A camp of the 4th (Uganda) Battalion, The King's African Rifles, in a wood near Mombasa, Kenya, 1939

Photograph, World War Two, East Africa, 1939.

During the Second World War the Allied colonial powers needed African manpower. African troops (with the exception of those from South Africa who were not allowed to bear arms) played an combatant role both in and outside Africa. Half a million Africans fought for the French and the British during the war.

From an album of 608 photographs compiled by Colin Campbell of the King's African Rifles.