Speech on July 27, 2023 by President Ibrahim Traoré at the Russia-Africa summit.
Comrade President Vladimir PUTIN;
Comrades African Presidents and Heads of State
Comrades Heads of delegation;
Good morning, It is an honor for me to speak here and to convey to you the fraternal greetings of the people of the Land of Upright Men. This is also the place for me, above all, to give thanks to God, Almighty God who has allowed us to meet here this morning in good health to talk about the future and the well-being of our peoples. .
I would like to apologize to the elders whom I may offend in my future remarks. Africanity, obliges, birthright, I must apologize.
Comrades,
I have a few questions from my generation. A thousand and one questions we ask ourselves. But we don't have an answer. It turns out that here we can wash our dirty laundry because we feel like family. We feel like a family in the sense that Russia is also a family for Africa. It’s a family because we have the same history.
Russia made enormous sacrifices to free the world from Nazism during World War II. The African people, our grandfathers, were also forcibly deported to help Europe get rid of Nazism. We share the same history in that we are the forgotten peoples of the world. Whether in history books, documentaries or films, we tend to brush aside the preponderant role that Russia and Africa played in this fight against Nazism. We are together because currently we are here to talk about the future of our peoples, about what will happen tomorrow, about this free world to which we aspire, about this world without interference in our internal affairs. We have the same perspectives, and I hope that this summit will be an opportunity to build very good relations with a view to a better future for our people.
The questions that my generation asks themselves are the following, if I can sum it up, it is not understanding how Africa with so much wealth on its soil, with generous nature, water, sunshine in abundance , Africa is today the poorest continent. Africa is a hungry continent. And how come our heads of state cross the world begging? These are questions we are asking ourselves and for which we do not yet have answers. We have the opportunity to build new relationships and I hope that these relationships will be the best to give a better future to our people.
My generation also tells me that it is because of poverty that they are forced to cross the ocean to try to reach Europe. She dies in the ocean. But that soon, she will not go to the ocean because she will come to our palaces to seek their daily pittance. As far as Burkina Faso is concerned, today we have been confronted for more than eight years with the most barbaric, the most violent form of manifestation of neocolonialism, of imperialism, of the slavery that tends to be imposed on us. . Our predecessors taught us one thing; “the slave who is not capable of assuming his revolt does not deserve to be pitied for his fate.” We don't feel sorry for ourselves, we don't ask for anyone to feel sorry for us.
The Burkinabè people have decided to fight. To fight against the terrorist hydra to relaunch its development. In this fight, valiant populations have committed to taking up arms in the face of terrorism. Those we affectionately called the VDP, the Volunteers for the Defense of the Fatherland. We are surprised to see imperialists treating these VDPs as militias of all types. It's disappointing because in Europe, when people take up arms to defend their homeland, they are called patriots. Our grandfathers were deported to save Europe. It was not with their consent, it was against their will. But on the way back, we remember well that in Thiaroye when they wanted to claim their basic rights, they were massacred. It does not matter. When we, the people, decide to defend ourselves, we are called militias. But that is not the problem. The problem is to see African heads of state who bring nothing to these people who are fighting but who sing the same things as the imperialists by calling us militias, by treating us as men who do not respect human rights. What human rights are we talking about? We are offended by this and it is shameful. We African heads of state must stop behaving like puppets who dance every time the imperialists pull the strings.
Yesterday President Vladimir PUTIN announced the sending of cereals to Africa. We are very happy and we thank him for that. But it is also a message sent to us African heads of state, because at the next summit, we must not come here without having ensured, for those who do not know war, food self-sufficiency for our people. We must take the experience of those who were able to achieve this objective in Africa, build good relations here, build better relations with the Russian Federation to be able to meet the needs of our populations.
I will not be very long, the time allotted is short, but I would like to end by saying that we must pay tribute to our peoples, to our peoples who are fighting.
Glory to our people
Dignity to our people
Victory to our people
Fatherland or death, we will win!
Thank you comrades.
Captain Ibrahim Traoré
President of the Transition in Burkina Faso
cameroun : Russia - Africa The historic speech of Captain Ibrahim Traoré in Saint Petersburg at the Russia-Africa summit :: (cameroun24.net)
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