Nigeria and World War II

Britain''s declaration of war on Germany on 3 September 1939 made Nigeria like many other African societies active participants in the war against the Axis powers. Leading to large-scale mobilization of human and materials resources it transformed lives and societies in irrevocable ways. Of the 90000 West African soldiers deployed to South East Asia after 1943 over half came from Nigeria. In this important revisionist history Chima J. Korieh examines how the lives of Nigerian producers workers merchants men women and children from across society were affected. It recounts the extraordinary and often neglected story of the Nigerian people who were drawn into a global war the enormous demands it made on their resources and the way it would change both their lives and the societies they lived in. By placing the role that African societies played in the war within the contextual and theoretical frameworks of colonialism race gender identity labour intellectual and social history Korieh challenges the dominant perception that World War II was primarily a European conflict and reveals the global impact of ordinary Nigerians on the war effort.