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  1. #1
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    Default Britain’s Abandoned Black Soldiers

    More than 600,000 Africans fought for Britain in World War II.


    https://foreignpolicy.com/2019/02/23...lack-soldiers/

    By the end of World War II, Eusebio Mbiuki had faced deadly combat in the jungles of Burma and survived fearful ocean crossings stalked by submarines. But even as the young Kenyan put his life on the line for Britain, he—and more than half a million other African soldiers drawn from the empire—faced harsh discrimination from his own side.

    Britain paid its soldiers not only according to their rank and length of service but also their ethnicity, a new documentary for Al Jazeera English has found, with black troops receiving a third of the pay of their white contemporaries of the same rank. Some Africans were forcibly and secretly conscripted, while others were beaten by their superiors. Many ended up in poverty. The revelations have led senior opposition politicians to call on the British government to make an official apology, to launch an investigation, and to compensate the last surviving veterans affected by this controversial policy.

    “There must be an urgent inquiry into Britain having paid its African and Asian soldiers according to the color of their skin,” said Jeremy Corbyn, the Labour Party leader, following the revelations.
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    “When I got out, they gave me nothing,” said veteran Eusebio Mbiuki, now 100 years old and living in poverty in rural Kenya. “…We were abandoned just like that.”

    During World War II, Britain recruited some 600,000 African men to fight against the Axis powers, from the Italians in the Horn of Africa to Vichy French forces in Madagascar to the Imperial Japanese Army in Burma, now known as Myanmar. But when the fighting was over, Britain sent these men back home with an end-of-war bonus that was roughly a third of the reward given to their white counterparts, even those from settler communities living in the same African colonies.

    “When I got out, they gave me nothing,” said the Burma campaign veteran, Mbiuki, now 100 years old and living in poverty in rural Kenya. “They should have known how much we had helped them. They would have given something. But that was not the case. We were abandoned just like that.”

    Eusebio Mbiuki and Gershon Fundi, veterans of Britain’s King’s African Rifles, at a war cemetery near Mount Kenya in Nanyuki, Kenya, on Nov. 19, 2018. (Jack Losh for Foreign Policy)

    One tactic that the United Kingdom used to recruit African soldiers was propaganda, warning that Hitler wanted to seize their land—land that had already been colonized by the British themselves. “We did not know who Hitler was,” said Mbiuki, seen here on the left when he was a soldier in the 1940s. “We didn’t know anything about him. We didn’t feel very good about him. We thought this Hitler would come and drive us from our lands.” (Jack Losh for Foreign Policy)

    This is not the first time that the British government has been accused of discriminating against solders drawn from its former empire. In 2009, Gurkha veterans—former servicemen of Nepalese ethnicity who had fought for Britain—won the right to settle in the United Kingdom after a High Court battle.

    The British government’s response to the new revelations regarding the prejudice and mistreatment of its African soldiers has so far been muted and contradictory, with officials refusing to engage with the issue publicly.

    On Monday, Britain’s Foreign Office told Foreign Policy that the Ministry of Defense was taking a lead on the matter. But while responding to questions in Parliament, a defense minister in Prime Minister Theresa May’s administration claimed that Foreign Office staff were in charge.

    “This is a Foreign Office lead, and I hope they will be able to provide more detail on how we move forward,” the Conservative minster, Tobias Ellwood, stated incorrectly. He refused to give any more information on the government’s plans to make amends but did describe the issue as “very important” and “something that the secretary of state is also aware of.” Britain’s secretary of defense, Gavin Williamson, has faced criticism for his silence over the issue.

    A Zambian man leans against a car carrying various British officials and former servicemen to the last African battleground of World War I on the Chambeshi River in northern Zambia on Nov. 24, 2018. (Jack Losh for Foreign Policy)

    Prince Harry speaks with war widows at Burma Barracks in Lusaka, Zambia, on Nov. 27, 2018. The event came after Britain announced a 12 million-pound package to help impoverished veterans and war widows from Commonwealth nations. (Jack Losh for Foreign Policy)

    Local men climb onto a building to get a view of the Armistice Day memorial event in Mbala, Zambia, as the former chief of the U.K. armed forces, retired Gen. David Richards, gives a speech on Nov. 25, 2018. Paying tribute to Britain’s colonial-era African forces, he said: “They were brave and loyal soldiers of Christian, Muslim, or no faith, who volunteered to serve the British Crown and were, in most cases, fighting far from home.” (Jack Losh for Foreign Policy)

    “The fact that Gavin Williamson has refused to comment on this is despicable,” said Labour’s Preet Gill, the shadow international development minister. “It is absolutely disgraceful. It doesn’t honor the men that are alive. What message does it give to them? That the government doesn’t care, that the defense secretary doesn’t give a damn, that you served your time and that’s it.”

    Besides the issue of unequal pay, the documentary features testimony from African veterans who endured corporal punishment. The British Army abolished such practices decades earlier but allowed such abuse to persist in its colonial formations until after World War II. “Our bodies became so swollen from the beatings,” Mbiuki said. “They would beat us and slap us until you accepted everything you were being told.”

    “Our bodies became so swollen from the beatings,” Mbiuki said. “They would beat us and slap us until you accepted everything you were being told.”

    In July 1940, the U.K.’s East African Force had lobbied for commanders to have authority to order corporal punishment as summary punishment, saying: “For the punishment of African natives to be effective, it is essential that it should follow immediately upon commission of the offence. Their memories are short, with the result that delayed punishment is resented, and is clearly connected in their minds with a specific offence.” The public flogging of African soldiers for petty crimes—illegal in the main British Army since 1881—led to a formal complaint in 1943 from an English-born missionary, with threats to go public with allegations of “sadism.” Such abuse was not formally abolished in Kenya until December 1946 but was still permitted in military prisons until April 1948.

    While the majority of the men were volunteers, many were forcibly conscripted. During the war, colonial officials were desperate to raise troop numbers so would often urge local chiefs to find them men, whatever the cost. This resulted in African men being sent to the firing line against their will. Grace Mbithe, a 94-year-old widow living in the highlands near Nairobi remembers how one press gang snatched her husband from their village and sent him off to North Africa. “Where could you hide? It would just happen suddenly, one morning,” she said. “If you hid, they would just come back another day. We cried a lot when we heard he’d had been captured.”

    Her husband did eventually return but was profoundly traumatized by the horrors of war.

    Grace Mbithe, a widow in her late 90s, reads her Bible in her home in the Kenyan highlands on Nov. 16, 2018. Her husband, Stanley Muli, was forcibly recruited into Britain’s colonial army and returned from service in North Africa deeply traumatized by the horrors of combat. (Jack Losh for Foreign Policy)

    “He came back unwell. That illness killed him,” said Grace of her husband, Stanley, shown in a photo from 1981. During rainstorms, she said, he would get out of bed and stand outside, unable to bear the thundering sound on their corrugated metal roof. “It would rain on him over and over again, while his heart beat faster and faster. He had a bad heart, and that’s what killed him.” (Jack Losh for Foreign Policy)

    Rates of war gratuities were starkly different for white and black soldiers. A white private could earn 10 shillings for each month of service; for a black soldier of the same rank, just 3½ shillings. White corporals would get 12 shillings per month of service; for black corporals, just 4 shillings. Fearing any threat to the racial order, Britain barred its African soldiers from reaching higher ranks during the colonial period. The most senior position open to them was “warrant officer class 1,” which could earn them a war gratuity of six shillings per month of service, 30 percent of the sum on offer to white officers of that class. Stringent rules governing Britain’s colonial forces also prohibited these more senior African soldiers from disciplining lower-ranking white troops. Even higher-ranking black soldiers were expected to address the lowest white private as “sir.”

    While the majority of the men were volunteers, many were forcibly conscripted.

    Irrespective of rank, Asian personnel recruited in British East Africa all earned 7½ shillings for each month of enlisted service, less than their white comrades and more than their African ones—a reflection of the racial hierarchy that imperial Britain had enshrined in its colonies.

    In contrast to official state policy, however, some individual officers retained a sense of obligation toward their African comrades, lobbying the government to provide these marginalized soldiers with pensions and demanding that they not be cheated out of fair pay. “British officers commanding African troops were often quite unsympathetic to the interest of the colonial state,” said Timothy Parsons, a professor at Washington University in St. Louis and one of the world’s leading authorities on Britain’s East African army.

    Gershon Fundi, a former signalman who served in Ethiopia and Somaliland during World War II, rests in the doorway of his home in the highlands of Kenya on Nov. 20, 2018. “I pray for those dead,” he said, “and I don’t know why I’m still alive for all those years.” (Jack Losh for Foreign Policy)

    A government spokesperson refused to comment specifically on any of the allegations. “The U.K. is indebted to all those servicemen and women from Africa who volunteered to serve with Britain during the Second World War. Their bravery and sacrifice significantly contributed to the freedoms that we all enjoy today,” the spokesperson said.

    Jack Losh is a journalist, photographer and filmmaker with a focus on armed conflict and humanitarian issues. He is a recipient of a research grant from the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting to document the civil war in the Central African Republic, having also reported across Eastern Ukraine, Iraqi Kurdistan and elsewhere.
    Twitter: @jacklosh
    live out your imagination , not your history.

  2. #2
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    Default Re: Britain’s Abandoned Black Soldiers

    'You are still a soldier to me': The forgotten African hero of Britain's colonial army

    Jaston Khosa was one of 600,000 men from African countries who fought for Britain. He was quietly buried on VE Day after a life of abject poverty
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    Jack Losh

    Sun 10 May 2020 07.15 BST

    Jaston Khosa
    Jaston Khosa was laid to rest on the day the world commemorated the end of the war in which he fought. Photograph: Jack Losh

    In a crowded, Zambian slum on VE Day, a family gathered to bury one of the last veterans of Britain’s colonial army. Jaston Khosa of the Northern Rhodesia Regiment was laid to rest on the day the world commemorated the end of the war in which he fought.

    The 95-year-old great-grandfather was among 600,000 Africans who fought for the British during World War Two, on battlefields across their own continent as well as Asia and the Middle East. Although their service has largely been forgotten, the mobilisation of this huge army from Britain’s colonies triggered the largest single movement of African men overseas since the slave trade.

    In a eulogy to her father, M’tundu Khosa wrote: “Young man, you were a soldier. You are still a soldier to me. You have fought for your health till the last hour. My hero, always.”

    “My father died a proud soldier,” she told The Guardian after the funeral. “He would always talk about his war experiences. He was a strong, beautiful man and a friend to everyone, regardless of who they were. We will always remember him and we will meet on the other side.”

    From his home in Zambia’s capital, Lusaka, Khosa enlisted and was sent to Somaliland in East Africa to rout Italian forces, which had formed the Axis alliance with Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan. But more than seven decades on from his wartime service, Khosa died in poverty, in a dilapidated house in a squalid shantytown.

    In late 2018, Khosa was invited to meet Prince Harry at a veterans’ event in Lusaka and spoke with the royal about his years fighting for Britain as well as his current state of destitution. At the time, he said he hoped that his meeting with the prince would raise awareness of the plight of Africa’s war veterans.

    “He can try to report it to UK when he goes back and say that Mr Khosa, his house is not good,” he said. “I was a soldier of the British Empire.”
    Prince Harry speaks with Jaston Khosa and other veterans at Burma Barracks in Lusaka, Zambia, in 2018

    But the elderly veteran’s fortunes did not change. His health deteriorated, and he died on Tuesday evening at home surrounded by his family.

    Fearful of the coronavirus and unable to afford medical care, his family decided against taking him to hospital. So his diagnosis is not clear; relatives believe he succumbed to cancer or kidney problems.

    Khosa was a keen supporter of the yearly Poppy Appeal fundraising event and enjoyed regaling friends and family with wartime tales. But he remained critical of the derisory level of state support for veterans.

    “He was smart, he was always polite and he was never afraid to say how useless the government were,” said Mike Reeve-Tucker, a member of the Royal Commonwealth Ex-Services League in Zambia. “They’ve done bugger all for them.” He added: “As long as I can remember Mr Khosa has laid the wreath at the annual Cenotaph Parade in Lusaka and was always smartly turned out. He was an amazing guy.”

    Khosa never lost his fighting spirit and was known to berate his country’s leader at Armistice Day events. “Whenever he saw [the Zambian president] Lungu, he always had a real bloody go at him,” reminisced Reeve-Tucker, a former lieutenant colonel in the British Army. At one parade, he added, Khosa and other former servicemen became so vocal that a Zambian veterans’ representative had to intervene and give a stern reprimand: “Boys, stop it — the war’s over, okay.”

    Almost one and a half million African soldiers drawn from European colonies fought in the war. Britain’s African troops also faced discrimination. Some men were forcibly recruited even though the official line was that enlistment would be voluntary. Others faced beatings and floggings. The number who died is unknown.

    All of Britain’s soldiers were paid an end-of-war bonus based on rank, length of service and colonial origins. Black Africans soldiers were paid up to three times less than their white counterparts.

    Despite systemic prejudice, many individual British officers feel a deep loyalty to African comrades and raise funds through regimental associations and the Royal Commonwealth Ex-Services League. In 2018, the British government also announced a £12million package to help penniless veterans and war widows from Commonwealth nations.

    Khosa, like many others, never escaped poverty. After the war, he found work at a game reserve and as a mechanic. In old age, he had to farm to survive.

    But he never lost hope that his military service would count for something.

    “British and ourself, we suffered together,” said Khosa in an interview last year. “After when we come back, I will never have forgotten you and you will have never forgotten me because we suffered together.”

    https://www.theguardian.com/global-d...-colonial-army
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    Default Re: Britain’s Abandoned Black Soldiers

    "All of Britain’s soldiers were paid an end-of-war bonus based on rank, length of service, and colonial origins. Black African soldiers were paid up to three times less than their white counterparts."

    What was it again that Britain got on the soapbox about? The killings, genocide and racial prejudice by a madman at the helm of the German powerhouse at the time?

    The Germans paid their Black soldiers the same and had no segregation in the training facilities or accommodation.
    Last edited by KK20; 11-05-2020 at 00:29.
    live out your imagination , not your history.

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    Default Re: Britain’s Abandoned Black Soldiers

    Quote Originally Posted by KK20 View Post
    "All of Britain’s soldiers were paid an end-of-war bonus based on rank, length of service, and colonial origins. Black African soldiers were paid up to three times less than their white counterparts."

    What was it again that Britain got on the soapbox about? The killings, genocide and racial prejudice by a madman at the helm of the German powerhouse at the time?

    The Germans paid their Black soldiers the same and had no segregation in the training facilities or accommodation.
    Britain's initial given reasons for declaring war on Germany was an obligation towards Poland, due to "German aggression". It was actually that guarantee given to Poland that increased the frictions between Poland and Germany at the time (who already had several beefs over territory, borders, minorities, Danzig, etc.). Since people wondered why Britain didn't declare war on the USSR as well (after they invaded Poland from the East) some other reasons to be brought up of cause. While already in existence for a while, the term "racist" wasn't really a buzzword then. So they spun the whole thing a little different.

    When I found out that Germany did have about 3 million foreigners under arms I was initially amazed give prior conditioning on what we were told via media and schools. Well, it stimulated my research interest.

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    Default Re: Britain’s Abandoned Black Soldiers

    Wasn't this very much the same as what Britain did to Indian soldiers during the second Boer war? Or am I missing something here? Promised big, delivered nothing?

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    Default Re: Britain’s Abandoned Black Soldiers

    The British Indian contribution to the Boer War numbered seond only to Great Brittain and more that Canada, Australia and New Zealand combined. They were at the front landing in CT to get to Kimberley and operated one of the largest remount stations of any wars anywhere prior. They also entered via Port Natal and saw much action on in the Natal/Transvaal border ( places like Spionkop , Weenan , Lady Smith ). They were officially called labourers in non combat roles but all were from military units and bearing arms. Supplies for the war effort also came from the British Raj India in extremely large quanities. As well as Troops that were self supported and funded by the Princely states aligned with the British Raj.

    I have a long write up on this but I deleted it because of negative remarks from a clique of GS members who accused me of being interested in that aspect because I was Indian ( which I am not, I am South Arican and further I have no allegiance to that country or its politics). That aspect was deliberately deleted from the ABW history by the British and the puppet Afrikaaners they installed after the ABW.

    Research is limited ( if you looking for it in English) but there in Tamil, Punjabi , Urdu, Marathi and Hindi as well as Russian authors that documented events.
    The English narrative does not match up with hard core evidence of Old photographs and weapons that are now family heirlooms.
    The Surnames of "Indian" South Africans today are peculiar to South Africa. Why ? because they are traditional Mlitary Ranks not surnames as such that became surnames in South Africa.
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    Default Re: Britain’s Abandoned Black Soldiers

    Quote Originally Posted by KK20 View Post
    the Surnames of "Indian" South Africans today are peculiar to South Africa. Why ? because they are traditional Mlitary Ranks not surnames as such that became surnames in South Africa.
    Hey KK,

    That is awesome, do you have examples? Why did they do it?

    Thanks for the great history pieces, really enjoy reading it!

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    Default Re: Britain’s Abandoned Black Soldiers

    Yeah I remember you telling me this story yonks ago, which is how I remember it.

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    Default Re: Britain’s Abandoned Black Soldiers

    Very briefy some examples:
    Naicker ( and variants)- Corporal
    Govender ( and variants)- Kings gaurd
    Khan is originally with the Pashtuns that came in but Khan is the equivalent of Singh in this context. Khan being muslim and Singh being Hindu.
    We also had many Christains with very English sounding names and they got lost in the memorial walls with names as the racist policy of excluding Indians got confused with names sounding English and engraved the names anyway. Examples , James , Christopher , Alexander , Mathias , Francis , Jacob, etc .. They were redominantly from the Madras Presidency. They were not converts as Christianity was in India from St Thomas's time.
    Singh in several different ranks. Today Singh is usually associated with Hindi speaking community but back in 1800 it was Marathi , Tamil and Telugu , Punjabi (Sikh).
    Padayachee - general ( Pada (foot) Atchai ( soldier/fighter), ei- (leader of) they were traditionally landowners that were were required to supply 3000 men if the government of the day wanted it. They were strongly aligned with the Nawabs of the South and then with the Maratas and they also led the battle against the British in the 1700s 100 years before the 1800 sepoy Mutiny .

    I listed these beacause they are somewhat better known amongst the Whites in RSA.
    live out your imagination , not your history.

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    Default Re: Britain’s Abandoned Black Soldiers

    I really think that this tread should be taken over by a senior Mod as the last time I had to deal with racist bullshit from a clique who think they are untouchable and I am hot headed and I am already rubbed up the wrong way about this.

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