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The Senegalese riflemen - The Thiaroye massacre in 1944

The creation of a corps of so-called "Senegalese" skirmishers initially met the needs for manpower for the colonial wars. The French colonial Empire would perhaps not have existed without these black troops who took part in all the operations of conquest of territories carried out by the Republic throughout the 19th century in Africa and Madagascar. They gradually replaced the basic European soldiers who resisted the tropical climatic conditions badly. These African soldiers quickly found themselves in the theaters of operations in Europe.

The Senegalese skirmishers were a body of soldiers belonging to the colonial troops, formed within the French colonial Empire in 1857” and dissolved in the early 1960s.


Senegalese skirmishers are not necessarily Senegalese, they are recruited from all over black Africaboth in East Africa and in Central and West Africa. The term "Senegalese" is given to them because the first regiment of skirmishers was created in Senegal. These infantry units will quickly designate all the African soldiers of black color who fight under the French flag and who thus differentiate themselves from the units of North Africa, such as the Algerian skirmishers.

Recruitment is based on the decree of February 7, 1912 which establishes recruitment by requisition. France has enormous needs in men. From 1916, a real hunt for recruits was put in place. This recruitment system, which is similar to “abduction” methods as in the days of the slave trade, arouses revolts in African villages. Some were very harshly repressed in June 1916 by France, which fired artillery on a dozen “recalcitrant” villages, killing several thousand civilians.

Conscription became compulsory in the colonies from 1919. The French government called on Africa for help as soon as a new war with Germany was imminent.


In the French army, skirmishers were victims of discrimination. Food: their rations were of lesser quality and quantity than that of the white soldiers; in labor they were used for menial labor and corvées.

Many Africans died on the French battlefields of the First World War. They were on the front line. For many, they were the cannon fodder of the First World War,

Historians speak of 72,000 combatants from the former French Empire who died between 1914 and 1918 out of the 180,000 mobilized.

During the 2nd World War, between 1939 and 1945 there were nearly 300,000 men from both North Africa and Black Africa (140,000 from sub-Saharan Africa). Several thousand died in POW camps, summarily executed by the Germans, who considered them subhuman.


The Senegalese skirmishers took part, among other things, in the Battle of France, the conquest of the island of Elba in June 1944 and the capture of Toulon, following the landing in Provence in August 1944. Concerning this landing, out of the 350,000 engaged soldiers, about 90% were from the French colonies. Their military training was sketchy “With us, there were no volunteers. We recruited people by force in their villages, confirms Burkinabe corporal Bouakal Lourba at the microphone of RFI in 2014. Before going to war, we were shown how to use a gun, how to disassemble it, how to reassemble it. But it was on our own that we learned to protect ourselves during combat. When they land in Provence, many have already experienced fire.

They largely contributed to the success of this operation and to the liberation of large cities such as Marseilles, Toulon or Fréjus.

They played a decisive role in the liberation of the metropolis in 1944-45.

They also fought for the French colonial Empire, and were involved in conflicts which opposed France to its colonies: in Indochina, in Algeria, in Madagascar.

On December 1, 1944, France massacred 395 Senegalese tirailleurs who were claiming their unpaid wages.

The Thiaroye massacre on December 1, 1944


The Senegalese skirmishers stood out in the wars between France and its allies against Germany. They fought bravely, many lost their lives. The battalions of the war in Provence which took place from August 16 to 28, 1944 were mainly composed of these skirmishers, who greatly contributed to the liberation of France. The war was over, the French army did not want to show recognition to the Senegalese skirmishers. The leaders of the French army, considering it a shame that they were indebted to these blacks for their victory, decided to demobilize them and send them back to their countries in Africa.


In 1944, a first contingent of Senegalese skirmishers was released, then repatriated to Dakar. Freshly landed on November 30, 1944, these soldiers were transferred to the military camp of Thiaroye in the suburbs of Dakar, to be demobilized. They have still not received their captivity pay and various bonuses. 1/5 of these amounts had been paid to them before they embarked and they were to receive 4/5ths upon their arrival. Faced with the refusal of the French authorities to compensate them, they revolted to demand payment of their arrears of salaries and their demobilization bonuses. The mutiny was violently suppressed, causing several hundred deaths (about 400) and many injuries. Their bodies lie in mass graves and a heinous state lie hides this truth. France has recognized only 35 dead buried in the Thiaroye military cemetery, increased to 70 under President Hollande.


These skirmishers were assassinated by France, for having demanded the payment of their pay. Instead of acknowledging this shooting, French officials are mired in historical machinations, tampering with records, producing falsified reports to veil history. The Senegalese government for its part does nothing to exhume the bodies despite the requests of the families, as long as France does not give the green light. It is still Françafrique.

The events of the Thiaroye camp have long represented for Africans the very example of colonial injustice and the ingratitude of the metropolis towards the native soldiers who had nevertheless given the best of themselves for its liberation.

Crystallization

The disappointment of these soldiers deepened a little more when the French Parliament adopted in 1959 the so-called "crystallization" decree blocking the amount of pensions, retirements and allowances paid by the French State to veterans and civil servants from the colonies.. It will be necessary to wait for the release of the film Indigènes (2006) by Rachid Bouchareb, which returns with accuracy and rigor to the sacrifices of the former skirmishers, for the French legislators to decide in 2007 to decrystallize pensions.

These have also been upgraded so that African veterans of the French army finally receive the same amount as French soldiers engaged in the war. Except that in the meantime the majority of skirmishers are already dead; these sums were never paid to their families.


The laundering of colonial troops at the liberation of France

The celebration in this month of August of the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Paris during the Second World War is an opportunity to return to an unknown episode in French military history, without which the participation of foreign soldiers in the liberation of the capital would probably not have taken place.

In 1944, France was again fully part of the belligerent powers against Nazi Germany. It is largely to the troops raised in its African colonies that it owes this return among the countries which participate in the Allied war effort. These colonial troops, which represented up to two thirds of the French army, distinguished themselves during several major battles, in particular during the campaigns in Tunisia (1943) and Italy (1943-1944).

Of the 230,000 French soldiers who landed in Provence from August 15, 1944, nearly 120,000 were goumiers, skirmishers, spahis, as well as African Europeans, originating from 22 Maghreb and black African countries. However, 10 days later, at the liberation of Paris, no black soldier participated in the liberation of Paris.

Documents uncovered by the BBC reveal that British and American commanders assured that the liberation of Paris on August 25, 1944 was considered a victory "reserved for whites" and demanded from the French the withdrawal of blacks from the numbers of troops to be sent to Paris.

While the Allied high command had originally planned to bypass the French capital, without military interest, General de Gaulle's government pressed for French units to liberate Paris.


North Africans to complete the workforce

The Allied high command accepts, but on one condition: De Gaulle's division must not contain any black soldiers. Although black soldiers fight in the US military, they form separate units and do not fight with their white compatriots.

In January 1944, General Walter Bedell Smith, Eisenhower's chief of staff, therefore sent the French a memo stamped "confidential" stating that "it is more desirable that the above-mentioned division be composed of white personnel ". However, the 2nd Armored Division of General Leclerc then only had a quarter of metropolitans, but appeared to be the only one that could be "whitewashed". No army unit can then display more than 40% white manpower. Skirmishers (blacks) are ordered to undress to leave their uniform and their place in the ranks of the Free French Forces to resistance fighters (whites); often teenagers who had never held a gun.

It quickly became apparent to the French generals that the metropolitans alone could not make up for the absence of soldiers from West Africa, even by integrating the Resistance fighters. The North Africans and Syrians are therefore kept, while the other Africans will be sent home before the end of the war.

This laundering marks the beginning of the rout for the skirmishers, expelled from the field of honor by force of prejudice, then parked in camps for months before pitifully returning to their country of origin. And when, in Thiaroye, on December 1, 1944, they have the nerve to ask the French army to pay them what it owes them: a bloodbath.

Skirmishers are among the victors of World War II. They constituted half of the strength of Free France.

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