Speaking of dramatic national turnarounds, a friend was recently singing the praises of the economic and social miracle that is modern-day Burkina Faso.
Most people probably reach for a globe when Burkina Faso is mentioned, which is seldom. It's a land-locked country in western Africa, located south of the deserts of Mali and north of the jungles of Ghana. It mat be best known for its euphonious capital city, Ouagadougou.
For most of the 20th century, Burkina Faso, previously known as Upper Volta, was a French colony, and was kept down as one of the least-developed countries in the world while France benefited from its rich natural resources. The old story.
It did gain its independence from France in 1960, but still remained largely tied to France until a coup d'état brought Captain Thomas Sangara to power in 1983. During his short four-year tenure, Sangara brought in a series of revolutionary programs, including mass vaccinations, infrastructure improvements, the expansion of women's rights, the encouragement of domestic agricultural consumption, anti-desertification projects, and a national name change. He nationalized land and mineral wealth, rejected foreign aid, developed literacy campaigns, and redistributed land to the peasants, in a thorough-going social and political revolution.
But, in 1987, Sangara - "Africa's Che Guevara" - was assassinated, and his one-time friend and accomplice Blaise Compaoré took over the presidency (with the clandestine help of France and the CIA). Compaoré proceeded to reverse almost all of Sangara's progressive changes, taking the country back into the political and economic orbit of France (and into the debt of the IMF).
So, Burkina Faso limped along, amid extreme poverty, protests, coups and Jihadist insurgencies, until a final coup in 2022 brought the young Captain Ibrahim Traoré to power, and soon to the officially-elected presidency. Traoré then tried his best to turn the clock back to the heady days of 1984, and to re-institute many of the policies of his hero and mentor, Thomas Sangara.
It is Traoré's remarkable economic turnaround that my friend was telling me about. Under Traoré, Burkina Faso has: achieved an 18% increase in GDP in just two years; slashed ministerial and parliamentary salaries by 30%, while increasing civil service wages by 50%; paid off local clients and rejected new IMF and World Bank loans; nationalized the gold mines and stopped the export of unrefined gold to Europe; achieved huge increases.in local agricultural production (rice, millet, tomatoes, etc); declared a "general mobilization" to fight the ongoing Islamic insurgency; and taken steps to limit foreign intelligence operations (e.g. by the CIA).
For his pains, France initiated a furious political backlash against Traoré, and the IMF and World Bank warned of his "unsustainable economic policies". The Western media has labelled him as "authoritarian" and a "dictator". This is all not unexpected in the circumstances.
Of course, me being an ingrained cynic, my first reaction to my friend's gushing description of the Burkina Faso's "economic miracle" was: what is she not telling me? Or, given that she gets much of her information from Facebook, what does she not know?
Predictably, just like the El Salvador story I described earlier, there is a dark side to all the good, the revolutionary equivalent to "no such thing as a free lunch". As with the El Salvador case, the progress came with a side order of human rights abuses: the criminalization of homosexuality; the curtailment of press freedom, with journalists facing harassment or detention for criticism of the government.
But these concerns seem to be relatively minor (certainly as compared to El Salvador). Surveys show that 66% of Salvadorians now support military rule under Traoré, compared to 24% in 2012, and there are regular ecstatic public rallies in support of the regime. Young people feel empowered for the first time in their lives, and happy to be released from the yoke of French domination.
Traoré will remain in power at least until 2029. Among his goals during the this time are: construction of a new larger airport; expansion of the domestic agriculture and manufacturing sectors; development of a national pharmaceutical industry; and a comprehensive reform of the education system. Ambitious stuff.
It remains your be seen whether Burkina Faso will be seen a role model by other ex-colonial African countries. As Traoré himself says, "Our struggle is not just for Burkina Faso. It is for all of Africa, and for all peoples who believe that another world - one of dignity, sovereignty and justice - is possible."
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