Hommage to the Senegalese Sharpshooters

In honor of the Tiralleurs Sénégalais, the Town of Lectoure, in conjunction with l'association France-Casamance and Les Souvenirs Français, will host its annual memorial service and luncheon, beginning at 10:30AM on Saturday, November 22, 2008.  This year's commemoration will also include the film La Force Noire, directed by Eric Deroo, which will be shown at the Lectoure Public Library at 3:00PM .

Listen and watch as Slam Poet Manu performs Léopold Senghor's powerful elegy  "Aux Tirailleurs sénégalais morts pour la France", written in hommage to the African soldiers from Mali, Mauritania, the Ivory Coast, Senegal, Burkina Faso, Benin, and Togo, who served and died under the colonial flag.  The bones of some of these remarkable men rest in The Senegalese Soldiers' Cemetery here in our own provincial town.

 ....Ecoutez-moi, Tirailleurs sénégalais, dans la solitude de la terre noire et de la mort/Dans votre solitude sans yeux sans oreilles, plus que dans ma peau sombre au fond de la Province/Sans même la chaleur de vos camarades couchés tout contre vous, comme jadis/dans la tranchée jadis dans les palabres du village/Ecoutez-moi, Tirailleurs à la peau noire, bien que sans oreilles et sans yeux/dans votre triple enceinte de nuit....  ~ Léopold Sédar Senghor, Hosties noires, 1948.

Listen to me, Senegalese sharpshooters, beneath the solitude of the black earth and of death/In your solitude without eyes, without ears, more than my dark skin in the depths of the French provinces/without even the warmth of your comrades sleeping next to you/like the old days in the trenches/like the old days in the village under the baobab tree/Listen to me, black-skinned Senegalese sharpshooters, albeit without ears, without eyes/in your triple enclosure of night. ~ English translation by M.A. Yemane

France Remembers World War I

November 11, Armistice Day, is a national holiday in France.  All schools, businesses, and government agencies are closed.  (Bien sûr, you can get your baguette from the baker, your blood sausage from the butcher, and your beets from the green grocer, if you do your shopping before noon.)

Le Jour de l'Armistice commemorates the end of World War I in 1918 when, on the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month, all guns fell silent.

According to the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, this war claimed the lives of 1,186,800 French soldiers, including those of 71,00 French colonial combatants. 

Eleven percent of the French population was either killed or wounded in the "war to end all wars".

To understand just how profoundly France was affected by "The Great War," you need only wind your way through the picturesque countryside, and drive through the heart of any small town.  Inevitably, you will spot a monument on whose marble façade is engraved the names of the young residents who "gave their lives to the nation".

Ninety years later, farmer's are still finding bullets, bombs, and bones in the soil where wheat and beets grow,  in the fields where cows graze.

The great tragedy of human history is that we seem incapable of ridding our selves of A Terrible Love of War.

Where are the peace memorials?

Yves FOHLEN - Guide conférencier - Caverne du Dragon
envoyé par espritdepicardie

Yves Fohlen, historien français, à la Caverne du Dragon parle du Chemin des Dames, barrière de crètes à 150 km au Nord-est de Paris ou se déroulèrent des combats lors de la guerre 1914-1918.

Victoire!

America Has Spoken

Photo La Dépêche du Midi. N. DebbicheThree weeks ago, I mailed my absentee ballot in to the Montgomery County Board of Elections, casting my vote for Barack Obama as President and Joe Biden as Vice President of the United States of America. 

For the last few months, my French friends have been demanding that I tell them who was going to win the U.S. Presidential election.  But I was unable to answer their queries, given that I'd long ago misplaced my crystal ball. 

Along with everyone else, I had to ride out the wild twists and turns of the American presidential campaign.  I had to watch as a global economic crisis claimed one country after another.  I watched as notable Republicans defected and broke on through to the other side.  The drama!  And then I watched as the final hours of the 2008 campaign played out before the world.  I spent 15 hours riveted to our flat screen TV.  At turns, I held my breath, bit my nails, closed my eyes, and drank Armagnac (flambéd with a cube of sugar). 

But for the Armagnac, the waves of anxiety and joy I experienced yesterday, were very much reminiscent of another long day and night 18 years ago today, during which I labored to bring a new life into this crazy world.  It was November 1990 and there was another Bush in the White House.  The word "Iraq" was beginning to appear in newsprint and to be uttered on the lips of broadcast journalists and Washington pundits.

Fast forward four Bush Administrations later.  Terror.  War.  Financial Meltdown.  Widespread unemployment.  Global warming.  A trillion dollar budget deficit.  Alienated allies.  A growing band of enemies.  Dread.

Last night the American people spoke.  "Enough!" 

Today, I speak.  "Happy Birthday, Saba!" 

Your present - a new president.  The times they are changing and we've got a lot of cleaning up to do.

*****

Lisez l'article paru dans La Dépêche du Midi : "42 Américains devant leur télé la nuit dernière"