In 1994, I met a Ghanaian ex-serviceman, Mr. Kwesi Addi, at a local chop-bar in Madina, one of the ever-growing suburbs of Accra, who told me a lot about his participation in the war in Burma. What began as a casual conversation over red-red (fried plantain and beans stew) and "bitters" ["medicinal" akpeteshie"], later turned out to be a treasure nest of information. I was able to record his accounts, including renditions of wartime songs, in Twi/Akan on several tapes. Such lived-experiences and histories and prosopographies address African voices that need to be packaged for posterity. I agree with Ikhide, my brother in law, that you should craft an essay from your father's narratives and papers.
From: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com [usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com] on behalf of Pablo Idahosa [pidahosa@yorku.ca]
Sent: Thursday, August 16, 2012 4:50 PM
To: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com
Subject: USA Africa Dialogue Series - The forgotten war
Sent: Thursday, August 16, 2012 4:50 PM
To: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com
Subject: USA Africa Dialogue Series - The forgotten war
Please take a look: http://www.aljazeera.com/photo_galleries/programmes/2011829151520656815.html. This might be of some interest to those who have any interest in various kinds of historical, and African studies, or who perhaps, like myself, had fathers, grandfathers, uncles and great uncles who fought in this colonial/ "anti-colonial" imperialist and anti-facist war. There are so many sub-stories here, along with many touches of pathos and irony.
I also looked at the novel by Biyi Bandele, Burma Boy (KIng's Rifle, I think is the other title), which I'd given to my Dad, but which he didn't appear very impressed by it. After his death I had also initially gone though some his letters, which were an amazing compendium of so much of his larger than, unique life, including some from his Nigerian, and other West African comrades. Lamentably, in moving, one of the trunks with these letters was either stolen or lost.
My Dad always felt he was not given sufficient recognition for his "war effort" from Nigeria, which of course not a state when he and others were demobbed, or from the Brits for whom wars were always victories won by white people. As young as he was, this part of his life was so formative for so many reasons, and it is no wonder that he talked about it so much. This is a remarkable story about Africans, and about some of the Burmese who harboured them; and as sad as I am about not fulfilling a promise to him, seeing this has given me more impetus to do work on this myself.
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A few years ago before my Pa died, I had done some initial research for him, as he wanted to contact some of his old comrades, especially one Albert Mensah. I had tracked down a piece by David Killingray in the Journal of African History that I assume became one of the chapters in his book, which I have not read; and I'd had wanted to send him a note about my Dad, which I assumed he might want to follow up on, but alas could not because he died before any communication could take place. I also got in touch with some guy who ran the Company's website, who actually knew of the platoon my father was in was in.
I also looked at the novel by Biyi Bandele, Burma Boy (KIng's Rifle, I think is the other title), which I'd given to my Dad, but which he didn't appear very impressed by it. After his death I had also initially gone though some his letters, which were an amazing compendium of so much of his larger than, unique life, including some from his Nigerian, and other West African comrades. Lamentably, in moving, one of the trunks with these letters was either stolen or lost.
My Dad always felt he was not given sufficient recognition for his "war effort" from Nigeria, which of course not a state when he and others were demobbed, or from the Brits for whom wars were always victories won by white people. As young as he was, this part of his life was so formative for so many reasons, and it is no wonder that he talked about it so much. This is a remarkable story about Africans, and about some of the Burmese who harboured them; and as sad as I am about not fulfilling a promise to him, seeing this has given me more impetus to do work on this myself.
But forgive me if I tell one story my late Pa told me about his friend, Albert Mensah, who had been captured along with other African and British NCOs and officers by the Japanese who were brutal with everyone. They singled out an officer, a Brit, and in a purposeful act of brutal and humiliating punishment, they made all the Africans watch as they stripped the officer naked and thrashed him over and over again within, as they say, an inch of his life. And then a Japanese Officer-interpretator, in apparently impeccable English, shouted out to the captured and frightened African soldiers: "Look at your Imperial masters now!" Asian fascism humiliating one racial hierarchy and asserting another. When Mensah and other soldiers were liberated, they were debriefed and told to stay quiet about what they had seen, or they would be put in irons.
Pablo
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