Having French President Francois Hollande parade like a conquering lion through Timbuktu is not a great idea. Of course Malians and the citizens of Timbuktu are correct to cheer France for having helped drive out the occupiers.  The occupiers committed atrocities against innocent people. They imposed a harsh regime and harmed Timbuktu's great culture and legacy by destroying shrines and irreplaceable manuscripts. Yet critical observers who care about Mali and Africa generally must still ask serious questions. 

"Mali has been taken over, the northern part of Mali, by al-Qaida-type individuals. We have in — in Egypt a Muslim Brotherhood president…." With those words, spoken Monday night by Barack Obama's Republican challenger Mitt Romney just 40 seconds in the last of three debates, Africa was placed at the center of U.S. foreign policy and international security. The radical and pro-al Qaeda sect, Ansar Eddine, and the umbrella group of Tuareg tribal militias known as the National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (MNLA) have since December 2011 worked together to gain control of Timbuktu and most of northern Mali.