Senegal has long been revered as one of Africa's model democracies, one of the very few West African states with a tradition of civilian rule. The country gained independence from France in 1960, and has suffered no serious upheavals since. It has an established multi-party system and boasts one of the region's most stable economies despite high unemployment and poverty. But this relative stability in Senegal is now threatened by the conflict in neighbouring Mali. The presenceof Senegalese soldiers together with the West African and French troops in the fight against Islamists in the North has raised fears of reprisal attacks. On this episode of Talk to Al Jazeera, Folly Bah Thibault is joined by Macky Sall, the president of Senegal, to discuss the country's presence in Mali as part of the ECOWAS mission, neo-colonialism and the relationship with France, and Africa's capability in solving its own problems.