Africans in World War II

Credits

Name: Africans in World War II

Country: Großbritannien

Year of publication: 1997

Format: Beta SP

Language : OF engl.

Duration: 60 Minuten

Direction: Adu-Asamoa, Barima

Camera: Sherped, Nathan

Abstract

The film was commissioned by BBC CHANELL 4 Television, produced and directed by Barima Adu-Asamoa, Executive Director of Africa Media & Democracy Institute, the film highlights the contribution of Africans towards the two success World Wars in bringing about democracy and the rule of law.

Never before has any authoritative account of Africans contributions to the two successive World Wars been recounted from their point of view. ‘AFRICANS IN WORLD WAR II’ uses archive material on Africans during World War I and II and brings into focus aspects of the Wars hitherto unmentioned. The film begins with Africa’s contribution in World War I with silent archival footage and adopts early cinema (silent period) caption-lead narrative style to establish the role played by Africans in World War I.

It maps a stylistic departure as we go to 1939 with a prelude to the ADOWA War (Ethiopian-Italian War) and to Africans in Burma and North African campaigns. This is interposed with live interviews and anecdotes from World War II Veterans, to set up sequences of personal stories from West, East, and ect Africa to Jamaica Islands introduced by theme music from the country of origin of each individual interviewee. The film also tells the story of a Ghanaian War Veteran RANS BOI, who was captured on board a British Vessel on the River Plate in South America and sent to the first German Nazi Concentration Camp in German. The film ends with an overview from Veterans Royal West African Frontier Force who on returning to Gold Coast participated in the 28th FEB incident which accelerated political independence of then Gold Coast’s’ (Ghana).