RT — Lumumbas Africa
20260808 123000 UTC
247 transcript segments
Google Speech-to-Text API Automatic Transcription (Chirp)
Data courtesy of The GDELT Project (https://www.gdeltproject.org/), from the Internet Archive TV News Archive.
Machine transcription. Treat it as a searchable index of what was broadcast, not a verbatim quotation record.

[00:00:00] the dot and to the eye were
[00:00:03] controlled from Paris and at
[00:00:07] that time Thomas Sankara and Blace
[00:00:10] Campaure who was then his comrad in
[00:00:13] arms represented
[00:00:16] a crop of young people who believed that the
[00:00:20] resources
[00:00:21] of their country ought to be utilized for the benefit
[00:00:24] of the people. The first thing they did was to change the
[00:00:28] manner in which government was to be run and
[00:00:32] there are number of pillars which informed the
[00:00:35] administration of Thomas Ankara number
[00:00:39] one that we must
[00:00:41] in deal with imperialism, we must
[00:00:45] ensure that the imperialist no longer control our
[00:00:48] of affairs, number two, that we must restore
[00:00:52] our dignity and our culture, number
[00:00:56] three, that we must ensure our mineral
[00:01:00] and our resources are used for the benefit
[00:01:03] of the people, that we must feed
[00:01:06] ourselves, that we must liberate
[00:01:09] ourselves from the debts which have been imposed on us
[00:01:13] and that we must do
[00:01:15] in this from a pan-african perspective, and that we
[00:01:19] must do this from a standpoint of dignity.
[00:01:22] therefore, one
[00:01:23] of the things that they did was to change the name
[00:01:28] in of the country from upper volta to burkinafaso. which
[00:01:31] in means the land
[00:01:32] of the upright men or the land
[00:01:35] of the upright people, that was
[00:01:39] unprecedented, unprecedented
[00:01:42] in a country where street names still
[00:01:45] bore the names of French generals and
[00:01:49] French characters, to change the name
[00:01:51] of the country was affront to the imperial power,
[00:01:55] throughout his life as a president, Thomas Sankara
[00:01:59] always had: the chance of snowball in hell, his
[00:02:02] life was always under threat and he knew it,
[00:02:06] and immediately, in order to debank the
[00:02:10] imperialist, he said we must change our governance system,
[00:02:14] what must we do in that regard? we eliminate the
[00:02:17] of political party, because the political parties were the conduits
[00:02:21] via which the imperialist were controlling the agenda
[00:02:24] of their country, so political parties were
[00:02:27] eliminated, once they were eliminated
[00:02:31] power was organized on the basis of
[00:02:35] military defense committees, and this commities
[00:02:38] were designed in such manner that they
[00:02:42] cascaded from the capital in
[00:02:45] Wagaadugu, from places like Bobo di Alaso,
[00:02:49] way up to the villages and of course the military
[00:02:53] heads had quite some power because Thomas Sankara took the
[00:02:57] view that discipline was an...
[00:03:00] essential ingredient of ensuring that things were
[00:03:04] done properly. once that had been done, he also said
[00:03:08] that politicians must not be apart from the
[00:03:11] people and they must not leave in luxury. he reduced
[00:03:15] the salaries of military officers who are now serving in
[00:03:19] these offices and said that people must use
[00:03:23] only such cars as are necessary. luxury
[00:03:27] was eliminated, his famous statement, is, it is
[00:03:31] either champagne for the few or
[00:03:34] water for all, and I think that remains an
[00:03:38] iconic statement that we must create an environment
[00:03:42] where the
[00:03:43] na majority
[00:03:43] of the people are living
[00:03:46] in a dignified manner. The other thing that it did
[00:03:49] was to begin to deal with the
[00:03:51] of question of self-sufficiency, and
[00:03:54] agriculture, sugam, tomatoes and other
[00:03:58] things, people are involved. informing with a view
[00:04:02] to ensuring that they were self-sufficient and they may not
[00:04:06] have been between the five 1900 and
[00:04:10] 1983 and
[00:04:11] of
[00:04:12] of 1987, but it is documented that work was done
[00:04:16] in a massive manner and that food
[00:04:20] sufficiency was almost realized
[00:04:23] during the revolution of thomas andkara, so
[00:04:27] there was agrarian revolution.
[00:04:30] addition and tied to the agrarian revolution was the
[00:04:33] environment, the desertification which threatens and continues to
[00:04:37] threaten burkinafaso and countries in the sahil, he
[00:04:41] said there must be massive tree planting, and those
[00:04:45] who have heard the advantage of visiting burkinafaso will see the
[00:04:49] attempt that were made to ensure that trees were
[00:04:52] planted and that rivers to the few
[00:04:55] of them were therefore not depleted, so the
[00:04:58] agrarian with the
[00:05:01] in environmental revolution is one
[00:05:03] of the things that stands out during this particular
[00:05:06] period of 1983 to
[00:05:09] 1987. The other. thing that they did was
[00:05:13] in the area of education, because they realized and they
[00:05:17] took the view that in order to move the country to the next
[00:05:21] level, then levels of illiteracy had to be
[00:05:24] improved and arrangements were made to ensure
[00:05:27] that public education, particularly at the
[00:05:31] primary level or the lower level was
[00:05:35] publicly financed. in Africa we are found of talking
[00:05:38] about something called free education, there is nothing like that.
[00:05:42] "all education is publicly financed and this
[00:05:46] is what is said must be done and the levels
[00:05:50] of literacy rose a
[00:05:54] very dramatic manner in burkinafaso during this
[00:05:58] short period. the other revolution was in the area of
[00:06:02] health, particularly primary health. this is
[00:06:06] area that is in the tropical environment and very
[00:06:09] many problems exist." and still do
[00:06:13] exist, particularly in terms of primary health, in
[00:06:17] terms of vaccination, in terms of access to medical
[00:06:21] facilities, and efforts were made to ensure that
[00:06:25] the health sector was reformed a dramatic
[00:06:28] way. The other sector was in the area of
[00:06:32] infrastructure. Of course, he was operating
[00:06:36] at
[00:06:36] the time when the French were now revolting against him a
[00:06:40] sense and therefore are not supporting him. but he said with our little resources
[00:06:44] and what it is that we are realizing from the sale
[00:06:48] of our minerals, we must work
[00:06:52] on infrastructure and efforts are being made and
[00:06:56] were made during that period to ensure that
[00:06:59] infrastructure was indeed given
[00:07:03] its pride of place. there was also reform in
[00:07:07] mainstreaming women, women were not involved and he took
[00:07:10] the view that human... Rights only make sense if it
[00:07:14] is gender neutral and deliberate efforts were
[00:07:18] made to ensure that women were involved in all
[00:07:22] processes and therefore were involved and
[00:07:26] engaged in the process of development the
[00:07:30] country. In terms of diplomacy, Thomas
[00:07:34] Sankara took the view that diplomacy must be
[00:07:38] anchored on pan Africanism, that meant
[00:07:42] that we must have friends who are panafricanis and
[00:07:45] panafricanism were understood to mean that
[00:07:49] all activities must be afrocentric, that you
[00:07:53] only have such friends as are useful to
[00:07:56] you, and he took the view that the western world was
[00:08:00] hostile to burkinafaso, hostile to
[00:08:03] Africans, and that it was wise to begin to
[00:08:06] gravitate toward countries such as Cuba, China
[00:08:10] and the Soviet Union. at that time and he took
[00:08:14] the view that they - their approach was not to
[00:08:18] dominate, but to collaborate and to
[00:08:21] cooperate, but Thomas
[00:08:24] Sankara did something which he
[00:08:28] will be remembered for in his attempt to fight
[00:08:32] the imperialist. on the 27th
[00:08:35] day of September
[00:08:37] 1987 on the
[00:08:40] floor of the
[00:08:44] auditorium in Adis sabab by Ethiopia, he said,
[00:08:47] in order to free ourselves from the chains of
[00:08:51] imperialism, we must stop borrowing money from the
[00:08:55] international monetary fund and the World Bank, he
[00:08:58] suggested, let a committee be formed, which committee
[00:09:02] will now say we are no longer going to borrow from them, we are no
[00:09:06] longer going to pay them, and he said, if I do
[00:09:09] it alone as Bukinafaso, as toma,
[00:09:13] isidore, noel, sankara, I will not leave
[00:09:17] to see it, and he did not leave to see it, and whenever I watch the
[00:09:21] footage when he was making that statement, I could see the
[00:09:24] faces the leaders looking at this young man who is
[00:09:28] breathing fire and brimstone, and when he made
[00:09:31] that statement, he said
[00:09:34] that there was need to take deliberate steps to ensure that
[00:09:37] debts were not paid, because as long as we were
[00:09:41] tied to the international monetary fund and tied to the
[00:09:45] world bank and WTO and all these bretton Woods
[00:09:49] institution and tied as it were with
[00:09:53] these western institutions which were parasitic,
[00:09:57] then Bukinafaso would not grow. It is
[00:10:00] those approaches, those revolutionary things that
[00:10:04] Toma Isidore did in Burkinafaso than
[00:10:08] that then turned.
[00:10:12] against him a manner of speaking,
[00:10:14] France was not
[00:10:17] resting, they were working,
[00:10:21] and in fact it is now on record. that Tomas
[00:10:25] sankara was warned that there
[00:10:28] was a plot to kill him and that the
[00:10:31] person who was leading the plot was none
[00:10:35] other than his best friend, so he
[00:10:38] thought blace kampaure, and this is what he
[00:10:41] said, if it is blace campaure who is planning to kill
[00:10:45] me, i have no defense against him, and we know that blace
[00:10:49] kampaure led the push that then
[00:10:52] killed Tomas isid.
[00:10:55] sankara and we know that the revolution
[00:10:59] that was created and that happened between
[00:11:01] 1983 and 1987
[00:11:05] was then interrupted because you now
[00:11:09] had the restoration as you would
[00:11:13] say the ancient regime which was
[00:11:16] beholden to the french, but the beauty of it
[00:11:19] is that the revolution of Thoma Isidore
[00:11:23] Sankara is is alive, the new
[00:11:26] administration of Ibrahim Traore
[00:11:30] is beginning to re-energize that
[00:11:34] revolution, the rhetoric is right, the action is
[00:11:37] right, and it can simply be said, Thomas
[00:11:41] Sankara is dead, but the Thomas Sankara
[00:11:44] Revolution is alive and well.
[00:12:10] starting the US-Israel war in Iran was easy, ending this war
[00:12:14] seems almost impossible. America's overwhelming military
[00:12:18] power has proven to be indecisive as Iran holds
[00:12:21] significant high cards. Eventually the global.
[00:13:43] I am Pierro Lumumba here at the Maruba
[00:13:46] Dam in Machacos County in the Republic of
[00:13:50] Kenya in the continent of Africa. We continue
[00:13:53] our sea. is on the continent of
[00:13:57] Africa and today we focus
[00:14:00] a subject that has preoccupied historian for a
[00:14:04] long time, the Herrero
[00:14:08] mamassaka, historians are
[00:14:11] unanimous in describing this massacre as the
[00:14:15] first massacre the 20th century, and in order
[00:14:19] to contextualize this massaca, I
[00:14:23] always look at the state. that was made by
[00:14:26] Otmark in
[00:14:28] 1862 when he was addressing the Prussian
[00:14:32] Parliament when he said that the issues the
[00:14:36] day will not be solved by long speeches and
[00:14:40] general consensus but by iron and blood. It is after that
[00:14:43] speech that he convened the infamous
[00:14:47] Berlin conference held in Berlin between the
[00:14:51] year 1884 and 188.
[00:14:55] five and the European powers then divided
[00:14:59] the continent of Africa into spheres of influence.
[00:15:03] Germany of course acquired several territories in Eastern
[00:15:07] Africa, in Western Africa and in what
[00:15:10] then became known as the
[00:15:13] southwestern Africa, which we now
[00:15:16] know as Namibia. When they entered into that
[00:15:20] space, it was in the spirit that reigned in Europe
[00:15:24] at that time. of acquiring territory for
[00:15:27] purposes of agriculture and exploitation of other
[00:15:30] resources and the primary
[00:15:34] inhabitants of that area in included
[00:15:38] majorly the Herrera ethnic group and the
[00:15:42] nama, of course the koisan were also there, but
[00:15:46] this particular massaca that we now know
[00:15:49] as the Herrera took place between the year
[00:15:53] 1904 and 1908. The
[00:15:57] things that happened in