Readers respond to the Commonwealth War Graves Commission’s report into the unequal commemoration of soldiers in the first world war

It is gratifying that the Commonwealth War Graves Commission will finally apologise, after 100 years, for denying black African soldiers and labourers war graves for their service to the British empire in the first world war (UK inquiry blames ‘pervasive racism’ for unequal commemoration of troops, 21 April). Many people in Britain and Europe will have seen headstones in cemeteries to colonial servicemen from the British West Indies Regiment, the South African Native Labour Corps, the Chinese Labour Corps, and Indians, alongside others, and will wonder what the fuss is. These troops were considered Christian and given the privilege of a headstone by the commission.

But on the African continent, where there was fighting in east and west Africa, you will not see any native African soldiers from the King’s African Rifles, the West Africa Frontier Force and the Carrier Corps given a headstone, as they were considered “heathen” and “uncivilised”. There should be at least 200,000 war graves to these men. It is important that the commission creates new headstones so that the racist construct that the war was a “white man’s war”, where only white soldiers paid the ultimate price, can finally be laid to rest.
John Siblon
London

How a 2019 documentary helped spark an inquiry into missing war graves of soldiers from the British empire

• UK inquiry blames ‘pervasive racism’ for unequal commemoration of troops
• How millions of black and Asian men were mobilised in first world war

A crackly audio recording made in the 1980s is one of the few direct links left to the African soldiers and auxiliaries who served Britain in the first world war. It provides a chilling insight into their experience, which saw an estimated 50,000 Africans in labour units die from disease and other causes.

The recording contains the voice of a former porter who was working alongside the King’s African Rifles in east Africa. He described how his job was to carry boxes of bullets and as they walked, there were dead bodies lying on the road. Exhausted, he decided to rest but he was found by a superior, punished and beaten. He later escaped and lived to tell recount his experience.