This monograph on the centenary of the Great War of 1914-1918 deals with the participation of African soldiers in this great world conflict, and how this contributed to the redefinition of African borders after the armistice, as well as the political awareness of Africans to assert their culture and political and social identities in the development of the pragmatic lines that later led to colonial independence. E. C. Almeida. In general, Africans have always been (in some cases continue to be) disposable instruments in the hands of the colonizers. Yesterday some, today others. Between slaves, cannon fodder and duly bound volunteers, they were a bit of everything. Often they were everything at the same time. In the First World War, as Eugénio Costa Almeida explains so excellently here, they gave their bodies to the bullets, their souls to the Devil and their dignity to the mass graves. Orlando Castro, author of the Foreword