Africa and Africans in the World Wars: The Prelude and Disposition for Leveraged Exploitation through Violence and Coercion

Abstract

This article argues that there is a set twin repertoires of coercion and violence that consistently characterized Europe’s involvement in Africa starting with its trans-Atlantic slave trade in which millions of able-bodied Africans were transported against their will to the New World where they were forced to labor as chattels in plantations, through the trade in produce commodities, conquest, and de facto occupation of the continent to the two World Wars when African commodity produce and manpower were impressed and utilized in the win the war efforts. Both repertoires remain handy all through the above-listed endeavors, and without them, it could have been extremely impossible for Europeans to successfully pull each one of them off. An analysis that factors both repertoires in reveals that the era of conquest and occupation of Africa flowed seamlessly into the era of World War I when the European powers that colonized Africa relied on them to impress Africans as manpower for its win the war efforts. For one to better understand each of the six endeavors, one needs to understand all six.