Works Examined

General Material conditions and historical context (particularly important because the short-lived
nature of the Burkina revolution period means a lot of our discussion must center on why it failed, how it
can be prevented in the future, whether a small amount of time was enough for women to gain a
foothold, and whether the qualitative differences in the treatment of women in first vs third world is
enough to change the tools for empowerment when the ultimate relationship of women to men remains
the same across class, race, location, and other factors.)

Growth in Burkina 1960-2000

https://www.africaportal.org/documents/5654/BurkinaFaso.pdf

- Obvious but worth mentioning: the lack of a steady vision/leadership makes it harder for burkina
to build up its productive forces
- Only real wealth transfer happened under the CNR (Sankara’s regime), but even so it was limited
and hampered by a drought in 1984
- Cereal traders and other food merchants under the CNR had stringent price controls on how
much they could sell their stock for, and according to this paper it caused the merchants to travel
around less and may have decreased access to those in more remote locations
- Labour unions were not a power in and of themselves, rather the bargaining was meant to
happen through the CNR

Gutierrez, V. (2018). Understanding Geopolitics from a Historical Perspective: The Burkina Faso
Revolution, 1983-1987. The Toro Historical Review, 5(1). Retrieved from
https://journals.calstate.edu/tthr/article/view/2704

- Upper Volta and then Burkina Faso lacked the cash crops of its’ western and southern neighbors
and is often compared economically to the Ivory Coast and found lacking
- Ivorian government viewed the burkina revolution as a threat to its own order
- Other potential reads: Ernest Harsch, Pierre Englebert, Bruno Jaffre, Guy
Martin, and J. Tyler Dickovich
- French as culprits in Sankara’s murder, but did they instigate or was it other west African
nations? Some argue that his policies were too divisive but the lack of violence during the
revolution and continuing popular support for the CNR years after it’s dismantlement would
suggest otherwise to me. Compaore potentially obscured many government records that would
be useful in discerning this information.
- Sankara did not ally with either side in the Cold war in an attempt to avoid some of the threats
of the CIA, instead opting to attempts an Asian-African-South American alliance to fight against
“political traffickers and economic exploiters” (Gutierrez 2018:9)
- “the production of cereal, cotton and sesame production gradually increased from 1983-1987;
cereal production increased from 1,100 to 1,638 metric tons, sesame producer price
increased from 7 to 95 CFA/kg, and sesame produce price increased from 96
to 175 CFA/kg.” (Gutierrez 2018:11) -> remember this is with a drought in ‘84
 - Sankara was careful about his rhetoric about imperialist nations, and focused on the removal of
the system as a whole instead of specific imperialist countries, even trying to show some
solidarity with the impoverished people of Harlem in the US
o This didn’t work super well, Burkina was seen as the enemy of the west-aligned nations.
- Much of Sankara’s popular support came from his alignment wit the rural peasants, a large
faction of the country that former leaders had distanced themselves from

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Women’s Liberation and the African Freedom Struggle

- the history of relations between the sexes may be outside of the scope of this educational but if
we want to include it, I have more sources and can do a little explainer

- K2 relating the character of women’s oppression to power struggles at large:

o “They used their origins, or arguments based on their skin color, as a supposedly
scientific justification for dominating those who were unfortunate enough to have skin
of a different color. This is what colonial domination and apartheid are based on.” Page
16 -> all oppression starts on the basis of a lie that grows teeth

- Women across class have the same fundamental struggle:

o “The only difference between the woman who sells her body by prostitution and she
who sells herself in marriage is the price and duration of the contract. So, by tolerating
the existence of prostitution, we relegate all our women to the same rank: that of a
prostitute or wife. The only difference between the two is that the legal wife, though still
oppressed, at least has the benefit of the stamp of respectability that marriage confers.
As for the prostitute, all that remains for her is the market value of her body, a value that
fluctuates according to the size of the male chauvinist's wallet.” Page 21

- On the use of women’s bodies for production despite their apparent lack of value

o “Socially they are relegated to third place, after the man and the child-just like the
Third World, arbitrarily held back, the better to be dominated and exploited.
Subjugated, the woman goes from a protective guardian who exploits her to one
who dominates her and exploits her even more.” Page 24

- On the failure of bourgeois feminism after the creation of a toothless women’s ministry:
o “So we should not be surprised that, despite the existence of this ministry, prostitution
grew, women's access to education and jobs did not improve, their civil and political
rights were ignored, and the general conditions of their lives in town and countryside
alike improved not one iota” page 26

- On the work of the Women’s Union of Burkina (UFB):

 o “For three and a half years our revolution has worked to systematically eliminate all
practices that demean women, such as prostitution and related activity, like vagrancy
and female juvenile delinquency, forced marriages, female circumcision, and their
particularly difficult living conditions.” Page 30
o Before the revolution, 99% of women were illiterate and their presence in the workforce
amounted to semi-personhood, used only when men were not available and fired as
soon as a man desired the same job -> unless, of course, the work was too painful, to
fine, to delicate for men to labor over. Then women were allowed to perform such work
for meager wages.

- On who will decide the specifics of women’s emancipation

o “Comrades, I repeat, before it can correspond to the real needs of women, this plan
must be subjected to a democratic discussion at every level of the UFB's structures. The
UFB is a revolutionary organization. As such, it is a school for popular democracy,
governed by the organizational principles ofcriticism and self-criticism and democratic
centralism. It should dissociate itself from those organizations where mystification has
won out over concrete objectives.” Page 38
o “Our revolution is in the interests of all the oppressed and all those who are exploited in
today's society. It is therefore in the interests ofwomen, since the basis oftheir
domination by men lies in the way society's system of political and economic life is
organized. By changing the social order that oppresses women, the revolution creates
the conditions for their genuine emancipation.” Page 45
o “The genuine emancipation of women is that which entrusts responsibilities to them
and involves them in productive activity and in the different struggles the people face.
Women's genuine emancipation is one that exacts men's respect and consideration.
Emancipation, like freedom, is not granted but conquered. It is for women themselves to
put forward their demands and mobilize to win them.” Page 46

- General policies and promises

o “At the governmental level, guided by the directives of the National Council of the
Revolution, a consistent plan of action to benefit women will be implemented involving
all the different ministerial departments and assigning the short- and medium-term
responsibility of each” page 34
o K2 replace some of the labour each woman is expected to do with appropriate services
to facilitate women’s return to public life and political work: ““By working to solve the
water problem; by building windmills in the villages; by assuring the widespread use of
the improved stove; by building public nurseries, carrying out daily vaccina- tions, and
encouraging healthy, abundant, and varied eating hab- its, the revolution has no doubt
greatly contributed to improving the quality of women's lives. Women, for their part,
must commit themselves to greater involvement in the fight against imperial- ism. They
should be firm in producing and consuming Burkinabe goods, and, as producers and
consumers of locally produced goods, always strive to be a major factor in our
economy.” Page 30