Soldiers of misfortune

Even though it briefly appeared in the news a couple of years ago, I paid scarce attention to the issue of Africans who fought for France in the second World War and did not obtain the pension that was their due. I pitied the old men but I never felt an ardent desire to read about yet more people who feel they’ve been wronged by the whites – I was sure I could already spell out their laments. But when I searched the internet for historical information on Ghana and came across glowing reviews of a book about Ivorian ex-soldiers, Soldiers of Misfortune, I ordered it out of mild curiosity, thinking I might learn something about Ivory Coast in the colonial days. It proved to be a real page-turner: I read it straight through. Never did I know that more than 100,000 Ivorians were conscripted as 'volunteers' to fight the Germans and given vague, if at all, promises of voting rights in return. More important to them was the unofficial French policy that anciens militaires were exempt from forced labor. In clean and often witty prose the author, Nancy Lawler, notes that “most had no idea of where they were going” when they embarked for France in 1940.

The men she interviewed were mainly from the northern town of Korhogo. Some tell the story of the battle for France, others recount their experiences in Lebanon, a French protectorate at the time. The unlucky ones spent years in a German prisoner-of-war camp. Some Germans treated African prisoners relatively well, however. They liked them because they didn't try to escape: they had nowhere to go. They also made good domestic servants:

"A German officer took me as his boy. There were two of us. They gave us names. They called me Bibo and my friend Jambo. Names of slaves, but we were slaves. But they did give us food and a good certificate."

Many soldiers spent the euphoric days of liberation drinking in Paris before they were repatriated with a small demobilization allowance. France began to worry that the Africans could be influenced by nationalistic ideas -- some veterans had developed friendships with American soldiers, both black and white, and the French saw America as hostile to colonialism. A man from Korhogo remembers his surprise at seeing black Americans:

"I didn't know black Americans existed. I had an American friend. We went out together. I saw a guy who looked like a Korhogolese. I spoke to him, but when he did not understand me, I knew he was not from Korhogo. We did not know where they came from."

At their return, many veterans actively supported the rising nationalist movement in Ivory Coast. It was Felix Houphouet-Boigny who told them they must now fight not for France but for their own country. But when independence was finally obtained in 1960, the soldiers of the new Ivorian army had little interest in the stories of an older generation about a war that was over, and the veterans and their accomplishments, says the author, were gradually consigned to oblivion.