For medal collectors, 8 October 2026 sees the Captain of the SS Mendi‘s medals up for auction. Details here

Historian John MacKenzie passed away on 18 September 2026.

CWGC’s David MacDonald posted on LinkedIn: “a new Commonwealth War Graves Commission design by Studio Mehta Architecture and O/S Architecture which has been co-curated with community members in Mkongani, Kenya to safeguard a First World War burial site. A new community baraza will commemorate 14 men of the Arab Rifles who lost their lives here on 9th January 1916. Over the next few weeks we will share more details about the scheme, who the men of the Arab Rifles were and how their experiences during the First World War were almost forgotten.”

The long-awaited There Came a Time volume 3 has been published under the title: Fiction as Memory: The Great War in Africa. It is now available for purchase at £21.32.

As usual there have been some new additions to the website and spreadsheets.
The seminar on 23 September focused on archives holding WW1 Africa material – below is a list to start. If you are aware of any others, please let us know. The archives will be listed in the relevant country sections on the Forum. It would be helpful to add information on access, such as whether catalogues are available, fees payable and any special permissions one needs, etc.

The next online seminar is on 13 October at 6pm UK time. The focus will be on Boers who served in the German Schutztruppe in the East Africa Campaign. If you would like to attend, please email Anne as the link is only sent to named individuals.
We have 4 available slots for online seminars in 2027, please get in touch if you would like to share your research or to suggest a topic to discuss.
Plans are in place for an online discussion day around ‘Writing African history in the World Wars’ – more info to follow but it is likely to be a Saturday in May 2027.

A new venue is potentially needed for the 2027 GWAA conference as the Africa Centre in London has had to close its doors. Our 2026 conference was one of the last events. Hopefully they are able to find a way to re-open but if you are aware of affordable and accessible venues, please let me know.

11, 12 and 13 March 2027 have been set aside as Great War in Africa study days at The National Archives, London. Details to follow but the idea is that I will be at the archive for the three days and anyone wanting to link with other researchers will be able to do so providing they let me know they will be there. Regular users know that it is very difficult to link with researchers on the same topic if you do not know who they are. Data protection prevents this information being shared publicly

Archives containing WW1 Africa material:
Kenya
Nairobi – National Archive
Various provincial archives

Tanzania
Dar es Salaam – National Archive
local museums (political, environment – eg Arusha)

South Africa
Pretoria – National Archive
Regional archives:Cape Town, Pietermaritzburg, Bloemfontein
SANDF Document Centre, Irene – Military records
Ditsong Military museum – private papers, photos
SA National Library, Cape Town
University collections:
– Wits – William Cullen Library
– Cape Town – Jagger Library
– Stellenbosch – propaganda posters
– Grahamstown – Cory Library, National Literature Library
– Durban – Kelly Kenny Library
– Pietermaritzburg – Comrades Marathon
– Brenthurst Library, Johannesburg – appointment only

Zambia* – National Archive
Malawi* – National Archive (fee $100)
Zimbabwe* – Harare – National Archive
*fee payable which differs for overseas and local researchers

Namibia – Windhoek incl SA material from occupation years
Cameroon – Buea National Archive
Ghana – Accra
Nigeria – Ibadan, Enugu, River States
Sierra Leone – National Archive

Caribbean – Jamaica, Barbados, Grenada

Belgium – Africa museum, Royal Military
France – Archives Nasionales section d’outre mer
Germany – Bundesarchif, Hambault (pow recordings)
Ireland – Trinity College Dublin (medical)

UK
TNA – variety, Discovery Catalogue, includes most other archive catalogues (Use Discovery to check for personal papers in local archives)
BL manuscripts, Asia for India Office
National Army Museum
Imperial War Museum – Tues- Fri, online booking at least a week before
British Empire Museum – Bristol (WW2 officers)
Bodleian – Oxford, Africa collection (old Rhodes House)
SOAS, London (Royal Africa Society access) – weekdays only – missionaries
Cadbury Library, Birmingham – missionaries
Cambridge University Library
Edinburgh
Trowbridge (new name)
Fusilier Museum – some 25th Royal Fusiliers (LoF in Alberta, Canada)
Leeds – Liddel collection
King’s College London – Liddel Hart
Wellcome Institute, London

Egypt – National (difficult to access)
Australia – Canberra
India – No Africa records spotted

Online
Endangered Archive Project – KAR attestations (first 1000 records)
Ancestry (Fold 3/Forces Records UK) – paywall but free in libraries and archives
Findmypast – paywall
FamilySearch – need to register
Naval History
Newspapers (Readex) – on site at the British Library and through some universities
Facebook groups

Company archives – eg: HSBC, BSACo at London Archive, Derbyshire; Levers

Also consider oral histories, artefacts and photographs

Forthcoming Seminars
23 September 2026 – Archives – general discussion on strange places to find WW1 Africa material and accessing archives
14 October 2026 – Anne Samson: South Africans in the German Schutztruppe
Please let me know if you would like to join as links are sent to named individuals.

If you would like to share your your research/experience in a future seminar, please get in touch. The programme for 2027 is currently being arranged.

The historian John Iliffe passed away on 20 August 2026. He wrote numerous books on Africa which covered the war period.

Various spreadsheets on the site have been updated. If you have lists of names which can be added to the GWAA In Memory pages or that might be of assistance to other researchers, please get in touch.

New titles have been added to the books to purchase page. Buying through the links on the page help support GWAA or authors direct (some links are direct to the author or primary seller page).

Don’t forget there’s also the forum through which information can be shared.
And if you have any publications on World War 1 Africa (and other relevant conflicts in Africa), please send me the details so I can ensure they get added.

Our next event will be a seminar on 20 September. Unless someone has a specific topic they would like to share the focus will be on finding and accessing archives which hold material on Africa in the First World War. Please consider joining to share your experiences, positive and negative.

Going through some old emails I came across the 2014 correspondence authorising the British Library to archive the Great War in Africa site. I thought it worth sharing and putting on record – the significance of this is that gweaa.com is seen as a valuable resource and that if anything were to happen to it, aspects will still be accessible (once the British Library has managed to restore all its services post the October 2023 cyber attack). https://www.webarchive.org.uk/

As a result of the conference and seminars, a discussion forum has been started on the GWAA site. Its aim is not to replace other fora such as the Great War Forum but to allow members to share information – an example can be found here. The Forum is located under Resources.

The British Overseas Railway Trust has updated some of its pages – in particular Zimbabwe and military railways.

Thanks to everyone who managed to attend the conference in July – although a small group we managed to share a great deal of knowledge. If you were unable to attend and would like to do so, please email me with the time of year which would best suit you. We’re trying to find the most accessible time of the year. So far indications are late May and all of June, out of holiday season.
It’s also looking like we will have to find a new venue as The Africa Centre had to close – they say temporarily – from 28 July. Suggestions of alternative venues is also welcomed.