Middle Nation Content Talks | Burkina Faso & African Decolonisation

The Middle Nations content talks. And I am your host for today, Samira Ahmed, and I'm honored to be in this position today to guide you through. So what we have today lined up for you is Sister Nisa's topic about Burkina Faso. And she will be presenter of Burkina Faso's journey from colony to nation. And this is based on the Wednesday news breakdown that was given by on Wednesday and where the decline of Germany and the global sales rise, which where he mentioned about what Mali is doing and what is happening in Niger.

So Sister Nisa will be diving into Burkina Faso for today. So we will have that for twenty minutes maximum. And from there, we will go for a q and a. It will be interactive, so we will have a kind of a discussion. If you want to ask me any questions, you can just open your mic and go ahead.

Or I don't think this, platform has got to a a way to raise your hands, so you are most welcome. But that would be after, her speech of, maximum twenty minutes. After that, we will go to the second talk, which is by our brother Abu Bakr al Idruse. And I will introduce you to him then when we get there. For now, let's start with Sister Nisa.

Please go ahead, Sister Nisa.

Everybody. And to sister Samira for hosting today's talk, and of course, being particularly insightful for recommending this topic in the first place. So today, I'll be exploring the transformational journey of a nation in the heart of West Africa, Burkina Faso. And recent years have been marked by significant change, and I'll attempt to unveil the country's ongoing transformation. So why have I chosen to speak about Burkina Faso?

Following Brody Shahid's analysis on the news breakdown video this last Wednesday, he discussed the positive strides that two nations of the Alliance of the Sahel States, AOSS, Mali and Niger, are making since they began the decolonization process in recent years. It touched on the positive role China is playing in ensuring that these countries are successful in the aftermath of a decolonization process. China, with its policy of noninterference in any country's sovereignty, is is the kind of strategic partnership that much of Africa and the global South wants. So Burkina Faso, the third country in the alliance of the Sahel states, with its power shift via two coup d'etats in 2022 is a country, in my view, succeeding in shaking off the impacts of an almost two hundred year fringe colonization. It's a small country, landlocked in West Africa, and is bounded by Niger to the East and Mali to the North and West.

Burkina Faso has a wealth of mineral resources producing significant quantities of gold, zinc, copper and so on. And while resources and while reserves of diamonds, nickel and other materials exist, this market is largely untapped in the country. And despite its wealth of mineral resources, Burkina Faso faces significant challenge. So from the beginning, in September 2022, this West African country witnessed the second military coup of twenty twenty '20 of the year. Captain Ebrahim Drawre, a young officer, led a group of soldiers in overthrowing the government, which was then also hunda led by lieutenant colonel Damiba.

But here's why the second coup was particularly significant. It was a coup against a coup. Just eight months before that, then president Dameva himself had come to power through a coup deposing the democratically elected president. Both coups stem from public frustration with the government's inability to address a critical national security issue, an insurgency that has plagued the country for years. Like the Mbiba, before captain Traore, he promised to restore stability and prioritize combating the insurgency.

This highlighted the ongoing struggle for security that the Burkinaabe people face. So with this backdrop, captain Ibrahim Trollor assumed leadership. Many people were skeptical that he would be able to make change, questioning if this was yet another power grab, even going as far as saying that the country would be worse off, as if that was even possible since Burkina Faso is one of the poorest countries in the world, a direct result of French colonization and being subjected to terrorist assaults by Western bank groups causing instability, not only for the Burkinabe people, but in the Sakhal region in general. And as soon as Drorozin leadership, he initiated huge change. So firstly, he shifted alliance.

The country's foreign spar foreign policy has moved away from being close to France and other western nations and now moving towards increased cooperation Brits members, and particularly, Russia and China. The Brits nations offer an alternative model of partnership. The emphasis being on partnership by focusing on infrastructure development, food security, culture exchange, and military cooperation. For example, Russia provides weapons and military training and also assists with free training. Just in February, a martial arts competition took place with competitors from Russia, Mali, Niger and, of course, Burkina Faso.

At the same time, China's involvement in the country focuses on supply of military equipment and infrastructure development projects. While seeking economic, military, and cultural partnerships with nations like those in Brits, Burkina Faso is pursuing a parallel path towards decolonization. One of the first steps taken by the Burkinaabe government was making the local languages the official languages of the country. On the other hand, French was relegated to the status of a working language role. And in my opinion, this is a powerful early step in the decolonization process as it reinforces the authentic cultural identity of the Burkinawic people.

There have also been cases of French media outlets spreading misinformation propaganda in favor of France about the new government and the military. In response, the country took a stand and banned those pump publications. In France, twenty four broadcasted an interview by an Al Qaeda leader, captain Ibrahim said that France twenty four is not only acting as a mouthpiece for the for terrorists, but worse, it is providing a space for the legitimization of terrorist actions and hate speech. Another welcome step taken by the country was the expulsion of French troops, yet still keeping diplomatic relations with France. However, some people just can't behave.

The French embassy's defense attache was asked to leave a few months after French troops left due to subversive behavior. And another important step was taking control of the mining sector. The country is the fourteenth largest gold producer in the world, but with no refinery of their own, meaning that their raw ore has to leave the country to be processed, and they particularly send it to Switzerland. So following captain Ibrahim's directive, construction of the very first gold refinery began in November 2023 and is expected to produce a 150 tons of gold annually once that factory is completed by the once the refinery is completed by the 2024. If the refinery can reach that type of projected output, it would mean that Burkina Faso would be the highest gold producing country in Africa.

Another significant step is encouraging food self sufficiency. Burkina Faso is a major tomato exporter. They export about a 150,000 tons of tomatoes every year, but the country imports tomato paste, which was odd. According to the the the the president, the new president, he found that odd, and he initiated the construction of a tomato paste factory. The factory is expected to have a capacity to produce five tons of tomato paste per hour.

It will generate over 100 direct jobs and over 5,000 indirect jobs. Another example of working towards food self sufficiency is in the agricultural sector. Due to climate change and ongoing violence, farming is impacted causing food insecurity. The President began a campaign to provide seeds and education to farmers to work with new and more resilient methods to ensure that crops grow. These farms grow maize, rice and various staple foods in the region.

What's impressive about this agricultural project is that since its launch last year sometime, student farmers have been supported along the way. In fact, just this week, captain Ibrahim went back to these farms to see the progress and find out where they still need assistance so that assistance can be provided and even calling for the Burkinaw people in the diaspora to come back, you know, to showing that things are changing within the country. So this alone is commendable as it shows that he values the long term wellness and success of his people. While all eyes are on the member states of the Alliance of the Saffold States, many are skeptical and even pertinently hopeful that this is just another Appleton conflict coming from some power hungry dictator looking to line their own pockets. I can't help but look at their words and their actions of these leaders.

The Burkinaw premier at the joint press conference in, September said, and I quote, from now on, we say, whether you're from Mali, Niger, or Burkina, we have the same destiny. We're going in together. It is up to us to make sorry. It's up to us to take control of our destiny. I, for one, believe them because there's evidence that they're walking the walk and not just talking the walk.

For listening to my presentation.

Masha'allah. Thank you so much, sister Nisa. Very informative. I, myself, am an African, but yet I barely know anything about West Africa, sadly. And this is really insightful.

Thank you so much. So from from the summary, that I got from your, from your talk, which is very, insightful, thank you so much, Nisa, is that, this captain Ibrahim is doing everything to decolonize his own nation. And it seems that he's going to the right direction since he has done a number of things in terms of his foreign policy, in terms of, their cultural identity that and then, of course, about the agriculture and the agricultural developments that he has initiated as well as the what do you call it? The yeah. The gold refinery, which is the inter in the mineral industry.

So now if anyone has got any questions, you are most welcome to ask sister ni Nisa. In the meantime, I have one question for you, sister Nisa. So, you mentioned that China is, is involved in Niger in sorry, Burkina Faso, And they are involved in the industrial prod oh, sorry, infrastructure in projects as well as in the military. So, you know, there is a talk about how China China's, you know, diplomacy or China's debt trap, which puts nations into debt and and things that happens. For example, in Sri Lanka, I remember that a number of their strategic assets has been under control by Chinese because they defaulted on their loans.

So is how is that? Does that apply in in the West African countries, especially in Burkina Faso? Thank you.

Sister Samira, actually, I'm not sure how the financing happens except that China is involved when it comes to that. But what I can say is from South Africa point of view, where China has invested India, they have not repossessed any infrastructure in our country as yet. So and there are a lot of countries where they do invest in infrastructure within Africa. I've not heard of any country where they've taken or controlled or anything like that. But in terms of of of of when it comes to making deals with people, we do understand that there can be risks with anything regardless of where you go and who you make a deal with.

Even when you go to the bank and you go and lend money for a car or something like that, if you do not pay, if you do deal if you default, then it does get taken away. But, obviously, there's probably some steps. It's not like you've missed one day. Now I'm coming to take everything away. So I'm sure that is how it works.

But when it comes to, specifically, the infrastructure where they are financing in this country, I cannot say what this is what the the the conditions are or the clauses or that type of thing. But I I in my in in my mind, when you go into an agreement, there is a potential, especially when it comes to a loan that if you do default, you might even end up losing it if you don't make plans to pay off what you borrowed.

Thank you so much, sister. The, yeah. I guess they could also have learned from other countries. Like I said, like, this is mainly in Asian countries where there was some kind of concern about the debt trap of the Chinese. Let's see.

Okay. I have one question here from sister. Do you mean lateral decolonization?

Parallel. I see. Are you talking about parallel color decolonization? I meant in at the same time. Yes.

I think that's what, Ima. She she but she said lateral decolonization. I'm not sure if

you mentioned that. Yes. It's parallel. Yes. I mean parallel.

Apologies.

Yeah. Yeah. She said, what do you mean by parallel disc parallel Yeah.

At the same time, what while they they were working on their while they're working on their foreign policy and building relationships with British nations outside of the country, he's not just building his foreign foreign policy or relationships outside. He's actually doing the work in his country with with the agriculture, with the training, with the, you know, banning of French TV, with the building of the refinery. So it's happening at the same time. That's what parallel means.

Right. Thank you so much. Right. If anyone, you can jump in and ask sister Nisa or give any comment that you may have. Please, go ahead, or I will, I'll call on you.

There

is something that I want to say. There is a there is a comment here that from Afnizar about he looks very young. Yes. He is. When he came into power, he was 35, so by now he's about 36 or 37, which is spring chicken age compared to what most of his presidents are nowadays.

So yes, he is young. And I think maybe that's why I'm so in awe of all of this, that I've always believed that we need young blood. It's important to bring in the fresh ideas, but obviously not immaturity. He's he he seems to have his head on, you know, screwed correctly on his head, I mean, on his body.

Right. Okay. We have one question from sister. West African countries have ICOWAS. How does this new social movement play out?

Okay. Incidentally, the three countries left ECOWAS at the January because ECOWAS sanctioned the three of them for daring to stand up against the colonizers. So the the new Sahel alliance is new around about September, it came into play, and they're working as a trio for their country. ICOWAS is still hoping for talks. I read something, I think, yesterday, where they say they're still hoping for talks, that it's not, you know, all gone and that.

And they actually have, although they gave immediate notice on the January 29, meaning from the February 1, they were meant to no longer be in ECOWAS, is actually a year's notice. So they will only officially be out of ECOWAS at the January next year. But clearly, you know, ICOWAS is is told Western badly, they're still doing the work of what the West wants them to do, and it's actually good that they stood up against them and formed their own lines.

Right. Yeah. I remember at one point when there was a coup, I don't know in which one of them, whether it's in Niger or Mali. ECO was was threatening that they will send in their soldiers in into that country. Is it right, Anisa?

Yes. That's correct. I also can't remember, but it's last year. It was the coup of last year. Each one of them had a coup in the last three years, three or four years.

Each one of them had a coup, change of leadership. And last year, ICOAS was really willing to getting you know, putting their foot down, trying to put their foot down. But, yes, it was lost. Okay. And they sanctioned them, all three of them.

They've been sanctioned by ICOWAS, and that's when they announced, jointly in January that they're leaving.

Okay. Do they, do you think, like, these three crews, it I mean, it happened within the three years, as you mentioned. Is it coordinated? And do you think there is someone out there who is also is Brix part of this? I mean, it's so coordinated.

I don't know. I have not witnessed such a thing in such a short period of time.

I would say that it is probably encouraged by Russia. I do think, because they are leaning towards building relationships with Russia. I I I don't I I don't know if it I can't say that Russia is behind it, can't say it like that, but I do think that Russia wants it to happen. And Russia is supporting them in a sense of uplifting the economy, lifting the country, building the skills, you know. And the captain Tro Troare is is often in Russia.

So, yes, I do think that they like it.

Yes, sister Wahida?

Assalamu alaikum. I was just going to say I believe that ICOWAS has lifted the sanctions against the three, because they have proved to be internationally popular amongst the global South countries. So, of course, in response to that, we recently had a massacre of, Catholics in Burkina Faso at a Catholic church. And I expect that The United States and other Western intelligence agencies will fund, train, and arm, these kind of people in order to produce instability in those countries simply because they've been very successful. And the last thing that, America's, people who run it want is for African and Asian nations to be stable enough to control their own natural resources and to actually benefit from them.

And, so I I think that you'll see other attempts at these kinds of massacres to produce, instability so that Burkina Faso, who does have one of the most dynamic leaders on earth today, has to shift much of its attention to defending the populace from these kinds of, these kinds of military actions that are rooted in, US intelligence desires.

Thank you so much, mister Wahida. Well, that brings us another question. I mean, if a nation or a group of nations, such as this alliance of, the Safar States want to get rich, for lack of a better word, wants to get rid of colonization and, you know, build their nation. They've started doing that already. But then we have external forces, like you've mentioned, sister Wahida, that are trying to just, you know, wreck havoc on on everything that is that they are trying to do.

How can what are the strategy strategies that these nations can employ? Can align aligning themselves with the BRICS plus nations help somehow, you know, bring peace into that region? Or is there something else that they can do?

I I believe that's correct. And I think it's very, very important. And I believe the leaders of those three nations understand that. And as they ally themselves with Russia, China, and BRICS, if not actually joining, but simply making moves that show they are in alliance with the thinking that is dominant with the Brix nations. I believe that in and of itself is a protection because the owners and controllers of globalized financial capital know as has taught that the future is in the global South, which is the global majority.

And so in the long term, they are not going to agree with destabilizing nations that have so much raw material wealth that is necessary for the technologies of the world to function. So I think it's a very wise decision on the part of captain Traore to go to Russia, to constantly keep contact with Putin who understands that Russia's a huge nation physically, and it's minerally wealthy, but it's going to need continual mineral wealth from Africa. And so he's really supporting African nations in a less parasitic way than western colonizers have.

Thank you, sister Wahida. So we have comments from sister Val. She couldn't speak, so I will just read her comments. So she's saying that the colonization is actually run through the so called regional unions, which are blessed by The US. This means the ICOWAS in this case.

And they have something called ICOMOC, a military alliance just like NATO. And, also, she thinks that the Arab League might have influence in the Russians as well on what is happening in the Saheb region. She also mentions that it's a very interesting subject given that the countries are from poor backgrounds standing for themselves, which may awaken the rise of other oppressed countries. But Islamic heritage is playing a significant role as well. BRICS plus has some economic criteria that may delay poor countries to join.

But since China is the hope for funding mega projects, poor countries may get qualified. Well, that's a very interesting input as well. Thank thank you, Val. So she's basically saying that they may not join the BRICS nation, but China and Russia are well, mainly China is helping with building the infrastructure of those countries to to to make them eligible or or economically eligible to join the BRICS plus because I guess they have some criteria before they have to meet before they join the BRICS plus. Anyone who wants to to come in, shall I call on someone to, say something if they have anything to say?

Any comments? Okay. Also, sister Afneezar says that China has the technology, so the best knowledge transfer. So she believes that aligning with China is also good for the knowledge transfer that needs to happen to these countries because, unfortunately, they were in a very disadvantaged position thanks to the French colonization. Right.

Well Yes?

China, may I just say, China did have some initial difficulties going into Africa because what they did was import their own people into those nations to actually build the infrastructure projects without teaching the local population, how to do this. And so there were some complaints about that and recently in contracts, it has been stipulated that China must teach the local population how to, perform these jobs, these skilled jobs. So there has been some, delay in knowledge transfer, but that is not expected to continue as new contracts stipulate that China must train the local African population in these skill sets?

Right. That's actually something that also happened in other African countries that I know of, especially East Africa. And while also it's confirming that was a great challenge in Tanzania, the Chinese were flooding African countries. I know in Sudan as well before the war, there were a number of Chinese, who came in, and there was a lot of, rumors that these are not actually workers. They are prisoners who are, doing the work for free for their own government.

And, yeah, there was a a number of, criticisms there. Okay. Good. Thank you so much, sister Wahida, for that for that input. I hope they change that policy because, well, it's up to the Africans, I guess, the African countries to stipulate that, as you said, in, in their contracts.

Yeah.

They should see that.

The African nations nations have begun to stipulate that in the contracts because it really was a problem. This huge influx of Chinese men unaccompanied by women, you know, into these nations for years at a time to build these massive infrastructure projects with no attended classes or training programs for the local population to learn how to build and to maintain those infrastructure projects. And what has happened in the African nations that have signed on to having the Chinese come in to finance and build these projects is this actually been a demographic shift in the population of those African nations where because the men were not accompanied by women, the the Chinese men, their alliances, of course, came with the local African female population and that has produced now the the African Chinese babies and and children. So there this is, you know, not an easy street to walk down. There's a massive shift, in the population and then what the future of those African nations is going to look like and some concern about what their alliances will be.

Alright. Well, thank you so much, sister Wahida Jazakila. It was really very interesting inputs that you give you gave us here. We've learned a lot. And I just want to ask anyone if there is anyone before I move to the next topic, if anyone wants to give any comments.

I do actually have a question Yes. Go ahead. For for everybody involved, I guess, who who knows about the region. So what is the relationship Burkina Faso has with the the traditionally Christian nations that are close to to France? As far as I know well, I mean, maybe it's not a majority Christian country, but is a is a an important neighbor, obviously.

Can you see them interfere with what Burkina is doing? You know, maybe serving really not really familiar with the situation in in West Africa. Although, I I did hear the news about the whole project with Burkina, Nigeria, and some other countries as well. So if anybody would like to comment on that or know something about that, I'd appreciate it.

Do we have anyone from that region? I

yes. Yes. From that I'm not from that region. I am not from that region. However, Niger, Mali, and Burkina Faso are all majority Muslim nations.

Burkina Faso is the one with the largest Christian population amongst them, but it is still, two thirds majority Muslim. The others have greater Muslim majorities. So the these are Muslim nations. They are members of the 57 nation organization of Islamic community or cooperation, I believe it is. And Cote D'Ivoire, I'm not sure of its breakdown, but Cote D'Ivoire has a very significant and active Muslim population.

So I just do not see how it would be advantageous for Cote D'Ivoire to move against the three Muslim nations in any way because it would agitate its own local Muslim population.

Thank you, sister. Yeah.

Thank you, Anita. I do have a follow-up question really about that. Do you okay, maybe Cote D'Ivoire is not a good example. Do you see any other countries in the region that will potentially try to destabilize the whole project? Because I I I reckon that, you know, France and, you know, probably the, I don't know, the The UK, The USA probably will not shy away from funding terrorist organizations as they have done so far to to destabilize and to control the region.

So do you see a possibility of that happening?

Say that again?

Well, do you see yeah. Sure. Do you see the possibility of some other neighboring countries trying to destabilize Burkina Faso and Niger militarily, I suppose No. On behalf of don't the the West? No.

I do not. West Africa simply has huge Muslim populations. The the as far as Cote D'Ivoire goes, there are actually more Muslims in Cote D'Ivoire than Christians, but neither constitutes a majority population. Neither is more than 50% because, of course, you still have the the animist amongst the population, but the Muslims outnumber the Christians. West Africa is very full of Muslims, and so I I just don't see any benefit whatsoever of any of the nations in the area actually moving against those three countries.

And I think that's one of the reasons why ECOWAS decided to drop the sanctions. The coups ended up being very popular because the coup leaders took significant steps that the populace could see would lead to a better future. One of which is agriculture growing its own food and amongst the conditions that the International Monetary Fund imposes upon African nations is that they not grow food. And one of the the things captain Triari decided to do was, gee, we should plant wheat. We can grow wheat here.

We used to have wheat here, you know, and and they have been told by the French that, oh no, you don't have any soil, that's good for growing wheat when that it's simply not true. So, they were only allowed to grow crops essentially for export, not for local consumption. It is entirely possible for the continent of Africa, all of the countries that make up that continent to be completely food secure and become major world exports of foodstuffs. And they've been the the West has been trying to prevent that from happening and that's why these these terrible IMF deals which restricted the nations that took the loans ability to grow food for local consumption, severely restricted it, and and just got them on this debt treadmill. This is being broken by these three nations, and it's a it's a big move on their part.

But because I believe they will be successful due to, the backing of their populace, I see external threats coming from, you know, groups being funded and trained by The US intelligence agencies and maybe the British and French, to destabilize them. But I I really don't see any, of the actual African nations' governments making a decision to be engaged in that because that's that's like committing suicide. You know?

Right. Thank you, sister Wahida. Sister Val also responded to you, brother Nay, that it's an important question. Religion is a fragile aspect that is easily used in to turn people against one another. Christians fear Muslims due to Western propaganda, and evangelical misconceptions play dangerously in Africa.

And, also, I think she's she's right, especially in countries where there are, like, kind of fifty fifty or forty sixty ratio of Muslims to Christians. This is really a major issue about the the the Christian misconcept misconception about Muslims, which is most of the time from the Western propaganda. They're they don't have any reason but the fear that they get from the media from the West. But, also, I want to say something about the borders. It seems that the SAFL alliance that Nigeria could be the only one that I see might influence because they border Niger.

And Nigeria, as I said, they they have they well, it's a populous the most populous country in Africa, and they have significant number of Christian population. And but also the Muslims are there, and they have good collaboration with the Islamic alliance. So, hopefully, that may not cause any issues with the neighboring Sahara.

Yes? Nigeria is a majority Muslim nation. Nigeria does not now nor has it ever had a Christian population equal to the Muslim population. What is done when counting religion on the continent of Africa is this. And I know this from my association with African people.

What is done is they count the Muslims, they count the Christians and then the animist population which is still significant in many African countries are counted as Christians. They're not Christians. So Nigeria is about 30% Christian. It's about 52% Muslim. They say fifty fifty because what they're doing is they're counting the animist population as part of the Christian population.

And this is done across so called Black Africa to increase the Christian population. And we've we've even had some interesting interactions here. My oldest daughter, for example, was working on a set. This was many years ago. And, one of the photographers taking the the still pictures for the film, was from an African nation.

And she ended up being able to tell from having conversations with him. She knew he wasn't a Muslim, but she then came to understand he was not a Christian either. He was an animist. He hadn't been reared in either of the Abrahamic faiths. And, you know but in America, he would just be viewed as a Christian simply because he wasn't a Muslim.

And and so I I don't see any benefit for the country, the nation of Nigeria to participate in destabilizing other predominantly Muslim nations. And, unfortunately, when there are conflicts between various groups of people in Nigeria, it is always framed as a religious conflict when most of the time it is not. It's a land fight amongst various ethnic groups, And one ethnic group might be predominantly Muslim. The other ethnic group might be predominantly Christian or predominantly Christian and animist. And Western news reports always frame these in the context of religion when the basis is not religion.

It's a fight over water rights or land rights, and it just so happens that a particular ethnic group is predominantly one religion or the other. So that that's another thing that they do. But I I don't foresee the region, which is predominantly Muslim, rising against their co religionists because of the steps that those nation's young leaders are taking.

Masha'allah, thank you so much, Wahida. This is really amazing. Wow. You know so well, about African countries. I'm I'm really, great grateful to have you, in this, talk.

Thank you so much for being with us, for joining us, for your questions. It was really interesting. Sister Nisa, as always, your amazing talk, your amazing insightful inputs, and the topic was really amazing as always. And sister Wahida, may Allah bless you for being with us and giving us your guidance, your your experience, unselfishly sharing everything. Thank you so much, and it was really amazing to be with you, this time.

Okay. So we end it here, and