Dar Es Salaam African Memorial
- Country Tanzania
- Total identified casualties 0 Find these casualties
- GPS Coordinates Latitude: -6.81657, Longitude: 39.28954
About Dar Es Salaam African Memorial
The First World War (1914-1918) left little of the world untouched. The Dar es Salaam African Memorial is one of three memorials that honour East Africans who died while serving with British forces in the war against Germany.
During the conflict, more than 55,000 soldiers and 650,000 non-combatant labourers were raised from across East Africa to serve alongside British Empire forces in fighting centred on present day Tanzania. Over 5,500 of those soldiers served in Tanzanian units and over 204,000 Tanzanians served as carriers. More than 5,100 soldiers died during the conflict (nearly 350 from Tanzania), but it was the porters of the Carrier Corps who suffered the worst hardships. Overburdened, ill-provisioned and often serving in unfamiliar climates, their casualty rates were considerably higher. It is believed more than 83,000 died during the war, the majority from disease. At least 27,475 of this number came from Tanzania.
© IWM, Q57990 - Gun carriers swearing in on the Koran, Tanzania.
Dar es Salaam was pivotal to the British war effort once captured in September 1916. The terminus of the German Central Railway and Tanzania’s principal seaport, it also hosted the largest carrier depot and hospital of the war in what is now Kariakoo Ward. Vast quantities of supplies and tens of thousands of men flowed through the city, with the sick and injured tended to by the hospitals based here.
Thousands of East Africans died in Dar es Salaam during the First World War. Most are believed to have been buried in unmarked graves to the northwest of Kariakoo Market in an area that has since been developed. This memorial honours their memory, alongside those East African soldiers and carriers who died across the region whose graves and names are not known.
Location information
The Dar es Salaam African Memorial is within the Township, on the roundabout at the junction of Samora Avenue and Azikiwe Street.
History information
At the outbreak of the First World War Tanzania was the core of German East Africa. From the invasion of April 1915, Commonwealth forces fought a protracted and difficult campaign against a relatively small but highly skilled German force under the command of General von Lettow-Vorbeck. When the Germans finally surrendered on 23 November 1918, twelve days after the European armistice, their numbers had been reduced to 155 European and 1,168 African troops.
The African troops and followers who died with the Commonwealth forces during the East African campaign of the First World War are for the most part commemorated by three memorials, one at Nairobi, one at Mombasa and one at Dar es Salaam. The backbone of the combatant force in East Africa were the King's African Rifles, organised in seven regiments, of which three (the 1st, 3rd and 4th) existed in 1914. The whole force eventually numbered 22 battalions. The officers and necessary technical troops were from the United Kingdom, the other ranks Sudanese, or men from the East African protectorates. They were later reinforced firstly from India, South Africa and in 1917 from West Africa. The Arab Rifles, mainly consisting of men originally from the Yemeni and Hadramout regions, served with distinction throughout the war and the Intelligence Corps, represented by the Askari, played an important and dangerous role as scouts.
The African combatant troops raised for the East African campaign numbered 34,000. The non-combatant porters, stevedores and followers of the Military Labour Corps 600,000. Almost 50,000 of these men were lost, killed in action or died of sickness or wounds, but as no complete record of their names exists, no names appear on the memorials.
The statistics are quoted only within the commemoration figures for Tanzania.