The Africans who fought in World War I

Some ceremonies were held in Africa this weekend in memory of the end of World War I. Speaking of this, today we might not talk so much about the Africans who had to sacrifice their lives the World wars. This BBC article talks about the war in Kenya. But African soldiers were recruited from all over the continent. France recruited West Africans to the "Tirailleurs Sénégalais" (Senegalese riflemen) and they were not just Senegalese as the name will have you believe, they came from all over West Africa. France recruited 192 000 people to the Tirailleurs Sénégalais, 134 000 fought in Europe and 30 000 died in World War I. 

An iconic African film

When most people think of film, Africa might not be the first that comes to mind in a westernern´s general view of the world. But there are of course a lot of movies from the continent that deserve more recognition.

Recently the Senegalese movie "Touki Bouki" was included in BBC´s list of the 100 greatest foreign language movies of all time. The film, directed by Djibril Diop Mambéty, is about  Mory and Anta who dream of a new life in France. The movie has also been noticed by Beyoncé and Jay Z, who made a reference to the film during their tour.

The famous American director Martin Scorcese is an admirer of "Touki Bouki".

The World Cup Is Over

The world cup is over for this time. The african teams unfortunately did not perform so well in this tournament. Egypt, Morocco, Tunisia, Senegal and Nigeria were all eliminated in the group stage.

Senegal came closest, but were eliminated due to the fact that Japan had fewer cards. Senegal is the first team in history to be eliminated because of the fair play rule.

Egypt´s poor performances at the World cup is a mystery. The national team has won the African cup of nations a record seven times. In club competions, the Egyptian teams Al Ahly and Zamalek have won most titles (eight for Al Ahly and five for Zamalek) in the African Champions league. Despite this success on continental level, the national team have only appeared in three World cups and didn´t qualify for the second round in the 2018 edition.

But we shouldn´t forget that many players in the winning French team have African backgrounds. Lets name those in the staring eleven: The central defender Samuel Umtiti was born in Cameroon, midfielder Paul Pogba´s parents are from Guinea, midfielder Ngolo Kanté has parents from Mali, Kylian Mbappé has a father from Cameroon and a mother from Algeria and Blaise Matuidi has an Angolan father and a mother from D.R. Congo.