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Hello and

welcome to the Witness History Podcast from the BBC World Service with me Alex Last.

And today another chance to hear a special episode from our collection as we use rare recordings to tell the forgotten story of the more than a million African soldiers and porters who served in the British and German colonial armies across British East Africa.

In 1914 a foreign war came to villages across British East Africa. The White District Commissioner came from Machacchagos.

The White District Commissioner came from Machacagos.

He called the old men together with the local chief,

then he told them he needed people, 20 or 30. So the old man proposed men from different families to make the list.

The white commissioner had traveled with two police officers who then laid the recruits back to Machakos. We went to Gove's office, he was in charge then. They were looking for young men who paid taxes and we were told married men were not desirable.

They say the married man who escaped from the King's African Rife Force

because his woman would always be on his mind.

There were 100 of us from Govis area.

These are rare recordings of African veterans recruited by the British during the First World War.

The original tapes were made in Kenya in the early 1980s by an American Gerald Rilling with the help of a Kenyan Paul Kiamba.

They tell the story of a group of Kenyan soldiers and porters who are among more than a million men from across the empire who served the British in the war against German forces in East Africa.

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