Ibrahim Traoré Speaks

 

Credit: RIA Novosti 

This is a bit esoterick, but...could the American SWP plz explain the difference between this guy and Thomas Sankara?

Ibrahim Traoré

The Burkinabé fashion revolution

 

Burkina Faso´s leader Ibrahim Traoré bans wigs. Supposedly. I don´t know, I get the impression that the Burkinabé revolution has fallen on hard times. And where is Jack Barnes??? 

Fiasco in West Africa

 

Has Niger won the power struggle in West Africa? The West African organization ECOWAS, which is presumably dominated by Nigeria, will lift its sanctions against Niger, where a pro-Russian military junta overthrew the pro-Western government last year. ECOWAS also calls on Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso to rejoin the organization. Mali and Burkina are allies of Niger. Finally, ECOWAS will lift its sanctions against Guinea, which is still an ECOWAS member. 

Ostensibly, all these sanctions are about "restoring democracy", but I think it´s safe to say that it´s really an expression of geopolitics. Anti-Russian geopolitics, to be exact.

The sanctions did cripple Niger´s economy, but they have also hit back at Nigeria, apparently because the two nations have intertwined economies. So rather than continuing with the blockade, ECOWAS (which at one point even threatened military action against the Niger junta) have backed down. And yes, it´s a win for Russia. But apparently also for the civilian population, who didn´t get shit out of the shenanigans.  

That being said, I couldn´t care less whether or not the nations in the Sahel are run by military regimes or not. I´m happy as long as they fight al-Qaeda and don´t conspire with the Wagner Group. Or ex-Wagner, in this case. If you have to bribe them to make them leave the Russian orbit, by all means, bribe them, then.

I have spoken. Plainly.      

"West Africa drops sanctions against Niger, ceding to coup regime"

A dictionary, not an encylopedia

Burkina Faso is a small nation in West Africa, most known for the left-wing radical government of Thomas Sankara (1983-87). Later, Burkina Faso played a role in the Liberian Civil War as a conduit for Libyan arms to rebel leader Charles Taylor. Otherwise, Burkina is very little known in the outside world.

I'm not sure if this “historical dictionary” will do much to change that. Part of an extensive series on various African nations, it's definitely a “dictionary” rather than an encyclopedia. The entries on Burkinabé politicians, political parties or ethnic groups are very short. I'm familiar with at least one political party not mentioned in the dictionary section!

The historical timeline mentions all kinds of dramatic events, but without much analysis. The extensive bibliography might be of interest to students of West African history and society, though. A third edition exists. However, if you want meatier stuff about the country formerly known as Upper Volta, you probably won't find it here.

Varieties of Marxist experience

“Marxist Regimes” is a series of books dealing with real or purported Marxist governments around the world. Most of them no longer exist, or no longer claim to be Marxist. This volume was published in 1989 and deals with three African nations: Benin, Congo-Brazzaville and Burkina Faso.

Thomas Sankara's revolutionary government in Burkina is well known, due to Sankara's personal charisma, populist mass mobilizations and international promotion. Sankara became a political martyr when he was killed in 1987 in a coup engineered by former associate Blaise Compaoré. “Marxist Regimes: Benin, The Congo, Burkina Faso” was written when Compaoré still claimed to be a left-wing radical who was only “rectifying” Sankara's revolution. Shortly afterwards, Compaoré engineered a purge and moved more obviously to the right, an event not analyzed in this volume. The article on Burkina Faso is relatively short and impressionistic, but nevertheless contains interesting information I haven't seen elsewhere. Sankara seem to be the only Marxist (or "Marxist") leader mentioned in this book who had genuine popular support.

Mathieu Kérékou's government in Benin and the slightly surrealistic People's Republic of the Congo are less well known to the politically interested public in the West. The extended article on Benin paints the picture of a highly repressive regime dominated by the military, dogmatically carrying out nationalizations while being completely dependent on foreign aid from France, the former colonial power. The author, Chris Allen, wonders whether Benin could usefully be called “Marxist” at all and argues that its statist policies are really inherited from colonialism, when the bureaucratic apparatus became the main dispenser of power and riches in the country. Politics in Benin after independence, “left” or right, is really about dividing the spoils from the state, which Kérékou's regime has made even stronger. At times, Benin's Marxist (if that's what it was) regime was involuntarily comical. Thus, the authorities wanted to stamp out belief in witchcraft. The campaign included persecution of the “witches” themselves, denounced as purveyors of feudal superstition. (The “witches” were presumably a kind of shamans.) Soon, the entire thing went out of hand and began to look like a *real* witch-hunt á la Salem, with the obligatory denunciations of elderly women, torture of suspects by placing them inside a “ring of fire”, etc. The anti-superstition campaign probably made belief in witches even more entrenched…

Congo-Brazzaville is often regarded as a parody of a Marxist revolution, due to the strong dichotomy between the stereotypical Marxist-Leninist rhetoric of the “People's Republic” and the political realities, foremost of which was a strong dependence on capitalist-imperialist French aid. The tendency of some Marxists in the Congo to believe in black magic haven't exactly helped. Still, a certain political logic can be discerned, with clashes between a “Maoist” faction based largely on disaffected urban youth, and a “pro-Soviet” faction largely based in the military. The former were the “Jacobins” of the revolution, while the latter stood for stability and Realpolitik. The quasi-Byzantine purges and counter-purges eventually led to the ascendancy of Denis Sassou-Nguesso, regarded as pro-Soviet and pro-military. Otherwise, the story of Congo-Brazzaville is the usual one, with ethnic tensions, a “resource curse” due to oil revenue, unprofitable state enterprises and a bloated public sector largely manned by sociology students with no technical or scientific skills. Congo-Brazzaville was used as a staging ground for Cuban troops during the conflict in Angola. Since the book was published in 1989, it doesn't mention the next chapters in the saga. Suffice to say is that Sassou-Nguesso is back as Congolese president after a brief but devastating civil war, but (of course) no longer claims to be a Marxist…

While “Marxist Regimes: Benin, The Congo, Burkina Faso” isn't intended for the general reader, it should be a relatively easy read for students and is probably indispensable if you by any chance is interested in the history of these three nations, particularly Benin and Congo-Brazzaville. I therefore give it four stars.

The discarded image

Written when Gaddafi was still in power in Libya.

"My vision" is a book by French professor Edmond Jouve, who is personally acquainted with both Gaddafi's daughter Aicha and his son Saif al-Islam. He has also met Gaddafi himself on a number of occasions, and could be considered an admirer or "fellow traveller". "My vision" contains both reflections on Libya by Jouve himself, an interview with Gaddafi, and Gaddafi's entire "Green Book" as an appendix. Some material on the African Union, in which Libya aspires to a leading role, has also been included.

On one level, "My vision" is a remarkably silly book. Jouve comes across as a fat, frivolous and naïve scholar, dazzled by the dictator's propaganda and hospitality. He calls Gadaffi "The Guide", claims that Libya is a direct democracy, and attempts to paint a romantic picture of its leader, claiming that Gaddafi is a "son of the desert", a Sufi mystic who found the Path, a deep political thinker, and what not. Jouve is also incredibly vain, constantly informing the reader about his sumptuous meals and desserts at various Tripoli five-star hotels. The author boasts that Aicha Gaddafi has been his student, that his briefcase is a gift from Blaise Compaore (the president of Burkina Faso), and that he actually saw Ahmed Ben Bella during a visit to one of the previously mentioned luxurious hotels. When Gaddafi gave an interview to Jouve, he apparently let Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak wait longer than usual for his turn.

In other words, I think "My vision" is a book by the Libyan lobby!

On another level, however, the author gives a more sinister impression. I don't think Jouve is a left-winger, since he seems to admire Charles De Gaulle and other Gaullist presidents of France. At one point, he asks Gaddafi why Libya hasn't joined the Francophonie! The real point of "My vision" is to promote Libya's turn towards the West, and here, the good professor shows his true colours. Jouve mentions Libya's payments to the victims of the Lockerbie bombing, but never discuss the obvious implications (that Libya used to be a rogue state). He points out that Gaddafi is "realist", has abandoned the IRA and aided British intelligence to uncover IRA's secret networks. The author freely admits that Gaddafi at one point wanted to create an African empire, together with shadowy characters such as Bokassa and Mengistu Haile Mariam (quite a combination), but seems fascinated rather than repelled by this fact. Nor is Jouve unaware of Libyan racism against Black Africans or the spread of Muslim fundamentalism in the country (even Aicha has began to wear the veil). Indeed, Jouve actually asks The Guide about this during the previously mentioned interview. He does let Gaddafi get away with evasive responses, but clearly the author knows exactly what is really going on in Tripoli.

Who or what is Edmond Jouve? I don't know, but my guess is that the seemingly naïve fellow traveller is actually an ultra-Gaullist who wants France to collaborate with Libya rather than compete with it (the usual French policy), thereby creating a geopolitical Franco-Arab Grossraum in Africa. For all I know, the guy might actually be a French intelligence operative! His remark about the briefcase is telling. Blaise Compaore took power in Burkina Faso by overthrowing and assassinating Thomas Sankara, a left-wing radical who took strongly anti-French stances. Compaore seems to be on good terms with both France and Libya. Small wonder Jouve loves the occasional chit chat with this banana republic president.

"My vision" doesn't say much about Gaddafi, but it does give us a glimpse of Edmond Jouve's visions. What a pity Nicolas Sarkozy isn't a true Gaullist. As we know, France participates in the US attack on Libya and recently recognized...the rebels.

It seems Jouve's visions have been discarded. For now.