Literary Portraits of World War I Tirailleurs sénégalais: Lucie Cousturier’s Des Inconnus chez moi (1920), and Raymond Escholier’s Mahmadou Fofana (1928)

The literary depictions of the tirailleurs sénégalais, the West African French colonial troops who fought in World War I, in novels published during the conflict and in the interwar years were often little more than racist caricatures. Two works from the interwar period, Lucie Cousturier’s Des Inconnus chez moi (1920) and Raymond Escholier’s Mahmadou Fofana (1928), based on the friendships the respective authors established with West African troops during the Great War, provide a counterpoint to the degrading portrayals of the tirailleurs. Cousturier, a painter, taught French to soldiers at the hivernage camp next to her villa in Fréjus while Escholier, the former curator of la Maison de Victor Hugo and le Petit Palais, led units of tirailleurs in battle on the Western Front and in Macedonia. Cousturier and Escholier build on their knowledge of art and literature to construct nuanced portraits of West African troops to restore the men’s humanity. Making use of metaphors from the natural world and allusions to literature and/or art, these two writers create characters that challenge the racist tropes associated with the tirailleurs sénégalais.