In June of 1940 France's military had collapsed under German forces. Philippe Pétain signed an armistice and relocated his new government to Vichy in the southern half of a France that was now divided into occupied northern and unoccupied southern zones. General Charles de Gaulle unequivocally objected to this armistice and immediately escaped to London where he called for the French to resist the German occupation. This was the beginning of de Gaulle's Free France or, Françaises Libres. De Gaulle's Resistance movement (which was not — initially — coordinated with the grass-roots resistance that was happening in Metropolitan France) had a slow start but would eventually become a critical component of the Allied victory. De Gaulle himself, although often at odds with Allied leaders, would indeed become the ruler of a Free France, but his victory would not have been possible without the support of Allied forces. What is not commonly discussed in this narrative of WWII France and the French Resistance is the role and the contributions from France's overseas territories External — particularly French Equatorial Africa and French West Africa. The French colonial empire was of enormous significance in the battles as well as the strategies that made up WWII. Starting in 1940 campaigns in North Africa were ongoing and the first Allied victory there was pivotal to the overall Allied victory. By May of 1943 German and Italian forces had surrendered and the Battle for North Africa was over.
Throughout the War, the fights that played out in these countries were complex and had entirely different stakes and circumstances from the War that played out in Metropolitan France. The ever-changing political landscape made for shifting alliances in all of the territories as pro-Vichy forces vied for power and the Gaullist Free French forces sought to liberate these territories from what they viewed as a Quisling state. Allegiances in the colonies shifted, and just as in Metropolitan France, many French citizens overseas were first loyal to Vichy only to shift loyalty to De Gaulle as the War wore on. Cameroon and French Equatorial Africa (Afrique équatoriale française, or AEF) — which included Gabon, French Congo, Ubangi-Shari, and Chad — had joined the Free French. The headquarters were in Brazzaville, capital city of the Congo. Meanwhile, loyal to Vichy were: the North African countries under French control (Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia — often called the Maghreb), French West Africa or Afrique-Occidentale française, AOF (Mauritania, Senegal, French Sudan, French Guinea, Ivory Coast, Upper Volta, Dahomey, and Niger), Syria and Indochina. This was a very complicated war, and there were instances when French citizens were indeed face-to-face on opposing sides of a battle.
In the fall of 1940, Free France, with support from Chad, Cameroon, Moyen-Congo, French Equatorial Africa, and Oubangi-Chari took part in an attempt to capture an important naval base in Dakar from Vichy control. While that effort was ultimately unsuccessful, it shifted political expectations, and two years later, in late 1942, the Anglo-American victory in Northern Africa resulted in an almost compete defection of Vichy troops to the side of the Free French. Meanwhile in the French Caribbean, the island of Martinique was taken over by Vichy forces and a young Frantz Fanon External experienced first hand the "unmasked racism" of the occupiers. It took him numerous attempts to enlist in the Free French, but in 1943 he was able to join an Allied convoy and make it to North Africa, though eventually was transferred from Algeria to fight in France. His experience after the war further cemented his distrust of his colonial government and Fanon went on to become one of the most widely-read writers and poets on Post-Colonial Studies and the Pan-African movement. His friend and mentor, Aimé Césaires External — also from Martinique — is considered to be one of the founding fathers of Négritude, a literary and ideological movement that spoke of African solidarity and rejected French colonial policy. Another notable figure and theoretician of the Négritude External movement was the Senegalese poet and former Resistant Léopold Sédar Senghor. Before he became the first president of Senegal in 1960, he was caught up in the Second World War. In 1939 he enlisted as a private in the French Forces (3rd Colonial Infantry Regiment), then a year later he was taken prisoner by the Germans and held in Poitier, France. He was released for medical reasons and joined in the Resistance for the duration of the Nazi Occupation, making a living as a teacher, writer, and leading intellectual. In 1960, when Senegal gained independence from France, he began his political career. Not only is the role that France's territories played in the war overlooked, but the effect that that service had on the colonies themselves is only now being critically examined. As the Algerian War of Independence and the independence of Senegal illustrate, the rhetoric of a "Free France" opened up looming and uncomfortable questions about the morality of France's colonial empire. France's leaders, and the leading intellectuals of the day, would begin to address these questions, and while their disagreements would play out in bloody wars for independence in the latter half of the 20th century, they also gave birth to the flourishing genre of Post-Colonial Literature.
Poème liminaire
À L.-G. Damas
Vous Tirailleurs Sénégalais, mes frères noirs à la main
chaude sous la glace et la mort
Qui pourra vous chanter si ce n’est votre frère d’armes,
votre frère de sang ?
Je ne laisserai pas la parole aux ministres, et pas aux généraux
Je ne laisserai pas – non ! - les louanges de mépris vous
enterrer furtivement.
Vous n’êtes pas des pauvres aux poches vides sans honneur
Mais je déchirerai les rires banania sur tous les murs de France.”
~ Léopold Senghor
The Collected Poetry by Léopold Sédar Senghor, translated by Melvin Dixon p. 309
Liminary Poem
To L.-G. Damas
You Senegalese Soldier, my black brothers with warm
hands under ice and death
Who can praise you if not your brother-in-arms, your
brother in blood?
I shall not let the words of government ministers nor
generals,
No! I shall not let words of scornful praise secretly bury
you.
Your are not empty-pocket poor men without honor
But I will tear off the banania grins from all the walls of France.
~ Léopold Senghor
The Collected Poetry by Léopold Sédar Senghor, translated by Melvin Dixon p.39
While many of the specifics are hard to come by as records are not as thorough as could be desired, there is evidence that men from the French colonies were also active in the Resistance Movement in Metropolitan France — very far away from their native countries. One of the first recorded incidents involving French colonial troops took place in 1940 in the city of Chartres located to the southwest of Paris. Jean Moulin, the prefect of Chartres (and soon to be iconic hero in the French Resistance) at the time of the German invasion, was one of the only government officials not to flee the city. He and a small group of troops from Senegal stood firm against the German invaders marking one of the first moments of direct opposition to the Germans. They were brutally and savagely defeated. As detailed in Jean Moulin, 1899-1943 : the French Resistance and the Republic, after the defeat, the Germans attempted to coerce Moulin into signing a document stating that the casualties suffered at the German's hands (eight women and children) had in fact been killed by these Senegalese soldiers. Moulin refused to sign the document, which led to his beating and non-fatal shooting (as a form of torture). Moulin was locked up and held as a prisoner. He was unable to prevent the brutal shooting of all 180 Senegalese at the hands of the Germans (Clinton, p. 90). This was just a preview of what would become the standard German response when faced with opposition from France.
Perhaps the most fearless fighters in the French Resistance were young men (only a small number were women) who opted to oppose the Occupation by forming groups in the mountains and wilderness of France. Especially after the Germans instigated forced labor, many men fled to these rural areas to devote their lives to fighting the Nazis in any way possible. On the island of Corsica in September of 1943, more than 10,000 Maquis, heavily reinforced by French troops from North Africa, staged an armed revolt against the Germans. As a result of their courageous fighting the Axis powers were routed, and on October 3rd the island of Corsica became the first part of France to be liberated. The Resistance and Liberation of Corsica External was a significant setback for Germany and strategic step in securing the Mediterranean.
The most famous instance of colonial soldiers serving in the Resistance is probably their participation in the famous Vercors Uprising External in July of 1944. These Maquis of Vercors, equipped with air-dropped U. S. Army combat gear and supplies, and including soldiers from the West African colonial troop, the Tirailleurs Sénégalais External , were victims of their own courage. Due to mixed signals coming from de Gaulle and Eisenhower on the specifics of when supplies would be delivered, the eager men launched the famous if unsuccessful attack — just shy of the Liberation of Paris. One French citizen of Algerian decent, Kamel Mouellef, has spent his free time over the years in the French archives trying to piece together these forgotten Resistance fighters. He co-authored a beautiful graphic novel on the topic with Olivier Jouvray called, Résistants Oubliérs with the help of graphic artist Baptiste Payen (Glénat, 2015).
In fact, there is a long history of soldiers from the French colonies fighting for France. It was actually back in 1857, long before WWII, that the French created the Tirailleurs Sénégalais External. French actor and producer Omar Sy External, the son of Senegalese immigrants, recently brought this history to the screen in the highly-acclaimed and profoundly moving French film directed by Mathieu Vadepied and starring Omar Sy, Alassane Diong, and Jonas Bloquet, Tirailleurs External (Rifleman), adapted for the anglophone audience as Father & Soldier. Vadepied was inspired by the death of Abdoulaye Ndiaye External , the last of the Tirailleurs, who died in 1998 at age 104, one day before he was to receive the award of the Légion d'honneur from President Jacques Chirac. Sadly, the recognition of these African troops was all but non-existent following the War. De Gaulle, who was keenly aware of the lack of unity in his homeland of France, was eager to downplay the role of the Tirailleurs and create the optics of a more stereotypical and homogenous white French army — purportedly even sending African troops directly to demobilizing centers rather than allowing them to partake in the homecoming celebrations in France. This grave disservice came after grossly unjust treatment during the war — in particular by the Germans themselves who saw Black soldiers as utterly expendable.
A select bibliography of books about French territories in WWII and in the French Resistance in both French and English is further down the page. To search for more titles, use the Library's online catalog for books on this topic using the Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSHs) below.
France. Armée--Colonial forces--History--20th century
France. Armeé. Tirailleurs sénégalais--History
France--Colonies--Africa
World War, 1939-1945--Africa, French-speaking Equatorial
The following titles link to fuller bibliographic information in the Library of Congress Online Catalog. Links to additional online content are included when available.