This is a tragic story. The inadequacies of mechanised and animal transport, and the
prolonged battles with the wily von Lettow-Vorbeck in German East Africa,
compelled the British military authorities to rely increasingly on porters recruited
locally. Early deficiencies in organisation and medical support led to appalling
casualties amongst the porters, particularly those recruited from the old East Africa
Protectorate. Under the energetic efforts of John Ainsworth, Oscar Watkins, and
others from late 1917, the working conditions of the porters were greatly, if belatedly,
improved. But the price paid had been high. Some 163,000 Kenya Africans and
183,000 from Uganda were recruited into the Carrier Corps. But whereas Uganda
losses were 3,870 dead and 4,650 missing (believed dead), the Kenya figures were
25,891 dead and 13,748 missing. Those tribes, particularly from Nyanza and the
Kikuyu areas, who suffered most, were then visited by the terrible influenza epidemic
immediately after the war. Yet Treasury rules held back some 67,000 pounds of the modest
compensation due to the dependants who could not be traced due to inadequate
records (the sum for Tanganyika was even greater - with 13,129 carriers dead, 94,000 pounds
was still outstanding as unpaid in 1922). It is perhaps indicative of Treasury mentality
that all efforts in Kenya to use the unpaid balances for welfare projects locally were
blocked. The money was finally released in the 1930s, after the Carter Land
Commission had reported, to pay for demarcation on the ground of the new
boundaries of the African Land Units.
Geoffrey Hodges has given us a workmanlike and scholarly account of the whole
sad episode. To do this he spent over 15 years working on the project. It is a pity that
his publishers did not match his painstaking approach, not least in seeking to minimise typographical errors. Nevertheless, this is a serious monograph deserving to be
studied. It also benefits from a concise but telling introduction by Elspeth Huxley. Of
the war memorial in Nairobi, she observes that it consists of three larger-than-life
bronze African figures; one a KAR rifleman, one a private from the Arab Rifles and
the last a porter. "The third", she adds, "represents members of the Carrier Corps
which, while non-combatant, suffered heavier casualties than all other units put
together in the East Africa campaign." Perhaps that statue is the final irony?
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