Name: Radio France International: Invité Culture by WWIAfrica
Duration: 7 min 2 s
Description: August 28th, 2014 :Jacques Enaudeau is a guest speaker on Radio France International Culture radio segment and speaks to Sarah Tisseyre about the World War I in Africa Project. Segment is in French.

On today’s podcast, I speak with Kathleen Bomani and Jacques Enaudeau, co-founders of the World War I in Africa project.

Through the World War I in Africa project, Ms. Bomani and Mr. Enaudeau seek not to commemorate the passing of the war, but to restore its meaning by challenging boilerplate narratives and highlighting new narrators.

As the project's website explains, two million African soldiers, workers and porters participated in the war, yet their story remains largely ignored to this day. “Europe's 20th century started in 1914, and the yoke of colonialism steered Africa along for the ride,” Bomani and Enaudeau write. “Battles between the French, British, Belgian, German and Portuguese colonial empires pitted Africans against each other on their own soil,” they continue. 

Tens of thousands of African lives were lost, while migration trends were set, economies transformed, and borders redefined all as a result of “the war to end all wars.”

You can find more information about the World War I in Africa Project through the links below.

website: http://wwiafrica.ghost.io/
twitter: https://twitter.com/wwiafrica
facebook: https://www.facebook.com/wwiafrica
tumblr: http://wwiafrica.tumblr.com/

To access more of my reporting, please visit ptinti.com (http://ptinti.com/) and Beacon reader (https://www.beaconreader.com/peter-tinti).

World War I in Africa: An Interview with Kathleen Bomani and Jacques Enaudeau

August 28th, 2014 :Jacques Enaudeau is a guest speaker on Radio France International Culture radio segment and speaks to Sarah Tisseyre about the World War I in Africa Project. Segment is in French. 

Radio France International: Invité Culture

The story of Africans’ involvement in the Great War is largely unheard of: the tens of thousands of African lives lost at home and abroad, defending the interests of foreign powers and the lives of complete strangers; the forced recruitment of African soldiers to fight Europe’s war, and of African workers to replace the labour force gone to the front; the battles between colonies pitting Africans against each other on their own turf; the reshaping of Africa’s borders and inner workings after the war under new rulers.

Europe’s 20th century started in 1914, and the yoke of colonialism steered Africa along for the ride. Migration trends were set, economies transformed, borders redefined. The task we’ve given ourselves is to dig this heritage out: not to commemorate its passing, but to restore its meaning.

In light of current zeitgeists — a morbid obsession with the past in Europe, an unfeigned disdain for anything but the future in Africa — we believe the Centenary to be a fertile common ground for investigating the present.

Radio France International: Invité Culture

WWIAfrica

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