ABSTRACT
Military recruitment was important throughout the colonial era, but especially during World War I and World War II. During World War I, Africans from French Equatorial Africa (FEA) were recruited for Cameroon and Europe. In Cameroon, they were used mainly as porters for military columns and 50,000 died. The demographic impact was important— because of both the numbers of people involved and the working conditions. Workers also fled on the way to their worksites. Fertility and/or fecundity levels may also have been modified. The absence of large numbers of men may have decreased the chances of women becoming pregnant. The increased physical burdens on labor may also have lowered resistance to disease, with negative consequences for female health in general, and maternal health in particular. Poor maternal health might have increased the chances of spontaneous abortions, stillbirths, and the birth of unhealthy infants.
