As France commemorates the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Paris this weekend – a pivotal victory over Nazi forces – there's a renewed focus on the long-forgotten colonial soldiers who were excluded from much of the liberation, the victory parade and the subsequent battles of 1944.
The liberation of Paris on 24-25 August 1944 was a key moment in World War II, marking the end of Nazi occupation in the French capital.
An uprising by the French Resistance on 19 August forced the hand of the Allies, who had initially not prioritised freeing Paris.
General Charles de Gaulle insisted on sending in the French 2nd Armoured Division, which entered Paris on the evening of 24 August, to prevent the city from being destroyed by retreating German forces.
While the liberation was celebrated with a grand parade on the Champs-Élysées on 26 August, not all who fought for the city’s freedom were honoured.
Diverse force
The French army in 1944 was a diverse force. Commanded by General Jean de Lattre de Tassigny, it included 84,000 white French settlers from Algeria, 12,000 Free French troops, and 12,000 Corsicans.
But it also had 130,000 soldiers from Algeria and Morocco, along with 12,000 members of the colonial army, including marksmen from Senegal and infantrymen from France's territories in the Pacific and West Indies.
Historian Anthony Guyon, author of a book on African fighters in the French army, says that while these colonial soldiers were officially listed as volunteers, the reality was more complex, with some conscripted under duress.
It's "difficult to measure" the extent of this coercion, he says, because "in the registers, all the soldiers were described as volunteers".
These troops made up more than half of the French forces, with West Africans and other colonial conscripts forming the majority of the French Liberation Army.
Africans 'held back'
However, as the Allied forces advanced from the successful landing in Provence on 15 August 1944 – a crucial operation that opened up a southern front – African fighters began to be withdrawn from the ranks of the First Army.
They were replaced by French Interior Forces resistance fighters and Spanish Republican soldiers who had fled Franco’s regime.
This replacement marked the start of a systematic sidelining of colonial troops, who were excluded from the liberation of Paris and the celebrations that followed.
"When the resistance triumphantly marched into France, the Free French army held back its black African soldiers so that the official liberation of Paris would appear to be accomplished only by whites," American author Ken Chen wrote in The Nation earlier this year.
Deliberately excluded
Among the black soldiers who landed in Provence was Frantz Fanon, the world-renowned psychiatrist and anti-colonial author, who joined the French army aged just 17.
Fanon, originally from Martinique, recounted the racism he encountered within the French army and in civilian life in his pioneering book Black Skin, White Masks, published in France in 1952.
He and other historians have described this systematic exclusion of black soldiers as an effort to "whiten the Free French Forces".
Evidence shows the disengagement of some African riflemen was a premeditated decision.
General Joseph Magnan, who commanded a division of the colonial forces, first requested that the soldiers of the 6th Regiment of African Riflemen be relieved as early as May 1944.
Though initially rebuffed, the idea soon gained traction.
Allies implicated
In 2009, the BBC uncovered documents showing that the US and UK had also played roles in this "whitening" process.
Allied High Command agreed to de Gaulle’s plan to liberate Paris on the condition that the division sent to Paris did not include black soldiers. They insisted that black soldiers be replaced by white ones, even when it became clear that there were not enough white soldiers available, the BBC’s Mike Thompson reported.
Dwight D Eisenhower, the Supreme Commander of the Allied Expeditionary Forces in Europe, played a key role in this decision.
His chief of staff, Major General Walter Bedell Smith, wrote in a confidential memo: "It is more desirable that the division mentioned above consist of white personnel. This would indicate the Second Armoured Division, which with only one-fourth native personnel, is the only French division operationally available that could be made 100 percent white."
British General Frederick Morgan also commented: "It is unfortunate that the only French formation that is 100 percent white is an armoured division in Morocco. Every other French division is only about 40 percent white."
He requested that the French "produce a white infantry division".
Tragic aftermath
The aftermath of the liberation was no less tragic for colonial soldiers.
Despite their vital contributions, historian Guyon says black fighters were progressively barred from military operations and celebrations.
Many were forced to return their uniforms and sent home under harsh conditions, with some having their pensions frozen until 1959.
In late November 1944, around 1,300 former Senegalese servicemen at the military camp of Thiaroye, near Dakar, began protesting their poor treatment and lack of pay.
Dozens were massacred by French troops, and some survivors were jailed for 10 years.
It's taken decades for France to fully recognise the vital role of non-white soldiers. Political leaders from north and sub-Saharan Africa were first invited to commemorate the landings only half a century after the war.
The long-overdue acknowledgment of these forgotten heroes remains a stark reminder of the racial injustices that have marred one of France's proudest moments in history.
