By Explo Nani-Kofi
The
uprising of the masses of Burkina Faso against the military tyranny of Blaise
Compaore, which masqueraded as a civilian constitutional regime, gave a lot of
democratic forces around the world a lot of hope that masses were bringing
about a change. This conviction was strengthened when the masses again stopped
a military take over by soldiers close to the old regime led by General Gilbert
Diendéré's in September this year. Some progressive forces even started
celebrating that the revolutionary forces, in the tradition of Thomas Sankara,
were now directing affairs in Burkina Faso.
In an article, which I wrote during the
uprising of the Burkina Faso masses in November last year, I expressed my
worries as follows: “With the naming of Michel Kafando, a former Minister of
Foreign Affairs, as Transitional President, and his appointment of Lieutenant
Colonel Isaac Zida, who had earlier declared himself acting head of state, as
Prime Minister, it appears as if a deal is being knocked together which tilts
in favour of the old ruling class and not the masses of demonstrators.”
In the same article, I cautioned that: “There
is the danger of the military hijacking the struggle for which the masses have
fought and even died for. To prevent this will not depend on just Burkinabes
but all progressive Africans and the masses as well as all internationalists.”
On 1st December, Burkina Faso went to the
polls. Despite the impression that Compaore was finished and the forces close
to Thomas Sankara had woken up to turn around the 27 years of French
neo-colonialism under Blaise Compaore, the elections seem to some extent to be
a contest between the two figures. Many, especially friends outside, assumed
that the victors will be the followers of Sankara as T-shirts with his pictures
were very popular and chanted his government’s slogan: “La patrie ou la mort,
nous vaincrons!” (“Homeland or death, we will overcome!”) during the uprising.
Looking at this situation, I warned in my
last article that: “There doesn’t seem to be a way out as any rectification
here seems to be channelled into legacy politics which is more about emotions
than structure, principles and agreed programme.”
The Guardian
Africa Network stated in an article on the web that “As the elections day
got closer news started trickling down that, although the elections were been
fought around the two figures, long time associates of Compaore were front
runners in the polls. “
“The two front-runners in the election
were particularly close to Compaoré. Roch Marc Christian Kaboré was prime
minister from 1994-1996 and one-time leader of Compaoré’s Congress for Democracy
and Progress party, while Zephirin Diabre was finance minister and economic
adviser to the former president.”
It also added that “Bénéwendé Sankara (no
relation), one candidate in the election, is running on an explicitly Sankarist
platform, advocating a return to the former leader’s radical socialist
principles. . . . . He is not expected to win.”
The elections took place on 1st December
and Roch Marc Christian Kaboré won with 53% of the votes which meant that it
wasn’t necessary to have a run off. Bénéwendé
Sankara of Union of Rebirth/Sankarist Party had only 2.77 per cent of the
votes. Even during the elections in 2010, under Blaise Compaore, he had 6.3 per
cent of the votes with another Sankarist party also gathering 2.3 per cent of
the votes in that Presidential election. There were other Sankarist parties
which also took some votes. However, now all the pro-Sankara forces came
together under one umbrella and could only acquire 2.77 per cent in an election
following an uprising which was seen as promoting the Sankara legacy. They came
third after the other Compaore associate, Zephirin Diabre, who had 29.65 per
cent of the votes.
In the National Assembly elections, Union
of Rebirth/Sankarist Party had only 5 seats but even a group contesting under
the name of Blaise Compaore’s party, Congress for Democracy and Progress, had
18 seats out of 127. My warning of the emotional attachment to legacy politics
being taken out of proportion to reality will have to be looked at carefully as
even the demonised elements of Compaore’s party could gain more than three
times the seats of the Sankarists.
The situation explains to us how organised
the establishment is and the danger of overestimating the victory of protest
without rooting ourselves in the population at large. In future articles, I
will look at similar situations across the African continent.
Roch Marc Christian Kaboré is the son of a
minister in the immediate post independence government on Upper Volta ( which
name was changed to Burkina Faso by Sankara). He was an associate of Sankara
and Compaore but after Compaore overthrew and murdered Sankara, Kaboré became
Compaore’s right hand man and held various positions including leader of his
party. He was with him for 26 of the 27 years that Compaore ruled. It was only
in January 2014, when Compaore decided to change the constitution and contest
again that he sensed the unpopularity of the move and smartly pulled out to
form his party – People’s Movement for Progress – together with others who
didn’t want to go down the path of destruction together with Compaore. He is
French educated and his roots are deep in the ruling class in addition to
having been part of the circle which run Burkina Faso since the murder of Thomas Sankara.
We have to learn serious lessons from this
and other similar situations across the African continent. The experience
teaches us that unless we organise people around issues and are rooted in the
population at large we will struggle only for the forces of the establishment
to return to power. This lesson has led to initiatives of a new type where
grassroot social movements are being built such as Black First Land First in
South Africa, Ghana Street Parliament Movement
in Ghana and similar efforts to ensure that presence is built in the
population at large to avoid a repetition of toiling to have the forces of the
establishment of different faces to alternate in power.
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