More than 1,700 names are carved on poles of African hardwood. The sticks are planted upright, as if reaching for the Sun. They represent men buried more than a century ago. Finally, those men are being recognized with a memorial.
These 1,772 black South African servicemen served the Allies during World War I. That group of countries included the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Italy, Russia, and Japan. The men died in non-combat roles. They have no known graves, and their names were forgotten for more than a century.
While South Africa has several memorials dedicated to its white soldiers who died in both world wars, the black servicemen’s contribution was ignored for decades.
That history was in danger of being lost forever until a researcher found evidence of the men’s service in South African army documents around 10 years ago, says David McDonald. He is part of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, which oversaw the memorial project.
Researchers dug into the history of the more than 1,700 black servicemen. The commission located families of six of the dead. Most were from deeply rural South African regions.
The men didn’t serve in Europe but in fringe battles in Africa as members of the Cape Town Labor Corps. Allied forces there fought in the then-German colonies of German South West Africa (now Namibia) and German East Africa (now Tanzania, Rwanda, and Burundi).
Because they were black, the men were not allowed to carry arms. They transported food, ammunition, and other supplies and built roads and bridges during the Great War.
Yet these men made the same ultimate sacrifice as around 10 million others who died serving in armies in the 1914 to 1918 war.
After the war, the servicemen were not recognized because of the racial policies of British colonialism and then South Africa’s apartheid (discrimination) system.
The memorial finally rights a historical wrong, says the Commonwealth War Graves Commission. The British group looks after war graves and built the new memorial in Cape Town’s oldest public garden.
Members of four servicemen families attended the ceremony. They laid wreaths at the foot of the memorial and touched the individual poles dedicated to their lost relatives.
“It made us very proud. It made us very happy,” says Elliot Malunga Delihlazo. His great-grandfather, Bhesengile, was among those honored.
Delihlazo says his family knew only that Bhesengile went to war and never came back.
“Although it pains us . . . that we can’t find the remains, at last we know that he died in 1917,” Delihlazo says. “Now, at last, we know.”
Great Britain’s Princess Anne, the commission’s president, opened the memorial last week.
“It ensures the names and stories of those who died will echo in history for future generations,” Princess Anne said in her remarks. “It is important to recognize that those we have come to pay tribute to have gone unacknowledged for too long. We will remember them.”
After her speech, a soldier played “The Last Post” on his bugle. The song honored the servicemen as war dead—106 years, two months, and 11 days after the end of World War I.
You have kept count of my tossings; put my tears in your bottle. Are they not in your book? — Psalm 56:8
