00:00:00 Honorable delegates, heads of state, leaders of nations, distinguished representatives of peoples great and small. I greet you not as a career diplomat, nor as a man bred for banquet halls and handshakes. I do not come to you speaking the rehearsed language of polished politics. I come to you as a soldier of my people, as a guardian of a wounded land, as a son of a continent that has carried the cross of the world yet has never worn its crown. My name is Captain Ibrahim Taore, president of Burkina Faso. And today I speak not only
00:00:30 for the 22 million souls in my nation, but for a continent whose stories have been twisted, whose pain has been ignored, and whose dignity has been repeatedly auctioned off at the altar of foreign interests. Africa is not the bigger. Africa is not a battlefield. Africa is not your experiment, your puppet, your warehouse of raw materials. Africa is rising not to kneel, but to stand. And today I say before this great assembly of nations, Africa will not kneel. One on the false generosity of global politics. For decades you have
00:01:01 sent us aid with one hand while extracting our lifeblood with the other. You build wells in our villages while your corporations drain our rivers. You donate vaccines yet patent the cures. You speak of climate action yet continue to fund the very forces that burn our forest and dry our lakes. What kind of generosity is this? The kind that feeds the mouth but silences the voice. the kind that keeps a man alive just enough to keep him dependent. We are not blind to this hypocrisy. Let me be clear. We
00:01:27 are not ungrateful for sincere humanitarian assistance, but we reject a global order that disguises exploitation as partnership. We reject financial institutions that lend with one hand and steal sovereignty with the other. Africa no longer wants charity. We want justice. We want control over our own destinies. Two on the chains of colonialism and its modern descendants. Our wounds did not begin with us. They were inherited legacies of an empire building madness that saw us not as humans but cheap as cargo labour tools.
00:02:01 My ancestors were not consulted when maps were drawn with rulers and comes in Berlin. The borders of Burkina Faso, like those of many African nations, were not carved by our ancestors, but by men who had never stepped foot on our soil, who knew nothing of our languages, our tribes, or our spirits. Today, colonialism has a new face. It wears suits. It hosts forums. It signs contracts in Geneva and Paris and Washington. But it still takes without consent. It still dictates instead of dialogues. It still silences
00:02:31 instead of listening. If you want to talk about peace, then let's begin by unlearning the arrogance that peace is something only you can teach us.
Three, on resource exploitation and the myth of development. They call us developing as if the theft of centuries did not set us back. as if the gold from our lands, the diamonds from our rivers, the oil beneath our feet did not build the very skyscrapers in d which this assembly sits. Let us speak plainly for kinao is rich. Africa is rich, rich in minerals
00:02:59 and culture and wisdom and youth. But you have taught us to measure richness in GDP and export value. You call it development when a foreign company owns 90% of a gold mine on our land. You call it progress when your security forces guard cobalt mines but not our children's schools. That is not progress. That is piracy with legal documents. From now on, we will define development on our own . Development that puts children in classrooms, not minerals on cargo ships. Development that respects the land, the
00:03:30 people, and the soul of a nation for on sovereignty and interference. Why is it that when an African nation makes independent choices, we are called unstable? Why is it that when we seek military cooperation outside the colonial sphere, we are labeled a threat? Burkina Faso has chosen to walk a path of sovereignty that is not a threat to peace. It is a declaration of adulthood. We are no longer under your guardianship. We are no longer your junior partners in diplomacy. We are a free people. If a nation chooses
00:03:59 partners that respect it rather than exploit it, that is not rebellion. That is wisdom. Let it be known no foreign power will dictate the alliances of Burkina Faso. We will build relations based on mutual respect, not historical guilt or present- day intimidation. Fight on terrorism and manufacture wars. You ask why there is violence in the Sahel. You ask why our youth take up arms. But you do not ask who benefits when our mines are guarded by private mercenaries while our villages are left vulnerable. You do not ask how weapons
00:04:30 arrive in deserts that produce no steel. You do not ask why peacekeeping never seems to end the war. The truth is many of the so-called solutions to African security problems are merely business models. Endless conflict has become a market and African suffering has become a subscription-based service. Burkina Faso has decided to break that cycle. We will fight terror but not with dependency. We will secure our nation not with foreign dictates but with national dignity.
Six, on migration and human dignity. We do not want our youth
00:05:02 drowning in the Mediterranean. We do not want our brightest minds fleeing to countries that once called us savages. We do not want remittances. We want reasons for our people to stay. Why do our youth flee? Not because we lack beauty, but because we are made to lack opportunity. Not because we hate our land, but because our land is treated as someone else's property. Migration is not a crisis. It is a symptom of wars we did not start. Of loans we did not need. Of a world order that tells our youth
00:05:30 their only value lies outside their own homes. The solution is not border fences. The solution is justice for serving on Africa's place in the world. Africa is not a mistake to be fixed. Africa is not a failed continent. Africa is the womb of the world, the cradle of civilization, the keeper of tomorrow's hope. We have been made invisible in global decisions that affect us deeply. At the UN Security Council, Africa with 54 sovereign nations has no permanent seat. What justice is this? You call it
00:06:01 balance. We call a betrayal. You speak of democracy yet uphold a global structure where the powerful few veto the dreams of the many. We will no longer whisper in rooms where we deserve to speak with full voice. Aid on faith and spiritual dignity. We are a spiritual people. Before your cathedrals, our ancestors sang to the sky. Before your missionaries, we knew the language of the rivers and the laws of the sacred forest. Christianity came, Islam came, and we received them not as slaves but as seekers. But now we ask,
00:06:30 will the church and the mosque stand with us truly with us when all people are displaced by greed masked as globalization? Will your pulpit echo our cries or only repeat the songs of the powerful? Faith too must be decolonized. It must walk with the poor, not the privileged. Nine on unity among African nations. This is not a speech from one country. This is the steering of a continent. You see Mali, Niger, and Burkina Faso forming a new bond. You fear our unity. Why? because it threatens the myth that Africa can only rise under
00:07:01 your supervision. We are uniting not to wage war, but to wage dignity, to pull our courage, to share strength, to protect each other when the world turns its back. Panaffricanism is not a dream. It is our lifeline. And we will build it stone by stone, heart by heart, with or without your approval.
Ten, to the youth of Africa, to the young boy selling oranges by the roadside. To the girl who walks 10 kilometers to attend school. To the child whose only toy is a stone but who dreams of stars. You are the
00:07:30 reason we fight. Do not believe the lie that your continent is cursed. You are the blessing. Do not envy foreign ports. Be proud of your name, your land, your roots. The world may not applaud you now, but the future will speak your name in honor.
Eleven, final words. We will not kneel. I do not come to declare war. I come to declare will. So we will not kneel to fear. We will not kneel to foreign banks. We will not kneel to outdated empires. masquerading as friends. Africa is not asking for a seat at your table. We are building our
00:08:01 own, a table where no child eats last. Where no nation is silenced because it lacks nuclear arms. Where justice is not filtered through the lens of race or history, but shared as breath is shared. This is our vision and this is our vow. Let the world hear it today and always. Africa will not kneel. Thank you.
sleek214:
Who dey even post this guy news for here self? Wetin concern Nigeria and this boy? Abeg, you guys should stop posting news about this boy....
It is not by force to comment on issues that are above your level of comprehension.
sleek214:
Who dey even post this guy news for here self? Wetin concern Nigeria and this boy? Abeg, you guys should stop posting news about this boy....
You didn’t know that when your government and their handlers started pushing propaganda against him on this platform? Y’all are only looking for a break to resume your propaganda. You will not see that break!!
sleek214:
Who dey even post this guy news for here self? Wetin concern Nigeria and this boy? Abeg, you guys should stop posting news about this boy....
sleek214:
Who dey even post this guy news for here self? Wetin concern Nigeria and this boy? Abeg, you guys should stop posting news about this boy....
The matter you boy.
Take a backseat when important people and issues are discussed.
Not every African wants to be a slave to the white man
1, Mandela said more
2 Mugabe said enough
3, Gaddafi said more than this.
4, Nkwameh Nkurumah said many
5, Julius Nyereye said so,
You ate all the same,. What are you then doing with Putin and Xi?
What are the Wagner forces doing the Burkina Faso?
sleek214:
Who dey even post this guy news for here self? Wetin concern Nigeria and this boy? Abeg, you guys should stop posting news about this boy....
You cling so tight to your colonial chains, thinking it's a golden trophy.
I can only pity your generations unborn.
A young man is putting his life on risk to emancipate you, but go back and read your comment.
Dear Traore, Africa shall never forget your sacrifices.
saysoo:
1, Mandela said more
2 Mugabe said enough
3, Gaddafi said more than this.
4, Nkwameh Nkurumah said many
5, Julius Nyereye said so,
You ate all the same,. What are you then doing with Putin and Xi?
What are the Wagner forces doing the Burkina Faso?
He has said it already.
"It is wisdom, trying to form alliance with people that respect you."
These years of submission to the west, what advantage can you boldly mention?
It's a twisted world, the West is not a single nation, fighting to keep Africa underdeveloped. It's a collection of greedy nations.
It's foolishness trying to fight them alone as a small nation.
Russia will understand how they engage with an emancipated African.
"It is wisdom, trying to form alliance with people that respect you."
These years of submission to the west, what advantage can you boldly mention?
It's a twisted world, the West is not a single nation, fighting to keep Africa underdeveloped. It's a collection of greedy nations.
It's foolishness trying to fight them alone as a small nation.
Russia will understand how they engage with an emancipated African.
Don't encourage the evil colonization.
Not encouraging colonization, but he is going back to the same story. Africa do not need the west, so he need not move to the united nations for any brave talks. Stay home and do your thing.
sleek214:
Who dey even post this guy news for here self? Wetin concern Nigeria and this boy? Abeg, you guys should stop posting news about this boy....
saysoo:
1, Mandela said more
2 Mugabe said enough
3, Gaddafi said more than this.
4, Nkwameh Nkurumah said many
5, Julius Nyereye said so,
You ate all the same,. What are you then doing with Putin and Xi?
What are the Wagner forces doing the Burkina Faso?
Exactly my point. Africans are just looking for a hero instead taking responsibility and fixing the continent.
Until we deprogram our minds from colonialism, and become genuine people, embrace our culture and moral identity, development will be far from us as a nation
sleek214:
Who dey even post this guy news for here self? Wetin concern Nigeria and this boy? Abeg, you guys should stop posting news about this boy....
Same ideology with our own Mazi Nnamdi Kanu.
God bless Ibrahim Taore!
God bless Nnamdi Kanu!!
God bless Simon Ekpa!!!
God bless Bukinafaso!!!!
God bless Biafra!!!!!
God bless Africa!!!!!!
Your president runs to every 2 weeks!! That’s crazy if you don’t know!!
my president is a joke, that's an established fact. This Traore boy is an even bigger fraud who spend all his life doing propaganda and fake bravado while terrorists split his country into portions and claim whatever portion they want. If he would drop that awful soldier clothes, stop blabbering and do actual governing he'd be better off
sleek214:
Who dey even post this guy news for here self? Wetin concern Nigeria and this boy? Abeg, you guys should stop posting news about this boy....
No one in their right senses hates this guy, except someone who has been blinded by tribalism
You didn’t know that when your government and their handlers started pushing propaganda against him on this platform? Y’all are only looking for a break to resume your propaganda. You will not see that break!!
A criminal who stole power but obsessed with blaming the west. And Africans are clapping for him. How exactly is been anti-west progressive in and of itself?
Feldie:
my president is a joke, that's an established fact. This Traore boy is an even bigger fraud who spend all his life doing propaganda and fake bravado while terrorists split his country into portions and claim whatever portion they want. If he would drop that awful soldier clothes, stop blabbering and do actual governing he'd be better off
Seriously! It's really sad. We've been starved of progress and love so much that we can kiss anything. To get the average African by your side simply start blaming the west and others for looting Africa while looting the country as you do so.
Our leaders, even in Nigeria here, have mastered the art of dividing the people while they eat. A president from one side of the country will covertly and overtly raise online and offline warriors from his tribe to create conflicts in the tribes while stealing from all the tribes. They will push narratives on why certain tribes are holding others down while they hold the entire country down.
Idia Amin opposed the west. Abacha did. Nguemo did. All the men that have ruled Africa haved used this formula. But when you look at people who started the journey with us, like Singapore, South Korea, Saudi, etc., whose resources were exploited and you notice how divergent and progressive their formula was.
Singapore, in fact, after splitting from Malaysia, didn't ditch English language because of international trade. Here, someone calls it progressive when wigs are replaced by traditional court attires. We are not a serious people.
Sapiosexuality:
...
But when you look at people who started the journey with us, like Singapore, South Korea, Saudi, etc., whose resources were exploited and you notice how divergent and progressive their formula was...
Someone who knows nothing and understand that they know nothing will get the chance to learn.
Someone who knows nothing but confidently claims they are knowledgeable is doomed.
None of those countries you mentioned above were relegated to producing raw materials and cheap labour according to the globalization order created by the West.
Dont be deceived by the fact that we're operating a democracy. In reality, A lot of African presidents who seem to be democratically elected are actually no more than Warrant Chiefs whom /Britain selected and issued "certificates of recognition" to rule their countries according to instructions dictated from Paris or London.
Have you ever asked why your Presidents can be summoned to Paris or London without hesitation?
Feldie:
my president is a joke, that's an established fact. This Traore boy is an even bigger fraud who spend all his life doing propaganda and fake bravado while terrorists split his country into portions and claim whatever portion they want. If he would drop that awful soldier clothes, stop blabbering and do actual governing he'd be better off
It would be awesome if you could share your information sources! I hope it’s not BBC or one of those other propaganda sources. I also hope you aren’t imagining things and selling them as facts!!!
