By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network<\/p>\n\n\n\n
NEW YORK | LONDON (IDN) \u2013 The UK government is coming under pressure to compensate and apologize to the last surviving African veterans who fought alongside white British soldiers in the Second World War that began 80 years ago and lasted six years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
More than half a million black African soldiers who fought in the British army were paid up to three times less than their white counterparts, a newly unearthed document has revealed, prompting calls for an investigation and the government to compensate surviving veterans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The document, buried in Britain\u2019s national archives, reveals how the government systematically discriminated against African soldiers, paying white personnel \u2013 even those living in African colonies and serving alongside African soldiers in British colonial units \u2013 far more than their black counterparts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Three parliamentarians are demanding that the administration of Theresa May acknowledge the unfair treatment, launch an investigation, issue a formal apology and pay veterans compensation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Details of the discriminatory practices were highlighted in a documentary for Al-Jazeera English\u2019s People and Power series. The documentary also highlights how, although enlistment was supposed to be voluntary, testimony from surviving veterans and their widows undermines this official line.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
One veteran, 93-year-old Gershon Fundi \u2013 whom Britain sent to Ethiopia and Somaliland as a signalman \u2013 said: \u201cThey were treating us as slaves. We were there not because we wanted to be there. But we were forced to go there. If you run, even if you go home, chiefs would arrest you and then you\u2019re going to be brought back. But how can you complain? To whom are you going to complain?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe have no voice, we have no voice at all,\u201d he told a Guardian reporter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Their testimony is supported by the research of leading historians of the era. \u201cPressure was put on chiefs to provide their quota and they forced men to enlist,\u201d says David Killingray, emeritus professor of modern history at Goldsmiths University, who described the experience of individuals \u201ccaught up by this system\u201d as appalling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Not only were African soldiers in Britain\u2019s forces barred from becoming commissioned officers and from disciplining lower-ranking white soldiers, they were also subjected to corporal punishment, which the British army had officially outlawed for decades.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThey beat us,\u201d said Eusebio Mbiuki, a 100-year-old veteran who served in Britain\u2019s Burma campaign against the Japanese. \u201cThey beat us a lot. Our bodies became so swollen from the beatings. They would beat us and slap us until you accepted everything you were being told. And you couldn\u2019t answer back. Who would you speak to? They were your commanders.\u201d [IDN-InDepthNews \u2013 20 February 2019]<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Photo: Joseph Hammond, aged 91, is a Commonwealth veteran from Ghana who fought for Britain in WWII. Credit: DFID<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network NEW YORK | LONDON (IDN) \u2013 The UK government is coming under pressure to compensate and apologize to the last surviving African veterans who fought alongside white British soldiers in the Second World War that began 80 years ago and lasted six years. More than half a million black […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7332,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35,18,16,32,1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-7329","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-africa","8":"category-injustice-corruption","9":"category-news","10":"category-regions","11":"category-sdgs"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inpsjapan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7329","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inpsjapan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inpsjapan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inpsjapan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inpsjapan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7329"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/inpsjapan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7329\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7330,"href":"https:\/\/inpsjapan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7329\/revisions\/7330"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inpsjapan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7332"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inpsjapan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7329"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inpsjapan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7329"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inpsjapan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7329"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}