{UAH} AS IGNORANCE IGNORES EAST AFRICA'S WORLD WAR ONE SACRIFICES...!?!

Picture: My grandfather (seated) Mzee Andrea Nyabira Amin, World War I
veteran, father of President Idi Amin.

As the world remembers the end of the First World War "at the eleventh hour
of the eleventh day of the eleventh month" (11pm on 11/11/1918), most
people imagine that the war was only in Europe. One of the most fierce
fighting saw countless Africans, both soldiers and civilians killed during
the many battles that took place in East Africa.
My grandfather was part of the Kings African Rifles until the end of the
war when he was transferred to the newly created Uganda Police Force in
1920.
During the war, he fought for the British Monarchy against the robust
German army that colonized Tanzania at the time. The worst of that war took
place on the border between Kenya and Tanzania. Other fighting took place
in Namibia, Congo, Rwanda-urundi, and Mozambique
The Kings African Rifles (KAR) was the British army in East Africa, led by
British officers, but the foot soldiers (on both sides of the war) were
Africans. Both rival armies also had countless African porters who were in
even greater numbers than the soldiers. Their job was to carry the
logistics, food and munitions on their backs and heads behind the fighting
force through the harsh terrain of jungles, rivers, and African savanna
while the European officers rode on horses.
In the worst of times the porters would even pick weapons to fight just
like the soldiers, and died with the soldiers.
Since yesterday, today's world leaders have all congregated in France to
solemnly uphold the memory of all the brave soldiers who gave their lives
for humanity in the First World War. A ceremony that is taking place
exactly a hundred years to the day since the signing of the armistice that
ended the war.
And while West Africans, particularly the Senegalese and Algerians, always
participate at the international memorial day to remember their peoples
sacrifice, the memory of over a million East Africans who served and gave
their lives in that war seems simply ignored by today's East African
leaders.

By Hussein Lumumba Amin
11/11/2018

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