Visit our website:
http://www.france24.com
Like us on Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/FRANCE24.English
Follow us on Twitter:
https://twitter.com/France24_en
Category
đ
NewsTranscript
00:00Here in Tiaroy, commemorative events have been unfolding to mark 80 years since the
00:05Tiaroy Massacre, a dark event in France's colonial history, in which the Senegalese
00:11Tireya, a group of infantry from across West Africa, were killed here in a camp just down
00:17the road.
00:18This morning, President Diomay Faye came to lay a wreath here at the cemetery, a mostly
00:23symbolic cemetery, as it's still not known how many people were killed in this event
00:27and where they are buried.
00:29Signatories then moved on to the camp where the massacre itself unfolded on this day 80
00:34years ago, and six heads of state were present, as well as ambassadors, diplomats and members
00:40of civil society.
00:42One of the first speakers was Mamadou Diop, who heads up the Commission of Inquiry into
00:46what happened all those years ago, as the facts are still unclear and there has been
00:51some silencing of the truth, as he said.
00:54He called it a racist and violent period of history.
00:58Even the foreign minister from France himself acknowledged what had happened before President
01:04Diomay Faye closed the ceremony, acknowledging also the role that the Senegalese Tireya had
01:10in supporting freedom and liberation across Europe, but also he announced some important
01:15measures here in Senegal to make sure that people keep this massacre in their memory,
01:20including a memorial and also introducing the Tiaroy Massacre into the curriculum starting
01:26next year.
01:28It really hurts.
01:29We don't really know the story because it was our grandparents' time.
01:33But when it's told to us, it really breaks our hearts, especially with what France has
01:37done.
01:39I'm very happy they decided to introduce this story into the school curriculum because children
01:43need to learn it.
01:45As the older generation, we can't explain everything to them, but teachers can.
01:49They'll have to educate them about it and then the story will be known for generations.
01:55These people are not here anymore, but their children are still here.
01:59Now that France has acknowledged it was a massacre, they have to give the fight a recognition
02:05and reparations to the family.
02:10This was the first and largest commemoration of its kind for the anniversary of the Tiaroy
02:16Massacre.
02:17There was also a sentimental tone.
02:18There were poems read, songs sung and homage paid really to these West African troops who
02:24lost their lives all those years ago but have been mostly forgotten by history.