A cartoon of the 2007 speech at Sheikh Anta Diop University, followed by an analysis of Western paternalism and its African reflections
The presidential one-man-show
Some presidential speeches go through decades, inspire, transform. The Bichmute In Dakar, he will remain in the annals... of involuntary comedy.
Like a sketch delivered with the seriousness of a teacher in front of doctoral students, he offered us a condensation of malice, condescendingness and colonial paternalism.
Imagine a failed comedian, convinced to be a prophet. Set it up in the solemn setting of Sheikh Anta Diop University, a high place of African knowledge. You get an absurd scene, free entry:
« African man has not entered history enough. »
African man and history: planetary punchline
The sentence falls, heavy, condescending, spectacular. In the amphitheatre, freezing silence. Applause? Huer? Invoking Sheikh Anta Diop by spirit session?
Satirical version:
« My dear Africans, you missed the train of history. Fortunately, we European punctuals kept a few straps in the IMF car. »
In one line, centuries of African history are wiped out: Ghana, Mali, Songhai, Zimbabwe, Kongo, Ethiopia, struggles for independence, intellectual revolutions — swept away, as if Africa had remained motionless until the arrival of Bichmute.
The frozen time, or the art of caricature
Bichmute chained, always in freewheel:
« The African lives in an immobile time. »
Sarcastic translation:
« While we invent the TGV, you still meditate under the baobab. »
A student slips to his neighbor:
« What about the shipments of gold, cotton, uranium and slaves? Did they arrive by drone or teleport? »
The room's stinging slowly. Bichmute continues, convinced to dispense light.
The catechism of the good colonizer
His speech follows an old breviary, handed over to neoliberal fashion:
- Africa exists thanks to the West.
- If she fails, it's her fault. If she succeeds, it's thanks to us.
- We love... like an unruly child.
Parodic version:
« Without us, you'd still be hunting mammoth. Thanks to us, you're clearing the debt. »
A local professor sighs:
« To Sheikh Anta Diop, we are taught our history. And now an improvised professor tells us that she never existed. It's like denying the vineyard in Bordeaux. »
Contradictions: "I love you, but..."
What makes the speech comedian is incoherence:
- « I respect Africa » – right after denying his memory.
- « I believe in your future » – after declaring that the present is frozen.
- « I'm talking to you as a friend » – after reciting a colonial manual of 1885.
An old fan squeaks, like covering up the embarrassment.
Smoking racism
Bad address or contempt? Whatever. When a president of an old colonial power claims that an entire continent is « not entered enough into history »It sounds like a racist counter joke. But in Hugo Boss suit.
Imagine an African president at the Sorbonne:
« The European man came out too quickly from history. Between world wars and financial crises, he runs in a vacuum. »
The scandal would be immediate.
White Saviour Syndrome
Under the varnish of beautiful intentions, the old rengaine:
- Colonization? A civilizing mission.
- Debt? Economic training.
- Military bases? Fraternal protection.
- The coups d'état? Intensive courses in democracy.
Satirical version:
« We love Africa so much that we left it with our multinationals, military bases, and account arrears. Proof of eternal love. »
Inverted geography
The summit of the grotesque: this speech is delivered at Sheikh Anta Diop University — Intellectual who demonstrated that Africa was one of the cradles of human civilization.
It's like giving an astronomy class by explaining that the sun does not exist.
Imaginary Jubilee Press
The imaginary reactions are:
- The Figaro : « Bichmute puts the African clocks back on time, with the accuracy of a broken alarm clock. »
- The World : « Dakar applauds... to shorten suffering. »
- Charlie Hebdo : drawing of Bichmute in colon brandishing an hourglass : « Enter history, it's happy hour! »
Rideau: Professor leaves the scene
The final, worthy of Molière:
« My dear Africans, you are not yet in history. But I joined him here in Dakar. Progress, right? »
And he goes down, satisfied. The room hesitates: applaud, or write a thesis on « Self-humiliating art with elegance » ?
Terminal Fable
This speech was neither a light nor a stretched hand. It will remain a masterpiece of unconscious sufficiency, a life-size incarnation of Western paternalism.
When the master thinks he teaches the pupil,
but that he confuses arrogance and knowledge,
It's him that history reminds,
Not as a hero... but as a clown.
Analysis – Beyond satire, the balance of the gaze
A story of images: paternalism as a legacy
Bichmute's speech does not come out of nowhere. It crystallises centuries of condescending vision, of recycled civilising mission, of symbolic domination transformed into "aid for development".
Western media prolongs these imaginations: Africa is the scene of disasters, famines, coups d'état — a "Africa-problem" to be solved, never a "Africa-subject" that acts.
This reducing prism is documented. Stereotyping« Powerless African », « Poor », « irrational » forge a colonial imagination that is all the more effective as it drapes in the oripeaux of humanism.
Costs of contempt
This image has a price: it is literally expensive. A 2024 study estimates that media stereotypes impose an additional cost of billions of dollars a year on borrowing from African countries due to a distorted perception of risk.
Financial rating agencies, all Western, are unconsciously integrating these biases.
So it's not just a matter of dignity. It is also an issue of market access, development and influence. A vicious circle: negative image → difficult financing → structural delay → image confirmed.
The share of responsibility of African elites
But it would be easy – and intellectually lazy – to return everything to the West.
African elites bear a share of responsibility in this frozen image.
Too often, they confirm the worst clichés: opacity, nepotism, rhetoric without politics, self-satisfaction, recourse to foreign aid as a plank of salvation.
Even more serious: a form of passive complicity in the dominant narrative. When a head of state begs for grants at the Davos Forum, or marches to Paris to talk about "development", he renews the symbolic dependency. The silence of some intellectuals in the face of these postures reinforces the established narrative order.
Emerging alternatives: a story to rebuild
Fortunately, counter-recitations are emerging. NGOs, artists, journalists, writers are stepping up efforts to redefine Africa in the plural.
But that is not enough. We need to go further:
- Creating African rating agencies — to regain control over financial collection.
- Supporting a Free African Press, based on demanding standards.
- Valuing good leadersNot as miraculous exceptions, but as possible standards.
- Decolonizing educationby introducing African thinkers into programmes, in Africa as elsewhere.
- Refusal to overbid identity in favour of a requirement of quality, rigour and truth.
For a balanced vision: taking over the feather of history
The first battle is narrative. It begins with the refusal of unity: There's no a Africa, but Africa.
Rural and urban Africa, conservative and innovative. Africas changing, with multiple trajectories.
The urgency is to bring out plural stories, carried by Africans themselves — journalists, researchers, creators — that speak of the continent in its complexity.
The second battle is media. The aim is to support the independent, often fragile, African press. Read your country, tell your city, document your time: it's an act of sovereignty.
The third battle is economic. Stereotyping is expensive. An "Africa Credit Rating Agency" would not be a symbol, but a strategic weapon against systemic bias.
The fourth is leadership. Celebrate exemplary leaders — Not those who please the West, but those who serve their peoples with integrity. The Prize Mo Ibrahim This is an indicator: often not assigned, this vacuum speaks for itself.
Finally, education is the foundation. We need to deconstruct textbooks, read African thinkers again, teach critics of "white gaze" like Milton Allimadi (Manufacturing Hate). It is not a question of rewriting history, but of restoring it.
It's not a response. It's a recovery. Not to demand the word, but to take it back. Not to demand a look, but to build his.
Clown or conscience?
Bichmute's speech was a caricature, but he was also a revealing one. He did not invent contempt: he staged it. The real answer is not in indignation, nor in humour alone. It is built in action, the word found, the thought autonomy.
Africa is not « Bring in » in history. She's already here. It only needs to hold on, at last, the feather.
