Senegal commemorates 80th anniversary of French colonial massacre

By James Tasamba

KIGALI, Rwanda (AA) – Senegal on Sunday commemorated the 80th anniversary of the killing of West African riflemen by French colonial soldiers described as the Thiaroye massacre.

The remembrance comes after French President Emmanuel Macron last week for the first time acknowledged the killing as a massacre after decades of downplaying what had happened in Thiaroye.

The Thiaroye massacre occurred on Dec. 1, 1944. An estimated 400 West African soldiers who fought for the French forces in the Battle of France were killed by French soldiers after what they described as a mutiny over unpaid wages at the Thiaroye camp, according to historians.

Speaking at a ceremony at a military cemetery in Thiaroye on the outskirts of the capital Dakar, Senegal’s President Bassirou Diomaye Faye said that “paying tribute to the riflemen, long-forgotten heroes who fell for demanding justice and dignity, marked an important step in restoring their honor and dignity.”

He underlined that the commemoration was not intended to “arouse resentment, maintain anger or hatred” and highlighted the need to shed more light on the circumstances of the killings, which remain unclear to date.

“What we are doing here is part of our responsibility to remember and to reveal the truth of the facts, to discharge a moral debt towards the riflemen and their families,” he said.

Faye announced several measures aimed at preserving the memory of the fallen fighters, including the construction of a memorial in honor of the riflemen and teaching the history of the tragic event in educational curriculum as well as the annual commemoration of the event on Dec. 1 as the “national day of the tirailleur.”

Several African presidents attended the event, including from Mauritania, Gambia, Guinea-Bissau, Gabon and Comoros as well as France’s Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot.

"I pay a special tribute to the brotherly Senegalese people and government for the efforts they have undertaken with dignity and greatness to help restore the truth and preserve the memory of these heroic infantrymen,” said Mauritanian President Mohamed Ould El-Ghazouani, who is the current chairman of the African Union.

During the First World War (1914-18) roughly 200,000 infantrymen from French West Africa were mobilized under the French flag, according to historians.

The Senegalese infantrymen who were killed had been demobilized and sent back to Africa after the Second World War.