When the war began on 3 August 1914, the Germans had only 200 European troops and 2,500 native Askari soldiers. The British Empire forces included South African, British, Rhodesian, Indian, West Indian and native African troops from the Kings African Rifles, the Gold Coast [now Ghana] and Nigeria. Von Lettow Vorbeck fought a guerrilla campaign and his Askaris were tough fighters who knew the land and were more resistant to local diseases. (http://ww1.nam.ac.uk/videos/empire-commonwealth-east-africa/)