Isaac Fadoyebo (5 December 1925 – 9 November 2012) was a

Nigerian Nigerians or the Nigerian people are citizens of Nigeria or people with ancestry from Nigeria. The name Nigeria was taken from the Niger River running through the country. This name was allegedly coined in the late 19th century by British jour ...

soldier who served in the British

Royal West African Frontier Force The West African Frontier Force (WAFF) was a multi-battalion field force, formed by the British Colonial Office in 1900 to garrison the West African colonies of Nigeria, Gold Coast, Sierra Leone and Gambia. In 1928, it received royal recognition ...

during Britain's

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

campaign in Asia.

Early life

Fadoyebo was born on 5 December 1925 in Emure-Ile village,

Ondo state Ondo State ( yo, Ìpínlẹ̀ Oǹdó) is a state in southwestern Nigeria. It was created on 3 February 1976 from the former Western State. It borders Ekiti State to the north, Kogi State to the northeast, Edo State to the east, Delta State to t ...

in south west Nigeria. In 1942, Fadoyebo voluntarily joined the British Army at the age of 16, an act which he characterised in his writings as "''youthful exuberance''". In January 1942 he was selected for the

(RWAFF) and trained as a hospital attendant. In 1943, Fadoyebo was sent to

Burma Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John Wells explai ...

. In 1943, he visited India while travelling to Burma and was deployed to police an Indian Independence rally addressed by

Mahatma Gandhi Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (; ; 2 October 1869 – 30 January 1948), popularly known as Mahatma Gandhi, was an Indian lawyer, anti-colonial nationalist Quote: "... marks Gandhi as a hybrid cosmopolitan figure who transformed ... anti- ...

Career

In 1943, Fadoyebo was deployed by the British Army to Burma. In the early morning of February 1944, while moving by the

Kaladan River The Kaladan River ( my, ကုလားတန်မြစ်, ; also Kysapnadi, Beino, Bawinu and Kolodyne) is a river in eastern Mizoram State of India, and in Chin State and Rakhine State of western Myanmar. The Kaladan River is called the Chh ...

valley in Japanese-occupied Burma, his unit was ambushed by Japanese forces and Fadoyebo suffered several wounds as a result of the attack. He and another soldier of the unit, David Kagbo from

Sierra Leone Sierra Leone,)]. officially the Republic of Sierra Leone, is a country on the southwest coast of West Africa. It is bordered by Liberia to the southeast and Guinea surrounds the northern half of the nation. Covering a total area of , Sierra ...

, were the only survivors of the attack. They hid themselves in the nearby forests. They were later rescued out by Burmese villagers and sheltered in their village for 10 months. Fadoyebo in his biography described Kagbo as, "my comrade in adversity". In December 1944, the Brigade of Gurkhas, British Gurkha brigade liberated the area and found Fadoyebo and Kagbo, both of whom were admitted in the hospital to complete their recovery before returning to their native countries. After returning to Nigeria, Fadoyebo was encouraged by

Michael Crowder Michael Crowder (9 June 1934 – 14 August 1988) was a British historian and author notable for his books on the history of Africa and particularly on the history of West Africa. Early life and education Michael was born in London and educat ...

(a Nigeria focused historian) to document his war experience in Burma. In the 1980s (about 35–40 years after the war) Fadoyebo typed his war account on a typewriter and was unable to find a publisher for his manuscript. Fadoyebo received his publishing break when in 1989, on the 50th anniversary of the Second World War, the BBC's Africa Service planned a series of programmes seeking first-hand accounts of Africans who participated in the war. Fadoyebo submitted the only copy of his typed manuscript which was received with excitement by the BBC and was the basis for a dramatised BBC documentary titled ''I remember Burma''. Fadoyebo's manuscript was edited by Professor David Killingray and published in 1999 titled: "A stroke of unbelievable luck". Killingray wrote the introduction to the book; a copy of Fadoyebo's book is kept at the

Imperial War Museum Imperial War Museums (IWM) is a British national museum organisation with branches at five locations in England, three of which are in London. Founded as the Imperial War Museum in 1917, the museum was intended to record the civil and military ...

Death

Fadoyebo died on 9 November 2012.

Recognition

In 2011,

Barnaby Phillips Barnaby Phillips (born 1968) is Director of Communications for the Elephant Protection Initiative (EPI), working to shut down the ivory trade and save Africa's elephants. Previously, he worked as a television and radio correspondent. He was a Seni ...

, a journalist with

Al Jazeera Al Jazeera ( ar, الجزيرة, translit-std=DIN, translit=al-jazīrah, , "The Island") is a state-owned Arabic-language international radio and TV broadcaster of Qatar. It is based in Doha and operated by the media conglomerate Al Jazeera ...

, made a documentary about the unsung soldiers who fought for the British Army titled "The Burma Boys" for the Al Jazeera's Correspondent series. The documentary picturing Fadoyebo's extraordinary life won the

CINE Golden Eagle Award Ciné film or cine film is the term commonly used in the UK and historically in the US to refer to the 8 mm, Super 8, 9.5 mm, and 16 mm motion picture film formats used for home movies. It is not normally used to refer ...

in 2012. In 2014, Barnaby Phillips wrote a book titled ''Another Man's War - The Story of a Burma Boy in Britain's Forgotten African Army'' which was published by

Oneworld Publications Oneworld Publications is a British independent publishing firm founded in 1986 by Novin Doostdar and Juliet Mabey originally to publish accessible non-fiction by experts and academics for the general market.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fadoyebo, Isaac 1925 births 2012 deaths Yoruba military personnel British Army personnel of World War II Nigerian people of World War II People from Ondo State