[UNLOCKED] The Alliance of Sahel States Pt. 1: Burkina Faso – An Anti-imperialist Introduction w/ Prudence Iticka

Jun 5, 2025

Prudence Iticka, a Cameroonian Pan-Africanist and member of the United African Diaspora, dives deep into the anti-imperialist landscape of Africa, focusing on Burkina Faso's revolutionary history. She discusses the legacy of Thomas Sankara and the rise of new leaders like Captain Ibrahim Traoré. The conversation highlights the crucial role of the Alliance of Sahel States in challenging neocolonialism and fostering pan-African unity. It also critiques the effects of imperialist propaganda and underscores the importance of grassroots movements for reclaiming African resources.

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INSIGHT

Imperialism as Africa's core issue

Imperialism is the fundamental problem Africa faces due to resource theft and loss of sovereignty.
Supporting Africa's anti-colonial struggles weakens the global capitalist system dependent on African resources.

INSIGHT

AES fights neocolonialism in Sahel

The Alliance of Sahel States (AES) fights neocolonialism by uniting Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger.
AES's anti-imperialist movement challenges Western control of resources and labor.

ANECDOTE

Prudence Iticka's activist role

Prudence Iticka is a Cameroonian Pan-Africanist based in Canada, working with United African Diaspora and the Coalition for the Elimination of Imperialism in Africa.
Her work focuses on supporting anti-imperialist movements and political education.

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Imperialism is the primary contradiction facing the globe—and the split of the world into two poles, the imperialists and the anti-imperialists, is going to continue to shape our revolutionary struggles moving forward. This anti-imperialist struggle is occurring all over the Global South, and perhaps nowhere quite as prominently as in Africa's Sahel region, where the countries of Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger have been waging a struggle against neocolonialism and building a movement towards pan-Africanism through the Alliance of Sahel States—an alliance that has received the praise of anti-imperialists across the globe, and which has also raised the ire of imperialists who are not happy to see Africans fight to take back control of their resources and their labor.

In this episode, we've brought on Prudence Iticka, a Camaroonian pan-Africanist and member of United African Diaspora and The Coalition for the Elimination of Imperialism in Africa, to tell us more about the AES and the struggle it's currently undertaking.

We begin with a brief history of Burkina Faso during the colonial period, and explore the rise of Thomas Sankara and the anti-imperialist movement he lead, his assassination and the neocolonial puppet that replaced him for three decades, and the recent rise of the revolutionary leader Captain Ibrahim Traoré. We talk about the Alliance of Sahel States (AES)—Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger—and how they are the seeds for a pan-African future and the leading spear in the fight against imperialism and neocolonialism. We explore imperialism as the primary contradiction in the world, how imperialist propaganda infiltrates Africa and what the AES are doing to combat it, and much, much more.

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