SOCIETY TALK: Traoré represents the youth of Africa

Journalists and news media seem more biased than ever before in their reporting, judging by the rise in complaints. And finally, I get it.

As a journalist, I know we are drilled to be fair and impartial in our reporting. Our biases, however, slip through the cracks of our stories through factors such as  language, tone and editing. But I finally realise why the news is increasingly biased after my very own experience last week. 

The world is chaotic. People seem to have lost all sense. It has become a dog-eat-dog world. There is no middle ground. Every opinion or debate is either very far left or too far right.

No one wants to compromise and see the other’s point, and it is becoming increasingly harder to hold one’s opinion in. This is the story of how I almost turned this article into a fiery stream of curses and frustrations towards the West.

As I scrolled past social media last week, I came across a video of a long-faced Uncle Tom, who was spreading propaganda in the American Senate. This particular Uncle Tom, known as Micheal Langley, is a general in the US Marine Corps, was spearheading a warmongering mission concerning Burkina Faso’s President Ibrahim Traoré.

Most Africans know who President Traoré is. For most of us, he is the President we wished we had. He is of the type of leadership Africa needs to get out of years of indoctrination and imperialism from the West. Traoré might have taken control of Burkina Faso using a military coup d'état, but we have never heard any complaints from the Burkinabes.

His stance for radical anti-imperialism and pan-Africanism to minimise Western influence in Africa has made him an enemy of the West. As General Langley informed the Senate, Ibrahim Traoré nationalised the gold mines of Burkina Faso to help the people of Burkina Faso. He expelled all foreign mining companies and dropped the Franc and French as national currencies and language respectively. He has been returning the wealth of the country back into the people by investing in the people. 

Hearing General Langley speak made me straighten up as I felt like I had been struck by a thousand piercing needles all over my skin. “Here we go again! America is about to bring ‘democracy’ to yet another country!” I thought.

My frustration and anger built up like a volcano about to erupt. Luckily, the topic started trending immediately, causing an uproar from Africa and most countries from around the world. Even some Americans were not amused by this deceptive agenda by America.

The United States is known for utilising this tactic whenever they want to spread war into a country that is beyond their control. They did it to Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya and more recently Syria.

They go in under the premise of wrong leadership, seeking to remove the president of said country, loot it of all its riches and replace said repressive regimes with democracy. They may remove these leaders and even execute them, but the one thing they never leave behind is democracy.

What lies in the wake of American ‘intervention’ is loss, destitution, refugees and a country run by puppets of the west, who can never restore these countries back to their former glories.

As part of the generation that lived through all these ‘wars’, I understood the frustration felt by myself and many young Africans. We are tired of seeing America destroying lives in the name of democracy.

Democracy is our freedom to practise what we want. Kenyans regret electing President William Ruto to their very core, but you will never see us asking America for intervention. It is our choice, our consequence and our business.

Freedom and liberation is coming to Africa. A new awakening has begun. The young generations of Africa are tougher than any enemy General Langley has ever met in combat.

We are done being used by the west and electing puppets that serve their agendas. I can guarantee that the reaction and backlash General Langley received in that two-minute video is not like anything he has ever seen before. Ibrahim Traoré represents the new face of Africa. Get rid of him and he will be replaced by a hundred others.