Description
Book SynopsisProvides the first history of the only primarily African military unit from Zimbabwe to fight in the First World War. The RNR participated in some of the key engagements of the German East Africa campaign's later phase. This book takes a new look at an old campaign and will appeal to scholars of African or military history.
Trade Review``Authored by a respected historian of Africa, this well written and accessible book will be rewarding for anybody with an interest in World War One. In less than two hundred pages Stapleton successfully restores to history the forgotten (if not consciously ignored) record of African soldiers who served in the Rhodesia Native Regiment (RNR) in East Africa between 1916 and 1918.... Driven by genuine interest and concern, Stapleton has written an excellent jargon-free monograph. He has done the memory of the soldiers of the RNR an immeasurable service and it is to be hoped that his work will serve as an incentive to others.'' -- Jan-Bart Gewald, African Studies Centre, University of Leiden, The Netherlands -- Journal of Military History, Vol. 73, No. 1, January 2009, 200902
``Stapleton has made the most of the fragmented sources to rescue the Rhodesia Native Regiment from undeserved neglect in the scholarly literature on Africa in the First World War. His account not only painstakingly reconstructs the RNR's operations in the East Africa campaign but in the process throws a searching light on the nature of the racist Southern Rhodesian state that recruited the RNR, and empathetically probes what military service meant for the African soldiers themselves. This book contributes significantly to our understanding of the nature of the Great War in Africa.'' -- John Laband, Wilfrid Laurier University, author of The Transvaal Rebellion:The First Boer War 1880-1881 -- 200603
Table of Contents
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No Insignificant Part: The Rhodesia Native Regiment and the East Africa Campaign of the First World War by Timothy J. Stapleton
- Acknowledgements
- List of Abbreviations
- List of Terms
- Introduction
- Setting the Stage: Colonialism and Zimbabwe
- The First World War and Africa
- Africans in Southern Rhodesia (Zimbabwe) and the First World War
- Soldiers in the Rhodesia Native Regiment: Their Profile and Daily Life
- The Road to Songea
- The Sieges of Malangali and Songea
- The Siege of Kitanda
- Disaster at St. Moritz
- Mpepo: The Place of Winds
- Portuguese East Africa
- Demobilization and Life after the War
- Conclusion
- Appendix: Short Biographies of Some RNR Soldiers
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index
