Unremembered: the African first world war soldiers without a grave

How a 2019 documentary helped spark an inquiry into missing war graves of soldiers from the British empire

• UK inquiry blames pervasive racism' for unequal commemoration of black and Asian troops
• How millions of black and Asian men were mobilised in first world war

A crackly audio recording made in the 1980s is one of the few direct links left to the African soldiers and auxiliaries who served Britain in the first world war. It provides a chilling insight into their experience, which saw an estimated 50,000 Africans in labour units die from disease and other causes.

The recording contains the voice of a former porter who was working alongside the King's African Rifles in east Africa. He described how his job was to carry boxes of bullets and as they walked, there were dead bodies lying on the road. Exhausted, he decided to rest but he was found by a superior, punished and beaten. He later escaped and lived to tell recount his experience.