Africa and World War II

This volume considers the military, economic, and political significance of Africa during World War II.

Judith A. Byfield (Edited by), Carolyn A. Brown (Edited by), Timothy Parsons (Edited by), Ahmad Alawad Sikainga (Edited by)

9781107053205, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 20 April 2015

566 pages, 29 b/w illus. 1 map
22.9 x 15.2 x 3.2 cm, 0.88 kg

'This collection of essays by historians and political scientists from across the English-speaking world examine various aspects of the political and diplomatic institutions and decisions that had immediate influence on the outbreak of the Great War. The essays fall into four groups, 'Overview of Debates about the Causes of the First World War', 'Structure and Agency', 'The Question of Preventive War', and 'The Role of the Other Powers'. The essays are all well-documented and thoughtful, but tend to be analytical, rather than narrative, often fall into political science jargon, and presuppose considerable knowledge of events and actors on the part of the reader. An excellent work, this is primarily for the serious scholar of the Great War and of decision-making in times of crisis.' A. A. Nofi, StrategyPage (www.strategypage.com)

This volume considers the military, economic, and political significance of Africa during World War II. The essays feature new research and innovative approaches to the historiography of Africa and bring to the fore issues of race, gender, and labor during the war, topics that have not yet received much critical attention. It explores the experiences of male and female combatants, peasant producers, women traders, missionaries, and sex workers. The first section offers three introductory essays that give a continent-wide overview of how Africa sustained the Allied effort through labor and resources. The six sections that follow offer individual case studies from different parts of the continent. Contributors offer a macro and micro view of the multiple levels on which Africa's contributions shaped the war as well as the ways in which the war affected individuals and communities and transformed Africa's political, economic, and social landscape.

1. The experiences of ordinary Africans in World War II T. Parsons
2. Producing for the war J. A. Byfield
3. African labor in the making of World War II C. Brown
4. The military, race, and resistance: the conundrums of recruiting black South African men during the Second World War L. Grundlingh
5. The Moroccan 'effort de guerre' in World War II D. Maghraoui
6. Free to coerce: forced labor during and after the Vichy years in French West Africa C. B. Ash
7. No country fit for heroes: the plight of disabled Kenyan veterans T. Parsons
8. Women, rice, and war: political and economic crisis in war-time Abeokuta (Nigeria) J. A. Byfield
9. Africa's 'battle for rubber' in the Second World War W. G. Clarence-Smith
10. Freetown and World War II: strategic militarization, accommodation, and resistance A. M. Howard
11. Free France, unfree Africa: extraction and labor in French Equatorial Africa under free French rule E. T. Jennings
12. The Portuguese African colonies and World War II M. Newitt
13. Pit sawyers, rubber tappers, and forest farmers: World War II and the transformation of the Tanzanian forests T. Sunseri
14. Wrestling with race on the eve of human rights: British management of the color line in post-fascist Eritrea G. Barrera
15. To be treated as a man: masculinity, race, and the imperial state in the Nigerian coal industry C. Brown
16. 'A white man's war': settler masculinity in the Union Defense Force, 1939–45 S. Chetty
17. African soldiers, French women, and colonial fears during and after World War II R. Ginio
18. World War II and the sex trade in British West Africa C. Ray
19. American missions in war-time French West Africa B. M. Cooper
20. Fighting fascism: Ethiopian women patriots 1935–41 H. Habtu and J. A. Byfield
21. Defending the land of their ancestors: African American military experience in Africa during World War II D. Hutchinson
22. French African soldiers in German POW camps, 1940–5 R. Scheck
23. Resistance and mobilization: Guinea and World War II E. Schmidt
24. Sudanese response to World War II A. Sikainga
25. Uganda after World War II C. Summers
26. Consequences of the war A. Sikainga.

Subject Areas: Military history [HBW], African history [HBJH], History [HB]