The only resolution is to let justice be done to whoever killed Nobert Zongo.Full stop.
There is no greater evil than to kill a good man.
.In January 1998 Nobert Zongo addressed a cross section of African youths under the OAU Club-The then Organisation of African Unity Supporters Club (which I coordinated in Nigeria and therefore attended.We took pictures with him (which still draws tears in my bedroom)).He addressed African youths telling us to have faith in ourselves and in our continent.Nearly a year after he was murdered, just as Dele Giwa another vintage Nigerian journalist was murdered during the regime of an infamous Nigerian dictator Ibrahim Babangida ;(the former on his way to his usual evening hunting expedition as reported by Burkinabe nationals and the letter by a letter bomb).
Who killed Nobert Zongo and why?
That is what people expect of committed Brukinabe intellectuals to ask in the street; in the air, in the waters; in their bicycle tyres; in their motor cycle tryres; in their donkeys, at Avenue kwame Nkruma; at Avenue Yonega,at Avenue Joseph Ki-Zerbo; in the streets?Some of those who asked this question disturbingly appear to have been corrupted and a former lady minister of that country(known to this author) may have just gained for such voice of courage confriming very clealy the thesis:
"I'd be very surprised if the Compaoré regime collapses," said Pierre Englebert, a political scientist at Pomona College and a Burkina Faso expert. "At the core of his regime, he's repressive. But he handles things with a certain distance. You can be corrupted. He'll let steam off."
But can't there be incoruuptible Burkinabes?What of Professor Joseph Ki-Zibero who continually asked this question till death took him?
To institue turth and justice should as a social ethics should remin the vsision of committed African intellectuals and no matter how quick and clever passionately corrupt leaders attempt to block this vision the voice of truth and courage should be loud and clear.
In Nigeria evrry attempt has been made to resist the question "who killed Dele Giwa?" but it rings from the wild.It should not be less for Burkinabes; if at least they should prevent the Zongo trgedy from repeating itself.
As for Captian Sankara-he lives on.He has to live on until there is another Sankara.
Those who killed Sankara may have believed in the military slogan "soldier go soldier come" and that having profited from a bloody coup that brought him to power then there should be little sentiment for him; but is he really gone?As a soldier yes.But as a leader no.
His moral authority remians unmatched by any leader in black Africa since his death.
Bangura, let me leave you further with a story I did for the Nigerian media after my visit to Sankara's grave in January 2010 and with the pictures I took there.
For me Thomas Sankara has become something close to a god at death and if those who killed him foresaw the agony his name will bring to them,they probably would have saved themselves the shame of his tormenting fame.
Lawrence Ogbo Ugwuanyi,Ph.D
Senior Lecturer in Philosophy
Department of Philosophy and Religions
University of Abuja
From: Abdul Bangura <theai@earthlink.net>
To: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com; usaafricadialogue <USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com>
Sent: Sat, April 30, 2011 7:29:16 PM
Subject: RE: USA Africa Dialogue Series - burkina story in times
------- Original Message -----From: kenneth harrowSent: 4/30/2011 9:25:46 PMSubject: USA Africa Dialogue Series - burkina story in timesProtesters Demand President's Ouster in Burkina FasoBy ADAM NOSSITER
Published: April 30, 2011
OUAGADOUGOU, Burkina Faso — A whiff of North African-style protest came to this sun-baked sub-Saharan capital on Saturday as about a thousand demonstrators descended on a central square to demand the departure of President Blaise Compaoré, who has held power for 24 years in one of the world's poorest countries.
A popular reggae tune, "Quitte le Pouvoir!" or "Give Up Power," the jaunty anthem of African protesters, alternated with a variation of the slogan used in Tunisia four months before: "Blaise, give it up!" Some protesters held up signs comparing Mr. Compaoré, a former army captain who has been regularly re-elected with 80 percent of the vote, to the ousted Tunisian ruler, Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali.
Politicians from many of the country's 34 opposition parties joined local pop music stars in a demonstration that lasted for hours under a blazing sun. They condemned Mr. Compaoré's lengthy rule and accused him of corruption and patronage politics. Trucks of friendly soldiers waved to the protesters, many of them young people.
The demonstration came on the heels of two months of ferment among the usually quiet population, as students, soldiers, merchants and most recently the police have all taken to the streets to protest high prices, low wages and Mr. Compaoré's undivided rule in a country that is ninth from the bottom on the United Nations' Human Development Index.
A political crisis in neighboring Ivory Coast — which landlocked Burkina Faso depends on for food shipments — has forced up living costs, adding to the unrest.
The previous protests have been violent, with soldiers rampaging through the capital and provincial cities earlier in April, looting and burning offices of Mr. Compaoré's ruling party, and even co-opting his elite presidential guard. The ruler, who seized power in a 1987 coup, has been shaken: he has dismissed his government, named a former journalist as his new prime minister and met with army officers — he did so on Friday — to promise better pay.
Those measures did not impress Saturday's fist-waving crowd, assembled in a giant asphalt plaza. "Since Blaise Compaoré took power, by the method that you know" — and the crowd shouted "murder, murder!" — "there's a tiny minority that has robbed and pillaged, while the majority has stagnated in misery," said Tahirou Barry of the National Renaissance Party.
"The people are fed up! The soldiers are fed up! The students are fed up! The shopkeepers are fed up!" yelled Norbert Tiendrebeogo of the Social Forces Front. The crowd cheered a local rap star, S'Mockey, when he yelled: "The problem is, it's not a democracy. It's been tropicalized."
Still, the heterogeneous nature of the protest's organizers, including politicians from several dozen different parties, points to the central problem of the opposition, in the view of analysts: it is deeply divided after years of Mr. Compaoré's rule.
"I'd be very surprised if the Compaoré regime collapses," said Pierre Englebert, a political scientist at Pomona College and a Burkina Faso expert. "At the core of his regime, he's repressive. But he handles things with a certain distance. You can be corrupted. He'll let steam off."
Among the opposition's strongest cards are the unsolved killings of two popular men: Thomas Sankara, Mr. Compaoré's predecessor and army comrade, who was killed during the 1987 coup that he helped lead; and Norbert Zongo, a crusading journalist who was killed in 1998 while he was looking into the Compaoré family's finances. There were frequent references to the two men on Saturday.
The high price of rice was also a focus of complaints. "Life has just become too hard," said Moussa Lingani, a printer. Rice, he said, was now over $40 a bag.
"I haven't eaten in two days," said Remy Kafando, a farmer. "To eat, it's just hard. We want a complete change. We don't want anymore of this. We're ready for civil war."
----
kenneth w. harrow
distinguished professor of english
michigan state university
department of english
east lansing, mi 48824-1036
ph. 517 803 8839
harrow@msu.edu
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