PARIS—She looks like the female lead of every ’70s "blaxploitation" flick, of every sexually explicit rap video you ever saw. All nine feet of her.

Scantily dressed in an opened vest, a micro-mini skirt and garters, the dark-skinned "beauty" with mane of platinum-blond hair points a high-caliber hand gun at passersby. She is guarded by a pit bull wearing a spike collar. Frozen in time, she is the embodiment of today’s image of the strong, independent Black woman.

At least that’s what the creator of the mural that depicts her thinks.

"God created man in His image and I represent women in my image," said Pedro "Banga" Baghuelou, 28, Caribbean artist and independent clothing designer who uses the "no-nonsense" mural to attract young people to his small clothing store, "Banga Style," located in the Chatelet-Les Halles area of Paris.

"Banga," like many young Africans and Caribbeans who live here, is strongly influenced by American- and Black American cultures and music, primarily hip hop and rap.

From wearing U.S.-styled clothing, to hoarding imported videos, movies and CDs, their lust for everything American is insatiable. Like others, "Banga," a self-described conscious Black man, is also brainwashed by the negative celluloid images Hollywood regurgitates about Black Americans, and by what he sees on that staple of imported cultural imperialism, MTV, the 24-hour U.S. music video channel.

Whether its Native American elders in Arizona complaining about high violence plaguing reservations because youth imitating gang culture portrayed in some rap videos, or bootleg copies of "Titanic" and "Air Force One" circulating underground among youths in Iran, where "Death to America" slogans now share wall space with spray-painted tributes to American heavy metal rock groups Guns N’Roses and Metallica, American popular culture has seeped into the unlikeliest of places with the help of television and satellite dishes.

In the small, poor, agricultural country of Burkina Faso, West Africa, a former French colony, more and more of the country’s 10 million people are buying expensive satellite dishes to gain greater access to American programming.

Yacouba Traore, officer of communications for the Burkina Faso Embassy in Paris, said 50 percent of local programming is of foreign origin, primarily French. The French are heavy importers of American series. Soap operas such as "The Young and the Restless" and "The Bold and the Beautiful," sitcoms such as "Martin" and "Married with Children," and crime dramas such as "NYPD Blue" and "Homicide," are aired on French television on any given day.

Young men in Burkina Faso, he said, want to be "like Mike," whether it is former Chicago Bulls’ basketball player Michael Jordan, or megastar entertainer Michael Jackson.

"This world is starting to become like a village by the power of media," Mr. Traore said. "But the young people here are not stupid. They see the failing of ‘modernization’ through unemployment, drugs, contraceptives, alcohol and AIDS. This makes them scared enough to try to seek refuge in their own culture."

Mouhamadou M. Dia, cultural counselor and officer of information for the Senegalese embassy in Paris, said his West African country boasts about 3,000 rap groups, according to figures cited by the country’s minister of information.

"Some people tell me that America rules the world with nuclear power and force," Mr. Dia said. "But I tell them no. It rules with movies, culture, music and sports."

Access to relatively inexpensive satellite dishes now allows the Senegalese to view America’s Cable News Network (CNN), which Mr. Dia said links directly to the USA.

"It’s kind of a mental colonization," Mr. Dia said.

Senegal is bracing itself for the "Showdown of the Century," as champion "ber�" wrestler "Tyson," who takes his name after famous Black American boxer Mike Tyson, faces off with legendary "ber�" wrestler Manga 2. "Ber�" is a grueling sport that combines wrestling and boxing.

"Tyson" dresses in an American flag when he fights. The young men and boys in his camp also dress in attire styled after the American flag. They call themselves "boulfal�" which literally means "boys who don’t care" about their traditions, but rather support the American way of life.

Mr. Dia said "Tyson" has chosen July 4, America’s Independence Day, to fight Manga 2, the undefeated champion for 10 consecutive years before he retired several years ago. Manga 2 has come out of retirement to specifically to fight "Tyson" in a battle that will symbolize the "new way" versus the "traditional way."

"American ways are taking over the culture and tradition of Senegal," Mr. Dia said. "More or less we are losing our values. It is sad to say so, but it is a reality."

Los Angeles-based political scientist Dr. Earl Ofari Hutchinson defines cultural imperialism as the "predatory exploitation and subversion of a people’s language, lifestyles, values, art and music by an alien group."

"Rap and hip hop culture are an expression of the Black experience, this is healthy in that other people can learn about and be influenced by that experience," said Dr. Hutchinson, author of "The Crisis in Black and Black."

The problem, he said, is that the Black culture has been "ruthlessly ripped-off for big profit by record companies, the movie industry, and the giant multinational corporations.

"It has also been perverted to depict Blacks as thugs, criminals, and dysfunctional outcasts," Dr. Hutchinson added.

Wherever one looks, young people are imitating Black Americans, even going so far as to inject Black slang into their conversations. Most idolize late rap artists Tupac Shakur and the Notorious B.I.G., Da Brat, Ice Cube, and Will Smith, to name but a few.

And while many don’t understand the message in the music because they don’t speak English, they are impacted nonetheless by driving beats and slick videos.

Snoop-Doggy-Dogg-wannabee D. Fofana, 20, originally from Mali, West Africa, dresses in military fatigues, wears gold chains and rings, and antennae-like braids. He spontaneously flashed gang hand signs like the kind seen in movies such as "Boyz ‘N the ‘Hood," as he posed for a photograph.

Ibrahim Camara, 29, from Mali, and his cousin A’icha Yatera, 17, who was born in France, sport the baggy look of Black American youths.

Wearing a jacket with a patch just below the right shoulder that says "USA," Mr. Camara said that while his parents would like him to follow traditional African ways, young people like him don’t want to be "stuck" in those ways. Ms. Yatera wears an oversized yellow sweater that says "New York" across the front. Neither has been to America.

Recently, a young Black man sucking on a baby’s pacifier, a la Flavo Flav of the popular group Public Enemy, walked shamelessly down a busy street.

Why do they toss the customary beliefs, social forms, and material traits of their own religious or social groups to follow America?

Dr. Hutchinson offered that American culture, with its phony promise and message of freedom through sex, drugs, greed, and violence has a powerful seductive appeal and fascination for youth anywhere. The danger is that this message will become a permanent way of life for them.

Franco Lollia, 27, a member of the popular French rap group "La Brigade" ("The Brigade"), says American ways grip the imagination of the youth because there is growing confusion and a loss of cultural bearings among them in France.

"That’s one of the reasons they attach to this," he said. "If they didn’t have hip hop, they’d be more powerless, lost and confused. I don’t think hip hop and rap are cultures, but a movement that’s able to make Black people come together and recognize themselves as one people."

"If young people follow the ways of America, it’s because the French government has done it first," said Pascal Genevieve, 24, a musician originally from the West Indies, as he finished off a piece of Kentucky Fried Chicken. "France is like a little America."

In the April 13 issue of The Final Call, Nation of Islam International Representative Akbar Muhammad, a world traveler, stated in an interview: "We must remember that Blacks in the west influence the whole (Black) world. We are the trendsetters, they follow our music, and watch our movies. We’re leaders but don’t know it."