FactCheck: Viral Footage Shows Ousmane Sonko Berating France, Not Senegalese President-elect

By Mustapha Lawal 

Claim

Clip showing the new Senegalese president-elect Bassirou Diomaye Faye berating France. 

Verdict

Misleading! Against the claim, the speaker in the viral video criticizing France is not Bassirou Diomaye Faye, the Senegalese president-elect, but Ousmane Sonko, the leader of the dissolved PASTEF.

Full Text

Social media users claimed with a clip that the Senegalese president-elect Bassirou Diomaye Faye berated France, the former colonial power in Senegal. 

 “It is high time for France to lift its knees off our necks and put an end to this unjust oppression. Centuries of misery, human trafficking, colonialism, and neo-colonialism have caused immeasurable suffering. It is time to put an end to this cycle of oppression,” these were the purported words of Senegal president-elect Bassirou Diomaye Faye berating its colonial masters according to the clip. 

FactCheckAfrica monitored that the video spreading sporadically has been widely seen and it’s gone viral on various social media platforms including YouTube, TikTok, X (formerly Twitter), Facebook, LinkedIn, and WhatsApp in Nigeria and some other African countries. 

As of press time, a copy of such post retrieved on X from the account of @von_Bismack, a verified user of the platform, who has over 104,000 followers, amassed over 31,200 views, 682 likes and 390 reposts. 

Also, a copy of the 5-minutes long video retrieved from YouTube where it was uploaded by the account TRMedia with over 101,000 subscribers has been liked by over 9,000 individuals and viewed 237,000 times.  

Due to the supporting comments under the posts, FactCheckAfrica decided to work on the claim to set the record straight. 

Verification

FactCheckAfrica’s findings revealed that the speaker in the viral video criticizing France is not Faye, the Senegalese president-elect, but Sonko, the leader of the dissolved PASTEF.

We subjected keyframes in the footage to Google reverse image search and found the original full-length of clip, which shows that the speech was not delivered by Bassirou Diomaye Faye as widely claimed. 

FactCheckAfrica can confirm that it  was rather an extract from a speech delivered by Ousmane Sonko, Senegal’s top opposition leader, at a press conference in July 2021, in Dakar, Senegal. Moreso, the address in the original speech was in French and not in English, as seen in the viral video.

During the press conference, the opposition leader spoke against the proposed decision of the Senegalese government to adopt an anti-terrorism law. He criticized France for what he described as the inability of the European country to allow its former colonies to thrive.

The press conference was live-streamed on the YouTube channel of Senegal 7, a local media outlet in the French-speaking country. Throughout the one-hour and thirty-minute press conference, Sonko spoke in French. He also published the full transcript of the press conference on his X account. The transcript is also in French.

FactCheckAfrica also noted that a deepfake technology was used to alter Sonko’s voice in the clip to give the impression that he spoke in English. Furthermore, it was discovered that the viral portion of the speech attributed to the Senegalese president-elect has been on YouTube since 2023.

Relationship between France and Senegal 

Senegal was France’s oldest colony in Africa, and the two countries have maintained the close ties developed during the colonial period since political independence in 1960. Relations between Senegal and France are reported to be close and multi-faceted, spanning across economic, politics, security and diplomatic relations.

However, members of the opposition in Senegal have shared public opinions regarding France purported domineering over Senegal.

Vanguard Newspaper reported that upon their release from prison by incumbent President Macky Sall days before the recent presidential election, campaigns from  opposition leaders  included vows to fight the “French economic stranglehold” over Senegal.

Who is Bassirou Diomaye Faye & Ousmane Sonko?

Bassirou Diomaye Faye served as  the former General-Secretary of the dissolved political party, PASTEF, (Patriotes africains du Sénégal pour le travail, l’éthique et la fraternité) while Ousmane Sonko is the main opposition leader in Senegal and the leader of the political party that sponsored Faye for the presidential election. 

After Sonko was barred from contesting the election by the country’s Supreme Supreme Court, he endorsed Faye as a presidential candidate in November 2023 despite the dissolution of PASTEF. .

Many political analysts in Senegal believe that Faye is a protégé of Sonko. Both men were jailed in the build-up to the presidential election but were released weeks before the election. 

Conclusion 

Misleading! The video is an extract from a speech delivered in French by Ousmane Sonko, a top opposition leader in the country, at a press conference in July 2021, in Dakar, Senegal. The viral video language has been changed and has been on YouTube since 2023.