Tag: Thiaroye massacre

A French Commission to investigate the Thiaroye Massacre ?

On By Dr. Y.In Great Moments7 Comments
Poster commemorating the 80th anniversary of the Thiaroye Massacre (Source: Seneplus.com)

Five days from the celebration commemorating 80 years since the Thiaroye: A French Massacre in Senegal, French parliamentarians called on Tuesday 26 November for the establishment of a commission of inquiry to shed light on the bloody chapter in the French colonial history in Senegal that is the Thiaroye Massacre. If the commission receives the green light, then the work will start in March 2025, when they could then summon and hear historians, descendants of the victims of the massacre, and more. As a refresher, on the night of 30 November to 1 December 1944, African soldiers who had who had fought alongside French people to liberate France of the Nazi menace, were shot by Frenchmen, for asking for their pay in Thiaroye, thus the Thiaroye massacre !

Flag of Senegal
Flag of Senegal

Like our Cameroonian brothers and sisters would say, “A quelle heure ?” (at what time?) or rather why now? How convenient! Or this is for show for the new government of Senegal, to act as if the French have taken note to please the new Senegalese government? They always wait for everyone to be dead to ask for and open bogus commissions that will end nowhere… did you see our dear Senegalese Tirailleurs who begged for many years, and only until most of them had died did they get some recognition from the French, At Last: Senegalese Tirailleurs now allowed to receive their pension while living in Senegal. We do remember the British Government apologizes for Mau Mau atrocities or that commission created for the French genocide in Cameroon.

To learn more, check out RFI. Do you think this commission will amount to anything? Will it even be accepted in the French parliament?

Les Vautours / The Vultures by David Mandessi Diop

On By Dr. Y.In Great Literature, Great PeopleLeave a comment
David Mandessi Diop

I found this gem of a poem by the great African poet David Mandessi Diop. Diop was born in France, of a Cameroonian mother from the royal Bell line with illustrious members such as Rudolf Duala Manga Bell and Ndumbe Lobe Bell (King Bell) both kings of the Duala people, and a Senegalese father. Although he died young, in a plane crash in 1960, he has left a strong imprint on African poetry. His most famous poem, Africa, has been one of my favorites growing up and was thought in schools throughout the continent. His work always focused on a condemnation of colonialism and slavery, while filled with hope for an independent Africa.

Vautour / Vulture

Thus, the poem Les Vautours (The Vultures) explores the horrors of colonialism and its impact on Africa. As one can guess, the Vultures are the colonizers who preyed on a fragile Africa, and exploited it with extreme violence. With the arrival of the Europeans, there was a clash of civilizations, Christianity was imposed upon our ancestors via machine guns as noted by the author’s reference to “monotonous rhythm of Pater-Nosters,” and slavery and later forced labor took a toll on them in the plantations or on the roads built referenced as “bloody monument.” When the author mentions “mutilated promises through machine guns,” it reminds us, for example, of the Thiaroye Camp where the tirailleurs were killed by French forces for simply asking for their pension after having served to free France from Nazi forces during World War II. As always, the author finishes on the high note of hope “Spring will put on flesh under our steps of light.” As one reads this poem, it appears that The Vultures are still at work on African soil, but the Spring is putting on flesh under Africans’ steps as we can see in the AES and more.

The original was published in Coups de pilon, Présence Africaine, 1956. Translated to English by Dr. Y., Afrolegends.com

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Les Vautours par David Mandessi Diop / The Vultures by David Mandessi Diop

Les VautoursEn ce temps là

A coups de gueule de civilisation

A coups d’eau bénite sur les fronts domestiqués

Les vautours construisaient à l’ombre de leurs serres

Le sanglant monument de l’ère tutélaire

En ce temps là

Les rires agonisaient dans l’enfer métallique des routes

Et le rythme monotone des Pater-Noster

Couvraient les hurlements des plantations à profit

O le souvenir acide des baisers arrachés

Les promesses mutilées au choc des mitrailleuses

Hommes étranges qui n’étiez pas des hommes

Vous saviez tous les livres vous ne saviez pas l’amour

Et les mains qui fécondent le ventre de la terre

Les racines de nos mains profondes comme la révolte

Malgré vos chants d’orgueil au milieu des charniers

Les villages désolés l’Afrique écartelée

L’espoir vivait en nous comme une citadelle

Et des mines du Souaziland à la sueur lourde des usines d’Europe

Le printemps prendra chair sous nos pas de clarté.

 The VulturesIn that time

When civilization struck in a fit of anger

When holy water struck domesticated foreheads

The vultures built in the shadow of their claws

The bloody monument of the tutelary era

In that time

Laughter died away in the metallic hell of the roads

And the monotonous rhythm of Pater-nosters

Covered the screams on plantations run for profit

O sour memory of extorted kisses

Promises mutilated by machine-gun blasts

Strange men who were not men

You knew all the books you did not know love

Or the hands that fertilize the womb of the earth

The roots of our hands deep as the revolt

Despite your hymns of pride among graveyards

Villages laid to waste and Africa dismembered

Hope lived in us like a citadel

And from the mines of Swaziland to the heavy sweat of Europe’s factories

Spring will take shape under our steps of light.

David Diop Wins International Booker Prize for “At Night All Blood Is Black”, Book on Tirailleurs Senegalais

On By Dr. Y.In Great Literature, Great Moments, Great People4 Comments
“At Night All Blood is Black” by David Diop

It is hard to keep up with the news, but this is one that we should celebrate. The Franco-Senegalese author David Diop won the International Booker Prize 2021 for his book, “At Night All Blood is Black“. I know, it is hard to keep up with all the different prizes, Man Booker Prize, International Booker Prize, and countless others. This one is nonetheless important because first of all, David Diop is the first African to win the prestigious prize, but also because his book “At Night All Blood is Black” talks about all those African soldiers who helped to free France, and yet were never recognized, and instead were insulted, laughed at and more. The book, originally published in French in 2018 under the title “Frères d’âme” or Soul Brothers, weaves the history of World War I with the history of colonialism. The novel describes the experiences of Senegalese Tirailleurs fighting for France in the trenches. The main character, Alfa Ndiaye, descends into madness following the death of his childhood friend Mademba Diop who had also been recruited as a tirailleur, and inflicts extreme brutality upon his German enemies. Diop was inspired to write the book by his French great-grandfather’s service during the war. Diop stated “He never said anything to his wife, or to my mother, about his experience. That is why I was always very interested by all the tales and accounts which gave one access to a form of intimacy with that particular war.”

As a side note, “tirailleur” was the name given by the French Army to indigenous infantry recruited in the various French colonies. They were not all Senegalese, even though the name always said “tirailleur senegalais,” but rather came from all over Africa. They served for France in a number of wars, including World War I, World War II, and several others. The name “Tirailleur” is a link of two words “tir ailleurs” to laugh and denigrate the indigenous troops by saying that the soldiers were not capable to shoot on target, more like to mean “shoot off target”; it could be translated as skirmisher.

It is also good to note that there is no family link between the great Senegalo-Cameroonian poet David Mandessi Diop [Afrique de David M. Diop / Africa by David M. Diop] and this David Diop… We applaud the success of both namesakes. So good to have such a an illustrious namesake and walk in his path.

I live you here with the link to the article on The Conversation., and more importantly on the video of the Massacre of Thiaroye [Thiaroye: A French Massacre in Senegal, ‘Thiaroye Massacre’ by Ousmane Sembene] showing the poor treatment and sometimes massacre of these tirailleurs by the French, when they returned home after serving France.

‘Thiaroye Massacre’ by Ousmane Sembene

On By Dr. Y.In Great Moments, Great People1 Comment

The great Senegalese filmmaker Ousmane Sembene made a movie about the Thiaroye massacre committed by French forces in Senegal during the night of 30 November – 1 December 1944! The movie, Camp de Thiaroye, was made in 1988. It took almost 20 years for a French president, Francois Hollande in 2012, to acknowledge it. A massacre which occurred because the Tirailleurs Senegalais asked to be given the pay they had been promised for services rendered, defending France in France against Hitler’s Nazi forces. Those Senegalese men were killed by French men for asking to be paid after defending France with their lives!