Captain Ibrahim Traoré, 34 years old, became the provisional head of Burkina Faso’s government after a military coup in September 2022. His government seeks to finish off the remnants of French colonial power, build economic independence, develop infrastructure, satisfy some of the population’s basic needs, and ward off U.S. intervention.
The lesson to be taken from happenings there is that in the Global South, national independence must be achieved before meaningful social change of aprogressive nature can take place.
There was mention of Traoré at an April 3 hearing in Washington held by the Senate Committee on Armed Services. Senator Roger Wicker commented on “the ruling elite of a country [in Africa] receiving gratuities on the side.” Responding, General Michael Langley, head of the U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM), stated that, for “Captain Traore in Burkina Faso … gold reserves … are just in exchange to protect the Junta [sic] regime.”
Burkina Faso does envision other purposes for its gold. Langley’s remark provoked a wave of criticism in Africa and the United States.
AFRICOM’s Operation Flintlock involving 500 troops from 30 African nations took place in Ivory Coast from April 24, when General Langley was on hand, to May 14. On April 22 authorities there foiled a “major plot” to assassinate Traoré – one of many such attempts. Ivory Coast and Burkina Faso are not on friendly terms.
Traoré was in Moscow on May 10 for the 80th anniversary of the Soviet Union’s victory over Nazi Germany. He arrived on a Russian plane sent to Burkina Faso to bring him. At a meeting attended by high Russian officials, President Vladimir Putin assured Traoré of Russia’s cooperation in fighting terrorism, “restoring the rule of law,” strengthening trade, and educating Burkina Faso youth. Traoré spoke of defending against imperialism, providing science education and developing “our own production, industry, and engineering.”
Traoré studied geology at Burkina Faso’s University of Ouagadougou. He joined a Marxist student association. As a military officer he joined a United Nations peacekeeping force intervening in a civil war in Mali. He later led troops fighting Jihadist insurgents in Burkina Faso.
Traoré takes inspiration from Thomas Sankara, Burkina Faso’s coup-installed president from 1983 until his assassination in 1987. Marxist-oriented Sankara aligned with revolutionary Cuba and Nicaragua. His government advanced healthcare, education, literacy, agrarian reform, women’s equality and more.
Apollinaire Kyélem de Tambèla, a pan-Africanist with ties to communist and left-wing organizations, served as Traoré’s prime minister until his dismissal in December 2024. He had collaborated with Sankara in pursuing international solidarity.
Burkina Faso is located in Africa’s Sahel region, a band of semi-arid land south of the Sahara extending from the Atlantic to Eritrea on the Red Sea. France colonized all states in the region, except for Sudan and Eritrea. Their independence, granted in 1960, was flawed.
France maintained military bases in the Sahel and the CFA franc (franc of the French colonies in Africa) remains as the region’s currency.
France requires the various countries to deposit 50% of their currency reserves in the French treasury. Because the currency’s value is pegged to the Euro, individual countries cannot adjust exchange rates to stimulate industrial development. French overvaluation of the CFA franc makes for low purchase prices for exported goods and higher prices for whatever is imported. As a result, Burkina Faso supports its economy by exporting commodities derived from natural resources rather than by selling manufactured products or providing services.
Burkina Faso’s most bountiful exports are gold and raw cotton. The world’s 13th largest producer of gold, and the fourth largest in Africa, the country also exports copper, manganese, and zinc.
Beginning in 2013, The French military joined regional forces in fighting Jihadist insurgents. But, says one observer, “military assistance [to the French] discouraged African elites from pursuing reform or sharing power, while failing to halt rebel attacks.” U.S. military forces participate as “advisors.”
Meanwhile, military coups in Chad, Niger, Mali, and Burkina Faso hastened the departure of the French military. French troops will leave Senegal by the end of 2025. To strengthen mutual defense, Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger formed the Alliance of Sahel States in September 2023. Four months later, the three nations broke away from the U.S.-inspired Economic Community of West African States. Traoré took a lead role in these transitions.
French oppression is one burden for Burkina Faso; stunted development of human potential is another. Life expectancy at birth is 61 years; expected schooling is 2.3 years. In most of Burkina Faso, 10% of children suffer from acute malnutrition. Infant mortality in 2022 was 50.1 deaths per 1000 live births; the world average that year was 28 deaths. The Human Development Index of the United Nations puts Burkina Faso at number 186 on its list of 193 countries.
The government has accomplished much since Traoré came into power. Observer Nicolas Jones, writing under the heading of “Nkrumah’s Africa,” summarizes:
He continued with his army salary and arranged for a 30% pay cut for government ministers and a 50% increase for civil servants.
Having expelled French troops fighting the Jihadists, Traoré mobilized the already-established Volunteers for the Defense of the Homeland, an auxiliary military force. Recruitment far exceeded expectations.
Burkina Faso has built a plant for producing generic drugs, a new cement plant, a new flour mill, and two tomato and two cotton processing plants. An “iconic” and inactive textile factory has been revived.
The government has distributed seeds, fertilizer and equipment to farmers; wheat production is expanding. Another report says mobile clinics are appearing throughout the country.
The government is building and repairing highways and is constructing the new “Thomas Sankara” airport near the capitol city Ouagadougou.
The government no longer takes loans from the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund.
According to intellinews.com, gold has been Burkina Faso’s top export since 2009, accounting in 2023 for 80% of the country’s export income and 22% of government revenues. Foreign companies formally owned and operated all of the country’s gold mines, allowing Burkina Faso a 10% equity share in each one. But Traoré’s government nationalized three of them and, collaborating with an outside mining company, began construction in 2023 of a gold refinery to capture additional income from gold.
A report states that the government, “clearly distancing itself from the West, has strengthened economic and security ties with Russia … and with China, a country that has made many investments in Burkina Faso.” According to Jones, Traoré attended a Russia-Africa summit meeting in 2023 and afterwards declared that the people of Burkina Faso support Russia and that Russia’s embassy would soon reopen. Russia will be building a nuclear plant in Burkina Faso.
A pattern appears. Burkina Faso first achieves and defends national independence and then pursues development and social justice. A similar two-stage process played out as Cuba, China, Vietnam, Laos, and North Korea made their socialist revolutions with communist parties. The sequence looks to be characteristic of social change in the Global South, to which these nations are assigned. (North Korea’s climate does not fit, but other features suggest an affinity).
After all, in the industrialized countries, principally Russia and the Eastern European countries, independent nationhood had existed so long as to not impinge on struggles for socialism. Those revolutions did not survive. Maybe the two-stage process, with the insertion of an independence struggle, improves chances that a socialist revolution will last, and maybe even that it happens in the first place.
Developments in Burkina Faso of course are far removed from advance toward a socialist society. But that kind of progression, quite improbable in Burkina Faso, surely registers with the imperialist powers watching over the country and will influence their course of action.
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