What if the Huns Come? Imperial Britain’s Attitude Towards Nigerians’ Enthusiasm for Military Service During the Second World War, 1939–1942

Abstract

In this article, Britain’s attitude towards Nigerians’ voluntary enlistment as combatants during the Second World War is studied. The historical method is deployed to interrogate previously untapped archival sources on the subject. Against the conventional wisdom, this micro-study posits Britain’s rebuff of Nigerians’ voluntary enlistment in order to preserve white supremacy by not arming and deploying Africans to fight Europeans. Nigerians protested the British treatment of the war as a white man’s war in which Africans had no significant role to play. Pressure on British manpower necessitated a policy reversal. Conscription was, thus, not due to Africans’ refusal to fight for Britain.

‘Forward Petitions to NEWA for Whatever Guidance and Assistance, if any’: Post-War Demobilisation Conundrum in Nigeria, 1946–1951

“…In the latter year, the colonial government considered the repeal of the Employment of Ex-Servicemen’s Ordinance upon which the postwar demobilisation of Nigerian soldiers rested, even as the 1951 Macpherson Constitution heralded the gradual devolution of power to Nigerians. There is an extensive literature on Africa and the Second World War by scholars across the world from diverse perspectives (Killingray, 1982, 1986, 1989, 2010; Mordi, 2019a, 2019b; Ndumbe III,1985), but post-war demobilisation in Africa remains, unlike in other parts of the world (see, for instance, Dale, 2010), a neglected theme. Instead, scholars focus attention on the way African contributions to the Allied victory had impacted the rehabilitation and restoration of the Africans’ image and confidence in their relationship with the coloniser.…”

“…In their view, the larger population viewed the war ‘as essentially something removed and remote, “a white man’s war” yet again’. However, this assertion glosses over the thousands of Nigerian soldiers that enlisted voluntarily and served in different capacities on the battlefields of North Africa, Europe, the Middle East and Southeast Asia during the war as part of the African Expeditionary Forces (Mordi, 2019a; Ndumbe III, 1985: 52, 70).…”