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Nigerian Forces Comforts Fund, 1940–1947: “The Responsibility of the Nigerian Government to Provide Funds for the Welfare of Its Soldiers”

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 December 2019

Emmanuel Nwafor Mordi
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Abstract

This study seeks to make an original contribution to the historiography of Africa and the Second World War. It examines the efforts of the Nigerian government and the British Army towards the welfare and comforts of Nigerian soldiers during their overseas services from 1940 to 1947. Their deployments in East Africa, the Middle East, and Southeast Asia had brought the issue of their morale maintenance, namely comforts and welfare, to the fore. Extant Nigerian studies of the Second World War have been concerned with Nigerian contributions to Allied victory in terms of diverse economic exertions and those guided by charity towards Europeans affected by the German blitzkrieg, particularly in Britain. Consequently, this paper explains the genesis, objectives, and policy directions of the Nigerian Forces Comforts Fund and its impact on Nigerian servicemen's comforts and welfare. The study posits the argument that constant disagreements and indeed struggles for supremacy between the military and the civil power adversely affected troops’ comforts and welfare. Delayed postwar repatriation of the idle and bored troops to West Africa, in breach of openly proclaimed wartime promises, bred anxiety and made them prone to mutiny. The end of demobilisation in 1947 left many disgruntled ex-servicemen applying for reenlistment.

Keywords

Italian East African campaignNigerian military historySecond World WarSouth East Asia Commandtroops’ comforts and welfare
Type
Articles
Information
Itinerario , Volume 43 , Issue 3 , December 2019 , pp. 516 - 542
Copyright
Copyright © 2019 Research Institute for History, Leiden University

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Footnotes

*

Emmanuel Nwafor Mordi, PhD (Nigeria) is a Senior Lecturer in History in the Department of History and International Studies, Delta State University, Abraka, Nigeria. He was the foundation Acting Head of the Department between 2004/2005 and 2008/2009 Academic Sessions. A Member of The Society for Army Historical Research (SAHR), London, 2019 and the Historical Society of Nigeria since the 1980s, Dr Mordi has many years of university teaching experience. He is the author of “What if the Huns Come? Imperial Britain's Attitude towards Nigerians’ Enthusiasm for Military Service during the Second World War, 1939–1942,” Journal of Asian and African Studies 54:6(2019) and “‘Sufficient Reinforcements Overseas’: British PostWar Troops’ Recruiting Policy in Nigeria, 1945–53,” Journal of Contemporary History (online first, July 2019). His current research interest, the neglected West African, including Nigerian forces in the Second World War and its aftermath, is supported with a grant from the Nigerian Tertiary Education Trust Fund (Tetfund).

References

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Ntabeni, Mary N. “Military Labour Mobilisation in Colonial Lesotho during World War II, 1940–1943.” Scientia Militaria, South African Journal of Military Studies 36:2 (2008): 36–59.Google Scholar
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Simelane, Hamilton Sipho. “Labour Mobilization for the War Effort in Swaziland, 1940–42.” The International Journal of African Historical Studies 26:3 (1993): 541–75.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Summerfield, Penny. “Dunkirk and the Popular Memory of Britain at War, 1940–58.”Journal of Contemporary History 45:4 (2010): 788–811.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tanaka, Yuki. Japan's Comfort Women: Sexual Slavery and Prostitution during World War II and the US Occupation. London: Routledge, 2002.Google Scholar
Tembo, A.The Impact of the Second World War on Northern Rhodesia (Zambia), 1939–1953. PhD diss., University of the Free State, South Africa, 2015.Google Scholar
UNESCO. Africa and the Second World War: Report and Papers of the Symposium Organized by UNESCO at Benghazi Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, from 10 to 13 November. Paris: The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, 1985.Google Scholar
Weitz, Rockford. “Strategic Oceanic Chokepoints: Are They Still Important?” Topslide.Net, 12 December (2000): 1–5.https://topslide.net/view-doc.html?utm_source=strategic-oceanic-chokepoints-are-they-still-important.Google Scholar
The National Archives of the United Kingdom, Kew (TNA)Google Scholar
Colonial Office (CO) and War Office (WO)Google Scholar
Nigerian National Archives, Ibadan (NAI)Google Scholar
Chief Secretary's Office (CSO)Google Scholar
Asaba Division (Asa Div I)Google Scholar
Brands, Hal. “Wartime Recruiting Practices, Martial Identity and Post–World War II Demobilization in Colonial Kenya.” Journal of African History 46 (2005): 103–25.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Byfield, Judith A. “Feeding the Troops: Abeokuta (Nigeria) and World War II.” African Economic History 35 (2007): 77–87.Google Scholar
Byfield, Judith A. “Producing for the War.” In Africa and World War II, edited by Byfield, Judith A. et al. 24–40. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2015.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Byfield, Judith A. et al. (eds.), Africa and World War II, New York: Cambridge University Press, 2015.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chuku, Gloria. “‘Crack Kernels, Crack Hitler’: Export Production Drives and Igbo Women during the Second World War.” In Gendering the African Diaspora: Women, Culture and Historical Change in the Caribbean and Nigerian Hinterland, edited by Byfield, Judith A., Denzer, LaRay, and Morrison, Anthea. 219–44. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2010.Google Scholar
Crowder, Michael. “The 1939–45 War and West Africa.” In History of West Africa, vol. 2, edited by Ade Ajayi, Jacob F. and Crowder, Michael. 596–621. London: Longman, 1974.Google Scholar
Dumett, Raymond E. “Africa's Strategic Minerals during the Second World War.” Journal of African History 26: 4 (1985): 381–408.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Duncan, David. “Mutiny in the RAF: The Air Force Strikes of 1946.” Socialist History Society Occasional Papers Series 8 (1998). https: //libcom.org/book/export/html/26188.Google Scholar
Evans, Harold. “Studies in War-Time Organisation: (2) The Resident Ministry in West Africa.” African Affairs 43: 173 (1944): 152–58.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Falola, T. “Cassava Starch for Export in Nigeria during the Second World War.” African Economic History 18 (1989): 73–98.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Falola, Toyin. “‘Salt Is Gold’: The Management of Salt Scarcity in Nigeria during World War II.” Canadian Journal of African Studies 24: 3 (1992): 412–36.Google Scholar
Faluyi, Kehinde. “Nigeria's Contribution to the Second World War: The Production Drive.” Nigeria Magazine 57: 3–4 (1989): 96–102.Google Scholar
Harman, Kristyn, “‘The Families Were … Too Poor to Send Them Parcels’: The Provision of Comforts to Aboriginal Soldiers in the AIF in the Second World War.” Aboriginal History 39 (2015): 223–44.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hsu, Yvonne Park. “‘Comfort Women’ from Korea: Japan's World War II Sex Slaves and the Legitimacy of Their Claims for Reparations.” Pacific Rim Law and Policy Journal 2:1 (1993): 97–129.Google Scholar
Jackson, Ashley. “African Soldiers and Imperial Authorities: Tensions and Unrest during the Service of High Commission Territories Soldiers in the British Army, 1941–46.” Journal of Southern African Studies 25:4 (1999): 645–65.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jackson, Ashley. The British Empire and the Second World War. London: Hambledon Continuum, 2006.Google Scholar
Jackson, Ashley. “Motivation and Mobilization for War: Recruitment for the British Army in the Bechuanaland Protectorate, 1941–42.” African Affairs 96:384 (1997): 399–417.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kane, Kelvin. Morale Maintenance in World War II US Army Ground Combat Units: European Theatre of Operations, 1944–45. Honors thesis, University of Richmond, Va., 2013.Google Scholar
Killingray, David. Fighting for Britain: African Soldiers in the Second World War. Suffolk: James Currey, 2010.Google Scholar
Killingray, David “Military and Labour Recruitment in the Gold Coast during the Second World War.” Journal of African History 23:1(1982): 83–95.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Killingray, David, and Rathbone, Richard, eds. Africa and the Second World War. London: Palgrave Macmillan, 1986.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lee, Sue R. “Comforting the Comfort Women: Who Can Make Japan Pay?” University of Pennsylvania Journal of International Law 24:2 (2014): 509–47.Google Scholar
Leese, Oliver. “Despatches on Operations in Burma, 12 November 1944 to 15 August 1945.” In The Battle for Burma 1943–1945: From Kolima and Imphal through to Victory, introduced and compiled by Greham, John and Mace, Martin, 124–248. Barnsley: Pen and Sword Military, 2015.Google Scholar
Leigh, Michael D.The Evacuation of Civilians from Burma: Analysing the 1942 Colonial Disaster. Bloomsbury: A & C, 2014.Google Scholar
Mordi, Emmanuel N. “In Defense of Empire: Government Press Collaboration in the British Win the War Efforts in Nigeria during the Second World War.” Jebat: Malaysian Journal of History, Politics & Strategic Studies 44:1 (2017): 58–88.Google Scholar
Njoku, Onwuka N. “The Burden of Imperialism: Nigeria War Relief Fund, 1939–1945.” Transafrican Journal of History 6/7 (1977/78): 79–99.Google Scholar
Ntabeni, Mary N. “Military Labour Mobilisation in Colonial Lesotho during World War II, 1940–1943.” Scientia Militaria, South African Journal of Military Studies 36:2 (2008): 36–59.Google Scholar
Oliver, Dean F. “Awaiting Return: Life in the Canadian Army's Overseas Repatriation Depots, 1945–1946.” In The Veterans Charter and Post–World War II Canada, edited by Neary, Peter and Granatstein, J. L., 32–60. Montreal: McGill Queen's Press, 1998.Google Scholar
Olusanya, Gabriel O.The Second World War and Politics in Nigeria, 1939–1953. Lagos: Evans Brothers, 1973.Google Scholar
Parsons, Timothy. “The Experiences of Ordinary Africans in World War II.” In Africa and World War II, edited by A, Judith. Byfield et al. 3–23. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2015.Google Scholar
Roy, Kaushik. “Discipline and Morale of the African, British and Indian Army Units in Burma and India during World War II: July 1943 to August 1945.” Modern Asian Studies 44:6 (2010): 1255–82.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Seddon, R. L., Jones, E., and Greenberg, Neil. “The Role of Chaplains in Maintaining the Psychological Health of Military Personnel: An Historical and Contemporary Perspective.” Military Medicine 176:12 (2011): 1357–61.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Simelane, Hamilton Sipho. “Labour Mobilization for the War Effort in Swaziland, 1940–42.” The International Journal of African Historical Studies 26:3 (1993): 541–75.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Summerfield, Penny. “Dunkirk and the Popular Memory of Britain at War, 1940–58.”Journal of Contemporary History 45:4 (2010): 788–811.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tanaka, Yuki. Japan's Comfort Women: Sexual Slavery and Prostitution during World War II and the US Occupation. London: Routledge, 2002.Google Scholar
Tembo, A.The Impact of the Second World War on Northern Rhodesia (Zambia), 1939–1953. PhD diss., University of the Free State, South Africa, 2015.Google Scholar
UNESCO. Africa and the Second World War: Report and Papers of the Symposium Organized by UNESCO at Benghazi Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, from 10 to 13 November. Paris: The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, 1985.Google Scholar
Weitz, Rockford. “Strategic Oceanic Chokepoints: Are They Still Important?” Topslide.Net, 12 December (2000): 1–5.https://topslide.net/view-doc.html?utm_source=strategic-oceanic-chokepoints-are-they-still-important.Google Scholar