After more than a century of neglect, 1,772 Black South African servicemen who died in World War I have finally been honored with a memorial in Cape Town.
These men, members of the Cape Town Labor Corps, served in non-combat roles on the Allied side, transporting supplies and building infrastructure in the African theater of the war. Racial discrimination during British colonial rule and South Africa’s apartheid regime denied them recognition for their sacrifice.
The memorial, located in Cape Town’s oldest public garden, features their names engraved on upright African hardwood poles, symbolically reaching for the sun. An inscription on a granite block reads: “Your legacies are preserved here.”
Denied the right to bear arms because of their race, these servicemen were confined to support roles in battles across former German colonies in Africa, including present-day Namibia, Tanzania, Rwanda, and Burundi. Despite making the ultimate sacrifice, their contributions were erased from history until researchers unearthed evidence of their service a decade ago.
On Wednesday, Britain’s Princess Anne, president of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC), inaugurated the memorial, AP reported. The CWGC, which built the tribute, said the project was aimed at correcting a historical injustice.
“It ensures the names and stories of those who died will echo in history for future generations,” Princess Anne said during the ceremony. Her speech was followed by a lone soldier playing “The Last Post,” commemorating the servicemen 106 years after the end of World War I.
While South Africa has long commemorated its white soldiers in war memorials, the contributions of Black servicemen had been overlooked for decades.
David McDonald, the CWGC’s operational manager for South Africa, explained that the discovery of army documents revealed the identities of more than 1,700 Black servicemen. The commission also traced the families of six of the deceased, and four of those families attended the ceremony.
Elliot Malunga Delihlazo, whose great-grandfather Bhesengile was among those honored, expressed his family’s emotional reaction: “It made us very proud. It made us very happy. Although it pains us that we can’t find the remains, at last, we know he died in 1917. Now, the family knows. Now, at last, we know.”
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