Fighting their own war: South African blacks and the First World War

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Book

Title:	Fighting their own war: South African blacks and the First World War
Author:	Grundlingh, Albert
Year:	1987
Pages:	200
Language:	English
City of publisher:	Johannesburg
Publisher:	Ravan Press
ISBN:	0869753215
Geographic term:	South Africa
Subjects:	Blacks World War I
Abstract:	This study of the experience of South African blacks in World War I goes beyond a mere 'discovery' of black men in a 'white man's war'. Drawing on a wide range of hitherto untapped historical sources, the author presents an analysis of the nature and significance of the African experience during the war. An important and previously neglected area of 20th-century South African history is recovered here: the expectations of different African groupings at the outbreak of war; the concerns and constraints which circumscribed the role of Africans in the war effort; the way in which Africans were recruited and the reasons why some enlisted; the realities of black wartime service in South West Africa, East Africa and France; the sociopolitical ramifications of military service; and other implications of war-related social change for sections of the African population. The author shows that although Africans were often caught up in events and processes beyond their control, they were nevertheless 'fighting their own war', trying to shape the changing social and political realities of the time, both within the military environment and in the wider society.