Yes, they were quite aware of the war. /u/Bernardito wrote a very good answer recently, here about conscripts in British west Africa.
Additionally, African soldiers from the Kings African Rifles (drawing from Tanganyika, Kenya, Nyasaland and North and South Rhodesia) as well as soldiers from Sudan, and Belgian Force Publique soldiers from the Belgian Congo all served in the [East Africa Campaign](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/East_African_Campaign_(World_War_II)) to liberate Italian-occupied Ethiopia and Somalia.
Furthermore, the battle for political legitimacy between Charles de Gaulle's Free French forces and the forces of Vichy France were largely fought in the West African colonies. Felix Eboue, the governor of Chad, was an early supporter of de Gaulle, and governors of other colonies like Cameroun and French Congo were quick to declare loyalty to the Free French cause by November of 1940.
However, the governors of France's colonies in West Africa tended to remain loyal to the Vichy regime, until the allied landings in Operation Torch in November 1942, and the subsequent defection of Francois Darlan to the allied cause. By early 1943, Free French forces were in control of all West African colonies.
In late November 1944, French colonial administrators in Senegal had to contend with a mutiny by Senegalese tirailleur conscripts who were discontented about the non-payment of promised pensions and bonuses. What followed was an order to suppress the mutiny, resulting in the massacre of dozens of mutinying soldiers at Camp Thiaroye. Though the immediate impact of the massacre was limited, and authorities worked quickly to avoid discontent spreading to active duty tirailleurs, the massacre at Thiyaroye would be remembered retrospectively as a watershed moment in the struggle against colonialism in West Africa.
Aside from these strictly military matters, the Second World War also had an economic impact. For instance, in South Africa, wartime demands for armaments and war materiel drastically increased the manufacturing sector of the South African economy.
For other African colonies, the Second World War saw dramatic inflation, disruptions in trade, and depressed prices for exports. African workers responded to these economic hardships through increasing participation in trade unions, as well as participation in strike actions against colonial regulations that depressed prices. In Northern Rhodesia, copper miners went on strike in 1940, and gained better working conditions and higher wages. This strike coincided with the Battle of Britain, and so the colonial metropole had little choice but to give concessions to keep such a vital industry operating.^1
Indeed, more generally, Britain, Belgium and France had to deal with the threat of strike actions or other colonial disruptions with a lighter touch than they had in the pre-war era. British and French administrations were forced to present the colonial state to their subjects as something "good", and the fight against Germany and Italy as a fight against "evil". This need to justify colonialism to Africans in order to persuade them to cooperate in the fight against fascism in turn opened the door for African nationalist voices to more openly criticize the excesses and abuses of colonial regimes.
TL:DR- Africans were very involved in World War 2, serving as soldiers in various theaters. The War caused many economic hardships, and exposed the weakness and vulnerability of the colonial powers. This emboldened labor leaders and nationalists to grow bolder in their criticisms of the colonial state, and forced European powers to offer concessions due to wartime necessity.
1 A History of Modern Africa by Richard J Reid, chapter 13 "Battles Home and Away- Africa in Global War(Again)"