THIAROYE-SUR-MER, Senegal
Biram Senghor regularly pays
his respects at a military cemetery in Thiaroye, a fishing village near
Senegal’s capital Dakar, bowing in front of a different grave each time.
The 86-year-old has no way of
knowing which grave belongs to his father, M’Bap Senghor, one of the hundreds
of West African riflemen who fought for France during World War II but were
likely killed on Dec. 1, 1944, by the French army after demanding unpaid wages.
In this cemetery, where they
are supposedly buried, all the graves are anonymous and the exact location of
the remains is unknown, as is the number of victims. The true scale and
circumstances of the killings remain unclear as Senegal commemorates the 80th
anniversary of the massacre on Sunday, threatening to reignite smoldering
tensions between France and the former colony.
“I have been fighting to get
answers for over 80 years,” says Biram Senghor. “(French President Emmanuel)
Macron cannot do what the other French presidents before him did; France has to
repent.”
The West Africans were members
of the unit called “Tirailleurs Sénégalais,” a corps of colonial infantry in
the French Army that fought in both World Wars. According to historians, there
were disputes over unpaid wages in the days before the massacre and on Dec. 1,
French troops turned on the unarmed African soldiers and shot them dead.
For decades, French
authorities tried to minimize what had happened in Thiaroye. Reports by the
French military shortly after the massacre determined that 35 West African
soldiers were killed in response to a “mutiny.” Other reports by the French
army mention 70 deaths.
But today, many French and
Senegalese historians agree the true death toll is likely in the hundreds, with
some speaking of almost 400 African soldiers killed, based on estimates of the
number of riflemen present at the camp on the day of the massacre.
On Thursday, Macron officially
recognized the events of Thiaroye as a massacre for the first time in a letter
to Senegal’s President Diomaye Faye, which was seen by The Associated Press.
“France must recognize that on
that day, the confrontation between soldiers and riflemen who demanded their
full legitimate wages be paid, triggered a chain of events that resulted in a
massacre,” read Macron’s letter.
But many historians dispute
the idea of a confrontation between the French soldiers and the West African
riflemen.
“What happened on December 1st
was the execution of unarmed soldiers,” says Martin Mourre, a French historian
and author of Thiaroye 1944, History and Memory of a Colonial Massacre.
He points to the fact that no
weapons were mentioned during the trial of the African riflemen accused of
mutiny and the absence of any injuries among the French soldiers as evidence
that no confrontation took place.
In his letter to the
Senegalese president, Macron did not mention the number of soldiers killed.
The controversies and unknowns
about the massacre are in part due to a lack of transparency by French
authorities regarding the military reports and testimonies.
In 2014, French President
Francois Hollande handed over the European nation’s archives on Thiaroye to
Macky Sall, then-president of Senegal.
But historians say that key
documents, including ones indicating the site of the mass graves and the number
of West African soldiers present at the camp on the day of the massacre, are
still missing. It is unclear if France holds such archives or if they even
exist.
Macron’s office and the French
foreign ministry did not respond to requests for comment.
Additionally, very little was
done by the Senegalese authorities under former president Sall to allow
historians to delve into the historical documents.
“The archives remained
inaccessible until this year, for obscure reasons,” says Mourre.
Mamadou Diouf, a Senegalese
historian who heads the commemoration committee for the Thiaroye massacre this
year, says Sall did not show much interest in the subject to avoid diplomatic
tensions with France.
But Senegal’s President
Bassirou Diomaye Faye, who was elected in March in part on a promise of
redefining Senegal’s relationship with the former colonizer, has vowed to
regain control of the historical narrative on Thiaroye.
His administration has
organized major commemorations of the massacre from Dec. 1 to April 2025 across
the country.
“The authorities' goal behind
the major commemorations is to make Thiaroye part of Senegal’s national story,”
says Babacar Ndiaye, political analyst at the Wathi think tank, which focuses
on political and economic issues in West Africa.
“It will be talked about a lot
on television, in the press and most importantly on social media,” he adds.
“This will reach a younger audience who might know little about the events of
Thiaroye.”
The 80th anniversary of the
massacre comes as France’s influence is declining in the region, with Paris
losing its sway in its former West African colonies.
French troops have been ousted
in recent years from Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso after years of fighting
Islamic extremists alongside regional troops. Earlier this week, Chad, one of
the last countries in the region where France had maintained a large military
presence, ended a military cooperation agreement with Paris.
France still has around 350
troops in Senegal, mainly in a supportive role. Asked about their continued
presence, Faye suggested it is not something the Senegalese would want.
“Historically, France
enslaved, colonized and stayed here,” he said. “Obviously, I think that when
you reverse the roles a little, you will have a hard time conceiving that
another army — of China, Russia, Senegal, or any other country — could have a
military base in France.”
At the ceremony held at the
military cemetery in Thiaroye on Sunday, Faye announced the construction of a
memorial in honor of the riflemen, the creation of a research center where
archives on the massacre will be kept, and streets named after the event.
History lessons on the massacre will also be added to the school curriculum and
Dec. 1 will officially become “national day of the tirailleur.”
“What we are doing here is
part of our duty of remembrance and to reveal the truth of the facts, to
discharge a moral debt towards the riflemen and their families,” said during
his speech in front of an audience that included France’s Foreign Minister Jean-Noël
Barrot, as well as Gambia, Mauritania, Guinea-Bissau, Gabon and the Comoros
heads of state. Macron was not present at the ceremony.
“We are not opening a door to
arouse resentment, maintain anger or hatred,” Faye said.
But once more, Senegal and the
former colonizer's account of the massacre differed.
While the French foreign
minister described the events of Thiaroye as a “cry of anger” from the riflemen
that France “repressed in a bloodshed,” the Senegalese president said they were
“a premeditated act.”
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