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The Europeans | European news, politics and culture

November 13: The black soldier’s lament

The Europeans | European news, politics and culture

Katy Lee and Dominic Kraemer

News, Society & Culture, Politics

4.8162 Ratings

🗓️ 13 November 2018

⏱️ 35 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

A hundred years on from the end of World War I, we wanted to look at an aspect of the conflict we don't often talk about: the role of millions of troops of colour who fought for European powers. The excellent Christian Koller, professor of modern history at Zurich University, is here to help us explore what life was like for African and Asian soldiers who were often dismissed as 'savages' while risking their lives for European governments. Also: France faces its past, European conservatives face their future, and Dominic faces a lifetime of incessant church bells. Our episode name comes from the poem by George A. Borden: 'Black blood was spilled black bodies maimed / For medals brave no black was named.' You can read Christian's fascinating research here: https://bit.ly/2JYrDGu Twitter.com/EuropeansPod Instagram.com/europeanspodcast Facebook.com/europeanspodcast europeanspodcast@gmail.com Thanks for listening. 🇪🇺 ❤

Transcript

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0:00.0

Hello and welcome to another episode of the Europeans.

0:20.4

We are in two different cities as usual, but where are you actually?

0:24.6

I don't know. Where are you?

0:25.8

London Town. It's nice here.

0:28.0

This is my first time recording my boyfriend's new place.

0:30.7

And yeah, it's considerably nicer than my flat in Paris.

0:34.9

So I think I might just kind of stay here. Was that like a big,

0:39.3

bold declaration that you're quitting your job and moving to London? You heard it here first.

0:45.2

It's just so nice here. And also London is still part of Europe just about. So I think that'll be

0:51.2

fine, wouldn't it? Yeah, well, only for a few more months. We're not

0:54.7

talking about that, Katie. Yeah, sorry, the one thing that we cannot and do not talk about on this

0:58.7

podcast, the B word. But you're also in your new house. Are you all right? Because I was perusing

1:04.3

your Instagram this week. And I saw that you posted some stories of yourself listening to the church

1:09.8

bells, which are right next to your new

1:12.1

flat in Amsterdam very lovely church bells which ring every 15 minutes is it yeah and they don't

1:17.3

really ring every 15 minutes they play like a tune every 15 minutes that lasts about 45 seconds

1:21.9

and then they played a whole concert on saturday night they went on for two hours while i was trying

1:27.4

to work at home um So yeah, that was a challenge, but it is an amazing apartment. I am so jammy.

1:36.8

I don't know how I've managed to get this. All my left wing credentials have gone out the door

1:41.2

because I'm living in this gorgeous apartment. Have you managed to just start ignoring the bells then?

1:44.7

Because you did look like you're on the edge of some kind of breakdown.

1:47.4

I've stopped noticing them quite as much as I did initially.

...

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