Solidarity Protests for President Traore: A March for Africa’s Future

In the few days leading up to 30 April 2025 and afterwards, there has been massive organizing across global Africa in solidarity with the leadership of Burkina Faso. Before the protests, there had been fervour and a show of support, especially among the young populations in many parts of the West African subregion towards the president of Burkina Faso. It will be recalled that during the swearing-in ceremony of Ghana’s current president, the crowd went wild at the announcement of President Ibrahim Traore’s arrival. That the youth admired the young leader who was clad in his military regalia was a signal that there have been some admirable developments in Burkina Faso that resonate with the youth in Ghana, and as will later be seen in the ongoing protests across Africa and the diaspora, the youths and aged among the descendants and ascendants of Africa.

Ibrahim Traore seized power through a military coup in Burkina Faso in 2022, and together with his military counterparts in Niger and Mali have determined to end years of unjust French exploitation, aided and abetted by America, that has been inflicted upon the richest yet poorest Sahel states. 

While African youths have observed the developments in the Sahel from afar, and nursed the support and admiration for a Pan African zeitgeist, the unfounded accusations of the director of the US Africa Command (AFRICOM) that Traore was using Burkina Faso gold for his personal security[1], several assassinations attempt on Traore[2],[2] and imperial workings to destabilise that country provided an impetus for self organising among youths in Africa.  For the African youths and the people of global Africa, the signs were clear on the wall that there are machinations and information warfare to set the stage for the loss of a version of Thomas Sankara, whatever the differences. From Jamaica to Ghana, with groundwork for rallies in the Gambia, from the UK to Cameroon, the peoples of Africa had had enough of assassinations of our leaders. Artificial intelligence (AI) was used to generate songs that mimicked the voices and styles of Beyoncé and other musicians in Global Africa to provide the musical dimensions to the moment. It was against this backdrop that Africans protested in solidarity with Traore and the flame continues to kindle against the scheme to truncate any liberatory project in Africa.

There is a deliberate and desperate attempt to reduce the Pan-African grassroots show of support for Burkina Faso’s leadership into a simplistic and misleading “democracy vs. military junta” debate. This framing is not only intellectually dishonest—it is politically convenient for those invested in maintaining the status quo of Western-backed regimes masquerading as democracies while delivering little to their people.

What ignited the global solidarity movement for Captain Ibrahim Traoré and the Burkinabè revolution was not a press release or diplomatic effort; it was the boldness of action. In a continent worn down by broken promises and elite compromise, millions witnessed something different taking shape in Ouagadougou: a young African leader choosing confrontation with imperialism over complicity.

Burkina Faso, under Traoré’s leadership, expelled French troops, closed down foreign military bases, reclaimed control over its resources, and refused to genuflect before former colonial powers. These were not symbolic acts—they were material declarations of sovereignty in a world where most African leaders still seek permission to speak boldly.

That is what galvanized Africans across the continent and in the diaspora. From Accra to Johannesburg, from Nairobi to Paris and New York, people poured into the streets—not because they love uniforms or coups, but because they recognized, in Traoré’s defiance, a reflection of their own longing for liberation. A reflection of what their own leaders have failed or refused to become.

But now, the same Western-aligned media and diplomatic establishments that ignored the looting of Africa for decades have suddenly found their voice in defence of ‘democracy.’ It is the height of irony. These are the same forces that have propped up kleptocrats and silenced dissent across the continent. The same ones that sold guns to tyrants while lecturing us on human rights.

We must be clear, the support for Burkina Faso is not anti-democracy. It is anti-imperialism. It is anti-exploitation.

The people of Africa are not confused. They are fed up. Fed up with the hollow rituals of elections that change nothing. Fed up with presidents who kneel before foreign powers while cracking down on their own youth. Fed up with “democracies” that jail journalists, criminalise protest, and auction off national assets to foreign multinationals.

Burkina Faso has become a symbol, not of militarism, but of resistance. Not of dictatorship, but of defiance.

To reduce this uprising to a question of military vs. civilian rule is to erase the deeper, more uncomfortable truth: This is a confrontation between imperialism and liberation. Between servitude and sovereignty. Between Africa’s past and its future.

And so, we march—not for a man, but for a principle.

#WalkWithTraoré

#HandsOffAfrica

#AfricaMustUnite

Ernesto Yeboah is a revolutionary Pan-African activist, political organiser, and the founding Leader of the Economic Fighters League in Ghana.  Known for his uncompromising stance against neo-colonialism, corruption, and imperialism, he has emerged as a leading voice in Africa’s grassroots liberation struggle. His activism, rooted in the legacies of Kwame Nkrumah and Thomas Sankara, champions radical economic justice and a total re-imagination of African governance. Whether on the streets, in academia, or in the courtroom, he continues to fight for a united, sovereign, and self-determined Africa.

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