WHEN President Robert Mugabe went to Russia recently to attend victory celebrations marking the defeat of Nazi Germany 70 years ago, he had this to say to the Russian President, Vladmir Putin: “It’s our victory together as Africans also fought fascism, albeit under imperial countries. “Those allies against fascism were themselves fascist occupiers on the African continent and therefore had to be fought. “The Soviet Union was an ally in that fight.” A number of questions immediately come to the fore in relation to Africa’s contribution to that war: Why and how did Africans contribute to the Second World War and in whose interest? Has this contribution been acknowledged? If so what does that acknowledgement amount to in the global scheme of things? Lastly what lessons can we get from Africa’s contributions to that war? First: It is important to note that the statement by President Mugabe is made in Moscow, not in London, or Brussels or Paris or in Washington. Of significance here is that the statement in regard to Africa’s role in the Second World War is made by President Mugabe after being invited to Moscow in his capacity as Chairman of the African Union (AU). In other words, Russia is going out of its way to acknowledge the African contribution to the defeat of Nazi Germany, a position which Europe and the USA have not been keen to project! Any acknowledgements of Africa’s massive contribution towards the defeat of Adolf Hitler that have come from the West have come in the form of books, articles and reviews written by some academics and not necessarily from its leaders. The plain truth is that most of these Western leaders and their governments have been more inclined to downplay Africa’s role in that war! Second: Africa’s role referred to by President Mugabe involved those Africans who were conscripted by countries such as France and Britain to fight a European war whose underlying causes they knew little about! For instance, between 1939 and 1940, France conscripted over 100 000 Africans in its colonies of Mauritania, Senegal, Niger and Burkina Faso to fight against German forces who had invaded France. In 1942, the French conscripted another 190 000 Africans into the Free France Army which was battling against superior German forces who were about to capture the whole of France. All these African troops were often deployed in front of the white French army as shock troops and often bore the brunt of enemy fire first. When the Germans ultimately defeated France, they found themselves holding a large number of black prisoners of war whom they transferred to Germany, one of them being Leopold Senghor who later on became the first president of independent Senegal. As for the defeated French they reorganised their humiliated army not in France, but in Africa in order to fight against the Vichy puppet regime set up in France by the Germans! In other words at their most dire moment of need during the war the French turned to Africa for human and material assistance! Third: During the early stages of the Second World War, the British were not keen to enlist Africans to fight their war because, “they were averse to black soldiers fighting Europeans, even enemies!” However, by 1940 the same British conscripted well over 650 000 Africans from both East and West Africa and used them to defend their Empire in Africa, Asia and ultimately to defend Europe from Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy! Their confidential Colonial Office memorandum of 1945 says it all in its typical British matter of fact tone: “African soldiers beat Italians out of Somaliland and Abyssinia, defeating the best Blackshirt battalions of Italy…They defended British West Africa from attack from Vichy territory, helped take Madagascar, and went to the Middle East as Pioneers and to the far East to fight Japan.” As for Lesotho, Botswana, Swaziland, Zambia and Zimbabwe – they all had a total of 78 000 Africans conscripted into the British army while Egypt had 100 000; Ethiopia – 30 000; Eritrea – 60 000.etc. Apart from France and Britain there were also other European powers such as Belgium and Portugal who relied heavily on human and material resources from Africa in order to continue fighting against Nazi Germany! Fourth: It is important for us to understand why the Western countries, particularly Britain and France, have been all along reluctant to acknowledge Africa’s big contribution to their survival during the war. The key point to note here is that all of these countries were fighting against Nazism and or Fascism as authoritarian and totalitarian ideologies and practices dedicated to complete control and expansion of the territories of both Germany and Italy in the heart of Europe. In other words, these two countries were determined to create through force of arms a vast fascist empire in Europe precisely in the same way that the British, French, Portuguese, Spaniards etc had already created, using military means, their empires in Africa In specific terms the crime that Hitler committed was to try to conquer Europe in the same way that Europe had conquered, almost the whole African continent! Europe tried as much as it could to hide this paradox from anyone who cared to know by confining Africa’s role in the Second World War to the margins of world history! To summarise the absurdities surrounding Africa’s contribution to the Second World War one can say: Africans found themselves fighting a war to protect and promote the freedom of European countries which, ironically, denied the same Africans freedom and justice in their African colonies. After the war, the British and the French did not hesitate to discriminate against African war veterans, giving them tokens of appreciation such as bicycles, puny gratuities, meaningless military titles and uniforms as well as symbolic medals while thanking their own kith and kin for their war effort by allocating them vast tracts of African land and money in Kenya, South Africa, Zimbabwe etc. Fifth: When we take into account that recent victory celebrations in Moscow were attended by presidents of South Africa, China, Brazil and India as members of BRICS among others, we realise that a realignment of like-minded global players is taking place vis-a-vis Western countries, which were conspicuous by their absence in Moscow. The implications of this re-alignment with Africa on board, is what some of our economists, politicians, analysts and policy makers are taking long to understand. This is demonstrated by their misplaced belief that the centre of the world remains in the West when in reality that centre is migrating to the East!