I have written a lot about American history and its mistreatment of the enslaved, and I’m taking a moment to bring up France and its historical abuse of Black people. I’ve already written about their role in the Haitian Revolution and how their demand for payments has left Haiti broke to this day. Another despicable act isn’t taught in French schools or pretty much anywhere. It’s the Thiaroye Massacre during which France killed hundreds of Black conscripted soldiers rather than pay them the wages and pensions they were due.
Conscription needs to be defined. Americans might be familiar with it as a compulsory draft for men of a certain age into military service, which ended on January 27, 1973, during the Vietnam War. I don’t mean to hold up the American Selective Service System as a model. It offered deferments to the wealthy and middle-class based on occupational status, student status, or even a note from your doctor. As a result, the draft (conscription) swept up a higher percentage of minorities without the option of deferment to fight and die and our wars. Russia is currently using conscripts; mercenaries. disproportionately from other countries or unable to pass the physical for military service. Those were bad; what France did was worse.
France was one of the biggest colonizers in the world. France also frequently found itself in wars and didn’t have enough young men to fight them. They solved that problem by conscripting Black Africans from Guinea, Mali, Senegal, Burkina Faso, Chad, Benin, Gabon, Ivory Coast, and Central African Republic. Some were volunteers, but most were conscripted into service and sent to die in French wars.
French men were generally subject to conscription and served three-year terms. They received pay and a pension, so did the Africans, but their pensions were based on their country of origin, and all received less than French citizens. This broke the promises they were given at the beginning of WWII. The pay was often withheld from the Africans as well. On December 1, 1944, about 1,300 tirailleurs (colonial infantry) protested the pension differential and back pay owed. The French called it a mutiny and opened fire on their own troops. The French say thirty-five men were killed while unofficial counts exceed three hundred Black men.
Because over 200,000 African conscripts were still serving throughout Africa and Europe, the French Provisional Government, led by Charles de Gaulle, settled the outstanding claims of African soldiers to prevent a full-scale revolt. That didn’t include those killed or the ten survivors convicted for the “mutiny” at Thiaroye.
Over 140,000 West Africans were conscripted during WWI and an even more significant number in WWII. Black conscripts kept French factories working during wartime and generally appreciated their service, though the French didn’t want them living next door. The Africans were forced into ghettoes (banlieues), and when the wars ended, their jobs were given back to the white men they had replaced. The worst areas outside Paris today are the direct result of France casting out the Blacks that kept their economy alive during the worst of times.
I write so much about America that I cleanse my palate by discussing some other part of the world from time to time. I’ll get to Britain, Portugal, Spain, and the Netherlands in due time. Take care all!
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This post was previously published on MEDIUM.COM and is republished with permission.
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