Since the first publication had James Willson Esq. published his book and all my articles paled in comparison, as he described in his book ‘Guerillas of Tsavo’ details and connects the dots across the battlefield as only a true aficionado can.
His years of hard work paid off when his book was published, now already a reference book for war history students, as nowhere else are the events of the European war which came to East Africa described as accurately and in such great detail. The war sucked in tens of thousands of African into the maelstrom of history, forced to fight for their colonial masters, dying in battle and of diseases and exhaustion by the tens of thousands and yet were never given the recognition, vis a vis a war cemetery, which those who fell by their side from Europe, Australia, New Zealand or even India received. Admittedly there are in each country monuments to remember the Kings’ African Rifles but with due respect, much more has to be done, like establishing final resting places, perhaps under the auspices of today’s armed forces in East Africa and of course adding these events into the local history books as the great- or even great-great-grandfathers of today’s generation very likely had been pressed into service and more likely than not lost their live for a King or a Kaiser they never saw and never knew.
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