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Speaker 1: The African soldiers who helped win World War Two.

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Speaker 2: A freaka I welcome back.

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Speaker 1: Now it alls to another episode of the most anticipated

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Speaker 1: podcast on the Black Effect podcast network, especially in February,

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Speaker 1: entitled I didn't know, Maybe you didn't either. I'm your charismatic,

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Speaker 1: very attractive six foot two one and eighty pound cut

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Speaker 1: up like a bag of dope.

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Speaker 2: Host s Bee.

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Speaker 1: Dies and yes I look like a Greek god in

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Speaker 1: the nude. But that's neither here nor there. We've got

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Speaker 1: two more destinations this week, So grab that digital passport,

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Speaker 1: because today we headed to the mother Lane, Africa. Ah. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: you getting stamps this week because if your World War

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Speaker 1: two history only includes Europe and America, well that's not history,

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Speaker 1: that's editing. But before we get into that, I have

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Speaker 1: to give you three of the most useless facts you'll

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Speaker 1: never need.

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Speaker 2: Never ever, not a day in life.

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Speaker 1: Up first, over one million African soldiers fought in World

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Speaker 1: War Two. Your second useless fact. They served in Europe,

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Speaker 1: the Middle East, and Asia, not just Africa. And your

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Speaker 1: third useless fact, most of them came home to colonial

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Speaker 1: rule anyways.

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Speaker 2: So yeah, let's talk about that. I didn't know, Maybe

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Speaker 2: I didn't know.

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Speaker 1: I didn't know. I didn't know.

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Speaker 2: I didn't know. Maybe you didn't I didn't know.

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Speaker 1: I didn't know. I didn't know.

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Speaker 2: I didn't know.

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Speaker 1: Look, when World War Two broke out, Europe needed help bad.

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Speaker 1: They were looking like Jake Paul in the Rain where

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Speaker 1: Anthony Joshua last year? You remember that, and they'd have

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Speaker 1: got they white asses knocked out, just like Jake Paul

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Speaker 1: if they didn't do what colonial powers always do when

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Speaker 1: they're in trouble.

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Speaker 2: They turned to Africa.

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Speaker 1: Need bodies, Call Africa, need labor, Call Africa, need us

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Speaker 1: to fight your war.

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Speaker 2: Same man.

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Speaker 1: Britain, France and others recruited millions of African men to

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Speaker 1: fight fascism, Nazism and imperial aggression. The King's African Rifles,

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Speaker 1: the Royal West African Frontier Force, and these weren't just units,

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Speaker 1: they were entire military traditions with decorated service histories. African

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Speaker 1: soldiers fought in North Africa. They helped liberate Italy. They

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Speaker 1: battled in Burma, They guarded supply lines, they carried equipment

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Speaker 1: through the terrain. The Europeans couldn't survive Man. They wasn't assistance.

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Speaker 1: They were soldiers. Man the Burma campaign alone had ninety

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Speaker 1: thousand African soldiers fighting Japanese forces in jungle warfare. The

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Speaker 1: eighty first and eighty second West African Divisions were critical

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Speaker 1: to the Allied victory there. But here's the contradiction that

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Speaker 1: broke everything wide open. Man. African troops were fighting for

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Speaker 1: freedom abroad while they was living under colonial rule at home.

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Speaker 1: They saw Europeans panic, white soldiers, bleed, empire weakened, and

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Speaker 1: that's when they realized something that was powerful. These people

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Speaker 1: ain't invincible. Man. When that war ended them, African soldiers

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Speaker 1: returned home with military training, global awareness, and zero patients

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Speaker 1: for colonial nonsense.

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Speaker 2: That ain't a coincidence.

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Speaker 1: Many of those posts World War two independence movements across

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Speaker 1: Africa were led by veterans who had already fought and

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Speaker 1: won wars for other people. Kwamin the Krumer, Jomo Kenyata,

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Speaker 1: Leopold singor all independence leaders across Africa who drew directly

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Speaker 1: from veteran networks and the political awakening that came from

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Speaker 1: World War Two. They just decided it was time to

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Speaker 1: fight for themselves. And here's the part that gets erased.

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Speaker 1: World War two is often framed as the war that

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Speaker 1: saved democracy, but democracy leaned heavily on African bodies to

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Speaker 1: survive without them, That.

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Speaker 2: War looks pretty damn different.

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Speaker 1: A century after Cartigie Woodson warned that Black history would

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Speaker 1: be minimized or erased, African soldiers became proof they helped

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Speaker 1: save the world and were written out of the story.

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Speaker 2: CGBNW.

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Speaker 1: If we don't document global black sacrifice, freedom starts looking

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Speaker 1: like it was one by only a few, and it

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Speaker 1: was not. If you learn something on today's episode, please

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Speaker 1: share it because I promise you I didn't know.

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Speaker 2: Maybe you didn't either.

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Speaker 1: Congratulations, your passport has been stabbed.

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Speaker 2: Next up, Spain,