INDEPENDENCE FOR MALI

Press, Issue 29236, 21 June 1960, Page 8

INDEPENDENCE FOR MALI

Proclamation Today

(N.Z. Press Association —Copyright) DAKAR, June 19.

Six million Africans will achieve their independence tomorrow to the booming of a 10-gun salute, the ringing of church bells, and the blare of ships’ sirens in Dakar, the populous West African port Four days after Mali’s independence was finally approved by the French Parliament the Mali Federation’s red, yellow, and green flag will be hoisted in place of the French tricolour over the palace of the former High Commissioners for French West Africa. In the gleaming white modern building which once housed the Grand Council of French West Africa, now seat of the Mali Parliament, Mr Leopold Senghor, President of the Mali Assembly, will read the independence proclamation in the presence of representatives of the French Government and the French Community countries and of Mali’s two member republics, Senegal and Sudan. The French Constitution was specially amended to permit Senegal and Sudan, the first French Community States to become fully independent, achieve self-rule without hurting the community. Tomorrow is set aside as a day of rejoicing in Dakar and the Sudan capital of Bamako, but the main festivities are reserved for next January 17, anniversary of the day when the twc States formed their federation.

Madagascar will follow suit by proclaiming its independence next Saturday. The Ivory Coast, Dahomey, Niger and Upper Volta, which have received “a favourable reply” from President de Gaulle to their collective independence request, expect to make their independence proclamations early in August