Every now and then an event like the attack on the French satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo by Islamic extremists happens, throwing up all sorts of contradictions.

Twelve people, nine of them journalists at the magazine, were killed. The attack was to take “revenge” for cartoons that some Muslims consider insulted their religion, although the magazine makes fun of all religions.

First out of the blocks was Nigeria’s President Goodluck Jonathan, who condemned the terrorist attacks in the strongest terms. The same week Jonathan’s own terrorists, Boko Haram, went on the rampage in northeast Borno State. Some estimates by human rights groups say 2,000 people were slaughtered. Jonathan said nothing!

On the weekend, France had the biggest rally in its history, one that brought out 3.7 million all over the country to protest against terrorism, talk up press freedom, and celebrate diversity. Over 40 world leaders, including six African heads of state, joined the rally. Among them was Senegal’s Macky Sall.

Well, Charlie Hebdo then did its “survivor’s issue,” the first since the attack, and ramped up the print run from its usual 60,000 to a mind-boggling 5 million. On its cover was a cartoon of Prophet Mohammed.

Barely two days after returning home, Sall’s government banned the circulation of Charlie Hebdo as well as the French daily Liberation.

Sall was shown up. He really didn’t believe in what the Paris rally stood for.

Then, after Paris, there was a new outcry about double standards and racism: That the international community fell over itself to show solidarity with France over the terror attacks, and hasn’t done the same for the thousands killed by Boko Haram.

However, as one wag pointed out, there was an outpouring of support for Nigeria last year after Boko Haram kidnapped 300 schoolgirls and the hashtag #BringBackOurGirls went viral.

Africa responded in two ways. First, it accused the West of trying to “hijack” the campaign, and there was a fight between some Nigerians and a woman in the USA over who started the hashtag. But the most telling was that the ruling party in Nigeria and President Jonathan denounced the #BringBackOurGirls campaigners as enemies, and police even broke up their rallies.

Then we complain that the rest of the world doesn’t think much of African lives. Hello, they cannot mourn louder than we, the bereaved.

It gets better. I watched the BBC anchor explain why it wouldn’t show the cover of the comeback issue of Charlie Hebdo. She said the BBC is watched by a diversity of people, and its policy is not to offend the sensibilities of its audience.

High-minded indeed. But then I remembered that last October the BBC got into a fight with Rwanda over its documentary Rwanda: The Untold Story, which, according to Kigali, trivialised and denied the 1994 genocide in which one million people, most of them Tutsi, were killed.

BBC stood by its decision, and refused to apologise, despite the great offence taken in Rwanda.

I thought that was taking a stand on principle, but the Charlie Hebdo cartoon revealed it was bullying. Rwanda is “weak.” The soldiers of the Prophet well, that is another matter.

Charles Onyango-Obbo is editor of Mail & Guardian Africa (mgafrica.com) Twitter: @cobbo3