Innovative filmmaker John Akomfrah’s new multimedia installation Mimesis: African Soldier remembers the millions of Africans and people of colour from across the globe who fought and took part in the First World War.

Between 1914 and 1918, millions of African and colonial soldiers served in long campaigns that spanned the whole of Africa and Europe, contributing to victories throughout the conflict. These soldiers from British and French African territories were brought to Europe’s main battleground of the Western Front, where hundreds of thousands lost their lives alongside unknown, unheralded and undocumented African labourers and carriers.

Mimesis: African Soldier, running at the Imperial War Museum in London, seeks to commemorate them.

John Akomfrah founded the influential Black Audio Film Collective in 1982 and is known for his multi-screen installations. Continuing this, Mimesis: African Soldier makes use of historic film, including material from the Imperial War Museum’s extensive archive, to tell us some of the lesser known stories from the conflict.

Mimesis: African Soldier is at Imperial War Museum, Lambeth Rd, London SE1 6HZ, until March 31 2019 

For more information, visit the Imperial War Museum website.