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