Mail & Guardian
Mail & Guardian
world war ilatest news & developments
France’s President Emmanuel Macron. Photo: Supplied

French foreign lesions: An overdue reckoning

Colonial atrocities are finally catching up to Paris, and Emmanuel Macron’s government has not put up a fight

The fallen: The Cenotaph and two statues in Cape Town are in remembrance of both World Wars, showing the Western Front, the East African Campaign and the Battle of Delville Woods. Photo: Jaco Marais/Getty Images

Poppy Day: When did we forget to remember?

The act of remembrance is the recognition of the futility of war and mourning the loss of men and women whose future ended too soon

Memory: South African Native Labour Corps members who died when the SS Mendi sank, have been remembered, and 381 people, most of them from the corps, are buried in the military cemetery in Arques-la-Bataille, France. But the names and stories of other South Africans and those of hundreds of thousands from Uganda, Nigeria, Tanzania, Kenya, Sierra Leone and Malawi have been forgotten. Photo: Horacio Villalobos/Getty Images

War memorials, a cautionary memory bank for peace

South Africa’s part in World War I shows the importance of collective memory in recalling the ignored names of those who died in service

Fated: American soldiers in World War I.  (Photo by FRANCE PRESSE VOIR / AFP)

Europe is sleepwalking into another world war

Russia is at war with Ukraine because it is at war with Nato, which is commanded by the United States

“Vintage photograph of HMS Centurion taken in 1923, in Malta harbour.   She took part in the Battle of Jutland in the first world war, and she also took part in world war two.  NOTE: Real historic photo so the quality is not great.” (Getty Images)

Europe is sleepwalking into another world war

Russia is at war with Ukraine because it is at war with Nato, which is commanded by the United States

RPIN, UKRAINE — MARCH 4, 2022: Civilians, mostly women and children rush to board any train car that still has any room on it, as the sounds of battle Ð gunfire and bombing Ð fighting between Russian and Ukrainian forces draw closer to the city of Irpin, Ukraine, Friday, March 4, 2022. (MARCUS YAM / LOS ANGELES TIMES)

Refugees: The fallout of all wars

In World War I, millions of people fled Germany and millions fled when Germany occupied their countries; in Ukraine, it’s estimated four million will flee; and around the world…

Colonial troops: The first regiment of Senegalese infantrymen, in Longchamp, France in 1913. African soldiers’ contribution to World War I is rarely taught in French schools. (Branger/Roger Viollet/Getty Images)

David Diop’s Booker win makes African soldiers’ history visible

David Diop won the prestigious annual International Booker prize for translated fiction for his second novel, ‘At Night All Blood is Black’

Israeli forces intervene in Palestinians protesting Israeli attacks on Gaza Strip with tear gas during a demonstration held as part of the 73rd anniversary of Nakba, on May 17, 2021 in Nablus, West Bank. (Photo by Nedal Eshtayah/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)

Israel-Palestine conflict: The past laid the violent foundations

Israel’s iron grip over Palestinians had its beginnings in the demise of the Ottoman Empire and Britain and France’s arbitrary mapping out of the Middle East

Marshall plan, President Truman signs the Economic Assistance Act, a program for the reconstruction of Europe. (Dean Acheson on the right), April 19, 1949, Etats-Unis, National Archives – Washington, . (Photo by: Photo12/UIG via Getty Images)

Raila Odinga: The US and Europe cannot abandon their leadership roles

Today, the whole world stands where Europe was in 1945. Europe recovered then thanks to massive international assistance. That same attitude of cooperation and solidarity is…

A patient is transferred by an ambulance to the Infectious Disease Centre of Princess Margaret Hospital on January 22, 2020 in Hong Kong, China. (Anthony Kwan/Getty Images)

Containing Covid-19: SA must learn from the mistakes of the 1918 Spanish flu epidemic

In 1918, 6% of the population died from the Spanish flu.This could have been avoided had soldiers returning from World War I been strictly quarantined

United States President Donald Trump’s kinky relationship with Saudi Arabia echoes a previous US-Middle Eastern bromance between Richard Nixon and the Shah of Iran in the 1970s — and look how that ended. (Jonathan Ernst/Reuters)

The US-Saudi romance is ’70s Iran remixed

Middle Eastern arms customer and oil supplier dictates US foreign policy. Sounds familiar?

Poland’s President Andrzej Duda. (Janek Skarzynski/AFP/Getty)

Poland risks controversy on independence centenary

Chaos engulfed plans for the state military parade in Warsaw just days ahead of the centenary

(Philippe Wojazer/Pool/Reuters)

Macron wants ‘real European army’ to defend against Russia, US

The EU launched a joint multi-billion-euro defence fund last year designed to develop Europe’s military capacities

This photo of people from Britain’s colonies in Africa is one of the 40 propaganda photos taken by Albert Grohs in the Ruhluben internment camp near Berlin. It is part of the Maurice Ettinghausen Collection of papers at the Harvard Law School Library

Voices of African POWs speak in poetry of their misery

German linguists and anthropologists recorded the music and languages of seamen and army workers captured in WWI

Fallen soldiers of SS Mendi dragged into battle

The fated SS Mendi has been remembered, ignored and revived for political gain.

Last WWI combatant Claude Choules dies in Australia

Last WWI combatant Claude Choules dies in Australia

Briton Claude Choules, the last World War I combat veteran, has died aged 110 in Australia.

World marks 90th anniversary of Great War

Europe on Tuesday marked the 90th anniversary of the end of World War I, the last major memorial for its handful of surviving veterans.

Raunchy sex history of Somme revealed

The young soldier stepped into the bedroom. It was the first time he had gone to a prostitute and he felt apprehensive and embarrassed.