Haut-lieu et appropriations de la mémoire des tirailleurs sénégalais : le Tata de Chasselay (69)

Abstract

The Tata of Chasselay (France, Rhône) is a cemetery built during the Second World War to commemorate the massacre of some 200 African Colonial Soldiers at the hands of the German Army on the 19th and 20th of June 1940 in the region of Lyon. The Tata is, in fact, the only national necropolis dedicated to the memory of these soldiers. This article explores concepts related to the field of Memory Studies, and investigates the links between space and memory through the description of a “haut-lieu”. The Tata is practiced by different social groups which appropriate for themselves the memory of African Colonial Soldiers in keeping with their own values and interests. The practices of these groups connect the Tata with other places of memory in the Lyon region. To analyze the relation between places of memory, the article suggests the concept of memorial network in order to encapsulate the space within which the memory of African Colonial Soldiers expands.

Keywords

• “Haut-lieu"
• Memory
• African colonial soldiers
• Cemetery
• Pilgrimage
• Memorial network