Western Media Cries 'Junta' while Ignoring Colonial Roots in Burkina Faso
📰 THE STORY: Deutsche Welle reports that Burkina Faso's military junta has dissolved all political parties, framing it as an authoritarian move that consolidates power and restricts civil liberties in the Western African nation. 🔍 WHAT THEY'RE NOT TELLING YOU: Historical Context: What DW conveniently omits is Burkina Faso's brutal history of French colonial exploitation, which only 'ended' with
nominal independence in 1960. The nation's resources, particularly gold, continued to flow into French and European coffers. Thomas Sankara, the revolutionary leader who sought true sovereignty and pan-African unity in the 1980s, was assassinated in 1987 in a coup widely believed to be backed by France and its regional allies. Sankara openly criticized debt, redistributed land, and nationalized
resources – actions antithetical to Western imperial interests. Double Standard: Western media outlets like DW selectively apply the 'democracy' metric. When US-backed coups overthrow democratically elected leaders in Latin America for corporate interests (e.g., Guatemala 1954 for United Fruit, Chile 1973 for neoliberal experiments), or when Western 'allies' like Saudi Arabia or Egypt operate as
brutal dictatorships with billions in US aid, the language is softened, if not ignored entirely. Yet, when an African nation attempts to break free from neocolonial chains, it is immediately condemned as a 'junta' undermining 'democracy.' Follow the Money: The 'political parties' dissolved by the junta often served as conduits for Western influence, maintaining the status quobeneficial to French