S4 E16: Thiaroye 1944: More than a colonial massacre... an impossible mourning!

My African Cliches (English)

01 December 1944. We are a few kilometers away from Dakar. The surrounding villages are encircled. It is 5.30 in the morning in a French military camp. Tanks are put in place. Horses too. And finally, a group of armed soldiers is getting ready. Looks like a firing squad.

A first burst leaves. Then another one... totally disarmed soldiers fall by tens, by the hundreds even.

This is not a Ridley Scott movie. No, it is the story of a group of soldiers, Senegalese skirmishers who had just returned from the second world war. What exactly happened that morning?

Hello and welcome to a Sankofa which is celebrating with the families of these unidentifed skirmishers, the 75th anniversary of a massacre whose circumstances and statistics are kept well hidden by french army since 1944. Here is the story of the Thiaroye colonial massacre.