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| African American soldiers in WWI |
Today
marks the centenary of the first day of the Battle of the Somme.
Growing up in the States, I didn’t know much about the First World
War. I had never heard the names of the great battles such as
Verdun, Gallipoli, Passchendaele and, of course, The Somme. I learned a lot of
detailed information when I moved to the UK.
This
information was not taught when I was in school in the States,
probably because we did not enter the war until 1917. So we missed
out on The Somme, although our men experienced the final two years of
the conflict.
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| Black nurses at Camp Grant WWI |
World
War I is remembered for the senseless slaughter of the combatants.
The battle of The Somme went on for 141 days and saw the deaths of a
million soldiers on all sides of the conflict. Young men were sent
to their deaths by generals who either were incompetent or just did
not care about the lives being squandered – or possibly both.
World
War I was a new kind of war, relying on trench warfare and heavy
artillery. The doctors and nurses who treated the wounded saw types
of wounds they had never witnessed before. And the killing was on a
scale that had never occurred before.
It
is important that we remember The Somme and the men and women who
gave their lives during the war. Many of them came from Africa, the
Caribbean and India.
I
was not aware of the horrendous conditions in which Black soldiers
who served in the British Army lived. For example, in France, the
African Caribbean soldiers in the British Army slept in unheated
tents, while captured German enemy soldiers were given heated
accommodation in barracks. For more about this, see Black People in the First World War. Many men joined up in the naive belief that serving in the army, and "proving themselves" would lead to them experiencing less racism and racial discrimination at home.
World War One was meant to be the war to end wars, but if we look at the conflicts
in places such as Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan and northern Nigeria today, it is clear
that war is still alive and well.
Much
of the fighting took place on the African continent, and some of the
conflicts taking place in Africa over the past two decades have their origins in the First World War. So is much of the poverty and
deprivation still being suffered by people in Africa today. For more
about this, see Black People in the First World War.
I was aware that the First World War ushered in a
period of great change for many African Americans. Many of the men
who had served in the war and experienced being treated as equals –
for example, being allowed to sit and drink in cafés
in France, something we all take for granted today – returned home
to the States expecting and demanding equal treatment. This was one
factor that contributed to the epidemic of lynchings in the South
that began in 1919 and, of course, led to many African Americans
migrating North. So the First World War had a huge impact on the
lives of Black people all over the world.
I
have a lifelong commitment to nonviolence. We must end violence and
put an end to these conflicts that are still destroying the lives of
millions today.
