'IMPERIALISTS WANT TO KEEP US ENSLAVED'

Year after year, Burkina Faso, like so many African countries, would celebrate independence days without knowing true independence. Today, with the new people-backed revolutionary government in place, Burkinabé have a real reason to honour the self-determining path that they have embarked upon.

On 10 November, Burkina Faso President Ibrahim Traoré delivered a speech for the independence holiday that falls on 11 November. His message to the people, the Burkinabé military, and the world at large was that Burkina Faso will never surrender to those who wish to keep the country enslaved.

Independence starts with controlling natural resources, which @capitaineib226 (X) began implementing upon taking office following the 30 September 2022 coup d’état that ousted a Western-aligned leader. Since then, the country has started nationalising gold mines. However, Traoré also recognises that the work to manufacture and refine gold and other raw materials must start at home. That is why the government has opened a gold refinery, a mining-waste processing plant and other facilities.

As Traoré and the great revolutionaries before him have put it, ‘The homeland or death, we will succeed!’