A United Front Against The Debt — Thomas Sankara
Uniting Against Debt: The Defiant Vision Of
Thomas Sankara
A United Front Against The Debt —
Thomas Sankara
1. Full Name: Captain Thomas Isidore Noël Sankara
2. Nationality: Burkinabé (Burkina Faso)
3. Reason: At the Organization of African Unity summit, Sankara
challenged African leaders to oppose the repayment of foreign debt, framing it
as an extension of colonial domination that restricted development and economic
autonomy.
4. Location: Addis Ababa, Ethiopia (African Unity Organisation
summit)
5. Date: July 29, 1987
6. Impact: Though controversial at the time, the speech became a
touchstone for debates on neo-colonial economic structures and inspired
resistance to debt dependency across Africa, influencing intellectual discourse
on economic justice.
7. Key Quoted Line: “Debt is a
cleverly managed reconquest of Africa.”
Full Speech
Mister President, Heads of Delegations,
At this moment I would like for us to speak about another
pressing issue: the issue of debt, the question of the economic situation in
Africa. It is an important condition of our survival, as much as peace.
And this is why I have deemed it necessary to put several
supplementary points on the table for us to discuss. Burkina Faso would like to
first of all talk about our fear.
The
Fear of Neglect
Our fear is that there are ongoing United Nations meetings,
similar meetings, but less and less interest in what we are doing. Mister
President, how many African heads of state are present here when they have been
duly called to come speak about Africa in Africa?
Mister President, how many heads of state are ready to head
off to Paris, London, or Washington when they are called to a meeting there,
but cannot come to a meeting here in Addis-Ababa, in Africa? I know some of
them have valid reasons for not coming.
This is why I would suggest, Mister President, that we
establish a scale of sanctions or penalties for the heads of state who do not
presently respond to the call. Let’s make it so that through a set of points
for good behavior, those who come regularly – like us, for example – can be
supported in some of their efforts.
For example: the projects that we submit to the African
Development Bank should be multiplied by a coefficient of Africanness. The
least African should be penalized. With this, everyone will come to the
meetings.
The
Debt Dilemma
I would like to say to you, Mister President, that the debt
issue is a question we cannot hide. You yourself know about something in your
country where you have to make courageous decisions, reckless even – decisions
that do not seem to be related to your age or gray hair.
His Excellency, the President Habib Bourguiba, who could not
come but had us deliver an important message given this other example in
Africa, when in Tunisia, for political, social, and economic reasons, has also
had to make courageous decisions.
But Mister President, are we going to continue to let the
heads of state individually seek solutions to the debt issue at the risk of
creating social conflicts at home that could put their stability in jeopardy
and even the construction of African unity? The examples I have mentioned – and
there are others – warrant that the UN summits provide a reassuring response to
each of us in regards to the debt issue.
Understanding
the Origins of Debt
We think that debt has to be seen from the perspective of
its origins. Debt’s origins come from colonialism’s origins. Those who lend us
money are those who colonized us. They are the same ones who used to manage our
states and economies.
These are the colonizers who indebted Africa through their
brothers and cousins, who were the lenders. We had no connections with this
debt. Therefore we cannot pay for it. Debt is neo-colonialism, in which
colonizers have transformed themselves into “technical assistants.” We should
rather say “technical assassins.”
They present us with financing, with financial backers. As
if someone’s backing could create development. We have been advised to go to these
lenders. We have been offered nice financial arrangements.
We have been indebted for 50, 60 years and even longer. That
means we have been forced to compromise our people for over 50 years. Under its
current form, controlled and dominated by imperialism, debt is a skillfully
managed reconquest of Africa, intended to subjugate its growth and development
through foreign rules.
Debt
as Modern Slavery
Thus, each one of us becomes the financial slave, which is
to say a true slave, of those who had been treacherous enough to put money in
our countries with obligations for us to repay. We are told to repay, but it is
not a moral issue. It is not about this so-called honor of repaying or not.
Mister President, we have been listening and applauding
Norway’s Prime Minister [Gro Harlem Brundtland] when she spoke right here. She
is European but she said that the whole debt cannot be repaid. Debt cannot be
repaid, first because if we don’t repay, lenders will not die. That is for sure.
But if we repay, we are going to die. That is also for sure.
Those who led us to indebtedness gambled as if in a casino. As long as they had
gains, there was no debate. But now that they suffer losses, they demand
repayment. And we talk about crisis.
No, Mister President, they played, they lost, that’s the
rule of the game, and life goes on. We cannot repay because we don’t have any
means to do so. We cannot pay because we are not responsible for this debt.
Blood
Debt and Historical Justice
We cannot repay but the others owe us what the greatest
wealth could never repay, that is blood debt. Our blood had flowed. We hear
about the Marshall Plan that rebuilt Europe’s economy. But we never hear about
the African plan which allowed Europe to face Hitlerian hordes when their
economies and their stability were at stake.
Who saved Europe? Africa. It is rarely mentioned, to such a
point that we cannot be the accomplices of that thankless silence. If others
cannot sing our praises, at least we must say that our fathers had been
courageous and that our troops had saved Europe and set the world free from
Nazism.
Confrontation
and Economic Crisis
Debt is also the result of confrontation. When we are told
about economic crisis, nobody says that this crisis has come about suddenly.
The crisis had always been there but it got worse each time that popular masses
become more and more conscious of their rights against exploiters.
We are in a crisis today because the masses refuse that
wealth be concentrated in the hands of a few individuals. We are in crisis
because some people are saving enormous sums of money in foreign bank accounts
that would be enough to develop Africa.
We are in a crisis because we are facing this private wealth
that we cannot name. The popular masses don’t want to live in ghettos and
slums. We are in a crisis because everywhere people are refusing to repeat the
problems of Soweto and Johannesburg. There is a struggle, and its
intensification is worrying to those with financial power.
A
Call for African Solidarity
Now we are asked to be accomplices in a balancing – a
balancing favoring those with the financial power; a balancing against the
popular masses. No! We cannot be accomplices. No! We cannot go with those who
suck our people’s blood and live on our people’s sweat. We cannot follow them
in their murderous ways.
Mister President, we hear about clubs – the Rome Club, Paris
Club, club whatever. We hear about Group of Five, Group of Seven, Group of Ten,
and maybe Group of One Hundred. And what else?
It is normal that we too have our own club and our own
group. Let’s have Addis-Ababa become now the center from which will a new
beginning will emerge. An Addis-Ababa Club. It is our duty to create an
Addis-Ababa united front against debt. That is the only way to assert that the
refusal to repay is not an aggressive move on our part, but a fraternal move to
speak the truth.
Morality,
Justice, and Wealth
Furthermore, the popular masses of Europe are not opposed to
the popular masses of Africa. Those who want to exploit Africa are those who
exploit Europe, too. We have a common enemy. So our Addis-Ababa Club will have
to explain to each and all that debt shall not be repaid.
And by saying that, we are not against morals, dignity and
keeping one’s word. We think we don’t have the same morality as others. The
rich and the poor do not have the same morality. The Bible, the Koran cannot
serve those who exploit the people and those who are exploited in the same way.
It could be used in favor of both sides, there should be two
different editions of the Bible and two different editions of the Koran. We
cannot accept to be told about dignity. We cannot accept to be told about the
merit of those who repay and the mistrust toward those who do not.
On the contrary, we must recognize today that it is normal
for the wealthiest to be the greatest thieves. When a poor man steals it is
merely a theft, a petty crime -- it is solely about survival and necessity. The
rich are the ones who steal from the treasury, customs duties, and who exploit
the people.
Proposals
for Action
Mister President, my proposal does not aim to simply provoke
or create a spectacle. I would just like to say what each one of us thinks and
wishes. Who here doesn’t wish for the debt to be canceled outright? Whoever
doesn’t, can leave, get into his plane and go straight to the World Bank to
pay!
All of us wish for this…my proposal is nothing more. I would
not want people to think that Burkina Faso’s proposal is coming on behalf of
youth without maturity or experience. I would not want people to think either
that only revolutionaries speak in this way.
I would want one to admit it is merely objectivity and
obligation. And I can give examples of others who have advised not to repay the
debt – revolutionaries and non-revolutionaries, young and old. I would mention
Fidel Castro, for example, who said not to repay; he is not my age, even though
he is a revolutionary.
I would also mention François Mitterand, who said that
African countries, poor countries, could not repay. I would mention Madam Prime
Minister [Norwegian Prime Minister Gro Harlem Brundtland] – I don’t know her
age and I would begrudge myself to ask her – but it’s an example.
I would also mention President Félix Houphouët-Boigny; he is
not my age but he officially, publicly, declared that, at least as far as his
own country is concerned, Ivory Coast cannot repay. Now, Ivory Coast is among
the wealthiest countries in Africa, at least Francophone Africa; that is also
why it naturally has to pay a larger share here.
Disarmament and
Self-Reliance
Mister President, this is definitely not a provocation. I
would like you to offer us some very intelligent solutions. I would want our
conference to take on the urgent need to plainly say that we cannot repay the
debt. Not in a warlike or bellicose spirit – but to prevent us from being
individually assassinated.
If Burkina Faso stands alone in refusing to pay, I will not
be here for the next conference! But, with everyone’s support, which I need,
with the support of everyone we would not have to pay. In doing so, we would
devote our meager resources to our own development.
And I would like to conclude by saying that each time an
African country buys a weapon, it is against an African country. It is not
against a European country, it is not against an Asian country. It is against
an African country.
Consequently, we should take advantage of the debt issue to
solve the weapons problem. I am a soldier and I carry a gun. But Mister
President, I would want us to disarm. Because I carry the only gun I have and
others have concealed guns or weapons that they have.
So my dear brothers, with everyone’s support, we will make
peace at home. We will also make use of our immense potentialities to develop
Africa, because our soil and subsoil are rich. We have enough bodies and a vast
market – from North to South, East to West. We have enough intellectual
capacity to create or at the very least use technology and science from
wherever we find it.
Mister President, let us form this Addis-Ababa united front
against debt. Let’s make the commitment to limiting armaments amongst weak and
poor countries. The clubs and knives we buy are useless.
Let’s also make the African market be the market for
Africans: produce in Africa, transform in Africa, consume in Africa. Let’s
produce what we need and let’s consume what we produce instead of importing.
Burkina Faso came here showing the cotton fabric produced in Burkina Faso,
weaved in Burkina Faso, sown in Burkina Faso, to dress citizens of Burkina
Faso.
Our delegation and I are dressed by our weavers, our
peasants. There is not a single thread coming from Europe or America. I would
not do a fashion show, but I would simply say that we must accept to live as
African – that is the only way to live free and dignified.
I thank you, Mister President. Patrie or death, we will
overcome!
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