Samir Amin showed, some forty years ago, the limits of that experience which he at that time rather harshly called ???a farce.???8 The bankruptcy of his policy, notably marked by the de facto return to la zone franc???the pegging of the Malian franc to the French franc???was followed, in November 1968, by a military coup d?????tat led by Moussa Traor?? and the institution of a police dictatorship