East African Campaign (WWI)

East Africa · 1914–1918

“Hear the East African campaign through the carriers, not only through the generals.”

World War I reached East Africa through German and British colonies. The fighting armies were smaller than the labour system behind them: hundreds of thousands of African carriers moved food, ammunition and equipment through bush, disease and hunger.

Jelikan · Ìtàn · A story is told at night

Sit by the fire.
The griot remembers.

244 tellings from the African Conflict Atlas, every one carried in the griot's own voice — empires and uprisings, taxes and stools, gold roads and broken promises. Told the way a griot tells them: by voice, by lesson, by question.

“A story, a story!”

32 fires burn through the year →

Choose a thread

What shall the fire hear tonight?

Tonight

All time

1200 CEToday

— and the circle answers: “Let it come, let it go.”

Sit by the fire.The griot remembers.

What shall the fire hear tonight?

Sit by the fire.
The griot remembers.