Thomas Sankara Speaks. Thomas Sankara
enemies of the people, who we must expose and combat. And we will combat them together with you.
The enemies of the people are also the forces of obscurantism who, under spiritual cover, under cover of tradition, are exploiting the people instead of genuinely serving their moral interests, instead of genuinely serving their social interests. They must be combated, and we will combat them.
Let me ask you a question: Do you like these enemies of the people, yes or no?
[Shouts of “No!”]
Do you like them?
[Shouts of “No!”]
So we must combat them.
Will you combat them inside the country?
On with the fight!
The enemies of the people are also outside our borders. They base themselves on unpatriotic people here in our midst at every level of society – civilians as well as in the army; men as well as women; young as well as old; in the town as well as the country. The enemies of the people are there. The enemies outside the country are there: these enemies are neo-colonialism; they are imperialism.
So, basing itself on these unpatriotic people, on those who have rejected their homeland, those who have rejected Upper Volta – who have, in fact, rejected the people of Upper Volta – the enemy outside the country is organising a series of attacks. Attacks in two phases: the nonviolent phase and the violent phase.
Currently we are in the nonviolent phase. The enemy outside the country – that is, imperialism; that is, neo-colonialism – is attempting to sow confusion among the Voltaic people. Thus, through their newspapers, their radios, and their television they would make us believe that Upper Volta is being laid waste by armed conflict.
But you are here, people of Upper Volta, and your presence proves that imperialism is wrong, and that its lies won’t stick. You are present, you are standing up, and it is imperialism that is trembling today.
A foreign journalist in a faraway country, sitting in his swivel chair, in his air-conditioned office, dared to report that the CSP’s informational tours are a failure. Are they failures? You are here, answer me.
[Shouts of “No!”]
Are they failures?
[Shouts of “No!”]
I would like imperialism to be here, so it can hear you say no. Repeat: are they failures?
[Shouts of “No!”]
You see, imperialism is wrong. But imperialism is a bad student. When it’s been defeated, when it’s been sent out of the classroom, it goes back in again. It’s a bad student. It never learns the lessons of its failures, it never draws the lessons from its failures. It’s over there in South Africa cutting African throats, just because those Africans are thinking about freedom, as you are today. Imperialism is over there in the Middle East crushing the Arab peoples. That’s Zionism.
Imperialism is everywhere. Through the culture that it spreads, through its misinformation, it gets us to think like it does, it gets us to submit to it, and to go along with all its manoeuvres. For goodness’ sake, we must stand in imperialism’s way.
As I’ve already told you, it will move on to a violent phase. It is imperialism that has organised troop landings in certain countries that we know. It is imperialism that has armed those who are killing our brothers in South Africa. It is imperialism that assassinated the Lumumbas, the Cabrals, and the Kwame Nkrumahs.
But I’m telling you and I’m promising you – because I have confidence in you and you have confidence in the CSP, because we are part of the people – when imperialism comes here, we will bury it. We will bury imperialism here. Ouagadougou will be the bolibana of imperialism, that is, the end of its road. Through very sophisticated methods, imperialism has tried to sow division within the CSP itself. It has created anxiety and hysteria among the Voltaic people themselves. But we are not afraid.
For the first time, something fundamental is happening in Upper Volta, something completely new. The people have never had the power to establish a political democracy here. The army has always had the possibility of taking power, but it never wanted democracy. For the first time, we see an army that wants power, that wants democracy, and that genuinely wants to link up with the people. For the first time, too, we see the people coming forward in massive numbers to stretch out their hands to the army. That’s why we believe that this army, which is taking control of the destiny of Upper Volta, is the people’s army. That is why I also salute those placards that speak of the people’s army.
In order to do us harm, our enemies within as well as without rely on a certain number of factors. I’ll mention some and will let you complete the list. They are trying to make us believe that the CSP is going to halt the normal functioning of the state apparatus as a result of taking decisions against high-level government employees.5 We have taken these decisions simply because we feel that there are those who, at this stage of our struggle, cannot keep pace. There are civil servants who don’t come to the office until 9:00 a.m. and who leave again at 10:30 a.m. to go to their orchards and watch over their houses. Is that normal? When we want to get rid of this kind of civil servant, our enemies say the CSP wants to bring the state apparatus to a standstill. But who is afraid of whom?
We are with the people. They are against the people. So we will take decisions that will be against the enemies of the people, because these decisions will be in favour of the people – the militant people of Upper Volta. Are you in favour of us keeping corrupt civil servants in our administration?
[Shouts of “No!”]
So we must get rid of them. We will get rid of them.
Are you in favour of us keeping corrupt soldiers in our army?
[Shouts of “No!”]
So we must get rid of them. We will get rid of them.
Perhaps this will cost us our life, but we are here to take risks. We are here to dare. And you are here to continue the struggle at all costs.
Our enemies say that the CSP is preparing to nationalise, that the CSP is preparing to confiscate their property. Who is afraid of whom?
When you go around Ouagadougou and you make a list of all the houses there are, you’ll see that these houses belong to only a minority. How many of you, consigned to Ouagadougou from the farthest corners of the country, have had to move every night because of being thrown out of the house you had rented? Every day the owner raised the price a little more. For those who acquired their houses normally, there’s no problem, there’s no need to worry. However, for those who acquired their land and their houses through corruption, we say to them: start trembling. If you have stolen, tremble! Because we are going to come after you. Not only is the CSP going to come after you, but the people will take care of you. Yes or no?
[Shouts of “Yes!”]
Honest citizens, even if you own 1,000 houses, have no fear! Dishonest citizens, however, even if you own only a half square, an entrée-coucher6 without sanitation, start trembling, the CSP is coming! We did not come this far only to stop after such a promising start. We are not here to sell out, we are not here to betray the people.
They say we want to nationalise. The CSP does not understand and will never understand – just as you too will never understand – how someone can come and get set up in Upper Volta, start a company in Upper Volta, succeed in obtaining favours – all kinds of tax exemptions – on the pretext of wanting to create jobs, of wanting to contribute to economic development, and then, after a certain number of years of brazen exploitation, announce cuts in personnel.
On what condition were you granted these favours? On the condition that you create jobs for Voltaics. Today, when you’ve squeezed the lemon dry, you want to throw the lemon out. No! That is what we say no to!
Our enemies say that the CSP proclaimed freedom of expression and of the press, but that the CSP is beginning to restrict this freedom. Comrade Jean-Baptiste Lingani said earlier, and later Comrade