Mali: Johanne-Sutton school celebrates its 10th anniversary
Audio 02:19
Less students from the private school Johanne Sutton, in Tienfala, November 2, 2021 © RFI / Manon Laplace
By: Manon Laplace Follow
2 min
It was November 11, 2001. Twenty years ago to the day, Johanne Sutton, a senior reporter for RFI, was killed in the exercise of his profession in northeastern Afghanistan.
That day, as the Northern Alliance prepares to launch the offensive against the Taliban, it is ambushed.
Johanne Sutton, is killed on the way to Mazar-e-Charif, alongside journalists Pierre Billaud of RTL radio and Volker Handloik of German magazine
Stern
.
Twenty years later, and some 8,000 kilometers away, his memory continues to be honored within the school that bears his name, created in 2011 in Tienfala, some thirty kilometers from Bamako.
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From our correspondent in Bamako,
It is a daily ritual.
The morning begins with the raising of the flag for the 192 students of
the Johanne-Sutton school
.
An ordinary scene in Malian schools, with one detail.
After the national anthem, the children, some of whom float in large white t-shirts bearing the effigy of the great RFI reporter, sing the hymn and the motto of Johanne Sutton.
Courage, self-sacrifice and achievement in discipline.
Amadou Maïga is president of the Johanne Sutton association and promoter of the school that bears his name.
“
RFI is one of the most listened to radio stations in Mali.
And unfortunately when we learned in 2001 of the brutal death of Johanne Sutton, people shed tears for someone they did not even know, except through the information she gave in real time
”, recalls- he.
Among the students, the speech is honed.
Nana Khadidjatou Diallo proudly lifts her chin to the journalist's name, inscribed in black letters on the ocher walls of the establishment.
“
Johanne Sutton was a very courageous journalist.
She was putting her life in danger to get information,
”says Nana.
"You have to be very courageous"
If the vocations of journalists remain few, the students are thinking big for their future. “
I would like to be a member of Parliament,
” said one student. “
I want to become a judge,
” said another. “
When I grow up, I'll be a vet,
” exclaims another child. A multitude of ambitions which does not prevent talking about journalism, especially every November 11, on the anniversary of the death of Johanne Sutton.
“
They often tell me '
ma'am, journalism is not easy.
Why are there people still following this trail?
", I tell them that the school bears the name of Johanne Sutton who is a very courageous lady, and they too must be very courageous
", says Marie-Reine Coulibaly, teacher.
This year, the tribute paid to the great reporter killed in Afghanistan could be the occasion to address a thought to all the Malian journalists currently held hostage by the armed groups.
A thought also to our colleague Olivier Dubois, kidnapped last April in Gao, in the north of the country.
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