While Belgium has mobilized hundreds of thousands men to fight the Germans in Africa during the First World War, the national propaganda during the conflict has largely neglected the Congolese soldier. This article tries to understand this absence by confronting Belgian war propaganda and Belgian colonial propaganda during the war. it also situates the use of the Soldier of the Force Publique in a wider diachronic perspective. It proposes several hypotheses to explain the differents treatments of the colonial troops by propaganda during and outside the Great war.