This keynote re-centres war not as a story of battles and heroes, but as a dense field of human experience shaped by imperial aggression, gender, coercion, and survival. Drawing on his forthcoming book on the history of the First World War in the former German colony Kamerun, George Njung reframes the history of war and violent encounters through a gendered lens, revealing how war restructured everyday life—transforming the roles, vulnerabilities, and agency of men, women, and communities alike. 

By placing colonized soldiers at the heart of a global history that stretches from the transatlantic slave trade to the World Wars and into today’s militarized labour networks, the keynote interrogates the blurred lines between service, sacrifice, citizenship, belonging, and exploitation. It highlights how gender exposes the hidden textures of war: the violence endured beyond the battlefield, the gendered labour that sustained empires, and the intimate costs of global conflict. To understand who fought for Europe—and at what cost—is to rethink who belongs within it, or who can make claims of belonging.