Les Indigenes is a film about North African soldiers who fought with the Free French during WWII. It highlights the racism and ungratefulness faced by Arab soldiers who gave their lives to liberate France from Nazism. It’s a good movie, one of those touching films about unappreciated bravery, like those films about black Americans fighting for American ideals only to be reminded of the hypocrisy of US racism. Yall know what movies I am talking about, like Glory and Tuskegee Airmen and shit. We saw the film as part of the Tirailleurs Senegalais Week being held at the French Institute. The Tiralleur Senegalais was the name of the black French colonial army. Although they were from all over French West Africa, they were designated generically—in typically racist fashion—as all “Senegalese.” These soldiers fought for France during world wars I and II, in addition to helping France subdue anti-colonial insurrections from Morocco to Mali to Vietnam. They were paid and trained less, punished more severely, and treated as cannon fodder. For putting up with all of that, they did not receive their pensions and were quickly forgotten by the French government. In fact, the former French president Jacques Chirac, agreed to increase the pension payments after claiming to be inspired by the film. Two days later, we saw the opposite of “Les Indigenes” which although it’s Hollywood for example making the protagonists the most heroic Arab soldiers that ever fought for France. was still realistic and showed the racism of the French Army and criticized colonialism. One of the best shots of the film is when the Arab soldiers are anxiously standing tight in the hold of a ship about to land to invade France and the PA announcer beams about “their” return home, a country none of the soldiers have ever seen. The second film was “La Force Noire” a fluff piece on the history of France’s black African colonial army made by two conservative French historians which avoids criticizing France in the least. It quickly glosses over gross acts of discrimination, like the lesser pay and training, and key events like the Thiaroye Massacre to paint a shiny picture of La Force Noire. More than anything the historians seemed more enthusiastic about showing all of the recently digitized archival footage of black soldiers. The crowd was mostly conservative and laudatory, only one person—a young army cadet—asked about the lack of mention of racism in the French army. The dude’s answer was classic: one, you have to judge these things in context, it was 1914, everyone was racist, you know, two, denial, it wasn’t that bad, they weren’t cannon fodder the French just wanted them to, umm, feel warmer closer to the bullets, three, and my favorite, at least we (the French) weren’t as racist as the Americans. I mean, France allowed black people to die for its freedom, while the US segregated its black soldiers and didn’t deem them worthy of death. Let this be noted as one of the few times when I would prefer American-style racism. I would rather not die for a country that hates me. But look at these amazing images we found in the archives! Look the French teaching Africans to brush their teeth and smoke cigarettes! Look at them killing Asian people for France! It’s digital now!
