Barnaby Philips. (September 4, 2014). Another Man’s War: The Story of a Burma Boy in Britain’s Forgotten African Army. U.K., Oneworld, 336 pages. Available on Amazon UK (sept.) and Amazon.com (Oct).
About the Book
In December 1941 the Japanese invaded Burma. For the British, the longest land campaign of the Second World War had begun. 100,000 African soldiers were taken from Britain’s colonies to fight the Japanese in the Burmese jungles. They performed heroically in one of the most brutal theatres of war, yet their contribution has been largely ignored.
Isaac Fadoyebo was one of those ‘Burma Boys’. At the age of sixteen he ran away from his Nigerian village to join the British Army. Sent to Burma, he was attacked and left for dead in the jungle by the Japanese. Sheltered by courageous local rice farmers, Isaac spent nine months in hiding before his eventual rescue. He returned to Nigeria a hero, but his story was soon forgotten. Barnaby Phillips travelled to Nigeria and Burma in search of Isaac, the family who saved his life, and the legacy of an Empire. Another Man’s War is Isaac’s story.
Click here to go to the companion website for the book.
Click here to read a review of the book.
About the Author
Barnaby Phillips is a senior correspondent for Al Jazeera English, which he joined at the time of its launch in 2006. His documentary Burma Boy won the prestigious CINE Golden Eagle Award. Previously, he was for fifteen years a correspondent for the BBC, reporting primarily from Africa. Phillips grew up in Kenya and now lives in Islington, North London. This is his first book.
Thanks for this great article. I will make sure to purchase the book. So much of our history is hidden, and I am doing the same on my blog to revamp it. Afrolegends.com
A question for you Dibussi: Did Cameroonian soldiers fight during the war of Vietnam (Indochine)? We know that Bokassa did Vietnam (and even fathered a daughter whom he brought back to RCA), as well as Eyadema, and many Senegalese soldiers came back from Vietnam with Vietnamese wives, and they have a snack called 'neim' in the Senegalese culinary culture from the Vietnamese. What about Cameroonians?
Posted by: Dee | December 04, 2014 at 09:38 AM
Dee, many soldiers from the French Cameroons also fought in Indochina. This was the case, for example, of the late sergeant (later Colonel) Bouba kaele who was part of the 4th foot batalion of the famous "tirailleurs senegalais" who were not Senegalese...
Posted by: dibussi | December 09, 2014 at 10:19 PM
Oh wow... thank you Dibussi, for this great information. I always wondered why I had never heard of Cameroonians fighting in Indochina/Vietnam, and found it weird. I had simply assumed that it might have been because French Cameroon was only a French protectorate, and that may have shielded Cameroonians from France's dirty wars.
Do you know their numbers by any chance? Apart from the late Bouba Kaele, were there others? Did they ever receive any recognition? or is it like for the 'tirailleurs senegalais', whose contribution to the liberation of France during WWI and WWII was only acknowledged a couple of years back? Are there other wars our fellow countrymen participated in that we do not know about?
Thank you for enlightening me.
Posted by: Dee | December 10, 2014 at 07:40 AM