Wartime Encounters, Diasporic Divides: African American and French Colonial Troops in the Great War

Abstract

This article explores one of the least charted episodes of the Great War, in which race and diaspora intersected to shape the experiences of African American and French African troops and workers deployed to France during the global conflict. Using Brent Edwards’s concept of “décalage” in the field of diaspora studies, this article examines African American narratives of the Great War to map the role of the people of African descent in the war, looking for the roots of “the chasm” that developed between people of African descent in their diaspora in France. The racial and colonial circumstances that brought them to the war in Europe, their reception by the French, and their views of each other offer new perspectives on the chasm that developed between them in their diaspora in France. This chasm gradually gave rise to different diasporas, characterised by a permanent décalage between people sharing the same race and descent.