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Tous les films sur les soldats coloniaux durant la Première Guerre mondiale racontent la même chose : la découverte par la France de son empire. Dans ce film, la guerre de 1914-1918 est vue et vécue par les soldats et ouvriers de l'Empire colonial. Le regard est en quelque sorte inversé. Pour la première fois, grâce à des archives inédites, enregistrements des voix des prisonniers et lectures de courriers postaux, ce film restitue ce que pensaient réellement ces soldats coloniaux de la guerre, de la France et des Français. Voici une autre histoire de la guerre de 14-18, jamais vue ni entendue, où les tirailleurs ne sont plus sujets mais acteurs.
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00:11Let's listen to them sing.
00:30The people themselves are no longer of this world. But even in death, they continue to sing.
00:41These voices from beyond the grave are those of the colonial riflemen of 1914-1918.
00:48They were recorded in prisoner-of-war camps by a German linguist, William Doggen.
00:53who wanted to create the Library of World Languages.
00:57These hundreds of recordings, engraved on discs, were forgotten in Berlin for decades.
01:04Today, these voices resurface and resurrect these soldiers from oblivion.
01:10Their names were Alassane, Demba, Karim, Andri.
01:14They came from Senegal, Indochina, Madagascar or Algeria.
01:19Their names were Bao, Axil, Tongchai, Bakari.
01:24All volunteers, flying to the aid of France.
01:29Their story, that of the colonial soldiers in the Great War, has often been told.
01:35But for the first time, they speak out.
01:38For the first time, they will recount their war, based on their letters, their stories, their testimonies.
01:47performed by contemporary actors.
01:49For the first time, you will hear their voices and listen to them.
02:21I, Bakari Diallo,
02:23I was born in 1892, in Mbala, Senegal.
02:28I am of the Fulani race.
02:31I have been herding sheep and goats since I was a child.
02:34But I am not made to carry the saourou, the shepherd's staff.
02:39One day, in the city of Gatsbapodore, where I had been sent to sell two oxen, I was stunned.
02:46It was the first time I had ever seen a white woman.
02:51She was speaking with another white man in a language I didn't understand.
02:56I asked a worker what race these strange people were.
03:00He replied, "They are called French, my boy."
03:03Some are good and intelligent, but not all.
03:15I was 22 years old when the war started in Europe.
03:19It is easy today to say that it was a Toubabe war that did not concern us.
03:27But at the time, we thought it was our duty to help France.
03:31We thought that if France were defeated, the Germans would replace them here.
03:37Better the devil you know than the devil you don't know.
03:45And then the inhabitants of the four communes, Dakar, Rufisque, Gorée and Saint-Louis, were French.
03:51They were therefore mobilized like all French people.
04:13Throughout West Africa, throughout the Empire, it is a call to action.
04:25My dear friend, deemed fit for armed service by the review board,
04:30I will be joining soon.
04:32I know you're not happy about your exemption because you'd really like to wear the uniform alongside
04:36Me.
04:38But your fate is already sealed, there's nothing you can do about it.
04:45I remember the recruitment office.
04:48An elegantly dressed doctor, with gold braid on his sleeves,
04:52makes us step onto a scale, weighs us, measures us.
04:56He doesn't know Fulani, but he does know Bambara.
04:59An interpreter is needed.
05:04Finally, here I am, a soldier.
05:06I am surrounded by Wolof people.
05:08And although we don't speak the same language, we manage to understand each other.
05:16The French see us as nothing more than riflemen.
05:19But we don't want to be riflemen.
05:21We want to be citizens, like those in the four municipalities.
05:25To ensure that we become citizens,
05:27MP Blaise Diagne told us
05:29"You must enlist in the army as riflemen."
05:33But later, when you're in the army,
05:35You will become French citizens.
05:39Blaise Diagne, a member of parliament from Senegal, was commissioner for black troops.
05:43under the Clemenceau government.
05:45He travelled across West Africa to encourage recruitment.
05:51He was a figure who was a source of pride for the riflemen.
05:54"Our honourable Member of Parliament wanted to be of service to us."
05:57And he achieved what he desired.
05:59We must, all of us, without exception,
06:02to go to the front and show this autumn that we are French citizens
06:06animated by patriotic sentiments.
06:08Now, we are French just like them before the law.
06:11Because we are soldiers just like them.
06:13We will shed our blood on French soil.
06:16And then they will know that we are the bravest of their African subjects.
06:20Let's go to the front, friends.
06:24This enthusiasm is not shared by everyone.
06:27Mamadou Grégoire believes that Greater France should not have to ask its colonies for help.
06:49More than 6000 kilometers from French West Africa,
06:52Berlin linguist Willem Dogen has been pursuing a crazy project for several years.
06:58Create a museum of world languages.
07:01This English and French teacher invented a recording device in 1909,
07:07Dogen, the ceremonial host.
07:09He presented it the following year at the Brussels World's Fair
07:13and wins a silver medal.
07:15He then began recording speeches
07:18and to design the first language courses on disc.
07:21The war could have torn him away from his beloved studies.
07:25On the contrary, it will be an opportunity for him to make a fresh start.
07:35The riflemen leave from Saigon, Algiers, Casablanca, Dakar, and Tunis.
07:4340,000 Indochinese, as many Moroccans and Malagasy,
07:4770,000 Tunisians, 170,000 Algerians,
07:51130,000 Senegalese riflemen will go to fight in Europe.
07:58More than 400,000 soldiers and as many workers
08:01to keep the factories and farms running, deserted by the mobilized French.
08:11Here we go, here we go.
08:45For my part, like many of my colleagues,
08:48I rush to a marabout to ask him to make me
08:52a gris-gris protecting against bullets and diseases.
08:55It will cost me 40 francs.
08:58They're off.
09:00We walk towards the port, music in our heads.
09:02and we boarded a ship of a size I had never seen before.
09:08The boat whistled loudly three times.
09:12In the hands of the people who came to witness the departure,
09:14Handkerchiefs are unfurled, seemingly responding to those on the edge.
09:19On the bridge, all shades of color coexist.
09:23Black, white, half-black, half-white, yellowish, it doesn't matter.
09:27We all wear the same uniform.
09:30We are all French soldiers.
09:38But the journey is not always pleasant.
09:41My head is spinning.
09:43Seasickness seized me.
09:45I'm not the only one who throws my food back into the sea.
09:50There are much worse things.
09:51The German submarines that are watching us.
09:55On the seventh day after leaving Dakar,
09:58We were torpedoed by a submarine.
10:00We felt the impact.
10:02And then we heard the siren begin to wail.
10:06And they gave us life jackets.
10:08And I ran to the canoe.
10:11But if the boat sank,
10:12I wanted to be among the first to get into one of those canoes.
10:15Everyone was doing the same thing.
10:17We had to fight.
10:18There wasn't room for everyone.
10:25There wasn't room for everyone.
10:52We landed at Sept.
10:56We are happy to see a city in greater France for the first time.
11:01Our eyes are fixed on the people, the houses, the streets, the trams.
11:05We walk through the city, followed by children, young boys and girls, who find it pleasant to follow the movement.
11:14Cries of "Long live France" and "Long live the Senegalese" penetrated us deeply.
11:20Some men break away from the crowd and come to shake our hands.
11:23I hear them saying, "Well done, Senegalese riflemen!"
11:27Others tell us, "Cut off the Germans' heads!"
11:31The riflemen respond with their usual smiles and show off their machetes.
11:35saying that we will kill all the enemies of the French.
12:02“We are welcomed everywhere, at the café, the tobacconist, the bakeries, the delicatessens, for us
12:10to offer good things.
12:12"They pose with us. They ask us where we come from. They give us money."
12:19"We use the little French we speak to express the joy and honor we feel."
12:25»
12:25"We regret not making ourselves better understood."
12:28"We are allowed to remain silent in our dealings with our friends in Seth, whose language resonates with us."
12:34“Men and women came to see us. They all touched our skin. They had never seen
12:39black.
12:41"It's difficult to get along with the children who come to us. They are clean, cute, and attractive
12:47Friendship like dreaming angels.
12:50"A little timid, but resolute, they hold out their small hands to us, some of which they then withdraw, looking
12:57"If they are not blackened by the color of ours."
13:04“I arrived elsewhere after a day at sea and two days by train. I crossed
13:09All of southern France. Tarascon, Toulon, Nîmes, Marseille. So many beautiful places.
13:24August 6, 1914. War between France and Germany has been declared for three days.
13:30Kaiser Wilhelm II expressed the wish to record the speech in which he addressed the nation.
13:36He therefore enlisted the services of Willem Dogen and his recording device.
14:01For Professor Dogen, the war is a magnificent opportunity.
14:06By visiting the prisoner camps, he will be able to collect a large portion of the world's languages thanks to the
14:12soldiers of the French and British colonial empires.
14:16His museum of the voice of the people is no longer a vague, impossible project.
14:21It will be financed directly by Wilhelm II, whom Dogen convinced of the project's merits.
14:36Most of us were farmers. Therefore, we were very interested in agricultural issues.
14:41The land, the farms, the crops held our attention.
14:45The pigs intrigued us. They're not the kind of animal we raise where we live.
14:52I've never seen so much livestock. The chickens aren't small like back home. They're quite large.
14:56bigger.
14:57And it's the same for cattle.
15:00There are not farmers on one side and livestock breeders on the other.
15:04No, on French farms, it's both in the same place.
15:09The other discovery was that of the temperate climate, the cold, the clouds so dense in the north that one
15:16doesn't see the sky for days or even weeks.
15:20This country is very cold. It rains and snows constantly.
15:26The fog and clouds are still present.
15:29We should have the sun at rare moments.
15:32The Qibla, the direction of Mecca, I can only determine at dawn.
15:37I make my salads while purifying myself with sand.
15:40Because I can neither remove my clothes nor perform my ablutions properly.
15:49But what surprises Africans and Indochinese is the snow.
15:54And how to explain it in their letters to their families.
16:00Snow, you see, is a kind of ice that falls from the sky and looks like cotton.
16:07The ground then turns completely white.
16:11But when the temperature rises, the snow melts and turns into water.
16:23It's a bit like milk covering the ground.
16:26It's beautiful but it's cold.
16:29And believe me, this is almost unbearable.
16:33There are places in France where in winter the water turns into ice.
16:40And sometimes the water is so thick that you can walk on it without breaking it.
17:05They don't know it, but their mail is being scrutinized by postal control commissions.
17:11The authorities want to probe their morals, account for their grievances, and judge their loyalty.
17:19In the early days, letters from colonial soldiers showed genuine admiration for France.
17:28Knowledge is the key to progress.
17:32It all starts with Zheng Hope, the school.
17:37Here, education is taken to a high degree.
17:40Those who do not send their children to school are despised.
17:44And the state punishes them.
17:46Even in war-torn regions, children continue to go to school.
17:52What a difference compared to our country.
17:57Faced with the expressions of sympathy from the French, faced with the power emanating from this country,
18:02We felt gratitude and a certain pride in fighting for him.
18:10I myself met a family who, for several days in a row,
18:15She invited me to her home as if I were one of the family's children.
18:19When their regime ended, they gave me biscuits, cigarettes, and tins of sardines.
18:24and especially their address so that I can write to them.
18:28I felt like I was standing in front of my own family.
18:38France, which treats us like its children, is good for us.
18:42She is a good mother who wants what is best for us.
18:45France is a miracle that fell from the sky.
18:50White people are no longer kings, spirits, or devils.
18:55They are men, just like us.
19:01We do not see inequality in this country.
19:04We are surrounded only by freedom.
19:06These people love us like their own parents.
19:09In Belle, not all the girls with dark hair are equal.
19:12Whereas here, there are no better or more suitable ones.
19:27Before sending us to fight on the front lines, we first had to be trained.
19:34In the barracks, in the country, or in the French camps of Fréjus, Courneau and elsewhere,
19:39We were taught how to handle the bayonet at the end of the rifle.
19:51It looks like a dance, a choreography.
19:55And I suspect that when we are facing the Germans, the reality will be a little different.
20:06Similarly, they train in shooting, grenade throwing, and trench digging.
20:11to tame our fear of explosions, to lay networks of barbed wire,
20:16to crawl and above all not to raise your head too high.
20:23Finally, we were given gas masks.
20:27It's astonishing what white people invent to kill.
20:31And we are the ones they call savages.
20:50When we are very close, we board a train that takes us to the front.
20:59Poor us, we were so young, ignorant and reckless.
21:11We were all in the same army.
21:13We were all equal.
21:15We were all the same.
21:16As for equality, we were all in the same mess in the trenches.
21:23War is almost impossible to describe in our letters.
21:34The artillery fire roars like thunder.
21:36The shells set the sky ablaze as they explode.
21:39And when they fall, they dig deep holes in the ground.
21:42They bury the men alive.
21:49The cannon fire echoes in our heads and makes us deaf.
21:53And in the sky, metallic bird-shaped slices, with men inside, spit out bullets and drop bombs.
22:01We have never heard such a racket.
22:04There are dead bodies everywhere.
22:06As many deaths as flies.
22:17There are dead bodies everywhere.
22:38I was in the middle of the troop and I was moving forward.
22:42Then a shell landed near my legs.
22:44So I flew about twenty meters in the air.
22:48But I wasn't hurt.
22:50I just swallowed a lot of air.
22:53And then I just stayed there, collapsed on the ground because I couldn't move anymore.
23:01With my rifle in my right hand, I charge ahead of my skirmishers.
23:05The German front line unloaded their cartridge belts on us.
23:13The rockets crash in the small forest where dying people call upon gods, mothers, and prophets.
23:19That all seems to be true to me.
23:22They went on the attack.
23:24But the barbed wire was not cut.
23:27That's why Bzef Mott.
23:31They could no longer move forward.
23:33The Germans strafed us with their rockets.
23:38There were many deaths.
23:42The corpses litter the ground like dead leaves at the foot of a tree.
23:54To have the courage to march into battle, Muslims recite prayers and sing war songs.
24:27The charge continues.
24:31Half of the riflemen are wounded.
24:33And in the rest, I see some dying.
24:36One fell to my right.
24:37Blood flowed from his head, which was pressed to the ground.
24:43Here we are on the parapet of the German trench.
24:46We are now only three riflemen.
24:48I've lost count.
24:50I have injuries to my arm and mouth.
24:53Sylla helps me get back into the French line.
24:58We fired while advancing.
24:59And then we got so close to the Germans that our officers ordered us to take our cups.
25:03-cuts.
25:04I saw a soldier fighting with a German.
25:06And then another German arrived behind him.
25:09I didn't know if he was stabbing him in the back or if he was in
25:12pulling him from behind.
25:13I don't know.
25:13I thought I was going to die.
25:23A German man was captured.
25:26When he was surrounded by the riflemen, he began to tremble all over.
25:31Eskien.
25:50Created in October 1915, the Prussian phonographic commission brought together about thirty researchers.
25:58Anthropologists, musicologists, Africanists and other linguists.
26:03They have full authorization to enter the prisoner camps.
26:07But curiously, his mission must remain secret.
26:11Selected prisoners are led in front of the registration funnel.
26:14which borrows from the technology of the phonograph and the gramophone.
26:23The vibrations of the voices are first engraved on a wax cylinder.
26:27Then they are laid on shellac discs, the ancestors of our vinyl records.
26:32The only constraint is that the recording time cannot exceed three minutes.
26:37The speaker is asked to recite a series of numbers.
26:46Or, conventional words, always the same, such as...
26:54But also...
26:57They are asked to tell a story.
27:00It could be a funny story, a tale, a poem.
27:21Colonials are not the only ones to immortalize their language.
27:25In an anthropological as well as linguistic approach,
27:28Dogen also wants to capture the musicality of Breton,
27:31Corsican, Gascon, Picard, Basque.
27:56Subtitling by Radio-Canada
28:09I am being taken to the temporary hospital in Epernay.
28:17To have my surgery without pain, I discovered this magic product called chloroform.
28:23It is a liquid poured onto a compress which is applied to the nose and which kills the body
28:27the time of the operation.
28:30The doctor comes to see me very often.
28:32He asks me if I want anything, and recommends that the nurses take care of me.
28:38He doesn't treat the injured differently, and I wonder why he's so good.
28:44towards me.
28:45A nun, the night supervisor, is at the bedside of a bed next to mine.
28:52A man is going to die.
28:54The room is filled with a silence broken only by the groans of the injured man.
29:00Mother, my mother, my God, my God, it's over.
29:09His eyes remained open and fixed on the ceiling as if he could still see something there.
29:15We look at each other in turn without saying a word.
29:18We understood the end of a being who, just a moment ago, was like us.
29:30There are not only combat injuries.
29:34Many colonials are also hospitalized for frostbite.
29:39It's freezing cold.
29:41There is snow on the mountains.
29:44It's raining a lot too.
29:48Our holes are filled with water.
29:50Our feet touch them and they swell up too.
29:53I'm in pain.
29:55I can barely walk anymore.
29:58The cold is so intense that we can no longer even button our uniforms or properly handle our
30:02rifles.
30:04The water here turns into a block of ice.
30:07I felt my fingers go numb on the rifle and tense up.
30:11I can barely walk anymore.
30:21The nurses at the hospital are nice.
30:24They give us treats, read to us, and help us write.
30:29I understand why they are called white angels.
30:34But there are also visitors who come to pamper the injured.
30:39I will remember Mademoiselle Tourie all my life.
30:43I was eagerly awaiting his Sunday visit.
30:46She was tall, dark-haired, with sweet black eyes and a beautiful smile.
30:53As soon as she was in front of me, I forgot the demons of my wounds.
30:58Looking at her, I felt as if I were admiring one of the maidens of paradise that the Fulani call Urolaimi.
31:07Once recovered, we were sent to convalesce in camps in the South.
31:12On the French Riviera or on the Atlantic coast, the French built camps where one spends
31:18winter away from the harsh northern climate.
31:20In Yer, Fréjus, and Menton, you would think you were in a country inhabited by Senegalese riflemen.
31:36You have to have seen the French Riviera.
31:39The sky is blue, the sun is beautiful.
31:42The air runs fast and the sea throws its waves in succession like sheep chased by wolves.
31:48The grand hotels, the Carlton and the Prince of Wales, are being converted into hospitals.
31:55In the distance, a group of Bambara armed with drums are playing and dancing.
32:01They captivate the curiosity of the Europeans who approach them.
32:06It's time for a long rest.
32:12Not the brief respite of the front-line camps where one washes one's clothes and soothes aching feet,
32:17where they dig third-line trenches while waiting for the happy hour of soup.
32:23Here in Menton, we forget the war.
32:31The Indochinese take up gardening.
32:34Because they are smaller and more frail than Africans,
32:37The authorities believe they may not be good soldiers.
32:41But that's just a prejudice.
32:45In any case, France is doing everything to ensure our satisfaction.
32:48The food is tailored to our tastes.
32:51Less pasta, potatoes, beans,
32:54and more than a thousand, of couscous grains, rice, goats, sheep.
33:01The animals are ritually slaughtered according to the rules of Islam.
33:05During Muslim holidays, we receive extra rations.
33:09And in the evening, it's méchoui (whole roasted lamb).
33:15The experience of captivity in Germany is, first and foremost, the end.
33:20Because of the Allied naval blockade,
33:22Germany has to ration its food drastically.
33:25The prisoners are given only a thin soup of turnips,
33:28and a loaf of bread, in which potato starch is mixed,
33:32sweat and chopped straw.
33:34Not enough to fill an stomach.
34:07While people are starving to death in German camps,
34:10France, for its part, takes care of its soldiers.
34:17We built a pagoda to perform our devotions to the spirits.
34:21Then, we celebrated the Lunar New Year with the lion dance.
34:26I never thought I'd be able to experience this so far from home.
34:30They didn't even lack the Chetchunuks,
34:32these delicious gluon rice balls,
34:34stuffed with beans and drizzled with ginger juice.
34:39We have a mosque.
34:40She was raised in Nogent-sur-Marne,
34:42next to the colonial hospital.
34:44This is the first mosque in France.
34:46It was covered with carpets donated by the department stores of the Louvre.
34:50It was Imam Abdelrahman who proclaimed it in 1916, saying this.
34:54We are the children of France.
34:56We came voluntarily of our own free will,
34:59to help until our last one, except our noble mother, France.
35:03She represents the law and is on the right path.
35:13We who move from one camp to another, in the winter in the south,
35:17from spring to autumn at the front,
35:19We don't need a mosque to pray.
35:22My comrade Tirno Amadou, with the rosary between his fingers,
35:26pray to Allah that He grants victory to France.
35:29So that the war will end and we can finally return to our families.
35:35But may Allah forgive me, we are not always diligent in prayer.
35:40Sometimes we drink wine and look at the women,
35:43because they are very pretty.
35:53In Toulouse, the street is full of young beauties who display themselves before your eyes and awaken your senses.
35:58Its appearance is most charming.
36:00But the more you seduce, the more your pockets empty.
36:04because the young ladies make love mainly with Tinkoumen,
36:09with our wallets.
36:26We brag to our friends back home, of course.
36:30Most of the time, the only women we sleep with are prostitutes.
36:34But for us, it's the first time we've touched a white one.
36:38It's absolutely unimaginable.
36:42They were not prostitutes.
36:44They were girls from good families who hung out with us.
36:48They knew we were far from our country,
36:50that we needed an infection,
36:52that we needed some money to buy cigarettes,
36:55to go to the cinema.
36:57So, we sometimes saw each other in the street,
37:00sometimes in cafes,
37:01But there was no feeling.
37:04Sometimes, it could happen that marines fell in love.
37:06but it was rare.
37:10The workers who work in the war factories
37:12alongside the French men and women
37:14have far more opportunities than colonial soldiers
37:16to meet women.
37:19There are true love stories,
37:21with marriage and even children.
37:26On Sundays, I go for a walk in town,
37:28accompanied by my fiancée.
37:31Her parents love me very much.
37:33When I visit them on Sundays,
37:35They invite me to their table,
37:37and consider me as their own child.
37:49We are popular.
37:51because we are the Empire.
37:54We represent Greater France,
37:57And we are proud of it.
37:59Proud of our achievements.
38:01Proud of the way we are perceived,
38:03especially in October 1916,
38:06when we, the riflemen,
38:08We recaptured Douaumont from the enemy.
38:18We were very proud to have taken Fort Douaumont.
38:21Our officers told us,
38:22Do not wash your uniforms.
38:24even if they are full of mud.
38:26Explore the country as you are.
38:28You need to know that everyone you meet
38:30know that you were there.
38:33We took the train for three days.
38:35from Verdun to Saint-Raphaël.
38:37And then all the train stations where we stopped,
38:39everyone was shouting,
38:40Long live the Senegalese riflemen!
38:42Then afterwards,
38:43even if we told them
38:44that the offensive on Fort Douaumont had been launched,
38:46They looked at us with stars in their eyes.
38:53So, after the winter of 1916-1917,
38:57We believed it.
39:01At Chemin des Dames,
39:03in April 1917,
39:05We were going to win.
39:08The Senegalese have done all their homework.
39:10and are ready to do it again.
39:12now that the right season has arrived.
39:17We had earned the honor
39:19to be the first to leave,
39:20but it was a massacre
39:22and something broke.
39:30The war has gone on for too long.
39:33Our initial enthusiasm has waned.
39:36This is no longer an adventure at all.
39:38but a true ordeal that never ends.
39:41So, in our letters,
39:42We ask what the marabouts think about it.
39:45When will we finally get out of this hell?
39:47We advise our friends
39:48to absolutely avoid getting involved.
39:53Dear Djawar,
39:54never commit the imprudent
39:56to ask to join us.
39:58We hope the war will end.
39:59before the end of this year 1917.
40:03The sweetest reward
40:04that they can do to me,
40:05It's about returning to Senegal.
40:08Night and day,
40:09I'm thinking about that magnificent country.
40:14I regret having committed myself
40:15for the bonus.
40:16If I had to do it again,
40:18I wouldn't be able to walk anymore.
40:19You can give me all the money
40:20that I can wear.
40:22I'm fed up with being here.
40:24Why did I come to France?
40:27Allah, if I had known
40:28what would happen to me here,
40:30I would have done everything
40:31so as not to come.
40:32I'm like a pig
40:33who lives among the pigs.
40:40We have become
40:41as prone to complaining as the French.
40:43The cold,
40:44the rain,
40:45and then there's the nostalgia for the country.
40:46the fear of dying,
40:48sadness
40:49of a life wasted in the mud.
40:50It's the blues.
40:54I am in a grave.
40:56sad and distressed,
40:58like the dove
41:00who was moaning on the branch.
41:02I am isolated from my family.
41:04in a foreign country.
41:07I'm crying.
41:11The first reaction
41:13is fatalism.
41:15Who can we?
41:42But one can also slip
41:44in anger,
41:44to become indifferent
41:46to France and the French people,
41:47and even hate them.
41:53In Germany too,
41:55the authorities
41:56seek to seduce
41:57Muslims
41:57to turn them over better
41:59against France
41:59and England.
42:01You are fighting
42:02for your oppressors.
42:04You should fight
42:05with the Ottomans
42:06Germany's allies,
42:07they are told.
42:10It is suggested that the Kaiser
42:11himself
42:12would have converted
42:13to Islam.
42:15And to better
42:16condition them,
42:17the Germans
42:18gather the prisoners
42:19Muslims
42:20in a camp
42:20near Berlin.
42:23The authorities
42:24they raise them
42:25the first mosque
42:26on German soil.
42:27Prayer is obligatory
42:29and the sermons
42:30are anti-French
42:31and anti-British.
42:34Those who do not want
42:35go to prayer
42:36are beaten
42:37and deprived of meals.
42:39Songs
42:40anti-French
42:40are broadcast
42:41through speakers
42:42and Quran classes
42:43call for holy war
42:44against the allies.
42:47It doesn't work.
42:49Christians
42:50who call
42:51to the holy war
42:51against Christians.
42:52This smells like manipulation.
42:56But this gathering
42:58of Muslims
42:58from all over the world
42:59they are a delight
43:00by Dogen
43:01and his cronies
43:02who do not see in the captives
43:03that a subject
43:04scientific research.
43:07Here,
43:08this is the reign
43:09fog
43:09and the cold.
43:10The soldiers are complaining about it.
43:12Some with poetry
43:14and others
43:15more directly.
43:36In the Crescent camp,
43:38near Berlin,
43:40Tunisian Sadok Ben Rachid,
43:42farm worker
43:43illiterate, 37 years old
43:45sings of all her pain
43:47that of incorporation
43:48in the French army.
44:03Then that of the war
44:04and the injury.
44:10And finally,
44:11that of captivity.
44:23While the propaganda
44:25poses the Germans
44:25as defenders of Muslims,
44:28Sadok Ben Rachid
44:29does not conceal
44:29his hostility.
44:31Ultimately,
44:33Dogen is mocking
44:33from what they say
44:34the riflemen.
44:35He just wants their sound.
44:43In France,
44:44It's the same story.
44:45who of sadness
44:47leads to anger.
44:54We will defeat the Germans.
44:56France is being helped
44:58by a number of people
44:59And yet,
45:00The Germans are not backing down.
45:05They are powerful
45:06supernatural
45:07and of gigantic size,
45:08also great
45:09than elephants.
45:10as for me
45:11who am of short stature,
45:12They will have swallowed me whole.
45:13before I fight.
45:22Why shouldn't we become
45:24Not German?
45:25After all,
45:26we are suffering
45:27French domination.
45:28SO,
45:29Why not another one?
45:30This country, France,
45:32It's not good.
45:34The Germans
45:35We will prevail.
45:36That's it.
45:37French.
45:38This war will teach them
45:39to act smart.
45:40I ardently wish
45:41that they be defeated.
45:42He is very happy
45:43having learned to fight,
45:45because if heaven helps us,
45:47we will one day
45:48to reconquer our country.
45:59Eventually,
46:00at the front,
46:01under the uniform,
46:02as in the camps
46:03of prisoners
46:04It is now just one single desire.
46:06a shared hope.
46:08Peace.
46:09Peace.
46:10Le Thieu,
46:12Is this peace?
46:17Peace.
46:28Peace.
46:44In total, the Prussian phonographic commission printed 1650 records in 250 languages.
46:53Willem Doggen maintained that he had wanted to create documents that would survive for millennia.
47:00They weren't wrong.
47:03These voices emerge from beyond the grave, forming an acoustic testament.
47:11So, let's listen to them.
47:14Let us listen to the Bakwe, Bambara, Khmer, Arabs, Draoui, Fulani, Somba, Basari, Malagasy, Tonquine, Amazigh.
47:24Let us listen to all these peoples of the earth who share France.
47:29Let us listen to the bells that announce the good news of peace.
47:33They say, "The war is over."
47:36You will be returning home soon.
47:39But you, who left as natives, will return as Frenchmen.
47:44Because France promised to make them citizens.
47:55This newfound pride was that of equality.
47:58This equality, which we did not know in the colonies, and which we discovered in France.
48:04Since then, we haven't let anything slide.
48:07If a white person called us niggers, then he would get a good beating.
48:11And when the officers arrived, he agreed with us.
48:15Times had changed.
48:17When things weren't going well, we wrote to our member of parliament.
48:20And Blaise Diagne arrived.
48:25To those who call us mercenaries,
48:27who insult us by saying that we didn't know who or why we were fighting.
48:31I, Gribour Diallo, say,
48:34We were not fighting for the French.
48:36We were fighting for ourselves.
48:38We were fighting to become French citizens.
48:45I became French in 1920.
48:48But the vast majority of riflemen did not attain this title.
48:53So the confidence placed in France took a hit.
48:57France is beautiful, vast, and generous.
49:01She is the universal nation.
49:03But the French are not always up to his standard.
49:17I don't want to hear about this war anymore.
49:21I want to go back to Indochina
49:22to live there like a simple Nyaoué.
49:26What a joy!
49:29To take up the plow again and spend days
49:31otherwise happy,
49:33at least worry-free
49:34in our Indochinese bush.
49:37This will now be
49:39my only
49:40and dear desire.
49:58When I arrived on foot
49:59at my father's house,
50:00Everyone was surprised.
50:02They had stayed up all night for me.
50:05Nobody was asleep.
50:05They were all waiting for me.
50:07When I arrived,
50:08They had killed goats for me.
50:10There was a lot of couscous too.
50:13It was festive.
50:15They sang, they danced,
50:17They were laughing.
50:19But anyway,
50:21the families of those
50:22who had lost their children,
50:24they knew how many we were
50:25when we went off to war.
50:27So they knew,
50:28Once we were back home,
50:29how many of us there were.
50:31There was no need
50:32to tell them about their son.
50:33They already knew
50:34that they had died.
50:39They shed their blood
50:41for France.
50:4371,000 of their brothers
50:45are buried forever
50:46in the soil of this country
50:49which is now theirs.
50:55I pray to God that there will never be war again.
50:58Especially if they don't come back.
51:00Nothing I saw
51:01was not worth all our sacrifices,
51:02nor the death of all these brave men.
51:08Now that it's my turn
51:09to join Africa,
51:11Me,
51:12Bakary Diallo,
51:14I feel like crying.
51:16When I arrived,
51:17My head was full of thoughts
51:18of misunderstandings.
51:19I was told
51:20that you were bad guys.
51:22I was afraid of you.
51:24And when we're afraid of people,
51:25We flee from them.
51:28I met you
51:29And I loved you.
51:30as you loved me.
51:33If there is a lesson
51:35to this sad war,
51:37It's because you need to get to know us
51:38and help each other
51:39without distinction of race.
51:42Colors are just covers.
51:45Let us all love each other
51:46despite superficial ideas
51:49who are trying to separate us.
51:51To every story,
51:53There are reasons.
51:55Let's try to find
51:57those that must unite us forever.
52:30Subtitling by Radio-Canada
52:41Subtitling by Radio-Canada
52:47Subtitling by Radio-Canada
52:50Subtitling by Radio-Canada
52:51Subtitling by Radio-Canada
52:51Subtitling by Radio-Canada
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