4.6.3. SAMORY'S LEGEND SKIPS THE RAIDED

AS AN OPPONENT OF COLONIAL CONQUEST SAMORY IS LEGENDARY.

For the French he is a fighter whose bravery highlights their army and makes him worthy of respect:

When his son and chosen successor returns from a mission to France and says that resistance is hopeless, he lets him starve to death. The real figure: cruelty, courage, sadness and dignity: place him in his world, not ours. 

 Prisoner, 1898 

 "West Africa -- Samory -- a Soudanese Dyula become a powerful Almamy, enemy of France, captured 1898"  (Emphasis mine).

For Africans  —  except Senufo — he is a hero.

• A statue: Please click and scroll down.

• A  song: 

-- By Alpha Blondy, 1984; YouTube, 2013

Bori, bori Samory

Run, run Samory

Toubabouhou bikôh oko obi faga

The whites are coming, they have sworn to kill you

• A legend:

The Intrepid Warrior who Defied French Colonisation / video: zoom (in French)

• A stamp:

 

But Senufos recall him with terror.

Zoom

After his passage on September 26, 1898. 

*     *

 The accent on conquest and colonialism

 leaves out the massive raids

and the economy due to captive labor. 

*    *     *

Next,

4.6.4.

Detour: 

Nationalist history hides modern issues