They fought for Britain. In return they were given £10

Scandal of the African Second World War veterans who are now living in poverty

Hiding in the branches of a tree in the Burmese jungle, Richard Chandaengerwa knew he would receive no mercy if he fell into the hands of the enemy. 'When Japanese killed blacks,' he says, 'They would cut up the bodies into pieces for fear they might resurrect.'

For two long weeks Chandaengerwa clung to the tree, occasionally daring to climb down to survive on raw fish. Finally through the undergrowth he glimpsed comrades from a Northern Rhodesian regiment who took him to hospital.

Chandaengerwa fought for Britain in the Second World War. He was shot and twice injured in the leg during three years in the Rhodesian African Rifles. But while Britons returned to a hero's welcome and the new NHS, Chandaengerwa went home to Zimbabwe, then the British colony of Rhodesia, and received a payment of £10. Today, at the age of 89 and still walking with a limp, he lives in rural poverty and is kept alive only by the support of his family.

His is one of the many untold stories of Africans and the Second World War. The conflict saw around 421,000 troops called up from Britain's African colonies, of whom 120,000 served in Burma. But they were paid significantly less than their white comrades.

Millions more Africans worked for the British navy or in UK factories. But many returned to a life of squalor and inadequate medical care. For them there would be no parade, no Remembrance Day and no war pension. For 60 years they have felt unrecognised and unrewarded by the nation for which they risked their lives.

Chandaengerwa's son, Raphael Chikukwa, felt an urgent need to chronicle the African war experience before it was lost forever. Earlier this year he travelled across Zambia, Tanzania and his native Zimbabwe, carrying out, in the absence of official paperwork, painstaking detective work to find veterans. He interviewed one old soldier on his deathbed after walking 10 miles because his home was inaccessible by road. The 10 veterans he tracked down will be the focus of a free exhibition, Afrikan Heroes, which opens on Saturday at the Imperial War Museum North in Salford, Greater Manchester.

'I went to the museum's section on the Commonwealth and saw there was nothing on Africa,' Chikukwa said. 'A lot of the veterans I tried to see had already died because they are poor and cannot afford medical attention. Their contribution has been ignored for the past 60 years or so. The veterans say they were dumped by the British empire: they were fighting on the same side for the same purpose, even though it was not their war, and at the end of it they all got was £10.

'In the Commonwealth War Graves Commission cemeteries in Harare and Mombasa and around Africa, there is an "A" section for whites and a "B" section for blacks - the Africans are separated even in death. This exhibition is just a stepping point to reducing the injustice. Britain has an obligation to revisit the contribution of Africans in the war.'

His father is a living example of neglect, uncared for by Robert Mugabe's government and barely surviving, 75 miles from Harare. 'You can see he's an angry man,' said Chikukwa. 'For all these years he's been trying to get compensation. He feels let down and betrayed.'

Chikukwa found mixed views among the veterans. Some had fond memories of the war as a great adventure in which they had the chance to meet people of many nationalities. Others resented the way the British had forcibly conscripted them to fight in a war they knew or cared little about. One veteran of Burma, Ally Sykes, said it gave the impetus to independence movements: 'Before we went outside the country we always felt the white man was superior to an African. But when we were there things changed. We've been exposed to the world. If we are just as good, if not better than, the white man, why should they rule us?'

Britain's recruiting policies were more sophisticated than they had been in the First World War. Anti-fascist propaganda was broadcast on the radio, while newspapers and posters had dramatic cartoons and drawings depicting what life might be like under German rule. Some veterans felt the cause was just but that they were later betrayed. Andrew Gengezha said: 'Britain was helping us to keep Germany from attacking Africa. Yes, the Germans surely could penetrate Africa ... I got hurt. I tried to throw a grenade but it exploded just before me and I lost my eye. They gave me a meagre send-off. Imagine, just £10. Those white men are tricksters. We fought so hard and many of us died for nothing.'

'Some of the veterans live in absolute poverty now,' said Rupert Gaze, the museum's community development manager. 'They have had a tough time, in Zimbabwe particularly. The Commonwealth War Graves are better kept than some of these veterans.'