About 20 students gathered to listen to history professor Saheed Aderinto discuss Africans in WWII at the Carolina Round Table on Wednesday, Feb. 19.
Black History month allows society to take the time and reflect how much African Americans have accomplished. This event recognized African cultures and their struggles on their native land.
Aderinto wanted to contribute to the untold stories of Africans through an in-depth Carolina Round Table presentation. These presentations consist of the study of social, political and economic history during world wars.
“We live in a global world and the kind of education we need in university is the one that is encompassing, that exposes students to societies, cultures and ideas,” Aderinto said.
He prepared an in-depth presentation on Africans and their involvement in WWII, soldier recruitment, funding of the war efforts, economic effects of war and power of newspapers and war propaganda.
During WWII, African people were still colonies controlled by European countries like France and Britain. Colonies focused on ways to trick African men into signing up for the war. Africans hated the colonies but they still chose to fight for Europe because the alternative that was presented to them seemed much worse.
Aderinto hopes his lecture showed the efforts of Africans during WWII and also educated students on people that are not necessarily prominent and who did not have a voice of that time.
History professor David Dorondo is the moderator of the Carolina Round Table. He believes it gives students a unique perspective on world wars other than military.
“They [students] can thereby gain a more engaged and integrative understanding of the vast forces unleashed by the World Wars and the globally transforming effects which these forces produced,” Dorondo said.
