Africa�s First World War (Part 3) �Batswana In The Saudf�

“When you return you will replace the whites in the administration, you will have decorations and you will gain the same salaries as the whites who are here.”

The influence of the first black French MP was not just confined to the ranks of “La Force Noire.” In his memoires veteran Stimela Jingoes vividly recalled the day Diagne addressed Batswana, as well as his fellow Basotho and Swazi, members of the South African Native Labour Contingent (SANLC) Fifth Battalion in France: