Mediapart’s resident singer and songwriter La Parisienne Libérée regularly contributes a critical review of current affairs in music, images and text. Here she returns to the story of Adou Ouattara, an eight-year-old Ivorian boy who was discovered on May 7th hidden in a suitcase carried by a Moroccan woman crossing the border into Spain’s North African enclave of Ceuta. Adou was found after the baggage was X-rayed, and the disturbing image of the scan was later published around the world. La Parisienne Libérée takes up the story from there.
AA shocking image was published across the internet on May 8th this year. It was an X-ray image, showing the body of an African child curled up in a suitcase. It is high time for a critical review of this propaganda operation by the Spanish interior ministry and the Guardia Civil, which was widely relayed by press agencies. Wasn’t it obvious that this medical-like image was degrading for the child? Was it really about contraband, as was written here and there? Why did the child end up in the suitcase?
