Qualla: African theatre of World War I

African theatre of World War I: Introduction

Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Public domain. On 22 August 1914, in a place far from Flanders and the Marne, the East African Standard published an editorial arguing that Europeans in Africa should not fight each other. The reasoning was not pacifism. It was simpler than that: there were so few white colonists, and their conquests so recent and unstable, that war risked everything they had extracted so far. The Berlin Conference of 1884 had even made provisions for African colonies to stay neutral in a European war. None of that held. Within weeks, African soldiers under British, French, Belgian, Portuguese, and German command were killing each other across a continent that none of their governments had ruled for more than a generation.

Image: Public domain

African theatre of World War I: The Carriers Who Did Not Come Home

Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Unknown author, Public domain. The war that Europe fought in trenches, Africa fought on foot. For every soldier on the African front there were sometimes five or six carriers, men conscripted or pressed into service to move food, ammunition, and the tents that kept officers dry. They walked hundreds of miles t...

Image: Unknown author | Public domain

African theatre of World War I: Togoland, Kamerun, and a Wireless Station

Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Deutsche Kolonialgesellschaft (DKG), Public domain. The first German colony to fall was Togoland, from 9 to 26 August 1914. French forces from Dahomey and British forces from Gold Coast converged on Kamina, where a wireless station linked Berlin to the Atlantic. The Germans surrendered on 26 August. The campaign in Kamerun was lon...

Image: Deutsche Kolonialgesellschaft (DKG) | Public domain

African theatre of World War I: South West Africa and the Afrikaner Rebellion

Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Eduard Rothert, Public domain. In German South West Africa, now Namibia, Jan Smuts and Louis Botha conducted a rapid campaign that ended in German surrender on 9 July 1915. But while they were fighting Germans, some of their own generals were fighting them. The Maritz rebellion of 1914–15 saw Afrikaner officer...

Image: Eduard Rothert | Public domain

African theatre of World War I: Lettow-Vorbeck and the Long Walk

Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit anonymous African artist, Public domain. The commander who never quite surrendered was Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck in German East Africa. Outnumbered often ten to one, he kept the British, Belgians, Portuguese, and Indians chasing him across what is now Tanzania, Mozambique, and Zambia for four years. At Tanga in November 1...

Image: anonymous African artist | Public domain

African theatre of World War I: The Risings the Colonies Forgot

Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Walther Dobbertin, CC BY-SA 3.0 de. While Europeans fought Europeans, Africans fought Europeans too, and European rule sometimes nearly cracked. John Chilembwe led a millenarian Baptist uprising in Nyasaland (now Malawi) in January 1915, against forced labor, racial discrimination, and the fresh burdens of wartime ...

Image: Walther Dobbertin | CC BY-SA 3.0 de

African theatre of World War I: What the Maps Didn't Show

Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Mehmet Berker, CC BY-SA 3.0. When peace came in 1918, the maps changed. Togoland was partitioned between Britain and France. Kamerun too. German East Africa became Tanganyika under British mandate and Ruanda-Urundi under Belgian. German South West Africa became a South African mandate. But the maps did not s...

Image: Mehmet Berker | CC BY-SA 3.0