New Zealand’s shores in the form of the murder of 51 Muslim worshipers in Christchurch. Many believed the killer was motivated by hatred toward the Muslim community, considered to be ‘others’ by him and those who share his views. The hate that was conquered 75 years ago, did not triumph. But neither has it gone away.
New Zealand’s response towards the massacre was as, the Imam of Al-Noor Mosque called it, extra-ordinary. The victims of the massacre received millions of dollars from New Zealanders. The governing parties and the Opposition rallied behind the Prime Minister Jacinda Arden to pass laws to abolish weapons of similar nature that were used to commit the heinous crime.
Many around the world were amazed by the swift steps New Zealanders and their leadership took. African countries who have grappled with legacy of racial supremacy and violence were equally appreciative of New Zealand’s response. For both Africans and New Zealanders, it honours the sacrifices made by their sons, 75 years ago in the deserts of Al-Alamein, the jungles of Burma and the rainforests of Malaya.
Abdul Mohamud is a Freelance writer on Culture and African Affairs.
Disclaimer: These opinions in this article are my own and do not express the views of my employer or any other organisation I’m involved in.