The impact of military service in World War I on Africans: the Nandi of Kenya

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Periodical article

Title:	The impact of military service in World War I on Africans: the Nandi of Kenya
Author:	Greenstein, Lewis J.
Year:	1978
Periodical:	Journal of Modern African Studies
Volume:	16
Issue:	3
Pages:	495-507
Language:	English
Geographic term:	Kenya
Subjects:	Nandi (Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania) World War I
External link:	https://www.jstor.org/stable/160040
Abstract:	What happens when a government enlists members of an oppressed people in its army, and requires them to undergo considerable hardship and deprivation, as well as, in all too many cases, injury and death? Do the survivors return to demand a 'just reward' for their efforts and sacrifices? If they are denied this, do they turn to anti-government activities which an eye towards driving out their oppressors? Did military service provide African veterans with necessary and important skills that might be employed in the revolutionary struggle? In this context the experience is examined of Nandi veterans of the King's African Rifles who saw service during the period 1914-18. From the Nandi experience it appears that far from turning Africans into anti-Government radicals as some had feared, military service in the 1914-18 campaign had little measurable effect on the politics of Kenya in the inter-war period. Notes.