Please link the profiles on Geni of people from African territories who were involved in WW1 to this project.

There are however specific projects for the following -

World War One: Armed Forces - Rhodesia

South African Soldiers of World War One (1914-1918)

Bold links are to Geni profiles or projects; others are to external web pages.

Although many of the First World War’s highest profile events happened in Europe on the Western Front, Britain also fought campaigns in East Africa, Southern Africa, West Africa and Egypt. There is little published regarding these campaigns, but for the people caught up in the conflict on the African continent, it was as real and horrifying as events on the Western Front.
A large number of those involved in Africa had no idea why the war between white people was being fought. But they had to participate either willingly for reasons of adventure, status and economic improvement, or through coercion because of manpower requirements.

Men and women from Africa served on the continent, but men and women also travelled from Africa to participate in Europe and Mesopotamia.

Southern Africa

Bechuanaland (Botswana), Swaziland, Basutoland (Lesotho), Angola and South West Africa (Namibia). All were British except for South West Africa which was German and Angola which was Portuguese. Men from all the territories served in Africa while some served in Europe and a few in Palestine.

South Africa was one of the only Empire territories which experienced a civil war over its involvement in the First World War.

South African Soldiers of World War One (1914-1918)

Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) sent the 1st Rhodesian Regiment to South West Africa where it worked with the South Africans. A second regiment was sent to East Africa because it was not fair to send them to Europe before the first men recruited had the chance.

World War One: Armed Forces - Rhodesia

After the South West Africa campaign, the South African and Rhodesians were demobilised. Many then enlisted as Imperial troops. They served in Europe under Tim Lukin after diverting to Egypt. They arrived in Europe in time for the Battle of the Somme in 1916. The Rhodesians who went across as a group served as a platoon of the King’s Royal Rifle Corps. Others found their own way to Europe to enlist in units associated with their family or school.

East and Central Africa

All the territories were directly involved in the war although German troops never entered Uganda or Congo.

In November the Nyasaland, Northern and Southern Rhodesian forces were consolidated 12 November 1915 under one commander, General Edward Northey (1868-1953). Northey’s appointment streamlined command and led to more coordinated action against the German forces in the south and west of the German colony.

The presence of German gunboats on Lake Tanganyika, prompted the formation of a small force, in 1915, of 28 men by the Admiralty, under the command of the eccentric Captain Geoffrey Basil Spicer-Simson DSO (1876 - 1947). With two small boats named Mimi and Toutou, hastily converted as gunboats, they were loaded on a ship and transported to Cape Town and then up the railway to the Congo border. From there the boats were hauled overland, by oxen and steam engine, over roads hacked by hand through the jungles of the Congo to the shores of Lake Tanganyika in the hopes of surprising the Germans. They managed to sink two of the German gunboats, but were unaware of the larger Graf von Götzen which had been armed with guns from the Konigsberg that had been sunk earlier in the Rufiji Delta. They never attacked the Graf von Götzen but the German power on the lake was broken. The Germans scuttled the Graf von Götzen, it was latter refloated by the Belgians and still plies Lake Tanganyika to this day as the MV Liemba, carrying goods and passengers.

Northern Rhodesia (Zambia)

The Belgians came to Northern Rhodesia’s assistance at the request of the local district commissioner, who feared a German attack. This annoyed the Colonial Office in London, which had hoped to keep the Belgians out of the war for as long as possible. The Belgian presence, however, freed the British colonial forces to repulse the German attack at Abercorn on 5 September 1914, and later at Karonga on 9 September 1914.

Nyasaland (Malawi)

The Nyasaland government took the initiative to gain control of Lake Nyasa, as it was thought that whoever did so would have the upper hand. In July 1914 Charles Walter Barton (1870-?) started defence preparations in case of a German attack. On 13 August 1914 the German Hermann von Wissmann was put out of action and its commander taken prisoner by the captain of the Guendolen.

In January 1915, - Chilembwe uprising, led by missionary John Chilembwe (1871-1915), surprised the British government who believed that the territory was the most peaceful and loyal of all. The unrest was significant enough to divert troops from defending the country against the Germans to deal with the internal unrest. 200 South Africans were sent to supplement the meagre Nyasaland forces.

German East Africa

• Tanzania
  
• Rwanda
  
• Burundi
  

British East Africa

• Kenya
  
• Uganda
  
• Belgian Congo (Democratic Republic of Congo)
  

British East African settlers flooded to Nairobi to enlist as the outbreak of the war. They were joined by two Indian Expeditionary Forces which arrived between September (to help protect the border between the two East African colonies ), and November (to attack the German colony).

Portuguese East Africa (Mozambique).

Portugal officially enter the war in March 1916, providing it with the opportunity to occupy the Kionga Triangle on the border of German and Portuguese East Africa. The Portuguese believed the Germans had “stolen” this territory from them in 1885. Portugal sent out its second expeditionary force to East Africa under Major José Luís de Moura Mendes (1861-1918). The first had been dispatched in August 1914 to provide additional military support to the forces already there. It arrived after the first German incursions into the colony. This second expeditionary force managed to occupy Kionga on 10 April 1916 but within the year had lost it again. In May 1916 the Portuguese suffered a major defeat at Namanga, where the Germans were able to replenish their stocks. In June 1916, a third expeditionary force arrived to further Portugal’s territorial claims in the area.

References and further Reading

• https://www.britishcouncil.org/voices-magazine/misremembered-histor... Misremembered history: the First World War in East Africa]
  
• International Encyclopedia of the First World War - East and Central Africa
  
• https://qz.com/africa/1459556/armistice-day-zambia-says-world-war-i...
  

West Africa

The West African British territories involved in the 1914-1918 war included

Nigeria,

Gold Coast (Ghana),

The Gambia and Sierra Leone.

Together with French and Belgian Congo forces they invaded German Togoland and Kamerun (Cameroon).

The main British force was the West African Frontier Force, consisting of men from all the British territories. The officers were British while the soldiers were local black Africans mainly from the interior. Sierra Leone supplied mainly labour known as the Kroo Boys.

North Africa

On 18 December 1914 Britain declared Egypt a protectorate to prevent the Ottoman Empire having access to the Suez Canal. The Ottoman Empire had allied with Germany. Control of the Suez determined which ships could use the canal.

In the Sudanese region of Darfur, the leader of the Tama tribe, Ali Dinar, sided with the Ottoman troops for nationalist reasons. Following the arrival of 250 rifles in the area, the Governor General of Sudan decided to mount a punitive expedition. The force of 2,000 Sudanese, Arab and Egyptian soldiers as well as four planes and 11 motor lorries. They faced roughly 4,000 regular army and spearmen of the Tama. On 21 May 1916 the Fur army as it was called was defeated although Ali Dinar escaped. On 1 January 1917 Darfur became a province of the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan under civil administration.

Somaliland was not considered a theatre of the First World War. Somaliland was a British Protectorate and was included in the North African theatre. It had been the source of conflict for at least 15 years. Mahomed Bin Abdulla Hassan, also known as the ‘Mad Mullah’ took the opportunity of the greater war to fight for independence of his followers. In November 1914, a British force consisting of Indian and Somali sepoys, infantry and Camel Corps marched on the Shimba Berris where Bin Abdulla Hassan was based. By the end of February 1915, the area was under British control.

Those who fought were not entitled to the British War and Victory Medal. A new Africa General Service Medal was created in 1916 which was awarded to those who had participated in Somaliland.

Somaliland supplied crew for work on British and other allied ships during the 1914-1918 war.

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