Senegal demands truth as it marks 80 years since French colonial massacre at Thiaroye

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00:00I'm here at Camp Thiorai where commemorations for the 80th anniversary of the Thiaroy Massacre

00:05are wrapping up.

00:06You'll see behind me that dignitaries and diplomats are on their way out after paying

00:11homage to the West African troops that were killed here 80 years ago to the day by French

00:17colonial forces.

00:18The ceremony started with fanfare and a welcome to the president by the many Senegalese armed

00:24forces that were present, as well as thousands of people here and including six heads of

00:29state from the region, because it wasn't just Senegalese fighters that were part of

00:33this infantry, there were also 16 other nations involved.

00:38The French foreign minister was also present and echoed the words that Emmanuel Macron

00:42said this week, acknowledging that the events were indeed a massacre, people were killed

00:47here and he said that nothing could justify what happened, but recognised also the troops'

00:54contribution to the wider liberty and freedom of France and other parts of Europe.

00:59There were also strong words by Mamadou Diop, who is the chief of the commission that has

01:04just been given the go-ahead to look more into what happened, go through the archives

01:09and find the facts.

01:11He's described it as a racist system of violence.

01:15And then there was also emotional tone, music, poems and readings by other members of Senegalese

01:23society. Before then, President Jomai Faye came and closed the ceremony. He called for

01:28a restoration of truth and the reasserting of facts and for the families also to have

01:33some sort of closure.

01:35He acknowledged again the contributions of these forces and critically he announced that

01:40now the history of what happened here at this camp will be taught in schools. As I said

01:45before, there are many who don't know what happened here due to the fact that people

01:49say France tried to silence the events. It was only 2014 that President Hollande even

01:55acknowledged what happened to these forces. And so this is a welcome decision. There were

02:01applause in the crowd given the silence that has veiled these events over the years.

02:05And so today was the first and the largest event of its kind as Senegal re-evaluates

02:11and reconstitutes its relationship with the ex-colonial power.

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