Vol. 77/No. 6      February 18, 2013

Below is an excerpt from Thomas Sankara Speaks: The Burkina Faso Revolution 1983-87, published by Pathfinder Press. Sankara was the central leader of the revolution in that West African country.

Under his leadership, Burkina Faso’s revolutionary government mobilized peasants, workers, craftsmen, women and youth to begin confronting the economic and social underdevelopment inherited from colonial and then imperialist domination, while extending the hand of solidarity to others engaged in that fight around the world.

The Burkinabè Revolution earned the deep hatred of imperialist powers and capitalist rulers—at home and throughout the region. The revolutionary government was overthrown in an October 1987 coup, in which Sankara was killed.

The Burkinabè Revolution remains to this day a powerful example of what working people from Africa are capable of doing, including producing world proletarian leadership of the highest caliber.

This example is especially relevant today with the unfolding war in neighboring Mali—involving Tuareg nationalists, Islamist forces allied with al-Qaeda, anti-Arab and anti-Tuareg militias fighting alongside government troops, and thousands of soldiers from France and neighboring African countries.

The speech below was given Jan. 3, 1986, to a Burkina-Mali solidarity rally in Ouagadougou, the capital of Burkina Faso. A week earlier, the Malian government, heavily armed and tacitly backed by Paris, had used a border dispute as a pretext to invade Burkina Faso. The five-day conflict ended with the signing of a cease-fire between the two countries.

Copyright © 1988 by Pathfinder Press. Reprinted by permission.
 

War is nothing other than an extension of politics. Their politics were extended and transformed into war. Our politics were extended and transformed into a generalized popular defense. Two political courses confronted each other, and one political course triumphed.

Dear comrades, on this day, January 3, 1986, I would like us to think of all those who fell on the field of honor—Malians and Burkinabè—of all those who were wounded, of all the tearful families, of these two peoples, and of other peoples from Africa and elsewhere who have been touched by these painful confrontations. I would like each of us to make an effort to surmount feelings of hate, rejection, and hostility toward the Malian people. I would like each of us to achieve the most important victory: to kill inside ourselves the seeds of hostility and enmity toward anyone.

We have an important victory to win: planting the seeds of genuine friendship in our hearts, capable of withstanding even the murderous assault of cannons, planes, and tanks. This kind of friendship is only built on the revolutionary basis of sincere love for other peoples.

I know you are capable of this, capable of loving the Malian people and demonstrating it. We will demonstrate it. In their speech, the brothers from Mali said they favor developing relations. First of all, we answer: yes! But in addition, we are going to follow these words with deeds. For this reason, comrades, I want to tell you that as far as we’re concerned, there has never been anything but friendship and love between the Malian and Burkinabè peoples.

Comrades! Are you or are you not for friendship between our two peoples? [Shouts of “Yes!”] The popular masses, who hold power in Burkina Faso, have spoken. On their behalf I say directly to the entire world that there are no longer any Malian prisoners in Burkina Faso. The Malian military personnel who are here are no longer prisoners. They are our brothers. They can return to [Mali’s capital] Bamako when and as they wish, in total freedom.

We did not fight in order to take prisoners, but to repel the enemy. We have repelled him. Every Malian in Burkina Faso is a brother. The Malians who are here are our brothers. Starting today, arrangements will be made for them to live in complete freedom, for them to taste the joy of freedom in Burkina Faso, especially in Ouagadougou. Their families in Mali should know that they can come and get them, just as they can wait for them at Bamako airport, whatever they wish.

Comrades, let us avoid being diverted, dragged into fights that are not the people’s fights. Let us avoid being dragged into concerns that are not the people’s concerns, into the mad race toward confrontation and stockpiling of weapons. We know that in certain minds the temptation will be great, come what may, to seek military arsenals, and in so doing justify bellicose actions and thus find easy and convenient pretexts for holding the masses for ransom. This will not happen in Burkina Faso.

The Western media, the imperialist press, has often said that Burkina Faso is a country with a massive stockpile of weapons. You have often read in the papers that our country has received tons and tons of military equipment. Fortunately, this same press … has recognized that Burkina Faso was militarily underequipped. …

We now know which country has stockpiled weapons, and which country has military scrap at its disposal. We now know which country imposes sacrifices on its people in the interests of social, political, and economic development rather than for excessive militarization.

The events of these five days have allowed Burkina Faso to wash away the shame, to reestablish the truth. They have allowed the entire world to see us as we really are. Only those who detest the revolution—and there are many—will continue trying to spread confusion through their maneuvers. Battles await us, and we must win them. Fight for gov’t-funded jobs program!  
 
 
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