Excerpt from the address by President of Burkina Faso Captain Ibrahim Traoré to the active forces of the nation, Ouagadougou, July 11, 2024.

Excerpt from the address by President of Burkina Faso Captain Ibrahim Traoré to the active forces of the nation, Ouagadougou, July 11, 2024. [The only translation I could find, courtesy of Sony Thang. [Translation source here.]

 

 "Imperialists have their own vision of the world, which I will explain to you. For them, the world is summarized in a triangle, which you will see in most of their symbols. You may not understand, but for them, the world is a triangle. At the top of this triangle is the 'Empire of Good,' and they believe they are this empire. It represents prosperity and everything positive, and they believe they have the right to all happiness and wealth in this world. They think it's their right to impose their worldview and way of life. That's why, during the conquest, they came to our lands, claiming to have 'discovered' them, because they saw us as mere savages with nothing in common with them. They called us 'indigenous,' believing they have all the rights and that the world should function according to their wishes. To illustrate, just look at their movies. They've brainwashed their people into believing they're superior and entitled to everything. In these films, the villains are almost always Russians, South Americans, or Blacks portrayed as drug dealers, pimps, or human traffickers. Recently, Arabs have been cast as terrorists. This reveals exactly how they perceive the world. On the economic front, who among us hasn't labeled Chinese products as 'cheap goods'? But today, I can tell you we were wrong. China has advanced technology, and most countries source their goods there, rebrand them, and sell them back to us as their own. Look around: those in the construction industry will confirm that their equipment is now mostly Chinese. The transport sector will say the same. They lied to us. During our travels over the past 20 months, we've seen businesses and factories worldwide and realized it all leads back to China. Yet their propaganda made us despise Chinese products and believe that quality only comes from them. To better understand, let's go back in time. Read about the Tsars, Mongol conquests, Persian, Turkish, and Ottoman empires. You will understand why the world is the way it is. At the base of the triangle, there are two empires: the Empire of Evil and the Empire of Slaves. The Empire of Evil includes the groups I mentioned earlier. According to the imperialists, the Empire of Evil must disappear as it embodies the devil. This was communicated to their people, especially during the 1980s, with the collapse of Russia under President Gorbachev, orchestrated by President Ronald Reagan. Three main strategies caught our attention. First, they asked Saudi Arabia to lower oil prices from $35 to $7 to collapse the Russian economy. Second, they armed the Taliban (who were received by President Ronald Reagan at the White House) with CIA-supplied Stinger surface-to-air missiles to fight the Russians, then later pretended to fight the Taliban themselves. Go figure! Third, they bluffed with the Star Wars project (Strategic Defense Initiative), leading Gorbachev to create the Paulus Project, which weakened Russia. After Russia's collapse, those who claimed to be the 'Empire of Good' started to gloat until Vladimir Putin and his team came to revive Russia. The 'Empire of Evil' (according to them) has suffered greatly. Look at Iran today, facing all possible sanctions. Look at how they label certain peoples. Through their propaganda, they can make you hate or love a people. They are masters of communication, using every possible channel to manipulate. Look at the wars that are raging. They invented them for their own interests. And finally, the Empire of Slaves, according to them, is Africa and some nations of South America. In their minds, Africa belongs to them—our lands, our riches are theirs. They cannot conceive of Africans emancipating themselves, lifting their heads above water, and standing up to them. For this reason, they stereotype Africans as easy to manipulate and driven by emotions. They will always find an African to fight against his own brother, and it has always been this way. Through their communication, they have led you to hate your own skin color. In our cultures, and in many cultures in Burkina Faso, mourning was symbolized by the color blue. When a woman lost her husband, she wore blue garments to mourn for a certain period. They came and told you that black symbolizes mourning, the devil, mediocrity, and everything negative. Unfortunately, we accepted this so much that now, when we mourn, we wear black. We need to wake up. This is their stereotype: they are the Empire of Good, others are the Empire of Evil, and we are the Empire of Slaves. This is the imperialist worldview. You need to understand this. Now, I want to address certain intellectuals who keep preaching for the imperialists. Do they ignore this part of history? I am not making anything up; it has been declassified. You can find everything I said in libraries or online. Have these intellectuals not read it? Do they not know the history of this world? Perhaps it is dishonesty or a few dollars that lead them to always preach for the imperialists. Our intellectuals must always strive to raise awareness in our people, our masses, so they understand where they come from and how they are viewed by the imperialists."