QUOTE: ‘Africa exports roughly one trillion dollars in resources every year and receives just fifty billion dollars in aid in return.’

It was July 2023. The second Russia Africa Summit in Saint Petersburg. Heads of State from 49 African countries were in the room.

Ibrahim Traore stood and told the truth about Africa that most African leaders are too uncomfortable to say.

Traore was 35 years old. With impressive dignity, he walked to the podium and said what most African leaders spend their entire careers avoiding.

He said it anyway

He started by apologizing to the elders in the room for what he was about to say. Then he said it anyway.

His words were direct: ‘We do not understand how Africa, with so much wealth on our soil, with generous nature, water, sunshine in abundance, how Africa is today the poorest continent.

Africa is a hungry continent. And how come there are heads of state all over the world begging? These are the questions we are asking ourselves and we have no answers so far.’

He was not finished.

He told the room that because of poverty, young Africans are forced to cross oceans and deserts to reach Europe. They die in the ocean, but that soon Europeans will come to African palaces seeking their daily bread.

Africans are still slaves

He looked at the assembled leaders and said: ‘A slave who cannot assume his own revolt does not deserve to be pitied.

We do not feel sorry for ourselves. We do not ask anyone to feel sorry for us.

He then turned his criticism directly on African heads of state who roam the world begging instead of developing their own countries.

He moved on to African leaders who support imperialist interests rather than defending their own people.

Russia’s Head of State

He told Russia’s President Putin directly that the terrorism Burkina Faso is fighting today comes from imperialism, not from within.

And he asked Russia not for aid but for trade that would bring in return machines, science and education so Burkina Faso could build its own industry and engineering capacity.

He told the truth

He was 35 years old in that room. He had been in power for less than a year. And he said more truth in ten minutes than most African leaders say in a decade in office.

Africa exports roughly one trillion dollars in resources every year and receives just fifty billion dollars in aid in return.

Traore did not need a research paper to know that. He just needed the courage to say it out loud in front of the world.

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