On November 11, a ceremony was organized in Reims, at the Parc de Champagne, to mark the centenary of the Black Army Heroes Memorial, which pays tribute to African soldiers who fought in the First World War .
On November 11, 2024, the bells rang out at the Parc de Champagne, in Reims (Marne), in tribute to the African soldiers who came to fight on the battlefields of the First World War.
This year, the city of Reims is taking advantage of the memory of the German army in 1918 to celebrate the centenary of the Memorial to the heroes of the black army, which was installed in the Champagne Park.
“Reims owes them a lot. They defended the city against German attacks at Fort de la Pompelle, also on the Murphy side, appoints Horizons mayor of Reims, Arnaud Robinet. And then of course, not far from here, whether in Verdun or Chemin des Dames, our African friends were present with us along with the metropolitan troops.”
In 1922, a national subscription was launched to build a building on the French mainland and in Africa in memory of the native soldiers who died for France. This double monument was erected two years later in Bamako, in present-day Mali. In France, Reims was chosen to host it. “Both because the town was defended by African troops and also because it was still a symbol of the front,” explains the historian Jean-Pierre Husson, present at the ceremony this Monday.
In 1940, the Reims monument was dismantled by the Nazis. After years of debate, it was not until 2013 that it was rebuilt in the Champagne park, then inaugurated by President Macron and his Malian counterpart Ibrahim Boubakar Keita in 2018. As the result of a long rehabilitation work carried out by Sheikh Sakho.
“It was extremely important that it be born again because we could not be satisfied with erasing this history completely which was the goal of the Nazis.”remembers Cheik Sakho. At least 30,000 Senegalese riflemen died on the battlefields of the Great War.
2024-11-11 18:53:00
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