Interim Burkinabe President Ibrahim Traore gave a short but powerful speech at the second Russia-Africa Summit that can be read in full at the official Kremlin website here. The highlight was that he told his peers straight to their faces to stop being imperialist puppets, which was admittedly harsh but definitely needed. President Traore never forgot how many of them condemned the coup that he led late last year, which was carried out to bring security and development to his beleaguered people.
Here are two relevant analyses about Burkina Faso for those readers who haven’t closely followed it:
* 6 October 2022: “Why’s The West So Spooked By Possible Burkinabe-Russian Military Cooperation?”
* 5 May 2023: “Burkina Faso’s Strategic Alliance With Russia Will Further Stabilize West Africa”
Readers can now better understand the following excerpt from his speech at last week’s event:
“As for Burkina Faso, for the past eight years we have been fighting the most barbaric and cruel form of colonialism and imperialism, which are forcing a modern form of slavery on us. We have learned one thing very well: a slave who cannot protest deserves nothing more than pity, and his future is miserable. We did not wait for anybody to take care of us. We decided to fight the terrorists who are preventing our development.
In this struggle, our courageous people decided to take up arms against terrorism. We were surprised to learn that imperialists refer to them as armed groups or militarised groups, while calling people in Europe who take up arms to defend their homeland patriots. Our forefathers were deported to save Europe, and this happened against their will. But when they came back and tried to assert their basic rights, they faced cruel repression.
The problem is not when people decide to take up arms. The problem is that the leaders of African countries do not bring anything to people fighting imperialism, calling us armed groups or criminals. We do not agree with this approach. We, the heads of African states, must stop acting as puppets ready to act whenever the imperialists pull the strings.”
Just like Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki explained during his meeting with President Putin, President Traore also believes that the West is practicing a modern form of slavery in Africa through its various Hybrid Wars there, one of the fiercest of which is against Burkina Faso. Terrorists are employed by that de facto New Cold War bloc as their proxies, which explains why they try to legitimize their demands by describing them as “armed groups” or “rebels” like the West does in the Malian conflict.
Instead of sitting back and letting his country be destroyed, President Traore and his comrades took matters into their own hands to overthrow the corrupt regime that failed to improve the security situation since taking power earlier that year. It was after leading his own military coup that he learned that Burkina Faso’s struggle is really against the West and not just terrorists. As a newly assumed head of state, he then realized that his peers across the region were also aware of this reality as well.
That’s why he was so deeply disappointed in many of them after they condemned his coup exactly as his country’s imperialist enemies wanted them to do. This experience opened President Traore’s eyes to the enormity of Africa’s challenge in fully liberating itself since bonafide modern-day freedom fighters like him, his Malian counterpart President Assimi Goita, and neighboring Niger’s new military junta are opposed tooth and nail by the so-called “African Establishment”.
In fact, the “Economic Community Of West African States” (ECOWAS) promulgated sanctions against Niger on Sunday and also threatened the possible use of armed force if its military leaders don’t reinstate former President Mohamed Bazoum within a week. Readers should know that France and the US, which are jointly working to keep Africa subordinated to the West, have condemned the Nigerien coup and called for its ousted leader’s immediate reinstatement.
These observations extend credence to President Traore’s accusation that many of his peers, especially in the West Africa-Sahel region, are imperialist puppets. To be fair, not a single one of them sanctioned Russia despite immense Western pressure upon them to do so, which suggests that they’re relatively more independent than the Burkinabe leader’s harsh words imply. Nevertheless, there’s also no denying that the “African Establishment” opposes anti-imperialist coups just like the West always does.
The reason why those two’s views are aligned on this sensitive issue might have to do more with each respective leader’s political self-interests in deterring such coups at home than with the West pulling their strings behind the scenes, though the latter no doubt occurs, both on this issue and many others. The importance of clarifying this isn’t to discredit President Traore, whose peers definitely deserved his scathing attack, but to add crucial context to what he said.
Most of the “African Establishment” is corrupt, doesn’t care about their country’s objective national interests, and is closely connected with the West, all of which is resented by the people over whom they rule and thus perpetually leaves their leaders at risk of a patriotic military coup. All manifestations of anti-imperialism are therefore naturally opposed, especially whenever a related coup happens somewhere on the continent because these corrupt leaders fear that it could inspire their armed forces.
What President Traore just did was break the taboo on patriotic military coups by taking advantage of the global attention afforded to the second Russia-Africa Summit to explain why these sorts of regime changes are required to save their countries from Western-backed terrorism when all else fails. He then rightly shamed those of his peers who condemn these anti-imperialist developments whenever they occur and fail to support them despite these patriotic military coups being in all Africans’ interests.
For as impressively as the “African Establishment” has thus far resisted the West’s immense pressure to sanction Russia, which not even those states that voted against it at the UNGA have done, Africa will never become a truly independent pole in the emerging order unless far-reaching reforms occur. These same established forces need to put their personal interests aside for the greater good, but it’s unlikely that the already corrupt ones among them will ever do so, thus exacerbating their people’s ire.
With time, multipolar-inspired anti-government protests might break out and/or patriotic military coups occur, the first of which might even precede the latter and be pointed to by its plotters as proof that they acted in accordance with their people’s will. What’s happening in the West Africa-Sahel region right now with three such regime changes since 2021 in Mali that year, Burkina Faso the next, and now Niger last week is literally revolutionary and greatly accelerates multipolar processes in this part of Africa.
There’ll likely be more across the continent in the coming future too, which is why it’s so important to remember President Traore’s impassioned defense of patriotic military coups and strong condemnation of the “African Establishment” for being imperialist puppets in always opposing them. Despite only being in his mid-30s, the Burkinabe leader is wise far beyond his years and could easily become one of the most important Africans of his generation. It’ll be very interesting to follow his career.
