Georges Pompidou en Afrique, l'entretien de Lomé

Africa is where I learned my trade. In the early 1960s AFP had sent me to Senegal, Mali and a dozen countries that had only just been born. Ten years later I went back with a camera, in the wake of the President of the Republic.

In January 1971, in Dakar, I interviewed President Léopold Sédar Senghor, who talked to me about General de Gaulle, and his young prime minister, Abdou Diouf. In February I covered Georges Pompidou's official visit to Central Africa: the motorcade through Libreville, the two presidents carried in sedan chairs through the streets of Yaoundé, Omar Bongo's speech, the press conference.

Lomé, 24 November 1972

November 1972 brought the President's third African tour: Upper Volta, then Togo. In Ouagadougou I reported on the presidential day, the ballet performance, the meeting with President Lamizana, the First Lady's visit to the market. In Lomé, Georges Pompidou answered my questions to sum it all up. Colonisation is over, he told me in substance, but borders and bonds remain. Cooperation must become freer, and must never be a one-way street. I ended on domestic politics: would he address the French people in January, as some newspapers were saying?

Eight minutes of interview with the President of the Republic, broadcast that same evening on the news. The archive can be watched on the INA website, along with my other reports from those tours.