As Ray Rivers said.......

[Drunkendwarf]

I dont want to hijack Drunkendwarfs thread so I think I will open a separate thread for my Darkest Africa stuff. I have another 50 or so about to be finished.....famous last words!

Mors

PS former user there are a few more pics on my blog

Don't worry, I don't see this as hijacking. It's nice to see other's forces. I started this thread as reaction on Ray Rivers question.
I don't think I will be painting more DA stuff in the near future

DJ

[former user]

that's a girl thing, You should know that by now
every girl wants to be special

whereas we guys prefer to stick together and louse each other

[Doc Twilight]

I am just curious as relating to vLV's quote
he seems to have treated his Askaris well and they appear to have been motivated also

Since I have in mind the british reluctance and distrust for armed natives I was asking myself who had the most diplomatic attitude of all colonialist countries
(and by this I do not intend to justify colonialism as such)

might make an interesting Askari morale rule to mix up colonial scenarios 

Well, I'd argued for the Germans in East Africa. They weren't perfect, but consider...

- Blacks in East Africa could gain citizenship
- Blacks could be promoted to command positions within the Schutztruppe
- Blacks could, and did, win the Blue Max (as happened during the Wahehe War)
- Black units were trusted with items like machine guns whereas, comparatively, the Belgians did not allow all black machine gun units.

Granted, they were less than benevolent in other African colonies, and I'm not trying to justify their behavior.

One interesting story is related in "Battle for the Bundu". Not sure if you guys have already heard this, and I don't mean to hijack, but it's a great tale of a great man (in my opinion, granted.)

 In the late 1950s/early 1960s, the German Government decided to fulfill it's promise of paying each and every Askari a pension for his service to the Empire. The problem was that many of the former Askaris in Tanzania and neighboring countries had since lost their paperwork, while others were unable to read. The solution was to contact Lettow, and to ask him to undertake one last mission for Germany. He gladly accepted.

In (can't recall the year, I'm thinking it was early sixties, don't have my copy of the book here), Lettow (though advanced in age) went to East Africa. His proposal was that any soldier who had been trained in the Schutztruppe OstAfrika would remember their Prussian Drill. He suggested that any man who could suitably demonstrate at least part of the drill should be awarded a pension.
The Germans were unsure whether this would work, but Lettow was a national hero, so they agreed.

Lettow arrived in Tanzania and upon stepping onto the docks at Dar Es Salaam saw an eldery porter quietly unloading baggage from the ship. He immediately addressed him. "Don't you recognize your old commander, soldier?!" The porter immediately snapped to attention and saluted him, before rushing off to alert other former Askaris in the area. Supposedly a bunch of these old men, and their sons, rushed out to welcome Lettow, some of them carrying them on their shoulders into town.

He proceeded to set up shop and see each applicant. He gave them a broom, instructed them to handle it like a rifle, and barked out commands in German. Several former German Askaris were rediscovered in this manner, and received their pensions.

Pretty cool story, I think.

-Doc

[Plynkes]

That has to be balanced against the awful misrule in German East that led to the Maji-Maji and the genocide that followed (possibly as many as 300,000 African dead, at the most liberal estimate). They only became the most enlightened colonialists in East Africa after following a course of being the most brutal and uncaring almost led to disaster.


But yes, that is a cool story.

[former user]

never heard that, but it sounds very german

as to colonial misbehaviour - I don't think we need to discuss that every european country with colonies did not have any business there and everyone behaved more or less cruel (and yes, the germans behaved worst, as usual) - where do we start then? 18 million black slaves in arab countries? herero genocide? establishment of Cape colony? 14 million slave trade to caribbean and Americas? etc,etc
(at least the germans offered both a private vTrotha family apology and an official one - I'd like to see other countries doing that too for a change instead of guiltily smiling to historical german bashing all the time, only MHO...)

if we start discussing this, we end up not playing colonial games at all

I perceive Doc's story as information how germans treated native servicemen, this was my point and I am grateful for that info

THX

[former user]

so say we all! 

[Plynkes]

I was not name-calling or German-bashing, just trying to give a balanced view. But I agree, let us get back to talking about gaming.


Going back to your question, one of the major problems the British had with their askari in the Great War was once they got over their block-headed attitudes and had been taught by the Germans that the folks best suited to fight in Africa were the Africans, they decided to massively expand the KAR (which they had drastically reduced only a few short years before). But there weren't enough experienced officers who could speak Swahili to officer all the men (the Germans had the highest white officers to black soldiers ratio of all the combatants, which has been put forward as another reason for their success by some). This hindered a real bond developing between them (one which had had years to build up in the Schutztruppe), and so though the KAR made great bush-fighters they could never quite operate with the same efficiency or devotion as their German adversaries.

[Plynkes]

No worries, mate. It's my own fault for wandering slightly off-topic. Though to be fair I think the thread itself left the path and vanished into the bush many posts ago anyway. 

[Doc Twilight]

HAH!:)

And of course, balance is more than fair. Just as fair to point out what the various African tribes were doing to each other, let alone the Europeans. No-one is entirely blameless.  Just telling one of the "positive" stories from the era. It's a fun era to game, anyway, even if our version of the Victorian era can be idealized at times.

-Doc