Brooklynites Support Burkina Faso

By Nayaba Arinde
Editor-at-Large
Brooklynites were front and center in the ongoing support for Burkina Faso. On April 30th, there were two protests in New York. The first, led by Burkinabe nationals, was at Times Square in the morning; that afternoon, the Brooklyn-based December 12th Movement organized a rally outside the Permanent Mission of France to the United Nations.

“It is very critical for African Americans to play an active role in the unification of Black people worldwide,” Kojo Odesanya, a Brooklyn businessman, told Our Time Press. “African Americans’ knowledge, influence, and resources are very critical to counter the imperialists; besides, they know how to deal with the colonizers better than the Africans.”

Organic and Continental homegrown, there is exuberance overload for President Ibrahim Traoré, the Burkinabé military officer who has been the interim President of Burkina Faso since 2022, in the face of hostile western opposition.

“The December 12th Movement pulled this together in less than 24 hours,” said activist Pam Afrika. “When the call came out across the African Continent and here in the United States–we heard the call…We will continue to be on the frontline. This is what Black power looks like.”

Burkina Faso-supporting Brooklynites were well represented at the rallies, with folks such as Operation Power head former City Councilman Charles Barron, CEMOTAP – Committee to Eliminate Media Offensive to African People co-founder Dr. James McIntosh, activist and CUNY adjunct professor Dr. Rosemari Mealy, and Dr. Segun Shabaka, Chairman of the International African Arts Festival (IAAF).

“For our people in Brooklyn examples of self-determination are critical for us, because the reality is that we have been landless, and even now with ethnic cleansing of our neighborhoods, we have been homeless, and so example of African people through self determination taking backing their country and their resources is enlightening, and inspiring for us,” December 12th Movement chairman Omowale Clay told Our Time Press.

“Finally, we see a young African brother standing up that’s representing all of us,” rally attendee Dr. Rosemari Mealy told Our Time Press. “He’s taken on imperialism. He’s exposing the hypocrisy of not just France, but this country. We in Brooklyn should care about it because conditions globally impact us.

What’s happening there, on another level, is happening here–repression, the role of the State now. You can’t even go anywhere without showing your ID.”
This April, Traore survived yet another one of multiple alleged Western-linked assassination attempts, as he tries to deconstruct de facto French colonial influence and imperialist control. Traore is faced with armed factions creating unrest and organized elite opposition, amidst populist support.

This is as he is developing the nation’s first gold refinery, building new schools, roads, and airports. At the same time, he expelled French diplomats and thousands of troops, declared French no longer the national currency, or language, as did Mali, and Niger.

“We all came out from the African Nation, all the Black people,” Burkinabe Mady Kalmogo told Our Time Press at the April 30th rally. “The protests are going on everywhere, saying ‘Leave Traore alone– France, United States.’ This man came to power two years ago, what he has done is unbelievable.

The reason why they are trying to kill him is that he is making all the Black people wake up. Thank you for everybody saying ‘Enough is enough.’ The wake-up call is now.”
Prof. Shabaka told the excited crowd. “We’ve got to start putting our skills, our labor, our expertise to start developing independent organizations, institutions that our people will be needing in these trying times.”

Charles Barron said, “Revolution has come to Africa. This Brother said ‘France, America get the hell out of Africa, and on your way out leave the gold behind, leave the uranium, leave the cobalt, leave the copper behind.’”

December 12th Movement chair Omowale Clay commended how protestors in Times Square “came together out of their Pan African unity, Brother Charles Barron and I were there, and it was a beautiful feeling as they welcomed us, and we welcomed them…because we can’t let European languages…culture–distance us. We have to find our way back together.”

He criticized General Michael Langley for trying to “insult President Traore in the U.S. Senate, to say that he was stealing the gold for himself..well Negro what was going on when the French were stealing it for centuries? They stole people…But this young brother’s love is for our people…we cannot continue to be exploited by [the west]. Today was just a small act of us coming together.”

Rally attendee Tene Ouedraogo is the founder of Ancetres Azaaban, an organization focusing on “African ancestry, to bring our Black brothers and sisters home because we are the same.” The Burkinabe entrepreneur told Our Time Press. “African Americans didn’t come here by themselves. Somebody brought them here by power. We all need to come together to get that power back. ”

IZIZI Africa reported that Traore’s agenda concerns “national sovereignty, economic self-reliance, and cultural revival.”
Assassinated in 1961, Burkina Faso President Thomas Sankara changed the nation’s name from Upper Volta to Burkina Faso, meaning ‘land of the upright people.’

“Our predecessors taught us one thing: a slave who cannot assume his own revolt does not deserve to be pitied,” said Traore. “We do not feel sorry for ourselves, we do not ask anyone to feel sorry for us. The people of Burkina Faso have decided to fight, to fight against terrorism, in order to relaunch their development.”

Traoré took control of Burkina Faso in September 2022, ousting interim-president Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba.
Prof. Milton Allimadi told the paper that “Ibrahim Traore is the reincarnation of Thomas Sankara. He has expelled the French and he has taken control of his country’s resources. He wants to make sure Burkina Faso gets the fair price for its minerals. Africans, and friends of Africa throughout the world, are not going to stand by and watch him get murdered by another agent of imperialism.”
Brooklyn-based activist Brother Oji told Our Time Press that, “We have tools to disseminate our own narrative and we should.”

The quick transference of information through Google, Instagram, and other tools makes controlling the actual narrative easier. So, even though the mainstream media largely ignored the tens of thousands of people who rallied in support of Traore, the message was heard from Ouagadougou to London to Jamaica to Toronto.

While warning against romanticizing the reality, Oji assessed, “The energy that was unleashed was welcoming, people have locked in. There’s a unifying theme in the global Black activist diaspora.”