Thiaroye 44 (Ben Diogaye Beye) vs Camp de Thiaroye (Ousmane Sembene). Bara Diokhane

THIAROYE 44 VS. CAMP DE THIAROYE

I

During the mid-seventies, Senegalese writers Boubacar Boris Diop and Ben Diogaye Beye co-wrote a play titled “Thiaroye, Terre Rouge”, based on the tragedy that occurred in Thiaroye, Senegal, in 1944, when French troops assassinated hundreds of unarmed African soldiers who belonged to the Franch army. Around 1980, the government of Senegal founded Society Nationale de Promotion Cinématographique (SNPC), aimed at funding selected film projects. The company was placed under the leadership of reknowned Senegalese filmmaker Mahama Johnson Traoré. When SNPC made a call for proposals to produce arts first production, Diop and Beye , the co-authors of the  play “Thiaroye, Terre Rouge”  submitted a script  titled Thiaroye 44.

 SNPC's Selection Committee picked the Thiaroye 44 script as the first  SNPC funded film, among several talented contestants.  SNPC acquired the rights,  and hired Ben Diogaye Beye as the director of Thiaroye 44.

Pre-production started as of 1985, with the set design, the casting, the costumes, some preliminary shots, etc.

By Government Decree Mahama Johnson Traore, Director of SNPC was fired. Then film director Ousmane Sembene was appointed as the new CEO.

Mr Sembene’s first decision as the new CEO was to order the suspension of the Tharoye 44 production for an audit. After completion of  the audit, SNPC Selection Committee recommended that the production of Thiaroye 44 resumes.

Instead SNPC funded and produced the film Camp de Thiaroye," co- directed" by Ousmane Sembene and an unknown Thierno Faty Sow.

Historically, It is absolutely inaccurate to state that Sembene’s film  Camp d Thiaroye was ever banned in Senegal!

I was the lawyer who represented Ben Diogaye before the Senegalese courts when he filed a lawsuit against SNPC  for breach of contract. We won the case and, the Appeals Court of Dakar awarded monetary compensation to Ben, even though his film was "massacred".  Furthermore, I had personally attended the World Premiere of Camp de Thiaroye in Dakar, in the company of…Ben Diogaye Beye at the International Trade Center in Dakar. It was a huge "Soirée de Gala" attended by the Senegalese establishment. The next day the movie Camp de Thiaroye received rave reviews in the official daily Le Soleil, the  day after the World Premiere, that was attended by the whole establishment, even though some survivors had issue with the film.

And thanks God, I had kept some newspaper clips of the era in my archives. I have cut them to create the above collage.

Yes indeed, Ousmane Sembene was the Father of African Cinema. yet  the whole story cannot be told without reminding this dark episode of an otherwise ifantastic career.

Bara Diokhané