An exploration of themes of African military history

I am an African travel and field guide with some thirty years of experience in the travel industry. I am also an author on themes of African politics and history, particularly African military history. What follows here is a brief but growing exploration in the subject. I am available for individually guided tours of some of the main battlefield sites in southern and east Africa, the site of one of the least known of WWI campaigns.

Contact me for information on any travel ideas or plans you have to visit Africa.

The South African Border War

ShareAt the end of 1987 and the beginning of 1988 arguably the largest tank battle in Africa since WWII, and the only one of its kind ever to take place in sub-Saharan Africa, was fought. The Battle of Cuito Cuanavale was a key episode in what has since come to be known as the South [...]

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Robert Bell Smart the Royal Engineers Signals Unit

January 27, 2012
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ShareI was recently contacted by Eleanor Smart regarding a collection of photographs belonging to her and concerning her father who served in East Africa during WWI. What follows is her own description of the circumstances of Robert Bell Smart, and a selection of his photographs. Robert Bell Smart.  Born in Glasgow July 1890. Died in [...]

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Rourkes Drift and Isandlwana: Key sites of the Anglo Zulu War of 1879

January 1, 2012
Thumbnail image for Rourkes Drift and Isandlwana: Key sites of the Anglo Zulu War of 1879

ShareDeep in the signature countryside of Zululand – undulating grassland punctuated by rubble crowned kopjies and shallow river valleys – lie two key sites in the mythology of the black/white struggle for Southern Africa. The Anglo/Zulu War in many respects was the beginning of the end of black independent monarchy in Southern Africa. It came [...]

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THE OPERATIONS ON LAKE TANGANYIKA IN 1915

December 27, 2011
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Share By COMMANDER G . B. SPICER-SIMSON,. S.O., R.N. Wednesday, 28th March, 1934, at 3 p.m. ADMIRAL SIR WILLIAM GOODENOUGH,. C.B., M.V.O., in the Chair. The Chairman, in introducing the Lecturer, said that Commander Spicer-Simson had had a very varied and adventurous career. He saw service in China; he was on the Boundaries Commission in [...]

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Ian Henderson and the Hunt for Dedan Kimathi

December 4, 2011
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ShareDuring the course of 1956 an extraordinary drama played out in the forests of the Kenyan Aberdare Range, as two men, Dedan Kimathi, a Kikuyu Mau Mau forest leader, feared in equal measure by friends and enemies alike, and Ian Henderson, a local Special Branch member and guerrilla hunter extraordinaire, enacted a deadly game of [...]

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I Can Never Say Enough About the Men

September 8, 2011
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ShareI had noticed in my general browsing of the web that a new book associated with the East Africa Campaign of World War I had been published, strongly titled I Can never Say Enough About the Men. It did not drift into my orbit, however, and I found no opportunity to read it until I [...]

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The Rhodesia Regiment

August 15, 2011
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ShareThe Old Drill Hall Nowadays serving as an Interior Ministry building along Leopold Takawira Street more or less opposite the Harare Gardens. The Lion & Tusk is still in evidence. This is a reproduction of an historic publication reproduced by the Orafs, otherwise known as Old Rhodesian Air Force Sods How many thousands of soldiers [...]

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The Shangani Patrol

August 13, 2011
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ShareAs Rhodesian Administrator Leander Starr Jameson rode into the smoking ruins of Bulawayo in the aftermath of the first phase of the Matabele War he somewhat naively expected to find Lobengula waiting to surrender formally. This would have crowned an impressive advance with a clean victory and wrapped up the war in favour of the [...]

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A Quick Sketch of the Zimbabwe/Rhodesia Bush War

August 8, 2011
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ShareI have noticed a lot of search traffic on this site pertaining to the Zimbabwe/Rhodesian War.  Aside from the Wikipedia entry covering the period, there is very little on the world wide web dealing with the subject. What follows is a thumbnail sketch drawn from my own reading of the episode which is not intended [...]

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Selous Scouts: Rhodesian Counter-Insurgency Specialists

August 4, 2011
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ShareThe Africa@War series is being launched this year as a joint venture between 30 Degrees South publishing of SA and the Helion Group of the UK. It covers African warfare in the post WWII period, which, as we all know, is a very rich period in this particular field. The first book to be released [...]

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France in Centrafrique

July 21, 2011
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ShareAn interesting project landed in my lap a few months ago. My publisher, Chris Cocks of 30° South Publishing in Johannesburg asked me if I would be interested in providing the copy for a pictorial account of Frances military relationship with the Central African Republic. What I knew about the country was fairly limited – [...]

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The fight at el Wak, Northern Province, Kenya 23rd August 1926

Thumbnail image for The fight at el Wak, Northern Province, Kenya 23rd August 1926 March 26, 2011
This entry is part 5 of 6 in the series Harry Fecitt

Share The background In the summer of 1926 No.4 Company of the 3rd King’s African Rifles (3 KAR) was stationed at Wajir and Mandera in Kenya’s Northern Frontier Province.  The company commander sent out regular patrols to monitor security activities along the border with Italian territory.  Jubaland had been ceded over from Kenya to Italy [...]

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The Maruka Patrol: The Central Highlands of British East Africa September to October 1902

Thumbnail image for The Maruka Patrol: The Central Highlands of British East Africa September to October 1902 March 1, 2011
This entry is part 6 of 6 in the series Harry Fecitt

ShareBackground In 1901 the colonial authorities in British East Africa (now named Kenya) had completed a railway line from Mombasa on the Indian Ocean coast to Kisumu on Lake Victoria.  Ferries then transported passengers and goods across the lake to and from Port Bell in Uganda.  Having thus spent nearly 500 million pounds sterling (nearly [...]

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The fight at Gurin, The Cameroon Campaign 29 April 1915

Thumbnail image for The fight at Gurin, The Cameroon Campaign 29 April 1915 February 25, 2011
This entry is part 4 of 6 in the series Harry Fecitt

ShareIn April 1915 Captain Derek Wetherall Pawle, 2nd Battalion The Border Regiment, was aged 27 and serving on secondment with the 2nd Battalion of The Nigeria Regiment, West African Frontier Force. At that time British, French and Belgian allied forces had invaded the Cameroons, Germany’s largest West African colony. The Germans put up a spirited [...]

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The Action Around OK Pass, Somaliland Protectorate, 1st to 3rd March 1919

Thumbnail image for The Action Around OK Pass, Somaliland Protectorate, 1st to 3rd March 1919 February 25, 2011
This entry is part 3 of 6 in the series Harry Fecitt

ShareDuring the Great War internal security still had to be maintained throughout the vast British Empire.  One continuous problem facing the British was the ongoing insurgency in the Somaliland Protectorate inspired by the Dervish leader Sayyid Muhammad Abdullah Hassan, the so-called ‘Mad Mullah’.  This insurgency had been running sporadically since 1901 and adjacent Italian territory [...]

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Report on von Lettow Vorbeck and the Askari of German East Africa

Thumbnail image for Report on von Lettow Vorbeck and the Askari of German East Africa February 25, 2011
This entry is part 1 of 1 in the series Mark Thatcher

ShareI recently did some research on Lettow and the GEA askari. I received a lot of inspiration, information and direction from the Great War Forum. I would appreciate any feedback on my little essay. Anything I may have missed, am I in the ballpark.  My apologies if I am in error – Mark Thatcher History [...]

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Fighting the Aliab Dinka Southern Sudan, November 1919 – May 1920

Thumbnail image for Fighting the Aliab Dinka Southern Sudan, November 1919 – May 1920 February 25, 2011
This entry is part 2 of 6 in the series Harry Fecitt

Share  In southern Sudan in 1919 the Aliab Dinka, Bor Dinka and Mandari tribes inhabited an area west of the upper White Nile river.  The tribesmen tended to be tall and fit-looking cattle herders who were adept at using spears.  They had little if any time for western conventions such as wearing clothing or paying [...]

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The Gold Coast Regiment in East Africa

Thumbnail image for The Gold Coast Regiment in East Africa February 13, 2011

ShareOnce operations in West Africa were over, and the Cameroons had been seized from the German forces there, West African troops were nominated for the East African theatre. On 26th July the Gold Coast Regiment landed at Mombasa and joined General Smuts’ forces.  The Regiment was 1,428 men strong and had 12 machine-guns.  Also it [...]

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The Final Shots in Portuguese East Africa

Thumbnail image for The Final Shots in Portuguese East Africa February 11, 2011
This entry is part 1 of 6 in the series Harry Fecitt

ShareSHORTCOL September 1918 On September 1 1918, The German Schutztruppe commanded by Colonel Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck was moving northwards away from a fierce and costly battle fought over the previous two days at Lioma. The Schutztruppe’s strength on 1st September was 176 European officers and non-commissioned officers (NCOs) and 1,487 African Askari plus a large [...]

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Why did you fight? Narratives of Rhodesian identity during the insurgency 1972-1980

Thumbnail image for Why did you fight? Narratives of Rhodesian identity during the insurgency 1972-1980 January 27, 2011

ShareThe piece published below is attributed, and is an important observation on events of the 1970s in Rhodesia, balancing out a good many similar academic oral studies made on the guerilla forces involved, and balancing out some emotional but factually lean historic studies of the Rhodesian War from the point of view of white  Zimbabweans/Rhodesians. [...]

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An Expedition to recreate the journey of the Mimi and Toutou

Thumbnail image for An Expedition to recreate the journey of the Mimi and Toutou November 24, 2010

ShareAugust 2014 is the centenary of the start of World War I. Many commemorations will held in various parts of the world, including among the grave sites and battlefields of Africa. The Centenary of World War One This year, in combination with African Byways I will be organising, and guiding, a recreation of the journey [...]

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Proof that it wasn’t just white against black!

Thumbnail image for Proof that it wasn’t just white against black! November 24, 2010

Share(Some interesting comments and observations on the theme of this article can also be found here) I was browsing through the photographs on the Rhodesian Military Facebook page, and noticed a comment attached to a picture of a black Rhodesian soldier manhandling a black guerilla corpse, that this was…‘Proof that it wasn’t just white against [...]

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Why the Native Regiments and Askari Corps of Africa fought

Thumbnail image for Why the Native Regiments and Askari Corps of Africa fought November 9, 2010

ShareColonialism as an institution has been blamed for almost every ill affecting the developing world, particularly Africa, which has limped along with the aid of this crutch for two generations. Africa’s imperial history is as varied as every other aspect of its history, and the colonial experience itself varied from territory to territory. The Germans [...]

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The successful conclusion to the Battle of Lake Tanganyika

Thumbnail image for The successful conclusion to the Battle of Lake Tanganyika November 6, 2010
This entry is part 4 of 4 in the series Naval Africa Expedition

ShareIn researching this concluding chapter of the Mimi and Toutou saga, I waited until I was able to source a book written in the early 1960s by British author Peter Shankland, The Phantom Flotilla. This is an excellent book written largely from the verbal accounts of Doctor Hanchell, gathered during extensive interviews conducted by Shankland [...]

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Mimi and Toutou arrive on the shores of Lake Tanganyika

Thumbnail image for Mimi and Toutou arrive on the shores of Lake Tanganyika October 19, 2010
This entry is part 3 of 4 in the series Naval Africa Expedition

ShareThe best source currently available for the journey of the Mimi and Toutou from Furungume to the Lake is the October 1922 National Geographic article written by Frank Magee. Spicer-Simpson himself submitted a series of notes and a lecture on the Expedition, but this has generally been agreed to be so filled with hyperbole and [...]

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The Battle of Lake Tanganyika, how the war on the lake was won…Part 2

October 8, 2010
This entry is part 2 of 4 in the series Naval Africa Expedition

ShareFungurume, lying some 100 miles further up the line from the Katanganese capital of Elizabethville (Lubumbashi), was the final railhead of the great Cape to Cairo rail project, a concept that had been the visionary quest of Cecil John Rhodes, master empire builder, and one of the greatest Sons of England. Despite these august credentials, [...]

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The Battle of Lake Tanganyika, how the war on the lake was won…Part 1

October 4, 2010
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This entry is part 1 of 4 in the series Naval Africa Expedition

Share Sir Henry Jackson, First Sea Lord Admiral Sir Henry Jackson, in charge of Royal Naval operations against Germany’s colonial possessions during the early part of WWI, sat in his spacious office at Admiralty House on Whitehall, on a bright spring morning in 1915, and pondered with interest an appointment with an African hunter that [...]

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The Seige of Eland’s River and the Rhodesia Regiment

September 10, 2010

Share The last major action of the Anglo/Boer War involving the Rhodesia Regiment was in fact an all empire affair that included troops from Rhodesia and the various territories of Australia. This was the iconic Siege of Elands River that occurred between August 4 and August 16 of 1900. The event probably lives on more [...]

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A summary of the East Africa Campaign of World War I

August 24, 2010
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Share African Imperial history has in recent years become something of a discredited subject. The basic reason for this, I suppose, is that the political and social landscape of Africa has been so radically altered by independence that very little tangible trace of the period remains. It is also true that all the many failings [...]

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Paul Emil von Lettow Vorbeck, German Commander, African Hero

July 16, 2010

ShareThe East Africa Campaign of World War One threw up a number of great personalities. The Campaign is filled with military and civilian characters that contribute verve and colour to one of the most interesting campaigns of World War I. Not least of these were the two principal commanders, General Jan Christian Smuts and Colonel, [...]

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