The center college college students in Senegal listened quietly one afternoon this previous week as their historical past trainer instructed a narrative most of them knew already.
In 1944, French colonial forces massacred West African troopers who had returned from France after preventing in World War II, mentioned the trainer, Aminata Diedhiou.
Their college, within the city of Thiaroye, stands close to the positioning of the killings.
Why did the French bloodbath them, one scholar requested. How have been they killed, puzzled one other.
“I need to know extra,” mentioned Amy Sall, 16.
So does Senegal.
Ahead of the eightieth anniversary of what’s often called the Thiaroye Massacre, Senegal’s authorities has pressured France to totally clarify one of the crucial sinister episodes of its colonial rule in Africa.
And Senegal received’t let it go, the most recent sign despatched by an African authorities that the connection with the previous colonizer is up for reconsideration.
After President Emmanuel Macron of France final week referred to the occasions as a “bloodbath” in a letter addressed to his Senegalese counterpart — the primary French president to ever describe it as such — President Bassirou Diomaye Faye had a blunt reply.
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