Trinidad and Tobago nationals joined the worldwide Solidarity March in support of Burkina Faso leader Ibrahim Traoré on May 25, African Liberation Day.
The march began at the Kwame Ture Education and Development Centre, Laventille, following the conclusion of the Black Agenda Project TT’s African Unity Conference, and ended on the Brian Lara Promenade.
Black Agenda Project director Roxanne Muhammad, speaking exclusively to Newsday, said the march was in support of African nations who are changing how and by whom their countries are run.
“The solidarity march is in support of what is happening on the (African) continent, that desire to want to stand up and be independent. Our patrons asked for the march and we decided to have it after the conference to support the changes being made by Traore to his country and other African nations who are ousting their colonisers."
She said on May 25, 1963, 31 African heads of state convened a summit meeting in London to found the Organization of African Unity (OAU). They proclaimed May 25 to be African Liberation Day.
“This is the 13th year the Black Agenda Project has been commemorating African Liberation Day with the African Unity Conference.
Muhammad said since Traore, 37, took office in Burkina Faso in 2022, he had taken a number of measures to remove the country’s economy from the control of France, its former colonial master. These included decreasing the salaries of MPs and increasing the salaries of public servants, making court and school attire more Afro-centric, kickstarting the agricultural sector and food processing, and nationalising the gold industry, among others.
She said this has not gone down well with western nations.
Black Agenda Project leader Dr David Muhammad said the centre was opened seven years ago with the assistance of community members but no government assistance.
“This is a message to our people, that we are capable of demonstrating the kind of liberation we speak about, without begging and asking for a handout. We can do it all on our own.
He said it was essential to look at the foundation on which Traore’s leadership had been built.
“It is important to say where we came from. It is a problem we see here in the black community, where we have a lack of succession planning.”
[caption id="attachment_1157111" align="alignnone" width="1024"] Five young men dressed as Burkina Faso leader Ibrahim Traoré pose at the Black Agenda Project's African Liberation Day Conference at the Kwame Ture Education and Development Centre, Laventille, on May 25.[/caption]
He said some of the African leaders on whose shoulders Traore stands are Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana, Nnamdi Azikiwe of Nigeria, Jomo Kenyatta of Kenya, Hailie Selassie of Ethiopia, Patrice Lumumba of Congo, Sekou Toure of Guinea, Idi Amin Dagda of Uganda, Nelson Mandela of South Africa, Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe, and Thomas Sankara of Burkina Faso.
He said the social and other initiatives being implemented by Traore are similar to those implemented by Sankara, who was assassinat
