Ibrahim Traoré, who took power in 2022 coup, tells state broadcaster ‘we must tell the truth, democracy isn’t for us’
People in Burkina Faso should forget about democracy as it is “not for us”, the military president, Ibrahim Traoré, told the country’s state broadcaster.
Traoré took power in a coup in September 2022, toppling another junta that had taken power just nine months earlier. He has since stifled opposition and in January banned political parties outright.
A transition to democracy had originally been planned for 2024, but that year the junta extended Traoré’s rule until 2029.
“We’re not even talking about elections, first of all … People need to forget about the question of democracy … We must tell the truth, democracy isn’t for us,” Traoré said in an interview on Thursday with the state broadcaster Radiodiffusion Télévision du Burkina (RTB).
No those sanctions are because Europe lost control of their resources and were not compensated. Those sanctions are for a lesser country fighting back without permission.
Burkino Faso, unironically, has done nothing wrong in their search for freedom.
Ye…eah, that seems like a bit of “doing something wrong” to be actively regressing on personal freedoms.
Poor Christian country has anti homosexual laws? Well it didn’t break free from colonialism then!
It’s a majority Muslim country that did not have these laws prior to independence…
I read in the comments it was Christian so that sounded plausible along with it being in West Africa but you’re right.
Still doesn’t change the fact that a poor society which just broke free from Western colonialism is not magically going to implement all the values of those who colonized them. Not everything is three steps forward zero steps back.
But pinkwashing remains the favorite Liberal stick to hit colonized people with.
I’m glad you agree that the homophobic regression didn’t come from western colonialism?
It depends what year and place we’re talking about because before the 1950s it definitely did. But in this case no.
People are quick to forget their gamer word vocabulary from the 2010’s but somehow expect every country in the world to be on the same cultural line 15 years later.
I’m sorry, I’m slightly confused. I think we agree? In the ~1950s they were actually far less repressive about LGBTQ issues than France (their colonizers) was, to be clear. That’s where the argument comes from that, while the effects of colonialism are responsible for many evils, in this case it appears to be genuine home-grown regression on personal freedoms.
Yes we agree that this wasn’t imposed on them by their colonizers. Where we might disagree is that I still believe decolonization is good for Burkina Faso.
If you aren’t free to oppress someone, are you truly free? (/s)
Some 30% of Burkinabés are Christian or Catholic. It could be argued that homophobia in Burkina Faso is a result of western colonialism via mission trips and schools.
Even assuming that this has anything directly to do with religion which is already a big leap it is a Muslim majority country that had no laws against homosexuality prior to or right after independence from France… Sorry but this sounds like a pretty difficult one to pin on western colonialism.
To put it simply, when western forces colonize a people, they simultaneously suppress and frame their traditions as barbaric and prop up their own western values as civilized. The colonized people experience unconscionable violence from these western forces, seeing first hand the inhumanity being caused in the name of ‘civility’. Naturally, as anti-colonial resistance mounts, the most anti-West voices gain the most momentum, seen as less corruptible to those western forces and more unwavering in their resistance. So it’s no surprise that reactionary attitudes on civil rights come as a reaction to western colonialism.
It’s only once a people are able to reclaim their sovereignty that civil rights movements are able to build, fight for, and win those rights domestically. Without being co-opted by foreign powers with the only goal of destabilization.
I wasn’t aware of the connection myself until I read Fanon’s works at length
No doubt it and many other historical events will affect many things later on but it’s still not really a reasonable position to assume that has to be it even with lots of evidence that makes it seem unlikely in a particular case. Colonialism did not introduce anti-homosexual attitudes to the African continent. Islam, which arrived before the western colonialists also has them but wasn’t the first appearance of that there either.
This history of lgbt acceptance and religion is complicated, but that is beside the point here.
Colonialism and Imperialism are absolutely to blame for the reasons described prior, they have significantly halted progress made in civil rights within their target countries. A foreign power mass executing your people makes it difficult for the conversion to be anything but liberation.
If you want to learn more about the psychology of colonialism on the colonized, and how that influences social beliefs and revolutionary resistance, read anything Frantz Fanon.
Sorry but colonialism being to blame here seems like an a priori assumption with you and not anything that you’ve actually factually established.
I certainly don’t have a problem with the idea of colonialism or other parts of history having very long lasting and diverse effects but it’s just not the case that we can say it is the root cause of any given issue absent of any real evidence for such a claim.
My analysis is based on Fanon, how well read are you on anti-colonialism?
A military dictatorship isn’t particularly representative of freedom.