In 2023 we began preparation to mark the 80th anniversary of the end of the Second World War in ways that reflected the experiences of the conflict from the perspective of those in Africa, South Asia, and the Caribbean.
Despite many efforts and projects, particularly driven by diasporic communities around the UK, those experiences remain largely unknown to most of the British public. There were, in total, vastly more people in military service from around the Empire than there were serving who were born in Britain – including (by some estimates) 3.35 million from British India alone.
Equally, the war re-shaped the lives of those ‘at home’ around the world, which we explored in an episode of On the Record, The National Archives’ podcast.
On the Record: Second World War – Legacies, Language and Diaspora
In this episode, specialists at The National Archives and writer Sharmila Chauhan discuss a collection of records about the recruitment of soldiers from across Britain’s colonies.
British participation in the conflict caused the re-directing of food resources across the British Empire, re-structuring local economies and in some circumstances causing severe famine for civilians. It created new social opportunities for some, and for many of those who enlisted in military service, created new expectations about political rights – although these were often not met. Individual families faced sacrifice, loss and trauma.
The legacies of the war have been complicated and divisive for different countries and communities that were living under imperial rule at that time.
No simple stories
The numbers of people involved, and the scale and diversity of the experiences around the globe, make telling simple stories very difficult. In designing a workshop, how could we recognise the wide range of experiences that were inherited from the Second World War by different diasporic communities in the UK? How could we address the complexities of the legacies?
Poster issued by the Ministry of Information depicting Private Diana Williams from Guyana, who joined the Auxiliary Territorial Service and is shown retreading a tyre at a repair depot in the Midlands. Catalogue reference: INF 2/10
To solve this problem we made a call to the archives sector across the UK looking for partner organisations and began conversations with colleagues at Lewisham Heritage, Coventry Archives at the Herbert Museum and Art Gallery, and with the D-Day Story Museum in Portsmouth. In those conversations we began discussing the histories of the Second World War as recorded in their collections and in relationship to the diverse local communities that those organisations serve.
The workshops were designed to be two hours long, and included an opportunity to view and discuss records from the War Office and Colonial Office that spoke to the multilingualism and cultural diversity of the combatants and non-combatants that became engaged in the conflict. As organisers, we selected records from a wide range of angles including posters, speeches, morale reports, and propaganda.
These were parcelled up into large envelopes with a label briefly introducing the content. At the start of the workshop the envelopes were laid on tables and the participants were invited to open them.
Opening the envelopes to explore facsimiles of Second World War records.
Unlike a curated exhibition, the documents that the workshop participants unpacked from the envelopes didn’t have a story linking them together. Unpacking the envelopes gave a concrete sense of how historical research is often a process of pulling together fragments then speculating how they might fit together. This is particularly true of research connected to empire, where family migration, and the location of records across both UK and overseas archives, can make stories hard to follow.
Working with fragments also gave space for the different ways in which the stories of the Second World War might have been transmitted over generations from different and conflicting perspectives. Where military service with the allies might have been a source of pride for some families, for others those stories lost their significance when their countries gained independence from British rule.
International African Service Bureau
Manifesto
The following statement is issued by the International African Service Bureau, the West African Youth League, the Kikuyu (East African) Central Association, The Trade Union Congress of Sierra Leone, The Abyssinia Freedom League, The West Indian National Federation, and other associated anti-imperialist organisations in South Africa, French West Africa and the Belgian Congo.
The Second World War and the Negro Peoples
Africans and peoples of African descent – Greetings:
Already Africans, Indians, West Indians and other coloured races are being appealed to, and in the French colonies conscripted in the most brutal manner as cannon fodder for the bloody holocaust which threatens to drown the world in blood and bring misery, ruin and devastation on a scale undreamed of before.
The maharajahs, sultans, emirs, sheiks, paramount chiefs and other native potentates are vieing with one another in offering up the lives of their people as human sacrifices to Mars. However, we need not be deceived by the gestures of those stalwart champions of Democracy and Freedom. These minions are merely doing what they have been ordered to do by their masters. They are the stooges of Imperialism.
The manifesto of the International African Service Bureau from 1940, which argued that the war against Fascism could not serve ‘democracy’ unless Britain gave real democracy to those living under Empire. Catalogue reference: MEPO 39/91
This approach to ‘unpacking’ the past felt very productive. Some of the posters and visual propaganda offered depictions of Black men and women in service in the UK during the war, and provoked strong reactions from the participants, who felt that these visuals were missing from public understanding of the conflict today.
Many conversations flowed, as people opened one envelope after another, and these allowed those attending to see the war from new and different angles. Some of the more moving reflections were those where people were reminded of conversations they’d had in the past, and when they discovered information that they simply hadn’t been given at school.
Recording feedback
We invited people to record comments or write their reflections down on a prompt sheet. Those reflections helped us to evaluate the workshops and think about how we can future design activities and resources in future.
Some of the feedback included the following:
When I speak to my white counterparts they know, but it's not the same for us, there are two generations below us and they literally do not know about the war, buying poppies, what's it got to do with us. So, it's really important to get it out there. So, when we've gone they're not left thinking that our people made no contribution.
Seeing these artefacts is really important. You’ve read or been told it was a global effort, but until you actually see the real [evidence]... not that proof is necessary, but your understanding changes and becomes deeper and emotional.
I’m very visual and my idea of the Second World War mostly comes from films, and they are largely white. Seeing these images today just made me realise about the contribution of all the countries. My parents are from West Africa and it just hadn’t really clocked about the contributions that we made to the war. I’m just really pleased to see the different images of the war here today because it will make me think and feel differently. It made me want to go back and know more about my own family’s contributions that haven’t been handed down and I haven’t sought to get more information about.
It was clear that there is still much that is contested about war memory and particularly the role of the empire, and the project has offered a route into these debates for public audiences. The results of the workshops are feeding into wider plans to mark the anniversary and to think more about the kinds of impact these conversations about complicated pasts can have on how we commemorate iconic moments.
Over the coming months we will be working with colleagues in our Education team to produce a learning resource that gives access to these records to teachers and wider audiences. Look out for this in the autumn.
