28th World Scout Conference in Dakar

Mali issued three commemoratives and a souvenir sheet at Bamako on 29 June 1981, overprinted in red on the June stamps for the 4th African Scout Conference at Abidjan. The overprint reads 28e CONFERENCE MONDIALE DU SCOUTISME and DAKAR 8 AOUT 1981. The underlying stamps remain lettered RÉPUBLIQUE DU MALI, POSTES and 4e conférence africaine du scoutisme-Abidjan juin 1981, and signed O. BAILLAIS and EDILA.

Odette Baillais designed the original set. EDILA (Éditions de l'Aubetin, Geneva) printed it by offset lithography; the red overprint is also offset. The three stamps are comb perforated 13, in panes of 25. The 110 franc shows two Scouts at a wooden mortar among thatched huts, with a gazelle’s head on a green pennant. The 160 franc shows two Scouts seated, one holding a torch, with a monkey’s head on a red pennant. The 300 franc shows a Scout giving the Scout salute against a map of Africa, with a cheetah’s head on a yellow pennant.

The 500 franc souvenir sheet, 120 × 90 mm, comb perforated 12 × 12½, carries the same red overprint on the margin around the green fleur-de-lis and on the Baden-Powell portrait. The sheet exists imperforate.