World War II was not 'really white'

Gasebalwe Seretse
Correspondent | Thursday April 30, 2009 00:00

According to the article, 'papers unearthed by the BBC reveal that British and American commanders ensured that the liberation of Paris on August 25, 1945 was seen as a 'whites only' victory, adding that 'the BBC's Document programme has seen evidence that black colonial  soldiers - who made up around two-thirds of Free French Forces - were deliberately removed from the unit that led the Allied advance into the French capital. The article further says that by the time France fell more than 17,000 of its black colonial troops lay dead.

Here in Botswana, it is commonplace to see a Motswana World War II veteran being dismissed whenever he tries to narrate his WWII gallantry. It is a sad fact that the efforts of our veterans were never properly documented perhaps as a measure of insuring that none of them gets the glory that they deserve.

Last year, Mmegi got the opportunity to interview two WWII veterans, Otaata Shashane of Palapye, and Leepile Powane, of Madibaneng ward in Mathubudukwane. Interestingly, both old men have sharp memories of the war and they remember some of the details as if they happened yesterday.

Powane calls WWII The White Man's war, and perhaps rightly so because many Africans were dragged into the war by their colonial masters. The old man says that he volunteered to join the war in South Africa after failing to get a job on the mines. He claims that he together with fellow Africans received proper military training in South Africa before joining the war and like other soldiers, they carried weapons.

Old Powane fondly remembers that his late chief, Kgosi Molefhi, as a hero of the war who greatly motivated the Bakgatla soldiers. He says that Molefhi, who reached Alexandria before most Bakgatla did, had asked upon arrival: 'A dipoo tsame di gorogile banna? (Have my bulls (men) arrived)?' He had wanted to know whether Bakgatla from South Africa had arrived. When the reply came in the negative, he is alleged to have said, 'Well, that does not surprise me because if that was the case, I would have been greeted by a detached head of a white man's child.'

The same Molefhi has been portrayed by a poet among his subjects as a black cow that clashed and overcame a red cow, Benito Mussolini of Italy. How exactly Molefhi clashed with Mussolini can never be ascertained because his war exploits have not been properly documented.

Like many Batswana war veterans, the Mokgatla wants to be remembered as a hero who braved a war on the high seas before finally landing in Alexandria, Egypt.

In fact, the Mokgatla says he killed many enemy troops.
'I cannot say the exact number of enemy soldiers I brought down because in war you do not have time to count bodies, but I can assure you that I killed some men in that war,' Powane told this writer then.

Old Shashane also says that Batswana soldiers received proper military training. Unlike Powane, he does not say much about his heroic deeds during the war but mentions its horrors.

Shashane says that after he and his fellow Batswana soldiers received training, they went to Durban where they boarded a ship to Egypt. He says that before they reached the Red Sea, they were attacked by enemy planes but fortunately they escaped unscathed.

According to the old man, the First Division of African Corps was mauled down by the Germans but fortunately for him, he was in the Second Division.

The Second Division fought the Germans in Egypt and the war reached a stalemate. The scheming Germans then cut off supplies to the Allied Forces at Alexandria and as a result, the weakened Second Division soldiers were defeated and captured.

The old Mongwato, who is originally from Modingwane ward in Serowe, speaks of a concentration camp in Tripoli, Libya, where they suffered untold humiliation at the hands of the enemy before being transferred to Rome in Italy in a battleship.

He speaks of a hair-raising moment when they nearly died from 'friendly-fire' when the Allied planes attacked the battleship.

He remembers how they survived the attack only to be paraded in the streets of Rome and how some people, who had never seen a black man before, came to feel their hair and skin.  The old man also remembers how  they were finally liberated at a concentration camp in France, which by then was under German occupation, thus bringing the story full circle.

In Thomson's article, Former French colonial  soldier, 87-year-old Issa Cisse from Senegal, who might have played a role in the liberation of the likes of Shashane, looks back on it (the war) with sadness and evident resentment. 'We the Senegalese, were commanded by the white French chiefs.

We were colonised by the French. We were forced to go to war. Forced to follow the orders that said 'do this, do that' and we did. France has not been grateful. Not at all.'
Echoing his words, Powane told me in an interview that he only got a 'thank you' from the white men (the British).

Batswana soldiers who managed to reach the highest military rank that could be accorded Africans, the rank of 'regimental sergeant major' include Kgosi Kgari Sechele of the Bakwena, Kgosi Molefhi Pilane of the Bakgatla, Molwa Sekgoma, a Mongwato, Rasebolai Kgamane, a Mongwato, and Mookami Gaseitsiwe, a Mongwaketse.

Thomson's article should most certainly motivate Batswana and other African historians to make an attempt to record the war efforts of their people lest other races 'steal' the war from them.