Category Archives: Politics

She reminds people that Sankara’s revolution was a military coup d’etat.  This one should not become that one all over again. Nous venons d’assister à la seule et véritable révolution digne de ce nom menée au Burkina Faso. Pour cela, … Continue reading →

And not just because I am a director of Friends of African Village Libraries, which will be working this year to establish 20 village libraries in northern Burkina Faso in a project with Catholic Relief Services funded through a U.S.D.A. … Continue reading →

When Nimeiri was ousted by a very similar large-scale people’s uprising, Gen. Swar al Dahab led a palace coup that stole all the thunder from the uprising.  He did transition to power a year later, but by then all the … Continue reading →

Now there can be a good weekend!

Opposition very organized, very disciplined, gets those 500,000 people out to Kosyam and basically sits down at the gates until Compaoré is forced to resign. Massive peaceful civil disobedience.  Shut the city down. Tahrir Square-like.  Roch, Zepherin and Salif and … Continue reading →

So nobody in the army is going to side with the opposition, it seems.  No civil war, perhaps, but no alternance, either. Except for Luc Adolphe Traoré… Le général Lougué explique ne pas comprendre pourquoi les manifestants scandent son nom, … Continue reading →

He calls on everyone to put the nation’s interest before theirs. Something he never did.  After 27 years, doesn’t putting the nation’s interest first mean ensuring a peaceful transition of power through democratic elections?  This whole crisis, and people killed, … Continue reading →

Good New York Times reporting. As the crisis deepened, Gen. Honoré Nabéré Traoré, the chief of staff of Burkina Faso’s armed forces, said at a news conference Thursday night that a transitional authority would lead the country to elections within … Continue reading →

Pour dire un mot rapide sur la déclaration du Chef d’Etat-major général des armées, pour reprendre une réflexion de Ablassé Ouedraogo, elle est incomplète, sinon insensée. A quel titre a-t-il signé cette déclaration ? En tant qu’exécutant de la décision … Continue reading →

Sams K’Jah who supposedly is camped out at Ronde Point Nations Unis or Place de la Nation. Arsene Bognessan Ye – He was brought back by Compaoré to manage the whole political transition after 2011… he botched it, in retrospect. … Continue reading →

They came in and read their communique, and the Army Chief of Staff acted confused when reporters asked a simple question: Where is Blaise Compaoré? and they all walked out of the room.  Painful to watch.  At least take power … Continue reading →

Blaise Compaoré is holed up maybe in Kosyam, the presidential palace, with presidential guard (very powerful) remaining loyal.  Compaoré announced he would remain as president until elections at end of 2015, and he would not try to change constitution (and … Continue reading →

A few hours ago I flinched after one tweet exchange with the inimitable Jon Lee Anderson.  Fuck!  I’ve been reading him in The New Yorker for years, and he tweets about Burkina Faso, and I try to be all sassy … Continue reading →

            *That is Yoweri Museveni, and no Blaise Compaoré, in the photo!

Now is when it gets Borgia-like, right?  Everyone has known for years that the slow but steady growth of Burkina Faso for last 15 years could vanish in a puff of smoke and a lot of broken windows, in three … Continue reading →

For the future, it would be good to know what exactly were the messages being sent by Susan Rice and Tulinabo Mushingi, because surely this was not the outcome that U.S. policy should have been working for.  As a U.S. … Continue reading →

President Blaise Compaoré looks like he is about to be ousted, as a popular uprising today has led the regime to collapse.  Pretty much his own fault.  He had numerous opportunities over 2014 to engineer a graceful transition of power … Continue reading →