Tirailleurs Sénégalais, Savagery, and War Trauma in At Night All Blood is Black by David Diop

Abstract

This article offers an analysis of the representation of tirailleurs sénégalais in At Night All Blood is Black (Frère d’âme), a First World War novel published in 2018 to considerable critical acclaim by David Diop. I show how Diop invokes and at the same time undermines stereotypes of African ferociousness. His tirailleur protagonist becomes an unwilling witness to European barbarity, as the war causes a radical questioning of the colonial order. By focusing on the figure of the dëmm, I offer a ‘decolonized’ approach to First World War trauma and address excess and ambiguity as strategies of postcolonial transformation in Diop’s novel. Finally, I argue that although At Night All Blood is Black commemorates the French African soldiers’ contribution to the First World War, rather than simply painting a heroic portrait of the tirailleurs sénégalais, it does so by stressing their vulnerability and their traumatic transformation at the front.