Research: World War II and Africa: Exhibits

Exhibit Sources: Images

This 1944/5 photo shows Troops of 11th East African Division passing the Chindwin River crossing on the road to Kalewa, Burma during World War II. From the collections of the Imperial War Museums (No 9 Army Film & Photographic Unit/ Watson E (Sgt))

ARTstor This link opens in a new window ARTstor is a database of images from museums, artists, libraries, colleges and universities, scholars, private collections, and photo archives available for teaching, education, and scholarship, with all images cleared for educational use.
Associated Press Images Collection This link opens in a new window Associated Press Images Collection is a searchable collection of recent and historical photos from the Associated Press, plus AP graphics, articles, and brief sound clips.

Exhibit Sources: Newspapers

Front page of "Il Mattino' newspaper, May 10, 1936. Photo by Chirico Giuseppe, 2016.

Gaskiya ta fi Kwabo: Hausa Language World War II Era Newspaper Gaskiya was the first newspaper published entirely in Hausa, the largest language in west Africa and in Nigeria. As a result of Gaskiya’s popularity, Romanised Hausa became more popular than Arabic script and began to predominate. The spelling, grammar, vocabulary and style used in Gaskiya became standard Hausa. Gaskiya was important for providing information about World War II to Nigerians. It also shows the attitudes of Africans to the war. Gaskiya shows how Nigerian experiences in the war, and Nigerians’ exposure to the outside world, helped to generate and sustain the nationalist movement.
West African Pilot (1937-1945 & beyond) Lagos Nigeria Newspaper whose World War II era issues are digitized or microfilmed through Cooperative Africana Microform Project (CAMP) Initiative. Digital issues available for Nov 24, 1937-May 19, 1938; Apr 7-Dec 1941; 1945; Dec 19, 1955-June 10, 1959 issues. More issues in microfilm.
New Times and Ethiopian News A weekly newspaper founded & edited by British suffragette & peace activist Sylvia Pankhurst following the Italian invasion of Ethiopia. It supported the League of Nations, opposed Fascism, contained news about Italian violence in Ethiopia, campaigned for Ethiopian interests in Britain, and protested at various aspects of British imperialism. The Italian aggression in East Africa stimulated black nationalist feeling around the world and the New Times and Ethiopian News gained an international readership especially in West Africa and the West Indies. After the war the New Times and Ethiopian News opposed the British occupation of the Ogaden region of Ethiopia. Description based on entry in Oxford Companion to Black British History, 1997 by David Killingray.

ProQuest Historical Newspapers This link opens in a new window Full-page images and article images (PDF) with searchable full text from the following newspapers: Boston Globe; New York Times; Washington Post; Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, and Chicago Defender. See listing for each individual newspaper for date coverage and to search that publication separately.
Nexis Uni This link opens in a new window Nexis Uni is a source for newspapers and magazines, trade journals, wire services and transcripts, as well as legal sources for federal and state cases and statutes, including U.S. Supreme Court decisions since 1790, and information on U.S. and international companies and executives.
International Newsstream This link opens in a new window International, searchable, full text coverage of selected newspapers. (Text only; does not include images, charts.) Date coverage: 1977 - present.

Exhibit: Multimedia

Africa's Forgotten Soldiers - BBC Documentary Podcast
Martin Plaut reports. 12 November 2009. 24 Minutes.
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Seventy years after the start of the Second World War the overwhelming impression is of a conflict fought on the battlefields of Europe by white troops. Britain’s war effort was bolstered by soldiers from the white Commonwealth – Australia, Canada and New Zealand and later by the United States. The war in the Far East is often overlooked, as is the fighting that took place in Africa. Yet one million African troops participated in the conflict, fighting their way through the jungles of Burma, across the Libyan deserts and in the skies over London.
In this documentary we hear first hand from the African troops who participated in the war – and who played a critical part in freeing the world from the threat of fascism.

Exhibit: Official Documents

World War II Documents Franklin D. Roosevelt's Statement on North African Policy;
World War II - North African Campaign During the Second World War, the North African Campaign took place in North Africa from 10 June 1940 to 13 May 1943. It included campaigns fought in the Libyan and Egyptian deserts (Western Desert Campaign, also known as the Desert War) and in Morocco and Algeria (Operation Torch) and Tunisia (Tunisia Campaign).

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Gabe Adugna

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Subjects: African Studies