MILLICENT HUNGWE
OUAGADOUGOU – In a passionate and groundbreaking address that has reverberated across the continent, Burkina Faso’s President Ibrahim Traoré delivered a stirring message that many are calling a modern African manifesto.
In the viral video, President Traoré speaks not just as a head of state, but as a son of the soil, appealing to the hearts and minds of Africans across the world with a voice full of urgency, pride, and hope.
“Africa is not poor,” he declares, eyes burning with conviction. “We have been made to believe we are poor, but the truth is Africa is the richest continent on Earth.”
From gold to diamonds, oil to fertile land, he lists Africa’s unmatched resources and treasures the world covets, yet its people remain trapped in poverty.
This contradiction, he says, must come to an end. His words pierce through the silence of neglect, colonial hangovers, and economic manipulation.
Standing firm, Traoré reminds the world that Africa boasts 54 independent nations, 54 leaders, 54 governments, yet in disunity, they remain fragile and exploitable.
“I swear to Allah,” he says, “if we unite, there is no force on Earth that can stop us no one.”
With his signature humility and strength, Traoré makes an emotional plea not just to presidents, but to “the brave youth of Africa,” the farmers, the entrepreneurs, the diaspora, the forgotten, and the visionary.
His call echoes from Cape Town to Cairo, Dakar to Djibouti: Africa must rise together.
“Freedom is not just a flag or an anthem,” he continues. “Freedom means building our own roads, controlling our resources, teaching our own history, and shaping our future.”
In a tone that shifts between solemn and inspirational, Traoré exposes the bitter irony.
Africa’s minerals power foreign industries, its cocoa sweetens foreign chocolate, its oil fuels foreign cars while back home, “our people walk miles for water, and our farmers struggle while foreigners harvest our land.”
Yet, Traoré does not speak with bitterness, but with purpose, his message is not rooted in hatred but in love, love for the land, for the people, for the future.
Turning to the youth, he speaks as an elder brother, a mentor, a soldier of hope, “You are not just the future, you are the present, you are the energy, the voice, the courage that this continent needs.
“Rise with knowledge, with skills, with love for your land, be proud, be bold, be ready to defend what is yours not with hate, but with purpose.”
To fellow leaders, he offers partnership over politics, “Alone I can do something, but together we can change everything, l need you to be my shoulders, and I will be yours.”
To the African elite abroad, he jokes with sincerity,
“you spend your life building cities in the West, but when death comes near, you ask to be buried back home.
“My brother, Africa is not a graveyard it is a land to live in, grow in, build in.”
His message resonates like thunder rolling across savannahs and mountains saying, Africa does not lack brains, courage, or ideas it lacks unity, he urges intra-African trade, mutual defense, shared pride, and collective action.
“Let’s stop waiting for help. Let’s help each other,” he added.
With an unflinching voice, he acknowledges the risks of speaking such truths in a world still tangled in geopolitical webs.
“If they try to kill me for the truth, let them try,” he says. “But the voice of the truth will not die.”
The video has sparked debates, admiration, and hope, from villages to cities, classrooms to parliaments, Traoré’s message is stirring a consciousness many believe has long been overdue.
In a world that often casts Africa as a continent of problems, President Traoré’s speech repositions it as a continent of possibilities, fierce, fertile, and full of promise.
“Africa is awake,” he concludes. “We are rising, not to beg, not to borrow, but to build, with our hands, our minds and our hearts.”
As the sun rises over Burkina Faso and beyond, millions now echo a new anthem, Africa must rise not someday, but now.
