Senegal set to mark the 50th anniversary of the December 1, 1944, massacre of African infantrymen in Thiaroye, is "first and foremost a political act", and a "break" with the attitudes of previous regimes, says historian Mamadou Diouf. This commemoration, Diouf adds, is an "extraordinary way for Africa to insert itself into the conversation, and to tell its own story of an event that is associated with empire." IMAGES AND SOUNDBITES