White War, Black Soldiers: Two African Accounts of World War I
Edited by George Robb, author Bakary Diallo, Lamine Senghor, translated by Nancy Erber, William Peniston


Paperback | Jul 2021 | Hackett Publishing | 9781624669514 | 200pp | TXT | AUD$27.95, NZD$32.99
Hardback (B315) | May 2021 | Hackett Publishing | 9781624669521 | 200pp | 215x139mm | TXT | AUD$72.00, NZD$89.99

Strength and Goodness (Force-Bonté) by Bakary Diallo is one of the only memoirs of World War I ever written or published by an African. It remains a pioneering work of African literature as well as a unique and invaluable historical document about colonialism and Africa’s role in the Great War. Lamine Senghor’s The Rape of a Country (La Violation d’un pays) is another pioneering French work by a Senegalese veteran of World War I, but one that offers a stark contrast to Strength and Goodness. Both are made available for the first time in English in this edition, complete with a glossary of terms and a general historical introduction. The centennial of World War I is an ideal moment to present Strength and Goodness and The Rape of a Country to a wider, English-reading public. Until recently, Africa's role in the war has been neglected by historians and largely forgotten by the general public. Euro-centric versions of the war still predominate in popular culture, Many historians, however, now insist that African participation in the 1914-18 War is a large part of what made that conflict a world war.