Tuesday, March 15, 2011

Retrospective 07: Bizarro Burkina... or Not?

In brief, the normally complacent country of Burkina Faso is now three weeks into its own social crisis. While there have been brief mentions in US newspapers like the New York Times about universities being shut down. Most of the anglophone coverage is brief, not exceeding two paragraphs. You can read more in English here about the situation as it develops (since I am no longer there).

Now, let us wander into hypothesis land where I may or may not sound like I make sense, but this is how I interpret the situation, how it's developed, and how it may or may not progress. Please note, that I might be grossly off base, but this is what I have put together with the things I do know from the dark recesses of my mind and some speculation. Please don't take any of the following as absolute fact.
---< speculation >---

The student named Justin Zongo passed away in late February, police claim the cause of death to be meningitis. Witnesses, family, friends and his peers suspect foul play, corruption and a cover up. Chaos ensues.
    Oversimplification and exaggeration of series of events:
  • Girl and Guy 1 don't generally get along (for unknown reasons, but I suspect unrequited love).
  • Girl says something to annoy Teacher.
  • Guy 1, class president, says to Girl that that was inappropriate.
  • Girl says something that annoys Guy 1.
  • Guy 1 slaps Girl.
  • Girl complains to Guy 2, her boyfriend, and a formal complaint is filed with the police.
  • Guy 2 happens to be a police officer and uses his police officer powers to incarcerate Guy 1, keeping him away from girl and also paying him back for the slap.
  • Guy 1 is fined 10000 CFA which he has no money to pay, each time he goes to the police station to ask for more time, he pays off his interest by being slapped around and being arrested.
  • Guy 2 accidentally kills Guy 1 in his rage.
  • Guy 2 claims that Guy 1 died of meningitis.
  • Country calls BS. Guy 2's bosses say it's true, deh! Country calls double BS.
  • Country implodes in protest.
  • Guy 2 and other people are fired/thrown into jail.
  • Girl is mortified by how stupid guys are.
This is not the first time someone has died in police custody in recent years. Last June, another youth died in police custody. This youth was a gold miner who was reputed for selling confiscated drugs on behalf of the police. Unlike the incident in Koudougou with Justin Zongo, this incident in Gaoua with Arnaud Somé only resulted in localized protests. Both cases involve police corruption and violence leading to death. However, the difference is social function (miner vs. student), timing (summer vacation vs. middle of school year) and also reason for arrest (drug possession vs. student fight). Also, Justin's last name is Zongo, which reminds many people of the journalist Norbert Zongo, an influential investigative journalist whose suspicious death (many believe assassination) occurred while researching the presidential family's ties to a murder.

Protests for the Gaoua incident were localized and pertained to the community. However, the Koudougou incident touched the country as a whole regarding student rights. A disciplinary issue that should have been dealt with by the school was blown out of proportion due to the girl's connections. Nationwide rioting by students led to destruction of government buildings, especially police stations. This combined with the overall frustration with government corruption and the potential for future government corruption by the same people has led many of the unions to support the protesting and to protest themselves this week.

To really understand where this is coming from, one has to go back to the rise of the current president Blaise Compaoré and take a look at his government. Prior to being president, he was a close friend of his predecessor Thomas Sankara who he helped become president in a somewhat bloodless coup d'état in 1983 (i.e., the deposed president is still alive). Many Burkinabè revere Sankara's philosophy (making the country self-reliant as opposed to relying on foreign aid for things that Burkinabè could resolve on their own through austerity); however, some of his policies were controversial (stripping traditional privileges from tribal leaders, tribunal courts, etc.) and led to his assassination in 1987. Compaoré placed himself in power after this coup and reversed the majority of the policies that Sankara had in place (most notably, lifting limits on government employee salaries and benefits and inviting foreign aid back into the country).

Compaoré ruled the country under a military regime until its first election in many years in 1991. In Burkinabè fashion, the election was boycotted by the majority of the people who opposed the bloody coup that Compaoré used to seize power. Thus, he won his first and second elections in 1991 and 1998. In 2000, the constitution was amended to reduce the terms to 5 years. Note that the term limits set in 1991 was two terms, and the term limits set in 2000 was two terms. The judiciary system decided that the amendment could not retroactively count Compaoré's terms despite the fact that under prior to and following the amendment, he should not be eligible to run (if one follows normal logic and reasoning, though the argument on Compaoré's behalf was that he had never served two five-year terms). Bizarrely grandfathered in as an incumbent, Compaoré was deemed eligible to run in the 2005 and 2010 elections, both of which he won.

Everyone knows that there exists corruption within the government, especially embezzlement, bribery and abuse of political status and privileges. Not everyone is corrupt, but many are. At the very top of this corruption pyramid is the president. Whether or not he is corrupt has yet to be proven in a court of law. However, one could argue that by turning a blind eye, he is not proving himself to be a responsible leader, and thus some may consider him just as culpable of corruption.

Everyone also knows that there is a high likelihood of Compaoré pushing through an amendment to abolish term limits or changing the term limits to two N-year terms (where the natural number N ∈ (1,4] ∪ [6] ∪ [8,∞), or more simply, N ≠ {5,7}).

Back to the current situation... These protests are no longer about one student's death and its subsequent cover-up. These protests are about the corruption that is prevalent in the government of Burkina Faso. These protests are a not-so-subtle warning to the president of what will happen if he tries to change the constitution in order to run for office again. Recognizing this, schools have been shut down at all levels, not just the university level as some U.S. news sources might have you believe. That means students will spend less than three days in March in the classroom... if and only if the protesting ends.

Either way, it's the students that lose.

---< /speculation >---

No morals of the story today, just thoughts:
Justin Zongo hit someone. Regardless of the situation, he should not have hit someone.
• If you have been following me, then you know that in December, all students had the opportunity to receive free meningitis vaccinations. If he did receive this vaccination, which I suppose would be easy to verify with eye witnesses, then something clearly doesn't add up.
• Three lefts might make a right, but many wrongs don't make things right.
• I wonder when (if ever) the Ibrahim Prize will be awarded to a Burkinabè leader.

3 comments:

  1. A French version of essentially what was said, though with much more detail, and more accuracy can be found here .

    ReplyDelete
  2. Sankara's coup in 1983 was not bloodless. Colonel Gabriel Some Yorian and some of his supporters were killed.

    ReplyDelete
  3. BTW I see you perhaps established a library in Burkina? Were you in contact with FAVL
    www.favl.org?
    How is the library continuing to be supported?
    M Kevane
    mkevane@scu.edu

    ReplyDelete

Oh boy, you have something to say! :D