The Code Noir or the Objectification of the Black Race

On By Dr. Y.In Great Civilizations, Great MomentsLeave a comment
Le Code Noir (A frontispiece of the Code Noir, from the 1742 edition)

With the French Senate ‘repelling’ the Code Noir on Tuesday, we had a to dive a bit deeper into the Code Noir and what it meant. As we saw, the Code Noir, was issued in 1685 by King Louis XIV of France, as the rulebook that defined slavery in France’s Caribbean colonies and later the Louisiana territory as well. It laid out how enslaved Africans were to be treated, controlled, punished, fed, clothed, and even baptized. Under this law, enslaved people were considered property just as much as a chair or a horse, their family lives were tightly restricted, and their movements monitored. The Code Noir also forced Catholicism on everyone in the colonies.

In practice, it turned human beings into legal objects and gave slaveholders enormous power over every detail of their lives. Today, the Code Noir stands as a stark reminder that slavery wasn’t just an economic system: it was a fully engineered legal and religious structure designed to control Black life at every single level, and this went on for centuries.

Below is the text of the Code Noir… read for yourself! The full translation can be found on the National Park Services website.

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A full translation to English and transcription of the 1685 Code Noir is below. While some changes were made a few of the codes in subsequent years, the 1685 version captures the essense of how slavery was regulated and policied in the Louisiana Territory and, by extension, St. Louis, during French and Spanish rule in the eighteenth century.

Edict of the King:

On the subject of the Policy regarding the Islands of French America

March 1685

Recorded at the sovereign Council of Saint Domingue, 6 May 1687.

Louis, by the grace of God, King of France and Navarre: to all those here present and to those to come, GREETINGS. In that we must also care for all people that Divine Providence has put under our tutelage, we have agreed to have the reports of the officers we have sent to our American islands studied in our presence. These reports inform us of their need for our authority and our justice in order to maintain the discipline of the Roman, Catholic, and Apostolic Faith in the islands. Our authority is also required to settle issues dealing with the condition and quality of the slaves in said islands. We desire to settle these issues and inform them that, even though they reside infinitely far from our normal abode, we are always present for them, not only through the reach of our power but also by the promptness of our help toward their needs. For these reasons, and on the advice of our council and of our certain knowledge, absolute power and royal authority, we have declared, ruled, and ordered, and declare, rule, and order, that the following pleases us:

Portrait of King Louis XIV of France, 1701

Article I. We desire and we expect that the Edict of 23 April 1615 of the late King, our most honored lord and father who remains glorious in our memory, be executed in our islands. This accomplished, we enjoin all of our officers to chase from our islands all the Jews who have established residence there. As with all declared enemies of Christianity, we command them to be gone within three months of the day of issuance of the present [order], at the risk of confiscation of their persons and their goods.

Article II. All slaves that shall be in our islands shall be baptized and instructed in the Roman, Catholic, and Apostolic Faith. We enjoin the inhabitants who shall purchase newly-arrived Negroes to inform the Governor and Intendant of said islands of this fact within no more that eight days, or risk being fined an arbitrary amount. They shall give the necessary orders to have them instructed and baptized within a suitable amount of time.

Article III. We forbid any religion other than the Roman, Catholic, and Apostolic Faith from being practiced in public. We desire that offenders be punished as rebels disobedient of our orders. We forbid any gathering to that end, which we declare to be conventicle, illegal, and seditious, and subject to the same punishment as would be applicable to the masters who permit it or accept it from their slaves.

Article IV. No persons assigned to positions of authority over Negroes shall be other than a member of the Roman, Catholic, and Apostolic Faith, and the master who assigned these persons shall risk having said Negroes confiscated, and arbitrary punishment levied against the persons who accepted said position of authority.

Article V. We forbid our subjects who belong to the so-called “reformed” religion from causing any trouble or unforeseen difficulties for our other subjects or even for their own slaves in the free exercise of the Roman, Catholic, and Apostolic Faith, at the risk of exemplary punishment.

Article VI. We enjoin all our subjects, of whatever religion and social status they may be, to observe Sundays and the holidays that are observed by our subjects of the Roman, Catholic, and Apostolic Faith. We forbid them to work, nor make their slaves work, on said days, from midnight until the following midnight. They shall neither cultivate the earth, manufacture sugar, nor perform any other work, at the risk of a fine and an arbitrary punishment against the masters, and of confiscation by our officers of as much sugar worked by said slaves before being caught.

Article VII. We forbid them also to hold slave markets or any other market on said days at the risk of similar punishments and of confiscation of the merchandise that shall be discovered at the market, and an arbitrary fine against the sellers.

Inspection of a slave for sale

Article VIII. We declare that our subjects who are not of the Roman, Catholic, and Apostolic Faith, are incapable of contracting a valid marriage in the future. We declare any child born from such unions to be bastards, and we desire that said marriages be held and reputed, and to hold and repute, as actual concubinage.

Article IX. Free men who shall have one or more children during concubinage with their slaves, together with their masters who accepted it, shall each be fined two thousand pounds of sugar. If they are the masters of the slave who produced said children, we desire, in addition to the fine, that the slave and the children be removed and that she and they be sent to work at the hospital, never to gain their freedom. We do not expect however for the present article to be applied when the man was not married to another person during his concubinage with this slave, who he should then marry according to the accepted rites of the Church. In this way she shall then be freed, the children becoming free and legitimate. . . .

Article XI. We forbid priests from conducting weddings between slaves if it appears that they do not have their masters’ permission. We also forbid masters from using any constraints on their slaves to marry them without their wishes.

Article XII. Children born from marriages between slaves shall be slaves, and if the husband and wife have different masters, they shall belong to the masters of the female slave, not to the master of her husband.

Article XIII. We desire that if a male slave has married a free woman, their children, either male or female, shall be free as is their mother, regardless of their father’s condition of slavery. And if the father is free and the mother a slave, the children shall also be slaves. . . .

Article XV. We forbid slaves from carrying any offensive weapons or large sticks, at the risk of being whipped and having the weapons confiscated. The weapons shall then belong to he who confiscated them. The sole exception shall be made for those who have been sent by their masters to hunt and who are carrying either a letter from their masters or his known mark.

Article XVI. We also forbid slaves who belong to different masters from gathering, either during the day or at night, under the pretext of a wedding or other excuse, either at one of the master’s houses or elsewhere, and especially not in major roads or isolated locations. They shall risk corporal punishment that shall not be less than the whip and the fleur de lys, and for frequent recidivists and in other aggravating circumstances, they may be punished with death, a decision we leave to their judge. We enjoin all our subjects, even if they are not officers, to rush to the offenders, arrest them, and take them to prison, and that there be no decree against them. . . .

Article XVIII. We forbid slaves from selling sugar cane, for whatever reason or occasion, even with the permission of their master, at the risk of a whipping for the slaves and a fine of ten pounds for the masters who gave them permission, and an equal fine for the buyer.

Article XIX. We also forbid slaves from selling any type of commodities, even fruit, vegetables, firewood, herbs for cooking and animals either at the market, or at individual houses, without a letter or a known mark from their masters granting express permission. Slaves shall risk the confiscation of goods sold in this way, without their masters receiving restitution for the loss, and a fine of six pounds shall be levied against the buyers. . . .

The back of a slave

Article XXVII. Slaves who are infirm due to age, sickness or other reason, whether the sickness is curable or not, shall be nourished and cared for by their masters. In the case that they be abandoned, said slaves shall be awarded to the hospital, to which their master shall be required to pay six sols per day for the care and feeding of each slave. . . .

Article XXXI. Slaves shall not be a party, either in court or in a civil matter, either as a litigant or as a defendant, or as a civil party in a criminal matter. And compensation shall be pursued in criminal matters for insults and excesses that have been committed against slaves. . . .

Article XXXIII. The slave who has struck his master in the face or has drawn blood, or has similarly struck the wife of his master, his mistress, or their children, shall be punished by death. . . .

Article XXXVIII. The fugitive slave who has been on the run for one month from the day his master reported him to the police, shall have his ears cut off and shall be branded with a fleur de lys on one shoulder. If he commits the same infraction for another month, again counting from the day he is reported, he shall have his hamstring cut and be branded with a fleur de lys on the other shoulder. The third time, he shall be put to death.

Article XXXIX. The masters of freed slaves who have given refuge to fugitive slaves in their homes shall be punished by a fine of three hundred pounds of sugar for each day of refuge.

Article XL. The slave who has been punished with death based on denunciation by his master, and who is not a party to the crime for which he was condemned, shall be assessed prior to his execution by two of the principal citizens of the island named by a judge. The assessment price shall be paid by the master, and in order to satisfy this requirement, the Intendant shall impose said sum on the head of each Negro. The amount levied in the estimation shall be paid for each of the said Negroes and levied by the [Tax] Farmer of the Royal Western lands to avoid costs. . . .

Article XLII. The masters may also, when they believe that their slaves so deserve, chain them and have them beaten with rods or straps. They shall be forbidden however from torturing them or mutilating any limb, at the risk of having the slaves confiscated and having extraordinary charges brought against them.

Article XLIII. We enjoin our officers to criminally prosecute the masters, or their foremen, who have killed a slave under their auspices or control, and to punish the master according to the circumstances of the atrocity. In the case where there is absolution, we allow our officers to return the absolved master or foreman, without them needing our pardon.

Article XLIV. We declare slaves to be charges, and as such enter into community property. They are not to be mortgaged, and shall be shared equally between the co-inheritors without benefit to the wife or one particular inheritor, nor subject to the right of primogeniture, the usual customs duties, feudal or lineage charges, or feudal or seigneurial taxes. They shall not be affected by the details of decrees, nor from the imposition of the four-fifths, in case of disposal by death or bequeathing. . . .

Article XLVII. Husband, wife and prepubescent children, if they are all under the same master, may not be taken and sold separately. We declare the seizing and sales that shall be done as such to be void. For slaves who have been separated, we desire that the seller shall risk their loss, and that the slaves he kept shall be awarded to the buyer, without him having to pay any supplement. . . .

Article LV. Masters twenty years of age may free their slaves by any act toward the living or due to death, without their having to give just cause for their actions, nor do they require parental advice as long as they are minors of 25 years of age.

A copy of the 1743 edition of Code noir, now in New Orleans (Historic New Orleans Collection)

Article LVI. The children who are declared to be sole legatees by their masters, or named as executors of their wills, or tutors of their children, shall be held and considered as freed slaves. . . .

Article LVIII. We declare their freedom is granted in our islands if their place of birth was in our islands. We declare also that freed slaves shall not require our letters of naturalization to enjoy the advantages of our natural subjects in our kingdom, lands or country of obedience, even when they are born in foreign countries.

Article LIX. We grant to freed slaves the same rights, privileges and immunities that are enjoyed by freeborn persons. We desire that they are deserving of this acquired freedom, and that this freedom gives them, as much for their person as for their property, the same happiness that natural liberty has on our other subjects.

Versailles, March 1685, the forty second year of our reign.

Signed LOUIS,

and below the King.

Colbert, visa, Le Tellier.

Read, posted and recorded at the sovereign council of the coast of Saint Domingue, kept at Petit Goave, 6 May 1687, Signed Moriceau.

Citation: “The Code Noir (The Black Code),” LIBERTY, EQUALITY, FRATERNITY: EXPLORING THE FRENCH REVOUTION, accessed October 2, 2024, https://revolution.chnm.org/d/335.

178 Years after the Abolition of Slavery, The French Senate Repels the Code Noir!

On By Dr. Y.In Great MomentsLeave a comment
Le Code Noir (A frontispiece of the Code Noir, from the 1742 edition)

Would you believe that the Code Noir (Black code), the decree that was passed by the French King Louis XIV of France in 1685 which defined the conditions of slavery in the Antilles, then Louisiana, and served as the code for slavery conduct in the French colonies up until 1789, the year marking the beginning of the French Revolution; yes, that Code Noir has just been repelled from the French law today by the Senate? Did you know? So, over 150 years since the abolition of slavery in French colonies and in the whole world, France still has a document that describes people of African descent as properties, as subhumans, a document that dehumanizes the African men and women, the France of Marianne, the France of the great liberties, still had that in its legal texts? Lord have mercy! No wonder France could never agree to admit that slavery was a crime against humanity when the rest of the world did (The UN Recognizes the Transatlantic Slave Trade as the Gravest Crime against Humanity). My goodness! Where do we start?

French flag

Today, 178 years after banning slavery, the French senate finally repelled the Code Noir which governed it! So brothers and sisters of the former French colonies, do you still wonder why you were treated below humans? do you still wonder why your humanity was crushed days in and days out? And today, we talk of France and African countries as brothers or partners. How can one be partners with someone who in modern days, 178 years after slavery has been banned, over 60 years after the ‘independence’ of its former African colonies, still has such a treacherous inhumane law in its books, a law that reduced our ancestors years in and years out to below humans! And the French president has the guts to call us ingrate! Ingrate!

There are just no words to for this! We are told that this law no longer had any values since the abolition of slavery, but then why couldn’t it have been removed before? We are told that the legislators forgot, but then how come they did not do any land reforms in the Antilles, was that just an oversight? Is the land disparity in those parts still just an oversight? What else is hidden?

Hakili Mousso : Traore’s Science Competition for Girls

On By Dr. Y.In Great Civilizations, Great Moments, Great People, Great ScienceLeave a comment
President Capitaine
Ibrahim Traore (Source: sig.gov.bf)

As a norm, every October 15, we celebrate the life of President Thomas Sankara, and yesterday, President Ibrahim Traoré of Burkina Faso launched the Sovereignty Football league to raise the level of soccer (football) in the different regions of the country. Sure, this comes after the resounding defeat of the Burkinabe national team against Argentina in a friendly international game which ended 7 – 0; any correct president who loves his country would want a reform of its soccer leagues. Other sport disciplines will be added with time.

Similarly, in August, the president launched the Hakili Mousso science competition, a science competition built to encourage young girls to envision and pursue a career in science and technology, thus putting scientific knowledge and academic performance at the forefront of national aspirations. As a reminder, this came 2 months after the suspension of beauty pageants in the country, which are currently under review. Historically, these beauty pageants in our countries have always mirrored Western beauty norms with women competing based on Western beauty standard, with preference for straight hair vs. our natural afro and hairstyles, super skinny and curve-less (let’s face it, the African woman is curvy), and even in clothing choices instead of traditional textiles (History of African Fabrics and Textiles). This direction echoes This direction echoes President Thomas Sankara’s long-standing commitment to women’s participation in public life and girls’ education, summarized in his well‑known declaration,“Women hold up the other Half of the Sky”. Sankara appointed women to high government positions, encouraged their full participation in the workforce, opened military recruitment to women, and ensured that students received pregnancy leave. Similarly, President Traoré is continuing this vision by starting the Hakili Mousso science competition, by creating new pathways for girls to thrive in scientific fields and contribute to national development.

25FCFA coin

The inaugural contest brought in 84 young women who earned science baccalaureates in 2026 and tested their knowledge of mathematics, physics and chemistry. The first place winners received 2 million FCFA, a motorcycle, a laptop, and additional rewards. The five highest-performing participants in each subject received prizes. The cherry on top: days after the competition ended, Burkina Faso’s President Ibrahim Traoré invited the winners to the presidential palace.The meeting lasted nearly an hour, with discussions covering science, ambition and the participants’ future career goals.

Our president is making us proud… proud to be Burkinabe from the land of honest people, proud to be African.

South African Lawyer Navi Pillay is 2026 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate

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Navi Pillay (Source: inews.zoombangla.com)

This year, South African lawyer Navi Pillay is the 2026 Nobel Peace Prize laureate. She joins 4 other illustrious countrymen Nobel peace laureates, Albert Luthuli (1960 – first Black person to be win the award), Desmond Tutu (1984), Nelson Mandela (1993) joint with F. W. de Klerk (1993). This makes her the first South African woman to win the prestigious prize. She also joins other continental laureates such as Egyptian Anwar Sadat (1978), Ghanaian Kofi Annan (2001), Kenyan Wangari Maathai, first African Woman Nobel Peace Prize Laureate (2004), Egyptian Mohamed ElBaradei, Liberians Ellen Johnson Sirleaf (2011) and Leymah Gbowee (2011), Congolese Denis Mukwege (2018), and Abiy Ahmed (2019). As you can see she is only the fourth African woman to win the prestigious award. As a food for thought, isn’t it weird that a lot of these awards are given out just before the awardees start wars or something of the sort? … so not sure how much weight we should really put into them as ‘peace’ prizes, but the world still seems to praise these.

Flag of South Africa
Flag of South Africa

Who is Navi Pillay? She is a South African of Tamil-Indian origin whose grandparents emigrated to South Africa, specifically to Durban at the turn of the 20th century to work on the sugar plantations. Her family established itself there, and she grew up in Durban during the apartheid era, later went on to study law at Harvard University in the United States, and went on to become the first woman of color to open a law firm in South Africa, during the apartheid era. She spent her early career defending activists who risked everything to challenge injustice at a time when injustice and the justice system in South Africa was viciously divided along color lines. Her work carried the same courage and clarity that would later define her global leadership. She built a reputation for judicial rigor and moral courage

She established herself not only at home in South Africa, but also beyond its borders. As a judge at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, she helped establish that sexual violence can be prosecuted as genocide. At the International Criminal Court at the Hague, she strengthened the foundations of accountability for mass atrocities. Later, as a United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, she insisted that human rights must remain central even when political winds shift. Today, she continues her work at the International Court of Justice (that instrument used by the ‘International Community’ to police the rest of the world to its advantage), serving as an ad hoc judge in cases involving genocide and crimes against humanity. Her career spans more than 50 years, consistently focused on holding perpetrators of mass atrocities accountable and expanding the reach of international law.

Pillay received the Nobel Peace Prize award in the historic Nuremberg courtroom; there she dedicated her award to survivors of international crimes. Her words reminded the world that peace is not simply the absence of conflict. Peace is the presence of accountability. Peace is the recognition of truth. Peace is the courage to confront harm and repair it. Peace is staying cool-headed in the face of adversity and discerning the good from the bad!

Navi Pillay’s achievement is a milestone for Africa. As we saw above, she joins a long list of illustrious Africans. Her achievement is also a milestone for women, particularly women in law, and for every person who believes in the power of justice. Her legacy continues to grow, and her work lights a path for future generations of lawyers, activists, and leaders who refuse to accept silence in the face of suffering.

Cheikh Hamidou Kane and Our New Ambiguous Adventure

On By Dr. Y.In Great Literature, Great Moments, Great PeopleLeave a comment
Cheikh Hamidou Kane (Source: Wikipedia)

As we mourn the loss of our father Cheikh Hamidou Kane and celebrate his life, we have to re-examine his novel L’Aventure ambiguë as it pertains to our life today and challenges and wins. As such, globalization and artificial intelligence (AI), and the question Kane asked us: can we move forward without losing ourselves? as we move forward, whose story/culture wins? and more importantly, should we lose ourselves? Is there no happy medium?

I ended my last post with a question that has stayed with me: How do we open ourselves to the knowledge of the world without losing who we are? We are Africans, we come from the cradle of humanity, with ancestral traditions that pre-date most of the world’s. We have also been under attack from slavery, colonialism, and now modernism/globalization, should we erase who we are to survive in this world, or do we adapt? Could we have both?

L’Aventure ambiguë de Cheikh Hamidou Kane

When Cheikh Hamidou Kane published L’Aventure ambiguë in 1961, that question emerged from the encounter between African traditions and colonial education.Today, the world is very different. Yet I wonder if the question has become even more relevant. We no longer need to travel to Paris, as Samba Diallo did, to encounter another culture’s ideas. They come to us through universities, global companies, politics, social media, and the internet, and even faster than ever. And now, through artificial intelligence also.

The new school has no walls. As a scientist, I find this exciting. Knowledge crossing boundaries is one of the things I love about science. An idea developed somewhere in the world can inspire an experiment thousands of miles away. I would never want less of that exchange. But globalization and AI also make me wonder: When knowledge becomes global, whose knowledge becomes global? Which languages and histories dominate? Which perspectives are missing? And what might quietly disappear along the way? AI makes these questions particularly interesting because it is increasingly becoming a way through which we encounter knowledge. The question is not simply what AI can tell us. It is whether we will remain thoughtful enough to decide what questions we want to ask.

Artificial Intelligence (Source: IBTimes.co.uk)

We should not simply be consumers of knowledge, but creators of it. Africa has so much to offer, and its story needs to be told as well. In other words, we should be able to say: I want to know what you know without having to become you. And also: I want what I know to become part of what the world knows.

That, to me, is the promise of true globalization. Maybe we are all becoming a little like Samba Diallo now, navigating a world in which knowledge crosses cultural boundaries faster than ever. So perhaps Kane’s question for our generation becomes: How do we embrace the knowledge of the world without losing ourselves, and how do we bring enough of ourselves into that knowledge to make the world richer?

Maybe that is our aventure ambiguë.

So Long to Cheikh Hamidou Kane, and the Ambiguous Adventure

On By Dr. Y.In Great Literature, Great PeopleLeave a comment
Cheikh Hamidou Kane (Source: Wikipedia)

A few days ago, on October 3, Senegal and Africa lost one of its great intellectual voices. Cheikh Hamidou Kane, writer, statesman, and author of L’Aventure ambiguë, died in Dakar at the ripe good age of 98. His passing brought me back to a novel I had to study in school, and which was on the curriculum of most schools across the continent. The question at the heart of his most celebrated novel: How do we open ourselves to the knowledge of the world without losing who we are fundamentally?

Cheikh Hamidou Kane lived this question in many ways. Born in Matam, northern Senegal, in 1928, he descended from a prominent family of traditional Fulani chiefs and muslim scholars. He grew up between Qur’anic teaching and French schooling, later studying law and philosophy in Paris. He returned home before independence and went on to serve Senegal in senior government positions, including as a minister of both  Léopold Sédar Senghor and  Abdou Diouf. He was a good friend of Senegal’s first president  Senghor who was one of his professors while in France, and Mamadou Dia (one of Senghor’s prime minister) whom he tried to reconcile. While in France he met some who would later become leaders in Africa and the Caribbeans, such as Aimé Césaire, Félix Houphouët-Boigny (president of Cote d’Ivoire), Joseph Ki-Zerbo (Burkinabe historian), Abdoulaye Wade (president of Senegal), and many more.

L’Aventure ambiguë de Cheikh Hamidou Kane

Published in 1961, his novel, L’Aventure ambiguë tells the story of Samba Diallo, a young Senegalese man whose education takes him from a deeply spiritual Islamic upbringing to the French school and eventually to Paris. The novel received the Grand Prix littéraire d’Afrique noire in 1962 and went on to be translated into at least 40 languages. But the real journey is not from Senegal to France. It is from one way of understanding the world to another, how to absorb in Samba’s case, Western knowledge without cultural self-erasure. This dichotomy remains relevant to Africa’s current negotiations over money, governance, geopolitical autonomy, and existence as a whole.

That is what I find so moving about Kane’s book. We often think of education as simply gaining knowledge. But Kane asks a harder question: What if learning something new also changes how we understand what we already knew? He doesn’t give us an easy choice between Africa and Europe, tradition and modernity, or faith and reason. Instead, he leaves us with the ambiguity.

Following Kane’s death, Senegalese President Bassirou Diomaye Faye beautifully captured his legacy as the question of opening ourselves to the world’s knowledge“sans rien perdre de ce que nous sommes“, without losing who we are. More than sixty years later, the question remains. Perhaps that is the mark of a great writer. He doesn’t simply leave us answers. He leaves us questions worth carrying forward. And looking at the world around us today, I wonder whether we are all beginning to live our own aventure ambiguë.

Ibrahim Traoré Opens Burkina Faso’s First State-Owned Gold Refinery

On By Dr. Y.In Great Moments, Great People, Great ScienceLeave a comment
President Ibrahim Traoré with Minister of Mines, Yacouba Zabré Gouba inaugurating Burkina Faso’s first state-owned gold refinery (Source: Ecofin)

On Monday, September 28, the President of Burkina Faso, Captain Ibrahim Traoré inaugurated the country’s first state-owned gold refinery. We are so proud of Burkina Faso and its people, the land of the men of integrity is building itself step by step, showing us the way forward. The country opened its first gold refinery so it could extract it, refine it on its very own soil, certify it, and benefit from it for the whole pipeline from the soil all the way to the end product that is the gold bar, while creating jobs for its very own people. The refinery is the first of its kind in Burkina Faso, built to the highest international standards for transforming gold into ingots with a purity of 99.99%. It is set to refine 164 tonnes per year at the beginning, growing to at least 500 tonnes of gold later. As I heard the speech of members of the Faso government, I was so proud when they said we will refine our own gold, with our own capacities. The power is shifting! Such an amazing time to be alive! I remember when we kept talking about Thomas Sankara and Burkina Faso on our blog, and how some were laughing… today, we are proud of Burkina Faso, and we never stopped being proud of Sankara’s brothers and sisters. La patrie ou la mort, nous vaincrons! This reminds us of what Sankara talked about, “The National Economy: Independent, Self-Sufficient, and Planned at the Service of Democratic and Popular Society” in “We are Heirs of the World’s Revolutions, Speeches from the Burkina Faso Revolution 1983-87” .

Extracts below are from TeleSur. Enjoy!

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President Ibrahim Traoré highlighted the strategic importance of this initiative, which aims to control the entire value chain of the extractive industry, starting with gold.

The refinery, inaugurated this Monday, is expected to generate more wealth, create jobs, and improve the control of domestic financial flows.

“In everything related to the extractive industry, we want to have the entire value chain under control, and we are starting with gold,” Traoré emphasized. “As I mentioned before, there are many other metals in our subsurface that we want to extract, but we want to control everything down to the smallest detail,” he added.

Traoré stressed that Burkina Faso’s gold should be processed and certified within the country. “Refining gold in our territory will generate more wealth, create qualified jobs, strengthen the traceability of our production, and improve control over financial flows. Additionally, it will enable us to combat illicit practices more effectively, such as fraud, smuggling, and money laundering,” he stated.

…

“Be Ready to Fight for Freedom” Bassolma Bazie

On By Dr. Y.In Great Moments, Great PeopleLeave a comment
Flag of Burkina Faso

In a recent speech in front of the Burkinabe troops, Minister Bassolma Bazié warned the troops, and all of us by extension, against complacency, fear, treachery, and incompetence. He warned us against being used by the enemy to betray our nations. He reminded us of the French General Rochambeau and how he punished the Haitian slaves who dared fight for freedom. He reminded us that because we stood up against the West, we should be ready, anytime for the enemy’s wrath, and we should be ready to protect our freedom, and that of our children. We should not succumb to “The Cancer of Betrayal” as Amilcar Cabral called it. Stay alert all the time.

Flag of Haiti

Fear, treachery and incompetence are very serious evils at the level of a nation. So let’s make sure that tomorrow, what we are experiencing [today], our children will not come to experience it. In any case, I said that the people have climbed on an explosive device and its fragmentation, if we don’t pay attention, if we behave like imbeciles, even our children who are not yet born, they will suffer the blow. … Look on your phones at the story of Haiti 1803 and the dogs of [Donatien de] Rochambeau the French … when France returned to repress those who tried to revolt, what did they do? It is this single example that I take to show what awaits us if we are not careful. Rochambeau arrived there with a hundred dogs that he had initially taken weeks to starve, and once in Haiti, he took one of the slaves and tied him to a post in the center and made a circle around the city… he used pliers to tear the slave so that the blood would flow… people were eaten alive like that by dogs screaming until they died.  Let everyone understand that what Rochambeau did in Haiti, Norbert Zongo said, “people carry suitcases, … they are not far away”, it has happened… What he [Rochambeau] did in Haiti… if we are not careful, whether we are military, civilian, or VDP, and the enemy goes through us to penetrate the country, there [in Haiti] it was dogs that ate them, for us it is not obvious that we will even have the opportunity to be watched being eaten alive… and that is what they are preparing for us… and as they are preparing this, all of us who are in action must consider that our future, I am not saying that it is over, but we are standing on top of embers so that our children do not experience the same thing, because if we do not assume our history [and take responsibility], the tears of the children we have given birth to will join us in the cemetery. …May God and the manes of the ancestors accompany us…. Our words, our behavior, our gestures, … should respond to true patriotism…

Burkina Faso
Burkina Faso

La peur, la traîtrise et l’incompétence sont des maux très graves au niveau d’une nation. Donc faisons en sorte que demain, ce que nous vivons, nos enfants ne viennent pas le vivre. De toutes les façons, j’ai dit que le peuple est monté sur un engin explosif et sa fragmentation, si on s’amuse, si on se comporte comme des imbéciles, même nos enfants qui ne sont pas encore nés, ils vont subir le coup. … Regardez sur vos téléphones, l’histoire de Haïti 1803 et les chiens de Daniel Rochambeau … quand la France est revenue pour reprimer ceux qui ont tenté de se révolter, qu’est-ce-qu’ils ont fait? c’est ce seul exemple que je prends pour montrer ce qui nous guette si on s’amuse. Rochambeau a debarqué là-bas avec une centaine de chiens qu’il avait d’abord mis des semaines à affamer, et une fois à Haïti, on prend un des esclaves qu’on attache sur un poteau au centre et on fait un cercle au niveau de la ville… on a utilisé des tenailles pour déchirer l’esclave afin que le sang descende … des gens ont été mangés comme ça par des chiens en criant jusqu’à aller mourir. Que chacun comprenne que ce que Rochambeau a fait en Haiti là, Norbert Zongo avait dit « les gens transportent les valises, ils ne sont pas loin ! C’est arrivé »… ce qu’il a fait a Haiti… si on s’amuse, que l’on soit militaire, civile, ou VDP, que l’ennemi passe par lui pour pénétrer le pays, eux c’est des chiens qui les ont mangé, nous ce n’est pas evident qu’on aura même l’occasion d’être regardé en train d’être mangé… et c’est ça qu’ils sont en train de préparer… et comme ils sont en train de préparer ça, nous tous qui sommes en action, on doit considérer que notre avenir-là, je ne dis pas que c’est cuit, mais nous sommes sur des braises pour que nos enfants ne vivent pas la même chose, parce que si on ne s’assume pas devant notre histoire les pleurs des enfants qu’on a mis au monde vont nous rejoindre au cimétière. … Que Dieu et les mânes des ancêtres nous accompagnent…. Il faudrait que nos propos, notre comportements, nos gestes, … répondent au véritable patriotisme…

Be Not Afraid

On By Dr. Y.In Great WisdomLeave a comment
Python

Il ne faut pas s’effrayer d’un python à cause de sa longueur (Proverbe Bété – Côte d’Ivoire).

You should not be scared of a python because of its length (Bete Proverb – Ivory Coast).

Simone Gbagbo, First Lady of Cote d’Ivoire, and Presidential Candidate Forgives France for its Complicity

On By Dr. Y.In Great Moments, Great PeopleLeave a comment
Simone Ehivet Gbagbo
Simone Ehivet Gbagbo

There are no words to express my joy at seeing and hearing former first lady of Cote d’Ivoire, and presidential candidate, Simone Ehivet Gbagbo speak during her first visit to France in almost 20 years. It is no secret what Simone Gbagbo endured at the hands of her captors, many of whom acted as proxies for France during the 2010 post‑electoral crisis that shook the country. She was paraded before cameras for the whole world to see as she was abused by forces loyal to Alassane Ouattara, all under the watchful eyes of French soldiers, journalists, and diplomats. It is even said that she was violated in her intimacy, and those present did absolutely nothing (Laurent Gbagbo: Non au Silence Complice! Free at Last: Simone Gbagbo Liberated, Laurent Gbagbo and Charles Ble Goude: Totally Acquitted and Free at Last). I remember how the mainstream media mocked her and placated her images nonstop as if she was not a human being. She was then thrown in jail for several years, during which many of us prayed for her well-being. In 2018 she was finally released from jail. She reinstated her party, created a new one, and re-entered the political life of her country under the gaze of the very people jailers and tormentors. She even ran last year in the presidential election which, without surprise was won by Alassane Ouattara.

During her recent interview with France24, one theme stood out: forgiveness. Simone said she forgave Alassane Ouattara, and if she could forgive him, why would she not forgive France? I applaud Mama Simone Gbagbo’s spirit! And I understand that forgiveness is necessary for her survival and peace of mind.

It is no secret that Africans often forgive easily, even as others continue to hurt and exploit us. If we choose to forgive, we must not forget. We should never forget. That is how we build. Something happened! And although we forgive, we must never return to that place. It cannot be an endless cycle in which others harm us without consequence.

Please enjoy, Simone Ehivet Gbagbo and applaud with me this woman who exemplifies resilience, elegance, and the calm strength of a Black woman. We all can see why the French never liked her!