![]() ![]() Told in the first person by Alfa Ndyaye, a 20-year-old from a rural, innocent village background in Senegal who is persuaded to join his friend and become a low-ranking tirailleur or rifleman in the French army, this story, dedicated to the harsh reality of life, death and everything in between is not for the faint-hearted. Over a century later, David Diop gives his merciless yet poignant insight into the experience of West Africans who served, died or had their lives changed forever in the brutal trenches of World War I, fighting for a country that was not theirs. ![]() These recruitments were not always voluntary – some men were stripped of their land if they resisted enlistment. In World War I the French government drafted around 200,000 soldiers from its colonies, including Senegal. In At Night All Blood is Black, David Diop gives a merciless yet poignant insight into the experience of West Africans who served, died or had their lives changed forever in the brutal trenches of World War I, fighting for a country that was not theirs. ![]()
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