Military organisation created in Kenya in World War 1 to provide military labour to support the campaign against the German Military forces in East Africa commanded by Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck. Ypres, 1917, in the vicinity of the Battle of Passchendaele. ... General Paul Erich von Lettow-Vorbeck (March 20, 1870 - March 9, 1964) was the commander of the German East Africa campaign in World War I, the only campaign of that war where Germany remained undefeated. ...

Whereas von Lettow armed and trained African Askaris to create and effective guerrilla force, the British attempted to deploy Indian Army troops under General Smuts. Not only were tehy unsued to teh terrain, the need to feed large numbers of troops exacerbated the logistical problems of supplying troops in the interior with no rail or road lines of communication. To deliver one kilo of rice to the interior it could take 50 kilos of rice at the coast - most of it being consumed en route to feed all the porters needed to carry it inland. Categories: Military stubs ...

The British Administration formed a military labour organisation, the Carrier Corps, which ultimately recruited or conscripted over 400,000 Africans men for porterage and other support tasks.

The effect on many of the East African tribal African population of being mobilised and enduring considerable suffering for a remote and largely irrelevant foreign cause had a significant effects in the long term, both highlighting the faillibility of the European presence in Africa (as armed askaris reeadily killed white men), and raising the political awareness of Africans.

The organisation of the carrier corps was a remarkable feat of improvisation by a small number of officials of the East African Protectorate's administration, under a District Commissioner Lt Col Oscar Ferris Watkins. Watkins and his officials faced a constant struggle to against the British military's excessive demands upon the Carriers and for native manpower.

The Carrier Corps is commemorated on the War Memorial in Kenyatta Avenue Nairobi and the Karaikor district of Nairobi, site of their base, is a corruption of the name. Nairobi is the capital of Kenya, lying on the Nairobi River in the south of the nation. ...

Bibliography

'The Carrier Corps' - Military Labour in the East African Campaign 1914-18. Geoffrey Hodges Greenwood Press NY 1986