Today, we will end with the third point cited by President Thomas Sankara, last point for revolutionizing all sectors of Burkinabe society. Excerpts below are from “We are Heirs of the World’s Revolutions, Speeches from the Burkina Faso Revolution 1983-87” by Thomas Sankara, Pathfinder Press (2007) p. 50 – 53. Again, as you read, you can see that this is exactly what our leaders of the AES, and Ibrahim Traore of Burkina Faso in particular are applying. The main difference today is that the AES also faces terrorism and the repeated attacks of hordes fabricated by Western powers; so security is one of the major priorities.

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… The National Council of the Revolution is therefore aware that the construction of an independent, self-sufficient, and planned national economy requires the radical transformation of present society, a transformation that itself requires the following major reforms:

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  Agrarian reform
• Administrative reform
• Educational reform

Reform of the structures of production and distribution in the modern sector

The agrarian reform will aim to:

• Increase labor productivity through better organization of the peasants and the introduction of modern agricultural techniques in the countryside.
• Develop a diversified agriculture, together with regional specialization.
• Abolish all the fetters that are part of the traditional socioeconomic structures that oppress the peasants.
• Finally, make agriculture the basis for the development of industry.

All this is possible by giving real meaning to the slogan of food self-sufficiency, a slogan that now seems dated for having been proclaimed so often without conviction. First, this will be a bitter struggle against nature, which, by the way, is no more thankless for us than for other peoples who have conquered it magnificently on the agricultural level. … To the contrary, numerous small accomplishments in the agricultural system will allow us to transform our territory into one vast field, an endless series of farms.

Second, this will be a struggle against those who starve the people, the agricultural speculators and capitalists of all types. Finally, it will mean protecting our agriculture against domination by imperialism — with regard to its orientation, the plunder of our resources, and unfair competition from imports against our local products, imports whose only advantage is their packaging aimed at bourgeois afflicted with snobbishness. As for the peasants, sufficiently high prices and industrial food-processing facilities will guarantee them markets for their produce in any season.

… The reform should result in a less costly, more effective, and more flexible administration.

The educational reform aims to promote a new orientation for education and culture. It should result in transforming the schools into instruments at the service of the revolution. Graduates of the system should not serve their own interests and the exploiting classes, but rather the popular masses. The revolutionary education that will be taught in the new schools must imbue everyone with a [Burkinabe] ideology, a [Burkinabe] personality that rids the individual of blind mimicry. …

Culture in a democratic and popular society, should have a three-fold character: national, revolutionary, and popular. Everything that is antinational, antirevolutionary, and antipopular must be banished. To the contrary, our culture extols dignity, courage, nationalism, and the great human virtues. 

… Our artists … should seize the opportunity before them to raise our culture to a world level. … Let musicians sing not only of our people’s glorious past, but also of their radiant and promising future.

The revolution expects our artists to be able to describe reality, portray it in living images, and express them in melodious tunes while showing our people the true way forward to a better future. It expects them to place their creative genius at the service of a national, revolutionary, and popular [Burkinabe] culture.

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