Created in September 1941 to relieve pressure on the Middle East Command, East Africa Command covered the areas of North East Africa, East Africa and British Central Africa, with its headquarters in Nairobi (Jackson, 2006, 175).

The East Africa Command operated a Mobile Propaganda Unit, which according to the Officer in charge, Captain A.G. Dickson, had been ‘travelling the length and breadth of East Africa since the summer of 1942, showing by now [January 1945] to an approximate total of not far short of a million people’. Dickson claimed that the Unit’s function was ‘emphatically not recruiting’ – although Ashley Jackson refers to these as ‘recruiting tours’ – functioning instead, Dickson claimed, to show the life and training of the Askari (soldiers), to demonstrate modern equipment and to ‘encourage an intensified war effort by the civilian population’. The 28 Askari selected from 19 different units performed gymnastic and physical training displays, presented mine detection, signal work, unarmed combat, and ceremonial drills, but most importantly to Dickson, interacted with the locals, serving as ‘missionaries’ once ‘off parade’. The unit also included a ‘diminutive bugler’, who Dickson suggested served as a role model and inspiration for African children (Dickson, 1945, 10). Timothy Parsons argued that ‘these performances created a favourable impression of the colonial army, which helped improve the morale and discipline of Askaris by increasing their social prestige at home’ (Parsons, 1999, 190).

The unit also presented and produced films, including, for example, actualities of African home life and a series of comedies featuring African actors, which Rosaleen Smyth suggested served to ‘keep up the morale of African soldiers’ (Smyth, 1987, 390). The films produced by Sergeant Wernham do not appear however to have been widely exhibited. Although he suggested his films may have been shown non-theatrically in Nairobi – and may also have been intended for screening to ‘homesick’ African troops in Burma – there is no evidence of this, and Wernham acknowledged that the films were produced predominantly for his own interest (‘Wernham Audio Commentary’).

The East Africa Command’s African Entertainment Unit not only played throughout Africa, but also toured South-East Asia. Another unedited army film – No.1 East African Entertainment Unit, filmed in June 1945 – shows a very similar performance presented to troops of the 11^th East African Division as part of an extensive tour of Ceylon, India and Burma. The dope sheet (cameraman’s report) explained that the No. 1 East African Entertainment Unit had covered 60,500 miles in Ceylon, India and Burma and had put on three hundred and fifty performances in a year. The dope sheets indicate that two distinct programmes were offered, for British and East African forces, while the performance again included an African band, a comic soldier and a female impersonator dancing to the music of “Minnie from Trinidad”.

A number of the musicians performing with the Entertainment Unit would subsequently enjoy success in post-war Africa. These include Funde Konde, who performed with the unit in South-East Asia, while the enormously popular Rhino Boys comprised men who had performed in ‘the entertainment unit of the Education Corps of the King’s African Rifles’ (Kubik, 1981, 92). Peter Colmore, a hugely successful impresario, bandleader, broadcaster and producer, was the man ‘entrusted with the recruitment of artists and musicians’ and, with three other captains, established the army entertainment units. An obituary upon his death in 2000 further noted that ‘as well as in Kenya, Colmore's unit presented very popular Ensa-type variety concerts in Uganda, Tanganyika and Somalia’ (The Independent, 5 February 2004). It is possible that he is one of the European figures featured within the film.