Northern Rhodesians (Zambians) in the Aftermath of the First World War

Abstract

This paper investigates the demobilization of Northern Rhodesian (Zambian) servicemen after the First World War. Tied to this, is the compensation and commemoration of the askari (soldiers) and mtenga-tenga (porters) who died in the war. The compensation of ex-servicemen was a drawn-out process which took several years, eventually coming to a halt in 1928 with many Africans forfeiting their dues. The British South Africa Company (BSAC) and the British Colonial Government did not erect individual tombstones to commemorate ex-servicemen. The partiality exhibited in commemoration and compensation processes, based on racial lines, did not reflect the enormous contributions which these Africans made to the Allied war effort. The main sources for this article are official government records stored in the National Archives of Zambia, and records of the Catholic White Father missionaries.