The First World War (WWI) was one of the most widespread conflagrations in world history. In order to fully conduct the war, states involved were forced to maximize their human and natural resources. African experiences in the wartime are not widely known among scholars and the general public because over the years most studies and commemorative events of the War have centred on the European theatre of the war. Without commemorative events in Africa to enunciate African experiences in the wartime, the centenary commemoration of the WWI would remain incomplete. For these and other reasons, the Department of History at the University of Cape Coast, Ghana, in August 2014, launched the centenary celebration of the First World War project themed “ Africa and the First World War: Remembrance, Memories and Representations after Hundred Years.”

We invite you to come to this international interdisciplinary centenary celebration framed as a conference to contribute a paper and engage in discussions with diverse scholars, students, and the general public. The proposed conference, among others, seeks to refurbish and rethink staple conclusions; provide syntheses of emergent comparative historiographies; offer seamless refinements to extant theories and paradigms; furnish new empirical and theoretical perspectives on Africa and the First World War. The keynote speaker is distinguished Professor Kwabena Akurang-Parry, Visiting Professor of History, Department of History, University of Cape Coast, who has published extensively on the Gold Coast/Africa and the First World War.

Detailed Description
Although the watershed of events that unleashed the war was Europe-centred, the confluences of the war were also found in Africa and Asia because European colonialism made Africa and Asia irrevocably tied to the dictates of the colonial powers. For example, the Gold Coast, now Ghana, which was a colony of Britain from circa 1874 to 1957, mobilized its soldiers four days before the British actually declared war on Germany. Overall, African soldiers fought with great fervour and contributed significantly to the success of the Allied cause. The same can be said of African non-combatants who brought zeal and enthusiasm to difficult wartime tasks. In fact, the first shot of the British forces was fired by Alhaji Grunshi of the Gold Coast Regiment. At the end of the war, he was promoted to the rank of Regimental Sergeant-Major and awarded both the Distinguished Conduct Medal and the Military Medal.

Apart from human capital, Africans mobilized their natural resources, such as grains and palm oil, to support the imperial war efforts. It is on record that money was provided by the colonized Africans to assist the imperial war efforts. For example, J. E. Casely-Hayford, an African lawyer of the Gold Coast, helped to set up the Gold Coast Imperial War Fund. By December 1914 over GB £3700 had been realized and forwarded to London. Additionally, in1915, GB£1500 had been raised to buy an air force plane for the imperial military campaigns. In all several airplanes were provided by the Gold Coast to the British government for the war effort.

The impact of the War on Africa was even more significant and had far reaching effects in specific colonies and Africa as a whole. The First World War touched the lives of nearly every African, and the war’s repercussions on economic, social and political lives of the people of continent are still prevalent today.

Possible topics include, but are not limited to the following:
- The role of Africans in the Allied success
- Impact of the War on continental Africa
- Impact of the war on specific African colonies or regions
- The War and the re-configuration of African diplomacy
- The War and globalization: repercussions on Africa
- The War and the trajectory of African history
- Geopolitical consequences of the War for Africans
- The War and Pan-Africanism
- Impact of the War in the African Diasporas
- The imperial recruitment drives during the wartime
- African economies in the wartime
- Wartime influenza pandemic in Africa
- African initiatives and agency in the wartime
- Post-war developments and Africa
- Colonialism and nationalism in the wartime/post-war era
- New forms and trajectories of African resistance in the wartime
- African women in wartime situations
- The indigenous African press and the war
- The African educated elites and the war
- Chiefs and Indirect/Direct Rule in the wartime
- Intra-African relationships in the wartime
- Major battlefronts and theatres of the War in Africa
- The War and the shaping of the inter-war years (1919-1939) in Africa
- Oral history of the War and the reconstruction of African history
- Auto/biographies of War veterans

REGISTRATION FEES ARE AS FOLLOWS:
Students based in Ghana - 100 Ghana cedis
Faculty/scholars based in Ghana - 200 Ghana cedis
Students based in other African countries 70 dollars
Faculty/scholars based in other African countries 150 dollars
Non-Africa-based students - 100 dollars
Non-Africa-based faculty/scholars - 250 dollars

PLEASE PAY YOUR REGISTRATION FEE INTO THE ACCOUNT NAME, BANK & NUMBER BELOW:
Name: Faculty of Arts, U.C.C.
Bank: Ghana Commercial Bank, Cape Coast Branch, Ghana
Account Number: 3021130001040
Swift Code to the Bank Account: GHC BGH AC.

Checks/cheques should be made to: “Conference Fee to Department of History WW1 Project.”

N.B. Kindly scan the receipt of the payment of your registration fee and email it to the three contact persons of the organising committee whose email addresses have been provided below.

We will be happy to respond to any questions you may have. You may call us at +233 050 378 1280 or +233 244 925140 +233 or 020 1755164 or +233 2130940.

SUBMISSION DEADLINES: Abstracts of approximately 400 words should be submitted by April 30, 2015. For panel submissions, submit a 200-word panel abstract and a 400-word abstracts for each individual presentation. Acceptance of abstracts will be made known by May 10, 2015, and full papers should be submitted by September 15, 2015.

CONTACTS: Please, send an abstract of your proposed topic, institutional affiliation, and contact information to the following:
· Dr. De-Valera N.Y.M. Botchway (Chairman of the World War One Centenary Celebrations Committee, Department of History)
Email:  de-valera.botchway@ucc.edu.gh and jahiital@yahoomail.com
· Professor Kwame Osei Kwarteng (Head of Department of History)
Email: kokwarteng@ucc.edu.gh and oskwartus@yahoo.com
· Professor Kwabena Akurang-Parry (Visiting Professor of History, Department of History, University of Cape Coast)
Email: kakurang-parry@ucc.edu.gh and kaparry@hotmail.com