Afrasia at War

Memories of global wars are often anything but global: counterfactual notions of a “white man’s war” continue to present a one-sided account of World War II centred on Europe and North America that sidelines the contributions and sacrifices of millions of soldiers from all over the world and negates their manifold agendas and forms of agency. This is particularly true of the “Afrasian” war experiences of tens of thousands of African soldiers who fought in Asia which are the subject of Biyi Bandele’s novel Burma Boy. The following essay highlights how Bandele’s text counteracts Eurocentric accounts of World War II, explores the complex motivations of African soldiers and their equally complex encounters with Asians in Burma, and draws on transregional imaginaries to produce a challenging non-heroic account of “Afrasia at war.”