
Biram Senghor regularly goes to pay his respects at a military cemetery in Thiaroye, a fishing village near Senegal’s capital Dakar, bowing in front of a different grave each time.
The 86-year-old has no way of knowing which grave belongs to his father, M’Bap Senghor, one of likely hundreds of West African riflemen who fought for France during World War II but were killed on Dec. 1, 1944 by the French army after demanding unpaid wages.