Pro-French merchants rioted against Mali’s new currency in 1962
Evidence
The Malian franc, however, enjoyed a relatively short existence: it faced a great deal of obstacles right from the start. This complicated things for the Malian and foreign business community, which feared a repetition of what had happened in Guinea. On 20 July 1962, Malian merchants gathered in front of the French embassy shouting: ‘Long live France, long live de Gaulle’. Dozens of people were arrested, including two former French ministers of the Fourth Republic, Fily Dabo Sissoko and Hamadoun Dicko. They were tried in September 1962 for ‘conspiracy’ by a people’s court. The prosecution claimed that they had organised clandestine meetings and tried to incite the population ‘with the support of the French embassy’ with the aim of overthrowing the government and replacing it with one favourable to Paris. — Fanny Pigeaud_ Ndongo Samba Sylla, Africa’s Last Colonial Currency, 161
Categorization
- XREF: Demonstrates how commercial interests aligned with the franc zone, similar to pressures described for Guinea in earlier chapters.
Related
- Mali’s departure collapsed and forced it back into the franc zone (similarity 0.80)
- France sabotaged Mali’s currency plans through a rigged multilateral conference (similarity 0.80)