Dr. Ba, who teaches history at Nipissing and Laurentian Universities, yesterday presented a paper entitled "African Soldiers in the French Colonial Army during the Conquest and Colonization of Madagascar."n
The several points of interested included:
The several points of interested included:
- the fact that there were a lot of colonial wars in Madagascar, which pretty much no one knows anything about. (Madagascar must count as the most obscure country in the world.)
- that the French waged these wars mainly with West African troops, who were all called Senegalese, whether they came from Senegal or not.
- that there are descendants of the Senegalese still in Madagascar, where thhey are a despised symbol of colonial oppression.
- that the French are not blamed at all for the abuses of their regime. Indeed they are remembered as mitigating the brutalities of their Senegalese enforcers.
- that no one in Senegal is at all aware of this Madagascar connection.
Somehow it was that last point --- that lost history -- that struck me the most. There is so much that falls through the cracks.
