Back in the 1990s, when studying American history, Jeannie Barroga would often come across a footnote that said something like: “African-American soldiers were stationed in the Philippines in 1899. The war ends.”

“If there was any mention at all, it was that quick. That’s a way of dismissing anyone else’s history,” said Barroga, an award-winning playwright based in the San Francisco Bay Area. “I was thinking, ‘No, no, there’s a story there.’”

Barroga tells part of that story in “Buffalo’ed,” a multilayered drama involving American imperialism and manifest destiny, class struggle within Filipino culture, greed, even romance. It debuts Thursday at Kumu Kahua Theatre and runs through Feb. 26.

The play is set in 1899 during the Philippine-American War, a conflict sparked by the dissolution of the Spanish empire and U.S. determination to control the Pacific (also reflected in the overthrow of the Hawaiian monarchy around the same period). Atrocities occurred on both sides of the war, with Filipinos especially suffering mass slaughter, imprisonment in concentration camps, torture and illegal property seizure.

Barroga’s research into the period took her through obscure historical records, where she found war documents and references to the incidents in books by and about African-American teachers after the Civil War. “This was the ’90s, and the internet was nothing what it is today,” she said.

Her play weaves its way through several social and cultural clashes brought on by war. One is the conflict felt by many buffalo soldiers — a catch-all name given to African-Americans who fought for the U.S. Army from the end of the Civil War to the Korean War — in fighting against the independence-seeking Filipinos. In the play, that dilemma is represented in the character David Fagen, who will be portrayed by the actor known as Q. At times the character will break the “fourth wall” by speaking directly to the audience.

The African-American community was conflicted over the war, with some opposing it as a war on people desiring the same freedom they had won during the Civil War, and others feeling it would provide an opportunity for African-Americans to show their patriotism. In fact, many buffalo soldiers refused to fight and were labeled as deserters.

Reb Beau Allen, who is directing “Buffalo’ed” for Kumu Kahua, said there was a racial component to their dilemma as well.

“They were fighting a war against people that looked like them and treated them good, and they didn’t understand why they’re there in their land, committing atrocities on them, especially coming from slavery being abolished not too long ago,” he said.

The play also delves into the class structure within Filipino culture as represented by two characters, Dona Luisa (Danielle Zalopany), a Tagalog of the lower class, and Porfirio (A.J. Song), an Ilocano from the upper class. They struggle with fighting the Americans, their romantic feelings for each other, the military hierarchy and class conflict.

“When the war’s done, she has her political agenda, he has his political agenda,” Allen said.

Allen, who directed the fanciful “Echoes of Dat Red Guitar” for Kumu Kahua two years ago, has been working with Barroga on the play, making considerable revisions since its 2012 debut in San Jose, Calif. He said he knew the moment he read the original script that he wanted to direct it.

“This has all the things I love in a script, the human relationships,” he said. “It’s a war play, and it could be very easy to do a play like this where it’s just a history lesson and it’s boring, but (Barroga’s) script wasn’t. It just dealt so much with what we deal with nowadays as people who are put in that situation of war.”

While the play will have plenty of emotional, dramatic moments, it will also pack a lot of action into Kumu Kahua’s small stage as battle scenes are played out.

“We have gunshots, we have bolo fights, sword fights, escrima (Filipino martial art) sticks, all in this space,” Allen said. “There’s real hard-core stage combat. What we’ve been working on this past six weeks is making sure a stick doesn’t fly into the audience.”