“God defend Ibrahim Traoré,” croons teary-eyed American R&B singer R Kelly, over footage of the 37-year-old navy chief of Burkina Faso main troops into battle and marching by means of adoring crowds. “He’s the voice of the individuals.”
The video, which has garnered practically 2mn views, is an apparent, AI-generated pretend (Kelly is serving a prison sentence for intercourse trafficking).
However it’s a part of a proliferation of actual and imagined tributes to Traoré who, since taking power in a 2022 coup, has been remodeled from an obscure navy officer to an anti-western icon on the continent.
In workplace, Traoré has launched anti-corruption drives, sought to wrest larger management of Burkina Faso’s mineral riches from world mining corporations and realign away from former colonial ruler France and in direction of Russia.
This, helped by the photogenic junta chief’s distinctive purple beret and navy fatigues, has carried nicely past the borders of the nation of 23mn individuals. It has additionally tapped right into a nicely of frustration amongst Africans fed up with rampant violence, dysfunctional democratic techniques and western meddling.
“There may be the beatification of Traoré: the cult of Saint Traoré,” Ebenezer Obadare, a senior fellow for Africa research on the Council on International Relations, mentioned.
In latest weeks, extensively shared photos on TikTok and different social media platforms embody an actual photograph of Traoré taking part in soccer. One other debunked submit celebrates his development of a low-cost housing venture (the location is definitely in Algeria). Former UK MP George Galloway has repeatedly praised him, and earlier this month claimed France and the US have been “clearly committed” to killing Traoré.
“Individuals love him,” mentioned Jean, a 30-something resident of Burkina Faso’s capital Ouagadougou, the place hundreds rallied in Traoré’s assist final month after a US navy official accused him of corruption and the junta mentioned it foiled a “main” coup try. “He’s saying issues about independence from France and larger management. Individuals like listening to that.”
David Hundeyin, a Nigerian journalist who has posted positively about Traoré on social media to his greater than 1mn followers, mentioned he supported what he described as Traoré’s “ideology” of financial self-reliance and anti-imperialism.
Hundeyin mentioned comparable insurance policies would assist handle issues in international locations together with his personal, the place democracy was removed from the “gold commonplace”.
“I don’t imagine that Nigeria is a extra democratic place or is a greater place to dwell in than Burkina Faso,” he mentioned. “They’re each terrible locations to dwell in . . . however I really feel the first financial and political challenge is being addressed in Burkina Faso.”
The effusive on-line reward has helped obscure Traoré’s chequered report in Burkina Faso, which has grow to be the epicentre of the safety disaster in west Africa and the place the federal government controls lower than half of its territory.
Traoré has been accused of constructing a persona cult, and his authorities has clamped down on the press, civil society and political opponents, even conscripting dissidents — together with physician and distinguished critic Arouna Louré — into the navy.
CFR’s Obadare argued that, whereas many Africans have been rightly pissed off by the “lethargy” of the continent’s democratic techniques, Traoré’s rising recognition was “way more sinister”.
“There may be this knee-jerk and robotic anti-westernism meaning as soon as somebody reveals as much as say they hate the west, we routinely imagine in that individual.”
Patrick Gathara, a public mental in Kenya, the place Traoré has additionally grow to be a minor trigger célèbre, mentioned: “There’s a romanticisation of what he’s doing. However we’ve seen the place navy takeovers take international locations, and I’m not satisfied that is going to bode nicely.”
Traoré, a former particular forces officer, got here to energy alongside navy leaders in Mali and Niger in a wave of coups within the Sahel, the semi-arid strip south of the Sahara, promising to revive safety in international locations racked by Islamist and sectarian violence.
Mali’s chief, Assimi Goïta, has gained comparable acclaim from some African intellectuals and personalities who say they admire him for expelling French troops and standing as much as worldwide mining corporations.
The French “themselves have contributed to the decline of their affect, as a result of they’ve a paternalistic view of {our relationships}”, Traoré — who types himself after twentieth century Burkinabe revolutionary chief Thomas Sankara — advised Russian media this month.
Traoré has discovered a prepared ally in Russia. Moscow reopened its embassy in Burkina Faso in 2023 after a 31-year absence following the autumn of the Soviet Union, whereas Russian paramilitary group Bear Brigade spent months within the nation final 12 months guarding junta officers, together with Traoré.
Obadare instructed that a number of the on-line consideration in direction of Traoré was paying homage to the types of affect campaigns run by Russian paramilitary teams equivalent to Wagner, which has beforehand promoted propaganda advocating for Moscow’s pursuits overseas.
“Russia is holding up Traoré because the second coming of Thomas Sankara (the previous chief, who was assassinated in 1987),” he mentioned. “Not as a result of they genuinely assume there’s something to him by way of ideology and good governance, however as a result of they wish to undermine democracy, western values, France, the west and the US.”
But Cheta Nwanze, companion at Lagos-based consultancy SBM Intelligence, mentioned it will be a mistake to underestimate the real assist for Traoré amongst Africans.
Western assist for longtime authoritarian leaders equivalent to Uganda’s Yoweri Museveni and Rwanda’s Paul Kagame is considered a double commonplace at odds with the west’s acknowledged dedication to democratic beliefs, he mentioned.
And surveys by pollster Afrobarometer show that, whereas a majority of Africans mentioned they most well-liked democracy to different types of authorities, greater than half of these surveyed would settle for coups in the event that they eliminated politicians who “abuse energy for their very own ends”.
Choice for democracy in Burkina Faso dropped 17 factors to 55 per cent between 2021 and 2023, a considerably larger slide than over the continent as an entire, although in democratic South Africa it dropped 29 factors, to 43 per cent.
Nwanze mentioned many Africans remained disillusioned with the west, opening the area for others. “Once you put all these items in context, it turns into simple for a geopolitical adversary of the west [such as Russia] to color an image that many would take a look at admiringly.”
However Hundeyin, the journalist who helps Traoré, dismissed hysteria over Russian affect. Flawed elections in so-called democracies equivalent to Nigeria had sown the seeds of disillusion greater than any Moscow propaganda, he mentioned.
“Let’s say there may be some kind of Russian involvement: what makes that such a horrible factor?” he requested. For these against him, “Ibrahim Traoré may heal the sick, elevate the useless and make each lady in Burkina Faso comfortable — it wouldn’t make any distinction.”
Extra reporting by David Pilling in London
