The spoken word prevails.
Excellencies, Presidents Mohamed Ould Cheikh El Ghazouani of the Islamic Republic of Mauritania, Chairperson of the African Union, AZALI Assoumani of the Union of the Comoros, Adama BARROW of the Republic of The Gambia, Umaro Sissoco Embaló of the Republic of Guinea-Bissau, Brice Clotaire Oligui Nguema of the Gabonese Republic,
Ladies and Gentlemen, Heads of Delegation,
Mr. Prime Minister,
Mr. President of the ECOWAS Commission,
Ministers and Secretaries of State,
Members of the diplomatic corps,
Administrative and local authorities,
Mr. President and members of the 80th anniversary commemoration committee,
Descendants of the families of the Senegalese tirailleurs,
Distinguished guests,
Dear fellow citizens,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
First and foremost, I would like to warmly thank my dear brothers Presidents GHAZOUANI, AZALI, BARRO, EMBALO, and NGUEMA for graciously enhancing this first edition of the commemoration of the tragic history that took place here in Thiaroye eighty years ago, despite your busy schedules.
I thank all our guests and wish them a pleasant stay in Senegal.
Through you, I extend my greetings to your respective peoples. Your notable presence by our side is a strong symbol of your attachment to the history we share.
Great is my emotion on this date and in this place that speaks to us, where defenseless African Heroes, armed with courage, dignity, and African brotherhood were coldly slaughtered. It was indeed a massacre.
Eighty years after this mass crime, the silence of Thiaroye is still deafening. The whispers from beyond the grave call out to us loudly, while the magnitude of this crime remains minimized and often even denied by some circles of the heirs of those who committed it.
On this wounded land of Thiaroye, the whistling bursts at the end of the barrels still resonate, as if to remind us that the horror is still there. Entire. Immortal.
Novices like many of us, young and old, might wonder exactly what this is all about. The iron curtain was firmly placed for a long time to try to erase this unfortunate episode from our history.
These were Africans, mostly forcibly taken from their homelands to fight for the then French colonial empire. They formed the Senegalese Tirailleurs Regiment.
They came from almost all the French colonial territories of West Africa, Equatorial Africa, and East Africa, which at the time of independence became seventeen countries. They were from Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Comoros, Congo, Côte d'Ivoire, Djibouti, Gabon, Guinea, Madagascar, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, the Central African Republic, Senegal, Chad, and Togo.
Long ignored and trivialized, these tirailleurs bravely faced all challenges to fight far from their homes.
From the harrowing travel conditions (crammed into the holds of ships) to the battlefields where they wore only simple uniforms without defense until 1943 when the Americans equipped them, the tirailleurs sacrificed everything.
They gave their youth, their blood, and their flesh for freedom and peace in the world.
Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen,
Despite enormous losses under Nazi bullets, the feats of the Senegalese Tirailleurs regiment are undeniable and greatly contributed to the victory of the Allies. Whether it was the liberation of Tunisia, the landing on the island of Elba, the liberation of Toulon, or that of Paris, they held their rank by fighting fiercely, sometimes to the ultimate sacrifice, to conquer a locality or hold a position.
They deserve all honors, our respect, and our admiration.
But the rest of the story is in stark contrast to these immense sacrifices made. Instead of praise and recognition, the order was given to neutralize those who had endured segregation in German prisons and the rigors of captivity.
The irreparable occurred on December 1, 1944, here in Thiaroye, when General Dagnan ordered the shooting of unarmed innocents whose only fault was to demand the payment of their allowances, bonuses, and other allocations.
It was a premeditated act aimed at suppressing legitimate demands, deterring others, and perpetuating the colonial order.
The crime was committed, and the facts are indisputable. This is the fate that was reserved for some who contributed, with their blood and sweat, to writing the glorious history of liberation.
Today, out of a duty of memory, truth, and justice, we cannot forget the horror of the summary executions at the Thiaroye camp.
It is imperative to remember the history, the whole history, without any gaps. This is what forms the universal essence of the values of peace, freedom, and equal dignity attached to human nature.
Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen,
All these reasons have strengthened our conviction to commemorate the anniversary of the Thiaroye massacre, to both honor the victims and engrave their memory in our collective consciousness, and to lay the foundations for the restoration of historical truth by ending the silence on this tragic episode intended and maintained by the colonial authority.
In doing so, it will not be an open door to incite resentment, anger, or hatred. No!
What we are doing here is a duty of memory against forgetting and for the manifestation of the truth of the facts, to discharge a moral debt towards the tirailleurs and their families. That is why we have set up an international committee of independent researchers to help accurately reconstruct the facts and gain a better understanding of this sequence of our history shared with France.
To facilitate research work, I have requested from the President of the French Republic the provision of any archival document that can contribute to the manifestation of the truth, and their collaboration, when the time comes, in locating the graves and possibly identifying the victims.
I commend the openness of the current French authorities who have acceded to our request for the manifestation of the truth.
Thus, before this commemoration, members of the international committee of researchers went to France and had working sessions with the French authorities and the officials of the sites where the missing archives are presumed to be kept. The research will continue after the commemoration.
France has also taken an important step in restoring the truth thanks to President Emmanuel Macron, who sent me a letter three days ago acknowledging that the events in Thiaroye in 1944 resulted in a massacre.
I salute his moral courage.
This is a commendable step in the process of rehabilitating the honor and dignity of the victimized tirailleurs, following President François Hollande's statement at the Thiaroye cemetery on November 30, 2014, "saluting the memory of men who wore the French uniform and on whom the French turned their guns."
However, there are still many unclear aspects of this history, particularly the exact number of tirailleurs executed.
Two contradictory reports from colonial authorities mention 35 and 70 deaths, while other testimonies speak of hundreds of deaths and many injuries.
The requested archives will, according to researchers, allow us to understand how the Thiaroye tragedy truly unfolded; to have a more accurate reading of the mindset of the repatriated tirailleurs, their exact number, their identities and origins, the places where they are buried, the hardships endured, the frustrations and humiliations suffered, as well as the amount owed to each of them.
This work is complex. That is why I am calling on state and non-state actors from all concerned countries, including France, as well as historians and researchers from all backgrounds, to join our efforts to take a clear-eyed look at this dark episode of our shared history.
Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen,
Identifying the victims and assigning responsibilities is essential to pave the way for sincere reconciliation.
This is an opportunity for me to pay a vibrant tribute to all Africans and non-Africans who have always fought to ensure that the history of the Tirailleurs and the Thiaroye massacre is preserved from oblivion and falsification.
I think of the pioneers, the politicians, intellectuals, writers, poets, filmmakers, artists, and well-meaning individuals and organizations.
Without the synergy of all these efforts, the fight for justice and truth would not have prospered. But this truth still needs to be fully revealed, transmitted, and recognized. We must encourage this momentum to restore the memory and dignity of the Senegalese tirailleurs.
For my part, I will initiate several measures to reclaim part of this shared history with 16 brotherly African countries:
First: a memorial in honor of the Tirailleurs will be erected in Thiaroye to serve as a place of remembrance and memory, open to all the nations they originated from, as well as to the public.
Second: a Documentation and Research Center dedicated to the Tirailleurs will be established to preserve their memory. This center will collect archives, testimonies, and narratives while supporting research and education about this shared history.
Third: streets and squares will be named after this tragic event and these soldiers to engrave their sacrifice in our daily lives and collective history.
Fourth: the history of Thiaroye and the Tirailleurs will be taught in educational curricula. Thus, future generations will grow up with a deep understanding of this episode from our past.
Fifth: Tirailleur Day is now set on December 1st of each year, the day of the commemoration of the Thiaroye massacre.
Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen,
The history of war and armed repression is never ordinary. It is rarely told in its entirety. This was the case with World War II and especially its consequences in the colonies, which experienced unspeakable repressions: Thiaroye 1944, Sétif and Guelma in Algeria 1945, Hanoi and Haiphong in Vietnam 1946, Madagascar 1947, Douala in Cameroon or Dimbokro in Côte d'Ivoire 1948-1949 and many other places.
Each of these tragic stories lives in us through the exercise of memory. It makes us proud and grateful to our veterans.
To pay homage to these tirailleurs is not only to mourn our martyrs. It is to carry their fight and make it a lever to reinvent our relationships with ourselves, with our history, and with the heirs of those who were the authors of the tragedy.
It is to tell the world that the Senegalese tirailleurs were not mercenaries, but defenders of a universal human dignity. It is to proclaim loudly that this dignity, so long trampled upon, will never again be sacrificed on the altar of silence and oblivion.
The Thiaroye massacre is a wound, but it is also a lesson. A lesson that teaches us that fraternity, unity, and the refusal to forget are the most powerful weapons available to free people to write their future.
May this commemoration, 80 years later, not be just a moment of reflection. Let it be a renewed oath. An oath of justice, an oath of memory, an oath of truth. So that never again will Thiaroye and similar events be repeated, in any form, anywhere in the world.
Today we honor heroes. And by honoring them, we remind ourselves that we too have a duty: to be faithful to them. Faithful to their values, their fight, and their vision of a more just world.
Together, let us work for the restored historical truth of the Thiaroye massacre, for justice, freedom, and full and complete dignity!
Thank you for your kind attention.