Politics, Cinema, and Liberation in Burkina Faso

Dr. Nicholas Breyfogle  
Hello, and Welcome to Politics, Cinema, and Liberation in Burkina Faso, brought to you by the History Department and the College of Arts and Sciences at The Ohio State University, and the magazine,  Origins: Current Events in Historical Perspective. My name is Nick Breyfogle. I'm an Associate Professor of history and Director of the Goldberg Center for Excellence in Teaching, and I'll be your host and moderator today. Welcome, everyone, and thank you for joining us. On August 4th 1983, Captain Thomas Sankara led a coalition of radical military officers, communist activists, labor leaders and militants students to overtake the Government of the Republic of Upper Volta almost immediately following the coup's success, the small West African country, renamed Burkina Faso or land of the dignified people gained international attention as it charted a new path towards social, economic, cultural and political development based on its people's needs, rather than on external pressures and Cold War politics. Today, we're privileged to welcome Dr. James Genova who will explore the revolutionary government's rise and fall and spotlight the revolution's lasting influence throughout Africa and the world. He'll discuss one of the revolution's most enduring and significant aspects, its promotion of film as a vehicle for raising the people's consciousness, inspiring their efforts of social transformation, and articulating a new self-generated image of Africa and Africans. Let's take a moment to get to know our speaker. James E. Genova is Professor of History and Film Studies at The Ohio State University-Marion. He's the author of three books on African History, including most recently Making New People: Politics, Cinema, and Liberation in Burkina Faso, 1983-1987 which serves as the foundation of his discussion today. His research integrates the fields of African history, film theory, globalization, revolutionary movements, and ideologies, imperialism and decolonization, national liberation, as well as social group formation. Genova earned his PhD from Stony Brook University in 2000, where his dissertation was awarded the prize for best doctoral thesis. He teaches courses in African History, War and Conflict, African Cinema, World History, Genocide, European History, and Revolution in Africa. It's a wide range of courses. With that introduction, let me mention the plan. So Professor Genova will begin with a presentation on Burkina Faso in the 1980s after the revolution. And then he'll take your questions, and we'll open things up for discussion. If you're interested in asking a question, please write it in the Q&A function, which is at the bottom of your screen on Zoom, and then I'll read those questions to him. We'll do our best to answer as many questions as we can in the time that we have.

We'd also like to take a moment to acknowledge that the land that the Ohio State University occupies is the ancestral and contemporary territory of the Shawnee, Potawatomi, Delaware, Miami, Peoria, Seneca, Wyandotte, Ojibwe, and Cherokee peoples. Specifically, the university resides on lands ceded in the 1795 Treaty of Greenville, and the forced removal of tribes through the Indian Removal Act of 1830. We want to honor the resiliency of these tribal nations and recognize the historical contexts that have and continue to affect the indigenous peoples of this land. Now, let me pass you over to Professor James Genova, who will take us on an exploration of politics, cinema and liberation in Burkina Faso. Over to you, Professor Genova.

Dr. James Genova  
Thank you. Thank you, and good afternoon. Thank you for having me as your invited guest for this webinar on my most recent book, Making New People: Politics, Cinema, and Liberation in Burkina Faso, 1983-1987. I would like to thank Nick Breyfogle for extending the invitation to participate in this event, and I look forward to your questions and discussion at the end of the presentation. The book is a history of Burkina Faso's remarkable revolution from 1983 to 1987, led by Thomas Sankara it focuses on the government's cultural politics and its use of cinema as a mechanism for social change. The revolutionary government was one of the earliest in the world to identify climate change, debt and gender inequality as inhibitors to social development. However, one of the most enduring and significant aspects of the democratic and popular revolution, as it was called, was its promotion of film as a vehicle for raising people's consciousness, inspiring the records of social transformation and creating a new self generated image of Africa and the African. That emphasis fit with the vision of the Pioneer Generation of African filmmakers of the 1960s, who sought the cooperation of African governments to transform their societies and overcome the negative legacies of colonial rule. Today's talk will provide a brief background to the revolution, an overview of some of its policies and achievements, and then discuss its legacy. Upper Volta today Burkina Faso became independent from France on 5 August 1960. The territory was used as a labor reservoir by the French sending workers to other colonies in the region that circumstance contributed to the rise of a militant organized working class on the road to independence. The Workers Movement contributed to the overthrow of the country's first president Maurice Yameogo, on 3 January 1966, and the installation of a military government under Colonel Sangoulé Lamizana, who remained in power until 1980.

Initially, the new regime enjoyed some popular support. It also gained legitimacy among nationalists and radicals, especially among filmmakers, when it got into a fight with French based monopoly film distribution companies, leading to the nationalization of the theater infrastructure in 1970. Moreover, in 1969, Upper Volta hosted the first African Film Festival, what Lamizana institutionalized as FESPACO, the Pan African Film and Television Festival of Ouagadougou in 1972. However, by the early 1970s, worsening economic conditions and mounting corruption, eroded support for Lamizana and radicalized the opposition throughout the 1970s. Upper Volta borrowed money from the International Monetary Fund and Western banks, especially from France, with which the country was tied through a cooperation agreement signed at independence. The Sahara desert continued its relentless advance, jeopardizing the livelihoods of farmers in the north, and causing increased migration to the cities and southern regions that were ill equipped to handle the expanded population. Global warming also resulted in increased and unpredictable rainfall in the South that led to catastrophic flooding. The government focused on maintaining political stability through managing the civilian politicians and keeping the military loyal as a result Upper Volta did not develop economically and could not meet the challenges of inflation, debt and climate change.

In 1973, a new movement emerged called LEPAOD, the patriotic league for development. It was tied to the underground communist party known as the African Independence Party or PAOD. And in 1974, a communist led trade union federation was formed known as the CSV. In addition, Upper Volta fought a war with neighboring Mali in November to December 1974. Over that tiny stretch of territory highlighted in red on the map. It was during that conflict that Thomas Sankara became a hero to his troops for calling out the corruption that deprived them of decent living conditions, adequate supplies and appropriate training. He insisted that the troops see themselves as part of the people and work with the civilians to help them not oppressed. During that conflict, Sankara became friends with Blaise Compaoré, who served the young officer's ideas about making the military an instrument of social development in support. The people Jean-Baptiste Boukary Lingani and Henri Zongo joined with Sankara and Compaoré to form the Communist Officers Rally or ROC, which was a core of communist military officers who plan to bore from within the military ally with radical civilian movements like the PAI and seize power. In addition, in 1977, radical students founded a Maoist group that gave rise to the PCRV or Voltaic Revolutionary Communist Party in 1978, and the ULC, or Union of Communist Struggle in 1979.

In 1980, Lamizana's government was overthrown by right wing military officers led by Colonel Saye Zerbo. In 1982, another group of officers connected to the underground radical left toppled Saye Zerbo's regime. The revolutionary officers around Thomas Sankara survived the repression of Saye Zerbo by maintaining outward military discipline. This involves Sankara's decision to become the minister of information in the government, which gave him control over the media. He brought his collaborators in the underground revolutionary movement into public office and insisted on freedom for the journalists under his supervision to investigate corruption, which technically fit with Saye Zerbo justification for the coup against Lamizana. Sankara used inquiries into fiscal scandals to undermine the government Saye Zerbo ordered the reports suppressed this precipitated Sankara's public resignation in April 1982. Over the radio during a meeting to prepare for the 1983 FESPACO that move enhanced Sankara's popularity and when the regime imprisoned him, Sankara became a hero to the cause of justice and liberty.

Sankara's resignation put him on the radar of the Organization of African Filmmakers or FEPACI. In 1969, African filmmakers identified alienation sustained by colonialism as an inhibitor to social development and called for a cultural revolution to defeat imperialism and achieve true liberation. Following FEPACI's founding in 1970, the group helped to organize the meeting of third world filmmakers in Algiers, Algeria from 5 to 14 December 1973 where they focused on devising strategies to combat imperialism and neocolonialism and declared that action must be taken to seize from imperialism the means to influence ideologically. This implies control by the People's state of all cultural activities, and in respect to cinema nationalization in the interest of the masses of people of production, distribution and commercialization. In 1975, FEPACI convened its second Congress in Algiers Algeria, and produced the Algiers Charter on African cinema. The Algiers Charter asserted that cultural domination, which is all the more dangerous for being insidious imposes on our people, models of behavior and systems of values, whose essential function is to buttress the ideological and economic ascendancy of the imperialist powers. The filmmakers declare that cinema has a vital part to play in the liberation struggle, because it is a means of education, information and consciousness raising, as well as a stimulus for creativity. The state the charter, declare, must take the leading role in building a national cinema free of the shackles of censorship, or any other form of coercion, likely to diminish the filmmakers creative scope, and the democratic and responsible exercise of their profession.

The economic crisis of the late 1970s and early 1980s contributed to a more defensive tone struck by FEPACI at its third Congress in the army asiair from 1 to 4, March 1982. that produced the new yami manifest. They call for partnership with African governments in the realization of filmmakers creative works. Moreover, FEPACI asked its members to tamp down some of the criticism directed at those upon whom they relied for their craft. It concluded that filmmakers should maintain a sense of responsibility and morality in dealing with their governments and others they have dealings with the manifesto asserted there cannot be any viable cinema without the involvement of African states. And that meeting took place one month before Sankara's resignation. Following the coup that overthrew Saye Zerbo, the Revolutionary Military Organization or OMR, which was formerly the ROC had Sankara made Prime Minister in January 1983. He was co-equal with the country's president Jean-Baptiste Ouédraogo, who was a moderate and military officer chosen as a compromise between left and right. During Sankara's tenure as Prime Minister he hosted the 1983 FESPACO, solidifying his connection with the filmmakers and demonstrating his commitment to the building of a robust African cinema. Moreover, he traveled extensively making contacts with Muammar Qaddafi in Libya and attended the non meeting of non-aligned states where he developed friendships with progressive leaders, most importantly, Fidel Castro of Cuba. Those relationships made conservatives in the government nervous and raised anxieties in France and the United States. The French government plotted with right wing officers within the government, and had Sankara and his allies and the OMR removed from office and imprisoned on 17 May 1983. The people rallied to Sankara's defense through mass demonstrations and the revolutionary groups united into a formidable coalition. On 4 August 1983, the revolutionaries toppled the government and installed the Democratic and Popular Revolution, led by the National Council of the Revolution or CNR. At 10pm on 4 August 1983, the National Radio of Upper Volta went on the air with a special announcement read by President Thomas Sankara in the uniform of a commando red beret on his head and kalashnikov in his hand. Sankara said the events of 17 May 1983 were conducted by reactionary conservative forces who know to do nothing other than serve the interests of the enemies of the people. The interests of foreign domination of neocolonialism. The 33 year old captain continued to realize the objectives of the honor the dignity, the true independence and progress for Upper Volta and for its people. The current movement of voltaic Armed Forces constitute this day, 4August 1983, the National Council of the Revolution, he called on the people of Upper Volta to mobilize in active and vigilant support of the revolution, in the form of committees for the defense of the revolution, or CDR, Sankara continue. The fundamental reason and objective of the National Council of the Revolution is the defense of the interests of the voltaic people, the realization of their profound aspirations for liberty, true independence and economic and social progress. Two months later, on 2 October 1983, the CNR issued its statement of principles called the Discourse of Political Orientation or DOP, the DOP declared that the goal of the CNR is to build a new society freed from social injustice. Freed from the domination and a secular exploitation of international imperialism, the imperialist capitalist system has maintained Upper Volta in a situation of poverty and economic and cultural backwardness. It cited the external debt, inflation and lack of economic development as intended results of the neo-colonial imperialist system. For the people this pushed them towards a catastrophe. The immediate tasks were the liquidation, imperialist domination and exploitation, and the purging of all obstacles from the countryside, economic and cultural, which maintain it in a backward state. The CDR would be where people learn to be revolutionaries and lead to the creation of new people. The DOP outlined three areas of focus. These were the military, the place of women, and economic growth. The military's role was redefined as a participant in national production by working with the people to achieve their needs, changing each soldier into a militant revolution. Regarding women, the declaration called for breaking the domination of men over women, most blatantly sustained by traditional beliefs and forms of social organization. It states this is not an act of charity or a humanist gesture to speak of the emancipation of women. It is a fundamental necessity for the triumph of the revolution. This entailed a radical change of mentalities among men and women. This should not be understood as a mechanical equality between men and women voted into the DOP. Finally, in the area of economics, the statement called for an independent, self sufficient and planned economy in the service of a democratic and popular society. The programs outlined in the DOP included agrarian reform, administrative changes, educational innovation and cultural edification. The result would be the formation of a new culture of note in the DOP was the primacy given to culture. It described how the colonial school was substituted by a neo-colonial school that pursued the same goals of the alienation of children from their country, and the reproduction of a society, essentially at the service of the imperialist interests. One of the CNR's main tasks was to destroy the old order and put in its place a society of a new type. The statement proclaimed as a central objective In the creation of a new Voltaic with an exemplary morality and social comportment that inspires admiration and the confidence of the masses. Neo-colonial domination has placed in our society a rotting, such that we must use these next years to purify it. The Democratic and Popular Revolution will create the propitious conditions for the hatching of a new culture.

Over the next four years, the revolutionary government implemented far reaching reforms and put the newly renamed Burkina Faso well ahead of most other countries in the world on some of the most critical issues facing humanity. In 1984, the CNR launched a popular plan for development that ran for 15 months. The PPD resulted in the construction of 334 schools, 284 dispensaries and maternity wards, 78 pharmacies 25 grocery stores 553 apartment buildings and lodgings 258 water reservoirs and 962 wells and boreholes. According to World Bank figures, the volume of stockpiled water went from 8.7 million tonnes in 1983 To 302.4 million tonnes in 1986. The state provided funds for irrigation programs dam construction, and engaged in a vast construction program to renovate and expand the transportation sector. The latter involved road and railroad construction on a massive scale throughout 1985, the centerpiece of which was the Battle of the Rail launched on 1 February 1985.

The CNR was clear that economic development had to be done in a way that also combated the effects of climate change. When the CNR nationalized the land and resources of the country in August 1984. It included the provision that all projects of social and economic development at the national or local level must of necessity include a program of reforestation, in the form of planting groves of trees, plantations, green spaces or public gardens. The crisis was urgent, since at the time of the revolution, the desert was advancing by 10 kilometers a year. Furthermore, the CNR announced on 1 January 1985, the beginning of a reforestation program centered in the north, but designed to encompass all Burkina Faso. By December 1985, well, over 10 million trees have been planted. In addition the CNR announced on 22 May 1985 the three struggles which were the fight against brush fires, indiscriminate animal herding, and excessive logging. CDR were mobilized to combat those practices by convincing the people that they were not only harmful to the environment, but counterproductive for social and economic development.

According to the World Bank, the results and developments of the outcome of the PPD by December 1985 were in their words spectacular. Increased road density and rail infrastructure networks, a booming textile industry through processing of domestically produced cotton, and a growing market share of cotton fabric for local producers. Food self sufficiency through sensible agricultural policy. Wheat production went from 1700 kilograms per hectare to 3800 kilograms per hectare. Between 1983 and 1986. cereal production rose by a spectacular 75%. While never a major contributor to carbon dioxide emissions, the setting of brush fires and other aspects of deforestation added to the general erosion, climate stability, as well as long term economic sustainability for Burkina Faso. In 1983, the World Bank measured the country's carbon dioxide emissions at 0.081 metric tons per capita, a figure that had grown virtually every year since independence in 1960 when it was 0.009 metric tons per capita. By 1986. The figure had fallen to 0.061 metric tons per capita, before rising slightly in 1987 to 0.064 metric tons per capita. And I checked the most recent numbers today Burkina Faso is 0.2 metric tons per capita. By comparison, the United States is 14.7 metric tons per capita, Russia, 11.8 China, 7.6 France, 4.5. So, by comparison, revolutionary government managed to lower carbon dioxide emissions while simultaneously, vastly expanding agricultural productivity and manufacturing, even as the population increased from 7.3 million in 1983 to 8.1 million in 1987 an 11% increase. In 1986, the government mandated the construction of parks and gardens in every village. The CNR aim to create a giant greenbelt to block the root of the desert. Sankara argued that saving the planet was linked to the development of all societies. Sankara said since 4 August 1983 water, trees, and lives if not survival itself, have been fundamental and sacred elements and all action taken by the National Council of the revolution, which leads Burkina Faso. Sankara also asserted that the vaccination and literacy campaigns of the PPD aided the fight against climate change since they improve the health and education of the population, equipping the people to be more productive contributors to the struggle for a green Burkina Sankara announced that from 10 February to 20 March 1986 more than 35,000 peasants will take intensive basic courses on the subjects of economic management and environmental organization and maintenance. However, Burkina Faso's efforts would fail if the rest of the world did not do its part Sankara proclaimed, "We are not against problems, but we do not want progress that is anarchic and criminally neglects the rights of others." He proposed that governments take 1% of the money currently being invested in projects to search for life on other planets and direct it toward financing projects to save trees and laws. The CNR leader said our struggle for the trees and forests is first and foremost a democratic and popular struggle. It is above all a struggle against imperialism. Sankara explained that for the Burkinabé people. The fight against the advance of the desert poses a question of justice and equity. The DOP highlighted the double exploitation of women as a specific form of oppression. They suffered from the exploitation that much of humanity experiences but also face distinct repression at the hands of men because of their being women. The goal of the democratic and popular revolution was to create the conditions for women's real emancipation. The CNR abolished forced marriage, female circumcision, established a minimum age for marriage and recognized the right of women to inherit property emphasis was placed on encouraging girls' attendance in school, and all health campaigns had female specific dimensions within the CDR, a direction for women's mobilization and participation or DMOF formed that promoted programs around family planning and sex education, especially in rural Burkina Faso, the CNR mandated that government institutions have minimal requirements for the number of women in leadership positions, and this extended to the CDR, economic development programs, education campaigns and healthcare. The CNR recognized International Women's Day 8 March as a holiday, and on 22 September 1984, the CNR decreed men had to do all the shopping and tasks usually consigned to women, in what it called 'The Day of Husbands to the Market'. From 1 to 8 March 1985, the CNR sponsored  the Conference of Women, of which over 3000 delegates from across Burkina Faso took part that was followed on 19 September 1985. By founding the Union of Burkinabé Women, or UFB. On 8 March 1987, International Women's Day, Sankara declared, "Starting now, the men and women of Burkina Faso should profoundly change their image of themselves, for they are part of a society that is not only establishing new social relations, but is also provoking a cultural transformation, upsetting the relations of authority between men and women, and forcing each to rethink the nature of both." The Burkinabé  President stated, "Women's emancipation is at the heart of the question of humanity itself." The CNR leader served notice that every ministry and Administrative Committee would be assessed according to their success in implementing the goal that justice be done to women, the UFB needed to carry out vast political and ideological educational campaigns, Sankara asserted, "Comrades, only the revolutionary transformation of our society can create the conditions for your liberation, you are dominated by both imperialism and by men. There is no true social revolution without the liberation of women, and this must be accomplished without resorting to bureaucratic means." The revolutionary government appointed women to lead its healthcare campaigns including Operation Vaccine Commando, which ran from 25 November to 10 December 1984. The government engaged CDR throughout the country to fully immunize all children and newborns in 15 days, doctors and nurses fanned out across the country organized through the local CDR, and within those 15 days, over 2.5 million children from newborns to age 14 received vaccinations for measles, cerebral spinal meningitis, and yellow fever. UNICEF representatives marveled at the efficiency and success of the operation. The official report stated, "I was profoundly impressed by the engagement that the government displayed on the occasion of this campaign, as well as the mobilization of the community." The CNR constructed primary care clinics throughout the country with the goal of having one in every village, the CDR, built pharmacies in every province as part of the PVD. The state also subsidized the cost of medication. In 1983, life expectancy in Burkina Faso was 48.5. By 1986, the figure rose to 49.5. In infant mortality, Burkina Faso had a rate of over 119 deaths per 1000 live births in 1983. Among the highest levels in the world, that dropped to around 111 per 1000 live births by 1987. On 4 October 1984, the 34 year old President Sankara  addressed the General Assembly of the United Nations, dressed in military fatigues and wearing his trademark red beret with gold star Sankara said, "I bring the fraternal greetings of a country covering 274,000 square kilometers, where 7 million men, women and children refuse henceforth to die of ignorance, hunger and thirst, even though they are not yet able to have a real life, after a quarter of a century as a sovereign state represented here at the United Nations." Sankara explained the urgent need for a break with the established global order to realize true development for the impoverished parts of the world. On 29 July 1987, Sankara spoke at the Conference of the Organization of African Unity today the African Union in Ethiopia, on the problem of debt, Sankara said, "The debt has nothing to do with us. That is why we cannot pay it, the debt enabled the reconquest of Africa and turns its people into a financial slave." The CNR leader told the gathering that, "The lender won't die if Africans refuse to pay the debt. However, if we do pay, we are the ones who will die." Sankara called for the OAU to form a united front against the debt.

Critical to the realization of all of the Revolution's goals was the transformation of the person through a cultural revolution at the heart of which was the cinema. The ninth FESPACO 23 February to  2 March 1985, came at a critical moment in the history of African cinema FEPACI was in crisis and barely functioning, so at the 1985 FESPACO, the CNR invited FEPACI to relocate to Ouagadougou during the festival FEPACI convened its third Congress at which the Burkinabé filmmaker, Gaston Kaboré became its general secretary, he explained, "My political choice forces me to take an active part in the struggle to restore the personality and dignity of the African and Burkinabé people. In my opinion, cinema has a great role to play as a medium to promote our development policies and to rehabilitate our culture." The Burkinabé filmmaker said, "And in an Africa that is trying to grapple with the problems of development, African cinemas are indispensable, as foreign films, which are shown in our theatres contribute to keeping the African peoples in a state of subjugation." Kaboré and his associates in FEPACI put their rhetoric to action on 28, February 1985, when the organization joined the Battle of the Rail by constructing "Rail Trap". It's actually a picture of the filmmakers there laying down rail track. FEPACI declared "We African cineans reunited for the third Congress of FEPACI and the ninth FESPACO decided unanimously to participate in the Battle of the Rail. By this act, we wish to express our solidarity with the Burkinabé  people in it struggle for development." A major innovation at the 1985 FESPACO was the introduction of themes, which was at this one, 'Cinema and People's Liberation' at the 1985 FESPACO there was a retrospective on Algerian War Epics and on Latin and Central American third cinema films that were also anti-apartheid. Workshops and demonstrations against racism, imperialism and apartheid occurred every day. Sankara was conspicuous at film screenings, workshops, press conferences and award ceremonies. He also personally presented the grand prize at the 1985 FESPACO. As Sankaratold reporters on 4 March 1985,  "The purification of the cinema is a requirement of our struggle, we must conquer our screens reconquer our culture to spread the messages that are going to serve people's interests." Cultural achievement is part of the overall strategy of the revolution. During the festivities, the CNR staged a march of the militants on 24 February 1985 to demonstrate the link between Africa's premier Film Festival and the Democratic and Popular revolution. The theme of the 10th FESPACO 21 to 28 February 1987 was Cinema and Cultural Identity. One filmmaker highlighted the cultural combat characteristic of the atmosphere at the 1987 FESPACO. He writes,  "At FESPACO in the beginning was the cinema we are at the present, and now around the film its essential component is the cultural struggle for the rebirth of African civilization. This is the message of Burkina Faso that will surely meet all the African and progressive countries of the world and to which they cannot fail to respond." The tenth FESPACO was noted for three major developments. One was the inauguration of a project to create an African controlled distribution network for the continent's films, as Sankara said at FESPACO, "Whoever controls distribution controls the cinema." The second was the attention paid to oral cultures and tradition. The festival included a colloquium on oral tradition, the objective was to bring together cultural workers to make their work relevant with regard to reflecting the African reality and be at the surface of development. Sankara hosted a meeting of representatives from African television, radio and filmmakers in the presidential palace, where he explained that investment in the expansion of television across the continent was a matter of achieving economic independence. By engaging in those collaborative enterprises they would contribute to teaching the people how to love and make art Sankara explained that "Cinema is an elegant and pleasant way to develop among African peoples the attitudes we want for the construction of our happiness in Africa." However, the Burkinabé leader cautioned, "A people is never great when they are not aware of the culture, and the culture of a people does not exist, so long as they themselves cannot amplify together something beautiful." Finally, the Burkinabé  president explained, "Cinema an alliance between sound and image is for us a useful vector in Africa because we are a culture of orality but Cinema should not be the means that distills indirectly or in a malicious manner, messages of counter-revolutionary propaganda." FESPACO 1987 emphasis on cultural identity, augmented a trend in African cinematic production, African filmmakers increasingly explored historical events to reclaim the past and project a vision of African heroic resistance against imperialist oppression. That history was also presented from the perspective of rural traditions and the lives of peasants as they struggled against exploitation while grappling with their place in the modern world. The third major innovation at FESPACO 1987 was its global emphasis through the addition of new categories and prizes. 'Window on the World' showcased films from outside Africa, and marked the internationalization of FESPACO in 1987, FEPACI created the category of 'Diaspora', the winner of which was awarded the Paul Robeson prize. In his speech on the revolutions fourth anniversary 4 August 1987 Sankara stated that, "The revolution has required that the mentality of the Burkinabé people cease being a reproduction of the culturally alienated and politically servile individual created to perpetuate imperialist domination in the newly independent countries, we need a new people." The formation of those new unalienated subjects would further the collective struggle of humanity. Film was at the center of that project with the CNR in power, FESPACO became a different kind of event. The 1985 FESPACO was a veritable anti-imperialist summit representatives from throughout the world became part of the event signaling its internationalization. The festival became a space of cultural exchange that generated agreements to share products, ideas, and even people on a continual basis. The theme of the tenth FESPACO in 1987, Cinema and Cultural Identity, deepened the implication of African film practices with the project of personal and social transformation at the core of the revolution, the introduction of themes and the specific ones has chosen for the 1985 and 1987 FESPACOs marked the Revolution's commitment to fulfilling one of the main aspirations of African filmmakers that dated into the decolonization era, which was the necessity for Africans to appropriate for themselves the means of self expression, raise consciousness and create their own culture freed from imperialist. Despite the CNR's violent overthrow in 1987. The changes to African cinema persisted, as evidenced in the transformed nature of FESPACO and the films produced by the continents directors. In terms of style and content, a new wave of African cinema emerged, in which the humanistic and the Universalist interweave with the ancient and the present as part of a conscious effort to internationalize black African cinema to gain larger audiences. The Sankara government challenged the strictures of the IMF, World Bank, and Western governments that use debt as an instrument of control and manipulation of people around the world. Those concerns found expression through the films by prominent African directors in the 1990s and 21st century recognition of the enduring influence of the Burkinabé Revolution on African cinema had to await Compaoré's removal from power in October 2014. The next month in November 2014, the African Directors and Producers Guild GARP, created the pre-Thomas Sankara. It was awarded for the first time on 6 March 2015. The award assisted in the production of a short film that demonstrates dramatic creativity, narrative talent, technical excellence and a positive representation of the Pan-African imagination. Four years later, at the 2019 FESPACO, the African filmmakers marked the festivals 50th anniversary by declaring that year's theme to be a reprise of the 1985 FESPACO's focus on Cinema and People's Liberation. In addition, the event included the unveiling of a statue of Sankara the Burkinabé Revolution was one of the most remarkable events in modern African history, during which Burkina Faso became a notable player on the world stage. Its policies and practices continue to fire the passion of and provide inspiration to millions of people in Burkina Faso, across Africa, and around the world, nearly 40 years after its violent end. Thank you.

Dr. Nicholas Breyfogle  
Thank you so very much for that, fascinating talk. We're now at a point in the program, today where anyone who's in the audience, please feel free to ask a question to do so, what you'll need to do is to kind of type your question into the Q&A at the bottom of the screen, and then I'll pass those questions on to James, and we'll have a bit of a discussion. One question to begin, James, which is about, you were sort of talking about the ways in which there was an effort on the part of the film to kind of create a new culture free from imperialism, and there is some sense of success, there's a question sort of wondering, to what degree Well, I guess, let me ask this differently. So how were how were these films received by the people of Burkina Faso? Were these films that were really just for an elite that were looking at them? Or were they widely distributed and watched, and what was the reception to the kind of new ideas that were in them?

Dr. James Genova  
Yeah, I mean, that's a good question, and an important one, one that was critical to Sankara and the revolutionaries, they insisted that the festival will be a public mass event, and so they created a lot of improvised theaters and screening spaces across Ouagadougou and around the country. They encouraged the public to come in and watch these films, but not only watch them, but critique them, and also learn how to make films. So that was part of the workshops, they said, you know, that this needs to be a mass enterprise. In addition to the film festivals, the revolutionary government held what were called National Weeks of Culture, which were usually every December from 1980, starting in 83, again, in 84, and 86 ,and during those National Weeks of Culture, the whole country was mobilized to become cultural workers to engage with professionals, but also to see themselves as capable of producing these things, and that was rather unique. I mean, it was a way of saying, Yeah, this these films, which had been pretty much only seen in art, cinema, or European theaters, or the festival circuit, should be accessible to the people. It's what the filmmakers wanted. And were frustrated at through the 70s that they couldn't get the cooperation of their governments to assist that, and it was essential, as part of the project of the revolutionary government that this be a mass enterprise a collaborative enterprise. that revealed the creativity that is inherent in everyone, and they should be they should feel these films are theirs and that they too can be part of the process of creating. And so yeah, at least during these festivals, these were mass public events. That's why they staged these marches. And then the filmmakers reciprocated, as I mentioned, by going out and actually laying down rail track, which is not a normal thing that happens at a film festival. And so filmmakers from across Africa are out there, hauling out track and helping to assist the Government in this project. So it was a kind of unique moment and intentionally try and create change the dynamic. Yeah,

Dr. Nicholas Breyfogle  
I can't imagine watching the folks of the Oscars going out to railways.

Dr. James Genova  
Steven Spielberg driving stakes in the ground.

Dr. Nicholas Breyfogle  
That would be quite a marvelous thing to see. You mentioned what is just actually quite a remarkable list of areas of focus for change that the revolutionary government brought in with them, you know, particularly kind of ecological or climate kind of focus change, economic development, transformation of women's lives and kind of gender questions, and kind of cultural change and identity change through film. Why is it that they chose those areas to focus on what was it about each of those areas? That they thought was particularly important as they brought in the revolution?

Dr. James Genova  
Another good question, because this was so unusual. I mean, it's hard to imagine back to 1983, and what you know, the public international conversations were but it certainly wasn't primarily focused on climate change, gender equity, you know, these kinds of things were just not at the forefront and they focused on these things, partly because of this specific experience of Upper Volta during the colonial period and especially in the 1970s with, you know, the massive deforestation, the relentless advance of the Sahara Desert, which was reaching a crisis point, the disruption that it caused in society that it wasn't just, you know, a kind of ecological thing. But people were forced from their homes, this put strains on the infrastructure, which was already poorly developed to begin with it jeopardized lives, it jeopardized the stability of society and so that had to be any development project, and they also were looking at the lessons of what had come in the previous decades of countries that had attempted various development schemes. And they've been overly focused on imitating external models. And this was a big part of a Burkinabé Revolution is that they were not going to imitate anyone, they insisted on developing on their, with their own means, on their own terms, according to what they needed, and they looked at those other projects, giant dam construction, massive heavy industry investment, that didn't pan out, it didn't benefit the population and the governments usually became corrupt. They said, You know, this is we need a development that serves the people and the way they constructed these programs often was that they solicited feedback from the CDR in all the local areas and said, What do you need? What are the things that concern you and then what role the state can play. So rather than a top down approach, they tried very hard to make it a bottom up approach and what kept surfacing is these issues of the problem of climate and agriculture it's a largely agricultural country, deeply impacted by that, and the need for infrastructure and investment and things like drinking water and irrigation for agriculture, these were critical issues to the population, gender was a big issue, because especially among the women who were finally given a voice to say, you know, this is we have to be part of development and we you know, our needs and concerns, especially healthcare, education, and access to employment and leadership, that has to change, and Sankara had been developing and his cohort it wasn't just him, but his cohort had been developing this confluence of ideas through the 70s. As they kind of gleaned from experiences from other places, kind of assessed, what worked and what didn't. And what made it unique, at least from my perspective, was how conscientious they were in at least attempting to really understand what were the concerns and what would be necessary, regardless of whether there was an external model that could be out there. And it was part of the kind of uniqueness of the revolution on the world stage that they refused to explicitly choose sides in the Cold War, except to declare we have a basic set of principles and morality, and whoever comports with that and whatever comports with that we support but as soon as you don't we criticize you and we understand the risk but we're prepared to take the risk because we need to speak truth to power and so there's kind of honesty and at least conscientious effort. I mean, not everything worked. It's not a utopia clearly. But, it was kind of unique was a different way of approaching these problems and to raise these issues in the 80s. By the 90s, we're talking about debt cancellation, we're talking about female circumcision, and women's rights across Africa. We're talking about climate and starting the whole climate summits, but that's 10 years after Sankara was already talking about this.

Dr. Nicholas Breyfogle  
Yeah, it's amazing the degree to which they were, in some ways a kind of group ahead of their time, in that regard.

Dr. James Genova  
I mean, these tree planting, I mean, these are all the kinds of things that later would be embraced as strategies, you know, relying on locally sourced and sustainable agriculture to hold these courses where peasants would be given classes in basically sustainable agriculture and ecological management. I mean, this is the mid 80s. This is, you know, even the terminology and the language used would later be the languages of the environmental movements.

Dr. Nicholas Breyfogle  
Yeah, and did this kind of massive wave of attempt to change kind of in the mid 1980s. How did it survive kind of post Sankara after his assassination? Do they continue on?

Dr. James Genova  
That's that's the tragedy. I mean, the falling out between Compaoré and there's a whole long intrigue that could be a multi-part documentary involving cloak and dagger and various foreign powers. But the falling out was horrible. And, you know, Sankara was murdered, along with about a dozen other of his Presidential Secretariat and others were imprisoned. You know, within months, the CDR were dismantled by Compaoré. He began immediately negotiating a new loan with the International Monetary Fund, something that Sankara refused to do. And the interesting thing on that is not only did he refuse to accept money, but all through the period, he continued to make payments on the existing debt to the IMF. Because he said, Well, yeah, we didn't incur this but it's our obligation, and we'll pay you but we're not going to take your terms. Well, Compaoré  immediately went to the IMF took out the loan. He got enmeshed in the Liberian civil war with Charles Taylor, became it was just a mess, and within two years, he had actually killed the other two members of the four historic leaders of the revolution, accusing them of a coup plot, and by the 90s Burkina Faso was a mess, it was massively in debt, most of the programs have been abandoned so not much survived. But in film, I mean, that was why I emphasize that as an enduring impact. Through the changes done to African cinema, and the institutions around African cinema, those not only survive, but were embraced, and then acknowledged when they were finally able to do so after Compaoré was overthrown and among the people, when Compaoré was overthrown, the people in the streets demonstrating were wearing shirts with Sankara's image, holding up placards with slogans and statements from his speeches. And so and these were people who were all born way after he had been killed and it showed that even his ideas, even if the programs were gone, there was a sense of these things are possible. They're necessary. And they're also possible, and we a very tiny country with limited resources, were able to achieve some of these things and demonstrate to the world the possibility of we just have a commitment to it and that idea survives, regardless of what happened after. And I think that's another legacy in the people's mentality, there is a model that, you know, since they weren't going to borrow a model, they actually produced a model that that says, this stuff works, we can do these things.

Dr. Nicholas Breyfogle  
Right. The legacy seemed quite remarkable. Just speaking about the legacy in film and cinema, we have a couple of questions that I'll to you together, which are both kind of  focusing in on aspects of, of the film question. The first and so yeah, I'll give them both to you. One is some was the focus on film as a vehicle of cultural revolution in Burkina Faso and an intentional choice to distinguish FEPACI from other Pan African cultural festivals during this period. So that's one question. And then the second is, which I think is sort of related. But in an age of such accessibility to digital content with smartphones democratizing access to content creation, do you think it would be possible for film or cinema to foster such a widespread culture making movement again, in Burkina Faso or anywhere in West Africa or Africa?

Dr. James Genova  
Two really good questions. So the focus on film yes was intention. This it was a real wave, you know, African film essentially is invented in the 1960s and filmmakers had been very active. Upper Volta, which became Burkina Faso was kind of accidentally the nexus of this whole conversation around the role of film in Africa's post colonial development. When that fight, it was basically a fight over tax revenue Lamizana wanted to raise taxes on box office receipts to help pay public salaries that and it wound up being this whole thing that ended with the nationalization of the theatre infrastructure, which is what filmmakers wanted and the year before that the French  cultural emissary had actually was the one who started the Film Festival in 69. Because the French were very eager to maintain West Africa as a market for French films, or at least control cinematic production, because this was very important for them and so that's where the festival grew up Lamizana basically took that over and institutionalized it as this formal festival in 72. So so the country more than 10 years before the revolution, had already accidentally become kind of the anchor of African cinema and film had become very important as part of the national story and filmmakers were responding to that positively. And Sankara growing up as a young man remember he's 33, when he takes power in 1983. So you know, he's a young man in his early 20s, when, these events are taking place around film, and there's all this effervescence and excitement and there was a real sense in that period that that film could be used as a means to reach a largely oral culture, largely rural culture. And here, there was modeling the modeling was the Soviet Union in the 1920s, and cinema on wheels. And they looked at that as a success for propagating ideas and mobilizing people behind development projects and so so there was an a model there and so yeah, this was quite intentional. The fact that he did his public resignation as Minister of Information over the radio during the planning meeting for the next film festival, in 1982. You know, he was there among the filmmakers and deeply involved in planning the festival. So by the time of the revolution, there's already that commitment, this is a means. Now, as for the other question, that really is a question of major importance in the global cinematic universe of what does it mean to make film, what counts as a film? What counts as cinema, as an art in the current age with cell phones and other technologies? And you know, there are big splits. You know, there are some, we're pushing for a more kind of classic definition of the cinema and a film as an art as a technical enterprise. But others who push and say, Well, this is about democratization, technology, democratizes access, and so isn't this what we want anyhow. But then there's concern about quality and messaging, and a lot of that is self promotion and commercial. This was the dispute already in the 80s and 90s, over straight to video, film, Nollywood, and then the challenge of Nollywood to formal cinema of actually making a motion picture. And so so it's not a new issue. It's just the technology has continued to advance. And I don't know, I really don't know the answer to that dispute, or whether or not film can play that kind of role anymore because at least from where I see, it's a saturated media environment. I mean, how do you cut through, these kinds of projects of the 80s required a very concerted effort and concentrated effort on the part of people and through specific means, and I don't know how you get that now, with these new technologies. How do you cut through to produce something that has an intentional outcome? Right, how do you even get oxygen? How do you get airspace? How do you get viewership? I mean, it just I don't know and the theater infrastructure across Africa has been decimated for a variety of reasons, over the past several decades, and so even that's not the same even if you had wide distribution of cinema, the spaces for viewing are just not there the way they were before. Yeah, I don't know. It's really good question. And I'm not sure what can be done at this point.

Dr. Nicholas Breyfogle  
It is indeed and perhaps time will tell as in terms of how this will how that will play out.

Dr. James Genova  
Like you know with TikTok in the United States, right. Clearly, there are some who think the Chinese are after us through TikTok, but it's that really is that, and to what end?

Dr. Nicholas Breyfogle  
No and with each new media, there are new opportunities and exactly new tensions that is for sure. As it so often happens when we have marvelous guests, your time has flown. We've kind of come to the end of of our hour. I want to thank you all very much for joining us today for your excellent questions. I'm especially grateful to James Genova for sharing his expertise and his passion for African history for film history, please join me in giving him a virtual round of applause. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. And I'd also like to thank the College of Arts and Sciences, especially Alex Stacklane, the Department of History, the Goldberg Center at The Ohio State University, and Origins: Current Events in Historical Perspective, for their support. Thank you again so much for joining us today. Stay safe and healthy, and we'll see you next time. Thanks so much. Goodbye.