Often referred to as “the forgotten army” of the second world war, the British Fourteenth Army, comprising units from Commonwealth countries, served in the Burma campaign. Ninety thousand west African soldiers fought as part of the 81st and 82nd divisions. Nigerians made up more than half the force.
Inspired by her grandmother’s tales about the young men from her village who went to war and didn’t come back, Rosanna Amaka’s second novel explores the little-known plight of these fighters and their subsequent treatment by the British authorities. I can recall only Biyi Bandele’s Burma Boy (2008) previously tackling the subject in fiction.
