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Please let´s spread this eye-opening speech that you can read&listen to: Not only for the youth of Africa, but the youth of the world! Build your own future with this understanding of our situation

Ibrahim Traore, President of Burkina Faso: To the sons and daughters (not only) of Africa. Please share as widely as possible!


Defending Ibrahim Traore, Burkina Faso, sovereignety of African states&a transformation for emancipation of Africans&for an equal live in dignity for all members of our one human family May 19.1.



to the sons and daughters of the

motherland i do not write to you tonight

from behind golden walls or airond

conditioned offices i write to you as

your brother as one of you a soldier who

has walked through the fire a man who

has seen the game behind the curtain a

son of Africa who has bled in the sand

and

pointo rice this letter is not official

it is not stamped with the mark of the

state it is written in urgency in truth

and in love it is secret not because it

must be hidden but because the few are

ready to hear it but you must you must

hear it before it is too late i write to

awaken you because what you do not know

is being used against you because what

you do not question is enslaving you

because if you do not rise now you may

have no ground left to stand on tomorrow

africa is not poor africa is not weak

africa is not broken it is being broken

deliberately methodically and with our

own hands yes I said it with our own

hands we have let ourselves be sedated

by imported dreams we have mistaken

communions for freedom we have confused

foreign applause with success and now

the very soul of our continent is being

auctioned to the youth of Africa those

in lagos traffic and the Nairobi slums

in the fields of Bamako in the

universities of Acra in the nightclubs

of Joberg in the refugee camps of

Tripoli in the mining pits of Katanga in

the cafes of Kari and under the neon

lights of Paris and Rome i say this WAQU

P or be erased number one the tept of

your future my brothers and sisters all

my sons and daughters in the spirit of

Africa let us begin with a truth that

should pierce the conscience of every

young African who still dares to dream

your future is being stolen piece by

piece deal by deal Y by Y not by chance

not by accident not by natural disaster

but by men in suits and uniforms by

policies dressed as progress by deal

signed in silence by the kind of

leadership that confuses servitude for

strategy and yes by your own silence and

surrender you were told that

independence was given to your fathers

but I ask you if we are free then why do

our currencies still bow before the euro

why do our resources feed foreign stock

markets while our people feed on hope

and prayer why do the brightest minds in

Aka and Alisaba build roads in Dubai

launch techups in Berlin and create art

for galleries in New York while back

home the lights flicker the taps run dry

and the schools are crumbling you were

promised opportunity but what you got

was illusion you were promised democracy

but you inherited democracies that

protect the rich prosecute the truth

tellers and sell elections like

merchandise you were promised

globalization but it came wrapped in

poverty dependency and cultural eraser

you were told you would be the leaders

of tomorrow but that tomorrow never came

it is always tomorrow and they are

hoping you will grow too tired to keep

asking when my dear African youth I must

speak to you plainly you are being

groomed for obedience not leadership you

are being shaped to serve not to shape

it you are being distracted by the noise

of social media while your destiny is

being sold in silence the oil beneath

your soil has paid for the comfort of

men who will never know your name the

lithium under your hills has powered

smartphones in Tokyo and Teslas in

California but your schools still teach

under trees and your hospitals still run

without electricity how long will we

call this misfortune instead of what it

truly is a system a system designed to

keep you focused on football matches and

fashion trends while while your economy

is auctioned off to foreign powers a

system that makes you chase visas and

celebrity lifestyles while your

ancestral lands are bought by

billionaires a system that whispers

Africa will rise but never tells you who

is lifting it and for whose benefit let

me ask you something uncomfortable when

a two 5-year-old African man sells his

vote for a bag of rice

when a two three-year-old woman trades

her future for time and influences

approval when a 20-year-old student

stops questioning the lies in his

textbook what future are we really

fighting for because a theft of your

future doesn't always come with guns and

helicopters sometimes it comes with

hashtags and scholarships sometimes it

comes with silence and silence my dear

ones is complicity you were born with

genius in your bones and fire in your

chest but they are hoping you will waste

it on Tik Tok trains and tribal fights

they are betting you will spend more

time defending politicians than

defending your people they are watching

and they are laughing because they think

Africa will always sleep but I am

writing to you now to say they are wrong

you are not the future you are the

present you are not weak you are wounded

so you are not lost you are lied to and

if you rise with clarity with courage

with unity you will become the

generation that ends this long night but

first you must admit the truth your

future is not secure it is not

guaranteed and if you do not guard it

with your voice your mind and your hands

it will be taken it is already being

taken you must stop waiting for someone

to come save you no one is coming you

are the one number two the war you don't

see my dear sons and daughters of Africa

some wars are fought with guns and tanks

you hear them you see the smoke the

damage is visible the pain immediate but

there is another kind of

war a war that doesn't use bullets but

contracts that doesn't bomb cities but

bankrupts countries that doesn't send

troops it sends consultants it is the

war you are living through right now and

this war my beloved youth is more

dangerous than the ones we fought with

rifles in the bush because this one

wears a smile it speaks your language it

comes with foreign aid and free seminars

it offers scholarships and development

partnerships but behind the briefcases

and boardroom handshakes is an enemy

justice verdo as the colonial soldier

with a whip let me be even clearer this

word is for your mind your soul and your

silence they will not invade your land

they will invade your thinking they will

not shoot your leaders they will turn

them into polished agents wearing

presidential sashes they will not burn

your villages they will wret your

silence with social media fame with

imported theology with a system of

education that teaches you how to serve

not how to think look at how they fight

this war they give loans with one hand

and take back resources with the other

they build schools but write your

history for you edited diluted

weaponized they bring the NGOs and

preach about human rights while funding

puppet governments that kill protesters

in your streets this is psychological

warfare it is economic sabotage baptized

in diplomacy it is why the minerals

under your feet are extracted by

foreigners while your schools have no

chalk it is why your government signs

multi-deade mining deals that rob your

unborn children and no one is ever

jailed it is why the youth are

distracted by identity battles while

their leaders kneel for foreign

validation this war doesn't just aim to

exploit you it aims to erase you erase

your memory of who you are erase your

anger at what was stolen erase your

urgency to stand up before it is too

late and I must tell you many of your

so-called leaders are collaborators in

this war they have traded your

sovereignty for status your peoples

paying for private jets your national

wealth for foreign praise they wear

traditional clothes during independence

celebrations but sign away your

independence behind closed doors they

sing Panaffrican songs at summits but

speak in the accents of their masters

they are trained in nation building by

the very nations that build empires on

our backs in the media they are not just

telling lies they are manufacturing

forgetfulness they want you to forget

Patrice Lamba forget Thomas Sankare

forget Amul Kabal forget the fire that

once lived in our bones they want you to

remember celebrity gossip not the blood

soaked treaties that still govern your

borders they want you to argue over who

speaks better English rather than who is

selling your country to the highest

bidder but the truth is still here and I

am writing this because you must wake up

before it is too late you must realize

that every time you shrug and say that's

just how Africa is you are surrendering

every time you ignore an election stolen

in broad daylight you are surrendering

every time you scroll past corruption

and say it's not my business you are

feeding the enemy because this war

thrives on apathy it wins when you

choose comfort over confrontation it

wins when you think only of survival

never of sovereignty it wins when you

believe that this is the best Africa can

be but I am here to tell you they are

afraid not of your weapons not of your

numbers they are afraid of your

awareness because once you see the war

you cannot unsee it once you name the

enemy you cannot unknow it and once you

decide to fight back not with violence

but with clarity unity and purpose you

become dangerous the war you don't see

is real but so is your power do not

waste it do not wait for permission you

were born in the fire you were raised on

resistance and if you rise now eyes open

hearts firm this war can be won number

three Africa is not poor it is being

looted my beloved sons and daughters let

us destroy a lie today africa is not let

the world hear it let the continent hear

it let the youth whisper it to each

other in the classrooms in the markets

in the fields and across every digital

corner of our world africa is not poor

it is being looted we were never poor

before they came with their ships and

flags we had kingdoms we had systems we

had mathematics and medicine libraries

and architecture culture and dignity we

were rich in minerals yes but rich still

in wisdom in order in family and spirit

and yet today they hand statistics like

death certificates africa is

underdeveloped africa is dependent on

aid africa is unstable no the truth is

far simpler far more sinister africa is

being drained daily violently quietly

our wealth is flowing out like blood

from an open

wound while the world looks at us and

says "Why are you bleeding?" It is no

coincidence that the richest continent

in resources houses the poorest people

in the world that is not fade that is

theft our gold builds banks in Europe

but we cannot afford to pave roads our

oil fuels foreign cities while our

people cook with firewood our diamonds

dazzle fingers in distant lands but we

can't afford textbooks for our children

our cobalt powers their electric cars

while our miners die without safety gear

our land grows food for export while our

children go to bed hungry they do not

give us aid they return to us a fraction

of what they steal and they want

applause for it and that is why they

fear you awakening because if the youth

of Africa ever said no more if we ever

united our voices our strategies our

visions the looting would stop and the

empire built on our backs would begin to

tremble so do not ask how can I help the

poor continent ask who is stealing from

us and how do we stop them do not aspire

to flee to their lands aspire to build a

continent so strong so just and so

sovereign that no African must ever flee

again africa does not need charity

africa needs justice and that justice

must begin with you the youth refusing

to be complicit refusing to be silent

refusing to inherit chains wrapped in

modern packaging stand to the speak

study the systems question everything

organize yourselves hold your leaders

accountable because Africa is not poor

it is being looted and you were not born

to be robbed you were born to restore

the psychological occupation my dear

young Africans we have spoken of stolen

resources and invisible wars of

manipulated economies and bleeding lands

but there is a war far more dangerous

than what bullets can bring a

colonization more subtle than any flag

planted in the ta the soil it is the

colonization of the African mind the

psychological occupation the eraser of

selfworth you may think you are free

because the soldiers have left and the

colonizers have gone home but when your

enemy leaves behind a school system that

teaches you to hate your skin mistrust

your brother the glorify your oppressor

and aspire only to escape your

homeland then the colonizer never truly

left he just moved into your mind they

rewrote your history they painted your

kings as savages and your sages as witch

doctors they told you civilization

started in Athens not in Timbuktu they

told you the pyramids were built by

aliens not by your ancestors they turned

your story into their trophy and fed you

lies until you believed them they

renamed your children they mocked your

languages and called them dialects they

ridiculed your attire your dances your

music until you were ashamed of yourself

they taught you to bleach your skin

straighten your hair and call that

progress they sold your dreams of escape

they told you the future lies in Paris

London New York never in Bamakaco Kegali

Aka or UA they planted a seed of

inferiority so deep that even when you

win you still feel second class this is

not accidental this is programming and a

colonized mind will protect the chains

around its own neck and call it

tradition you scroll through social

media and see success as foreign yachts

luxury brands English accents Ivy League

diplomas you do not see your local

farmer teacher or entrepreneur as a hero

you do not see your own village as

worthy of building because you've been

taught to dream in someone else's

language young African they give you

mirrors that reflect back shame not

pride but I tell you today there is

nothing wrong with being African there's

something wrong with being taught to be

ashamed of it they've taught you that

corruption is African that war is

African that incompetence is African but

they do not teach you that it was

European powers that drew artificial

borders across your continent ignited

tribal wars assassinated your best

leaders and armed dictators in exchange

for control no they will not teach you

that part because if you knew the full

truth if you understood the full weight

of what they did and what they are still

doing you would rise up you would

reclaim your mind you would unlearn

their lies you would start building a

new you see the final battlefield is not

land it is identity and that is where

the war is raging the most in your

subconscious in your values in your

dreams this is why they bombard your

media with violence chaos and

hopelessness so you will believe that is

all Africa is this is why African

excellence is never celebrated in their

textbooks or news cycles so you will

believe you are cursed to always be

behind but you are not behind you are

being held back by a mental cage and

here is the most painful truth a cage

you do not see is a cage you will never

try to escape so my beloved youth I ask

you what are you consuming who is

telling you who you are what images

shape your perception of self in your

continent and when will you begin the

inner revolution because until the

African mind is free no amount of

foreign aid new infrastructure or change

governments will ever set you free

freedom must begin in the mirror we must

restore our pride we must rewrite our

story we must build an education system

that teaches truth not colonial echoes

we must celebrate our languages our art

our indigenous knowledge we must raise

children who do not dream of fleeing but

dream of staying and transforming the

youth are the mirrors through which the

soul of a continent reflects so I ask

you what reflection are you showing the

word is it a reflection of borrowed

culture borrowed goals borrowed voice or

is it a reflection of ancient wisdom

reborn in modern strength decolonize

your mind or others will weaponize it

against you number what must be done now

my dear sons and daughters of this

ancient powerful continent you now

understand the war you've seen the

stonewolf you've felt the manipulation

you've looked in the mirror and seen the

scars of a colonized mind but knowledge

alone is not liberation awareness

without action is surrender in disguise

so let me speak now not just to your

pain but to your potential let me speak

not just of what has been stolen but of

what must now be rebuilt this is the

hour of the great reversal and I speak

these words as a brother not a ruler as

a man who bleeds the same African dust

who weeps the same tears and who

believes in the unstoppable power that

lies dormant in

you education our education systems are

still colonial in spirit we teach our

children to memorize the glories of

other empires Rome Britain France and

call it world history but we do not

teach them about the universities of

Sancor the Zula resistance the

brilliance of Queen Enzinga or the

strategy of Sunia Takareta this must end

we must Africanize our curriculum not to

isolate ourselves but to ground our

youth in truth to teach them they are

heirs not beggars that their ancestors

were architects astronomers warriors and

poets not the caricatures they've been

shown the start local build community

libraries host storytelling nights with

your elders record the oral histories

before they vanish bring back the

villages the first classroom two

organize economically stop waiting for

permission sex buy from each other

promote Africanmade goods fund

businesses that employ your brothers and

sisters if 1 million youth each

contributed $1 to a pan-African

cooperative that is $1 million to build

your own tech incubator your own

clothing brand your own agricultural

revolution use your phone not just to

scroll but to sell connect educate and

organize the same internet used to

spread confusion can be used to build

empires don't just apply for jobs create

them don't just consume products

manufacture them we must graduate from

survival to sovereignty three unite

across borders are you artificial lines

drawn by colonial rulers mean nothing

you were not born Burkin Nigerian or

Kenyon you were born African your roots

braided in the same soil you future

bound by the same sun we must stop

fighting each other over names the

colonizer gave us we must stop echoing

the tribalism they fed us like poison

you must know that a youth in Ghana is

your brother that a woman in Somalia is

your sister that an injustice in Sudan

is an injustice in Sagal let no flag

come before your humanity pan-africanism

is not a slogan it is a survival

strategy use technology to break the

borders build networks across countries

mobilize for a shared vision stand for

each other rise together for hold your

leaders accountable do not romanticize

revolutionaries test them question them

even me do not mistake resistance to the

west for love of the people true

leadership is humble transparent

compassionate it listens it serves it

sacrifices if your leader builds palaces

while your schools collapse that is not

a liberator that is a looter with a

different passport demand that vote

wisely to refuse to be used resist both

foreign puppets and domestic predators

you are not too young to change a

country you are too important to wait

any longer five healed spiritually and

emotionally the trauma of slavery the

betrayal of colonialism the

disappointment of postindependence

corruption these have left us deeply

wounded but we must heal not through

denial not through bitterness but

through truthtelling through community

through art through faith let us weep

where we must but let us rise after a

healed generation cannot be manipulated

a united generation cannot be broken a

fearless generation cannot be erased my

beloved African youth what must be done

now is clear you must wake up you must

link out you must start where you are

with what you have do not wait for

foreign saviors do not wait for miracles

become the answer you were praying for

and as your elder your brother your

fellow dreamer for this continent I will

walk beside you i will protect your

voices i will fight for your right to

rise but the future is no longer in the

hands of presidents or parliaments alone

it is in your hands now what will you do

with it the final warning to my sons my

daughters my reason for sleepless nights

and my fire for each new dawn i now

speak to you not only with the love of a

father and the duty of a soldier but

with a weight of time pressing upon my

soul this final part of my message is

not a prophecy it is not even a threat

it is simply the truth a truth written

in the blood of history carved into the

silence of forgotten graves and

whispered to you the screams of a

continent still gasping for breath let

me now tell you plainly if you do not

rise now you may not rise at all because

dear child of Africa there's a clock

ticking not one that hangs on your wall

but one that tolls for your freedom your

language your soil your very identity

one you are being rewritten every minute

you delay someone else writes your story

they label your resistance as terrorism

they call your cries for justice

radicalism they erase your heroes from

textbooks they replace your name with

numbers and they program you to forget

that you were once royalty they are not

waiting to conquer you again with chains

they are conquering your mind with

distraction with false glory with

illusions of inclusion with technologies

designed not to connect you but to

consume you if you do not rewrite your

own narrative you will wake up one day

as a stranger in your own land speaking

foreign thoughts in your native tongue

applauding your own while calling it

progress this is not fiction this is not

fear-mongering this is the final chapter

they are writing and they are almost

done two the systems are closing in

global systems economic military digital

are being designed without you in the

room you will soon find yourself in a

world where your data is owned by

outsiders your economy dictated by

foreign your health monitored by systems

that never heard your story your

resources traded without your consent do

not let the smiling faces fool you

beneath their diplomacy is control

beneath their development projects are

pipelines that steal beneath their loans

or chains with digital walks if you

think independence was achieved in 1960

you have been lied to independence

delayed as dependency in disguise and

Africa is still being coded into

irrelevance to unless you hack the

system from within treat your silence

will be interpreted as surrender there

are moments in history when silence

becomes complicity we are in that moment

now if you do not speak up they will

assume you are content if you do not

organize they will assume you are

incapable if you do not resist they will

believe you are broken and they will

plan accordingly with conferences

agreements deals signed over your heads

and against your future the systems are

already being programmed to replace you

to reduce you to labor to extract value

to use and discard you will not even be

mourned because your eraser will have

been branded as modernization for you

must choose sleep or sovereignty this is

the final warning there are only two

futures before you one where you are

forever dependent where your food your

medicines your water your passwords your

thoughts come up from systems you did

not build and cannot control you will

own nothing and they will call it

liberation the other is painful at first

it demands sacrifice but in that future

you build your own table you write your

own history you protect your own soil

you bury fear and raise dignity that

path is not easy but it is the only one

where your grandchildren will speak your

name with pride not be so I ask you with

the urgency of a man who is seen behind

the curtain what will you choose another

decade of sleep or one year sacrifice

that changes the next hund another round

of slogans or the silent work of

building block by block until your

villages stand tall another trending

hashtag or the quiet resistance of

reading organizing unlearning and

awakening the world will not wait for

you the wolves will not wait for your

armor to be ready the systems will not

pause while you decide who you are

africa is not just at a crossroads it is

at a cliff one step forward with clarity

and we fly one more step asleep and we

fall into permanent exile from ourselves

this is the final warning but it is also

the final invitation to reclaim to

rebuild to rise you were never meant to

be erased you were meant to engrave your

names into the mountains to echo your

wisdom through time to light the path

for the world with your fire so rise

children of Sankura rise warriors of

truth rise future builders of the most

glorious Africa the world has ever seen

rise

now forever my beloved children of

Africa before I lay down my pen and

close this letter sealed by conviction

allow me to speak once more not as your

president but ask your watchmen on the

wall your elder in the wilderness your

voice echoing through time like a drum

beat of truth i speak now from the soul

of our ancestors i speak now from the

hopes buried in unmarked graves i speak

now from the sunscored soil that still

remembers your names even if you have

forgotten them to every youth reading

these words with burning eyes to every

child born into silence yet destined to

roar to every mother nursing the

revolution in her womb and to every

father breaking his back so the next

generation might stand may this

benediction ignite the warrior in your

blood i bless your eyes that they may

open and never close again to see truth

beyond propaganda to see light in the

shadow of deception to recognize your

enemy not by skin but by strategy i

bless your ears that they may hear the

cries of history to hear the unspoken

pain of stolen generations to recognize

the hidden call to leadership inside

every insult i bless your hands that

they may no longer beg but build defend

create and cradle the future of a free

Africa i bless your tongue that it may

speak not just of your struggle but of

your victory your unity your destiny i

bless your heart that it may burn not

with hatred but with holy fire the kind

of fire that purifies systems and forges

empires a new and above all to I bless

your soul with remembrance that you may

remember who you were before they told

you who to be what your land was before

they drew borders what your spirit

carried before it was colonized by shame

what your purpose is not to survive but

to transform you are not lost you are

rising to you are not broken to you are

rebirththing the time of waiting is over

the season of mourning has passed the

hour of restoration is here let the rain

of wisdom fall upon your desserts let

the bones of forgotten hero shake

beneath your feet let your minds no

longer be colonized by comfort stand

tall my African youth with courage in

your chest and your ancestors at your

back the draming the future is watching

heaven is waiting rise now and write a

new covenant with destiny for if Africa

is to rise on it shall not be by the old

nor by the foret it shall vice because

you remembered who you were may the

spirit of Sankara guard your dreams may

the winds of Nubia guide your steps may

the fire of Patrice Lumumba awaken your

blood may the tears of your mother's

water the seeds of your liberation and

may God Almighty who watches over the

oppressed walk beside you as you reclaim

what was never truly lost








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