French colonialists had justified their take-over of much of West Africa—to themselves and to Africans—on the grounds that the French mission civilisatrice would bring an end to the slave trade in that part of the continent. Yet the truth is that during the World Wars African men were seized from their villages, held prisoner and marched in chains, and were then shipped to the battlefields of France to fight in the name of liberty and civilization. The French even had a phrase for enforced recruitment of Africans: limpot du sang, ‘the tax in blood’ . . . A French colonel wrote: My aim is to seek the use of the Senegalese . . . in order to spare the blood of French servicemen, France having already paid a heavy tribute during this war. It is essential to try by all means possible to diminish their future losses through the enhanced use of our brave Senegalese . . . The Senegalese have been recruited to replace the French, to be used as cannon fodder to spare the whites. It is essential then to use them in an intensive fashion
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