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With the India-Africa Forum Summit underway in New Delhi, it's also time to appraise the many connections India has with the continent on the other side of the Indian Ocean. There are Indians who derive their ancestry from Africa, Indian efforts to bring innovation to the continent and even a less savoury history of Indians being expelled from Uganda and Kenya.

Outside the diaspora and, in recent years, business, India's largest contribution to Africa has been in the form of boots on the ground. Nearly 80% of India's peacekeepers are serving in Africa, with New Delhi having sent its troops for practically every peace keeping operation conducted by the United Nations on the continent.

But the history of Indian soldiers in Africa goes back to long before the blue helmets turned up. Back in World War II, Indian troops played a key role in helping defend what was then an important part of the British Empire from Axis attacks. Indian troops performed admirably in Somaliland, Egypt, Abysinna, the Sudan and Libya.

As the above video from British Pathe shows, Indian troops – here seen marching in the "shadow of the pyramids" – became an integral part of a campaign that would help establish Allied success over the Axis powers, while also laying the groundwork for the independence of many colonised nations because of the aftermath of the World War that they participated in and fought over.