We Die Like Brothers
The Sinking of the SS Mendi
Published in
Johannesburg
Illustrations and maps
illustrations
$69.00
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The SS Mendi is a wreck site off the Isle of Wight under the protection of Historic England. Nearly 650 men, mostly from the South African Native Labour Corps (SANLC), lost their lives in February 1917 following a collision in fog as they travelled to serve as labourers on the Western Front, in one of the largest single losses of life during the conflict.
The loss of the SS Mendi occupies a special place in South African military history. Prevented from being trained as fighting troops by their own government, the men of the SANLC hoped that their contribution to the war effort would lead to greater civil rights and economic opportunities in the new white-ruled nation of South Africa after the war. These hopes proved unfounded, and the SS Mendi became a focus of black resistance before and during the apartheid era in South Africa.
