ROUGH CUT (NO REPORTER NARRATION)<br/> <br />STORY: French President Francois Hollande arrived in Dakar on Friday on his first visit to the continent on his quest to open a a new chapter in France's relations with former colonies.<br/> <br />He is traveling to Kinshasa to meet leaders from more than 70 francophone countries, many of them African, without any company executives in his entourage - a shift from the business-focused trips of conservative predecessor Nicolas Sarkozy.<br/> <br />On the eve of his trip he said he would denounce a period of colonization as a historical "mistake".<br/> <br />The statement marked a change in tone from the Sarkozy era, when France often kept silent about electoral fraud.<br/> <br />Sarkozy sparked outrage in much of French-speaking Africa in 2007 when he suggested to an audience in Dakar that the continent had failed to embrace progress and made uncritical allusions to colonialism.<br/> <br />Hollande, who will reach the Democratic Republic of Congo on Saturday for a gathering of French-speaking nations, has promised to promote democracy in Africa and break with an era of collusion between French and autocratic African leaders.<br/> <br />Senegalese President Macky Sall, who was himself elected earlier this year after a tense presidential election marred with violence, welcomed Hollande in Dakar.
