Description
Object description
British officer served with 2nd Bn Gold Coast Regt, Royal West African Frontier Force on Gold Coast, British West Africa, 1936-1939
Content description
REEL 1 Recollections of period as officer with 2nd Bn Gold Coast Regiment, Royal West African Frontier Force on Gold Coast, British West Africa, 1936-1939: secondment to battalion in Accra, 1936; voyage from GB to Gold Coast including fellow passengers and disembarkation by canoe; reception; accommodation; African servants; learning Hausa language; question of use of Hausa language and pidgin English; daily routine; mess kit; health; social life; food; British civilian personnel and their role; long-term Africanisation programme; tribal recruiting policy; story illustrating prevalence of bribery; example of Pidgin English; British wives' lifestyle; drinking habits; nature of terrain on Gold Coast; move to Kumasi; posting to outstation at Tamale.
REEL 2 Continues: African troops' fitness; working relations with British NCOs; British pattern training and weapons; use of machete; jungle conditions and manoeuvres; impact of French pressure on Gold Coast; organisation of African troops' food; account of recruiting patrol including supply organisation, sense of independence, attitude of African recruits, relations with African troops, medical provision and method of recruitment; question of tribal recruiting policy; recruits taken from French colonial territories; question of tribal tension; head women system for African troops' wives; corporal punishment.
REEL 3 Continues: African troops' contact with villages; leave; Muslim observances; drinking habits; effect of Christianity; condition of service; African troops' wives; depot training; uniform; selection of African NCOs; illiteracy amongst African troops; division of duties between African NCOs and British NCOs; qualities of African NCOs; acquiring experiences of jungle conditions; details of postings; African troops' reaction to issue of long shorts, boots and gas masks prior to Second World War; African troops' view of British Empire; contemporary views on African Independence.