For the slaves, the most important thing about World War I was that an army of African slaves went forth once more to serve France, this time on the battlefields of Europe. While the war shifted colonial policy in a more authoritarian direction, its most immediate result was another movement of liberation. The First World War impacted on slavery because a largely slave army was conscripted to fight it. Many years later, after another war, a colonial governor suggested that the Fulbe of Futa Jallon contributed to the emancipation of the slaves by always choosing them when the colonial state demanded men. In this, the Futa Fulbe were not unique. The demand by the colonial state for soldiers led to a significant erosion of the masters’ hegemonic position in many areas. From the first, during the nineteenth century, those who served in the French army used that service to break the chains of previous servitude. If they returned to places where they had been slaves, it was to liberate relatives. Sometimes these relatives were not eager to follow long-lost brothers or sons, to discover unknown fathers, or to throw off husbands to join earlier mates; but others followed ex-tirailleur kin to new communities, often in or near French posts.