Thiaroye Massacre

The Thiaroye Massacre was the mutiny by and mass killing of French West African troops by French forces on the night of November 30 to December 1, 1944. West African conscripts of the tirailleurs sénégalais units of the French army mutinied against poor conditions and revocation of pay at the Thiaroye camp, on the outskirts of Dakar, Senegal. The mutiny is seen as an indictment of the colonial system and constituted a watershed for the nationalist movement.

As colonial subjects, tirailleurs (infantry men) were not awarded the same pensions as their French (European) fellow soldiers during and after World War II. This discrimination led to a mutiny of Senegalese tirailleurs at Camp Thiaroye on 31 November 1944. The tirailleurs involved were former prisoners of war who had been repatriated to West Africa and placed in a holding camp awaiting discharge. They demonstrated in protest against the failure of the French authorities to pay salary arrears and discharge allowances. The following day French soldiers guarding the camp opened fire killing thirty-five African soldiers. The provisional government of Charles de Gaulle, concerned at the impact of the Tiaroye incident on serving tirailleurs acted quickly to ensure that claims for back pay and other monies owing were settled.

After World War II ended, the French argued that the tirailleurs were particularly prone to revolt. The French based this claim in the notion that German soldiers, in an attempt to thwart France’s colonial goals in Africa, had treated the tirailleurs well as prisoners of war. This ostensibly good treatment of tirailleurs in prisoner of war camps is not, however, based in fact, ultimately rendering French attempts at positioning the tirailleurs as enemies false.

Senegalese author and filmmaker Ousmane Sembène, directed a film, Camp de Thiaroye, documenting the events leading up to the Thairoye massacre, as well as the massacre itself. The film is considered historical fiction, as the characters are not necessarily based on actual tirailleurs who were killed. The film received positive reviews at the time it was released and continues to be heralded by scholars as an important historical documentation of the Thiaroye massacre.