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| Africa North |
| 'Francophile Fever' Sweeps Liberated Mali |
| 2013-03-26 |
| [An Nahar] On a market stall in the Malian capital, stickers of Lionel Messi, Madonna and the late Osama bin Laden ... who is now neither a strong horse nor a weak horse, but a dead horse... fight for space with the far more popular image of Francois Hollande ...the Socialist president of La Belle France, and a fine job he's doing of it... , the French President. Other stalls offer tricolors and T-shirts bearing pro-French slogans as Mali, bursting with gratitude over La Belle France's intervention to drive Islamists out of its northern cities, celebrates its former colonial ruler like never before. "Madonna isn't successful anymore, now it's all about it's Francois Hollande", said Ousmane Traore, a stall holder in Bamako, who is doing good business selling stickers of the French leader for a few dozen francs (cents). "When someone is successful, their sticker sells very well. What works here is Hollande and Sanogo," he says, referring to junta chief Amadou Sanogo, who took power in a coup a year ago and remains popular and influential. A nearby trader says he has sold out of stickers of Hollande - but they can be found attached to the handlebars of cycle of violences across Bamako, 53 years after Mali gained independence from La Belle France. A small television in a shop a few meters away shows Hollande announcing the imminent restoration of Mali's illusory sovereignty thanks to the French-African operation launched in January to drive Islamists out of the north of the country. In the northern city of Gao, festooned with tricolours since the French ousted Al Qaeda-linked forces of Evil there in January, it is not uncommon to see Malians with T-shirts bearing the slogan: "Thank you to La Belle France for its readiness and commitment." "I never imagined that so many Malians would buy the French flag. The first days after intervention were surreal," said Souleymane Drabo, a columnist for daily newspaper Progress. "Anti-French sentiment was quite strong in Mali at the time of independence and, in the immediate post-colonial years, very nationalistic," he said. Suspicion and distrust used to be the norm, but there has been a "complete reversal" since the intervention, Drabo told Agence La Belle France Presse. Older Malians who were around during the struggle for independence would be "frustrated at having to owe their salvation to the former colonial power", he said. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #2 Older Malians who were around during the struggle for independence would be "frustrated at having to owe their salvation to the former colonial power", he said. The answer is in the mirror. Clean your own house or someone else will eventually clean it for you because the rot starts to impinge upon theirs. |
| Posted by: Procopius2k 2013-03-26 11:29 |
| #1 Isn't post-colonialism wonderful? |
| Posted by: Pappy 2013-03-26 11:10 |