Burkina Faso’s junta leader Ibrahim Traoré stresses that country security is more urgent than elections for now. Africa’s democracy has been scarred as much by constitutional coups as by military coups as ever greedy long-serving leaders have fiddled with the Constitution to allow for an extension of their rule. The lack of return to civil government is multi-fold, the writer says. Picture: Lamine Traoré / Wikimedia Commons
By Kim Heller
The leaders of Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger may one day be remembered as the three wise men of Sahel who bravely embarked on a difficult path, away from colonial plunder and Western domination, towards prosperous sovereignty.
The vocabulary of the three junta leaders has been replete with the flowing words of reversing colonial and western exploitation. But what really lies at the heart of the junta journey towards sovereignty? Are the Sahel juntas’ noble rebels with a cause or ruthless power mongers?
These leaders, who all took control through military coups, could in the end, be recorded in history, not as the three brave wise men who steered their countries towards self-determination and flourish, but as the three tyrants of the region.
This is certainly the narrative of the US and France, who are no longer welcome in these three countries. Many western leaders, media and aligned interest groups have posited that behind the revolutionary talk of decolonisation is nothing but the mouthing of leaders hungry for power.
Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger have long been trapped in the endless killing fields of jihadist insurgency, and downwards economic spirals. Military coups in these countries arose out of the failure of elected leaders to be effective caretakers of democracy and citizens, in the cruel face of terrorism, poverty and devastation that has plagued the Sahel for decades.
The turbulence in the three Sahel countries predates the entry of Junta military governments. When these leaders came into power, through military coups, they committed to overseeing the transition to democratic civilian rule. However, this has failed to materialise.
That the junta have delayed elections has raised alarm bells. But elections are not necessarily the silver bullet to Sahel’s problems.
Africa’s democracy has been scarred as much by constitutional coups as by military coups as ever greedy long-serving leaders have fiddled with the Constitution to allow for an extension of their rule. The lack of return to civil government is multi-fold.
These leaders are at war as they attempt to counter unrelenting waves of terrorism. Displacement levels, intimidation, and brutality of citizens including widespread rape, have turned these countries into zones of fear.
Cyclical economic crisis and collapse add to the daily turbulence and threat. The three leaders are facing enormous problems. Economic conditions are dire for ordinary citizens. Mali is experiencing serious power shortages.
Burkina Faso’s leader Ibrahim Traoré has stressed that country security is more urgent than elections for now. There is a precarious juggling of the politics of combat with the politics of reconstruction. For now, elections and civilian rule are nowhere in sight.
A 2023 United Nations survey conducted in West Africa found that there was popular support for the recent military coups, although democracy was still the favoured form of government.
More important than the show and tell of elections is leadership focussed on governance that serves and protects citizens and is obsessively fixed on the prosperous and self-anchored decolonised economy and society that will benefit all its citizens.
For now, in spite of some grand paradigm shifting decisions geared towards sovereignty and self-sufficiency, the road to decolonisation is littered with human right abuses and flouting of freedoms.
From the West, there has been an avalanche of criticism about human rights transgressions. This has increased substantially since the US and France were royally evicted from these Sahel countries.
Senior Human Rights Watch (HRW) researcher, Ilaria Allegrozzi, has spoken out against attempts by all these Sahel leaders to crackdown on peaceful opposition and limit dissenting voices and media reports.
Allegrozzi has claimed that the rights of activists, journalists, opposition party members, and dissidents have been violated. She writes, “Arbitrary arrests, abductions, and enforced disappearances of journalists, activists, and dissidents have become the new normal in Burkina Faso.”
Defending the restrictions on communication and media, Traoré has argued that this measure is part of its broader strategy to tackle terrorist groups.
In late April HRW released their report of a massacre of over two hundred citizens by Burkina Faso’s military. This was widely covered in mainstream media across the globe.
Traoré not only denied these allegations but pledged to lodge a complaint against the HRW, which he describes as biased. He accused the organisation of manufacturing fake reports on the late Libyan leader, Muammar Gaddafi, which was to set in motion events that would eventually lead to the end of Gaddafi.
Traoré has suspended and banned an array of foreign media who have reported on the HRW claims. This has included French television network, TV5Monde, and the UK-based Guardian.
During his speech to the UN General Assembly in September 2023, the minister of state in Traoré’s transitional government, Bassolma Bazié said, “African leaders had abandoned their identity, changed their names, and become monogamous.”
Bazié’s statement that, “there will be no question of homosexuality here!” was literally put into effect in the recently revised Personal and Family Code (CPF) of Burkina Faso, which bans “homosexuality” in the country.
By signing this Bill, Traoré will join twenty-two other leaders in Africa who have either prohibited or criminalised same-sex relationships in their countries.
Traore’s banning has been cited as a measure of his intolerance and added to his charge sheet of human rights violations. Traoré has criticised those who have argued that Burkina Faso does not respect human rights.
“Which human rights are we talking about? We take offence at this, it is shameful. We African heads of state must stop behaving like puppets who dance every time the imperialists pull the strings.”
The Burkina Faso leader has said that individual freedoms must not take precedence over collective freedoms.
Leaders across Africa are beginning to reject Western notions of democracy and morality as a rotten and poor yardstick to measure human rights in Africa. This is part of reclaiming traditional African identity. It is part of the rising call for African sovereignty.
The Western world may not approve and may continue to cast judgement in their signature high pitched and well-practiced hypocrisy. For now, Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger are under reconstruction. It is an uncharted journey towards decolonisation which is not under the supervision or watchtower of the West.
* Kim Heller is a political analyst and author of ‘No White Lies: Black Politics and White Power in South Africa’. This article was written exclusively for The African. To republish, see terms and conditions.
** The views expressed in this article are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect the views of IOL or Independent Media