Portfolio: Asim Rafiqui

Artist's Statement

On October 31, 2014, a popular uprising toppled the twenty-seven-year dictatorship of Blaise Campaoré. And whereas mainstream media reported it as a spontaneous and unexpected development, the fact is that the rebellion resulted from decades of preparation and struggle. It was the outcome of a long history of arrogance and indifference towards the people. On that October morning, as hand-picked parliamentarians gathered at the Hôtel Indépendance to rubber-stamp Blaise Compaoré’s demand to permanently extend his 27 years in power, the people of the country came out onto the streets. A few days later, he, along with his family, was gone. The people’s uprising in Burkina Faso remains one of the most important, yet least engaged and reported, political developments in modern African history. Though not unique, it reflects the political and social changes sweeping across a continent where people speak out against exploitative and indifferent power. As Zachariah Mampilly and Adam Branch, when speaking about their recent book on African political movements titled Africa Uprising, argued in a recent interview that:

Many in Africa have lost faith in democratic elections as the solution to structural problems. Across the continent, protests have unfolded in countries spanning the democratic spectrum – often, the formal political institutions matter little in determining where protest will take place. We understand this popular disillusionment as part of a broader crisis of political legitimacy in Africa characterized by the increasing distance between state policies and popular demands.("Africa Uprising: Popular Protest and Political Change," African Arguments, online 23.Mar.2015.)

And these movements – from Ethiopia to South Africa, Senegal to Burkina Faso – are being led by a young generation of Africans. At the forefront of the Burkina Faso uprising were a young generation of politically engaged and activist musicians, artists, intellectuals, and lawyers. Most notably, a movement called Le Balai Citoyenı – The Citizen’s Broom. Carrying within them the ideals and hopes of the Burkinabé political leader Thomas Sankara, inspired by the courage of men like investigative journalist Norbert Zongo, these young people forced Blaise Campaoré from power. They opened the way for a new political direction for the country. They were, of course, not alone, as lawyers, labor union members, academics, intellectuals, and others, joined the movement and informed its ideals and goals. And they were not the first: Burkina Faso has a long history of people’s resistance to dictatorial rule, and the citizens of this small yet imaginative and inspired nation have repeated confronted arbitrary power, paid the price in blood and indignity, but refused to surrender their hopes for a better future.

At least, that was the narrative that ran in almost every single media outlet around the globe. It was also the narrative that most of the young Burkinabé activists and dissidents I met during my six weeks in the country told about themselves. But it was, and never could be, just that simple. This project complicates that narrative and goes to the heart of the movement and the factors that informed it. It places the uprising in its historical context, examines the possibility of genuine change, and pays attention to the lived histories of the people who were part of the movement. But perhaps most importantly – as Paul Gilroy asked of us, it ensures that we see the Burkinbé "as agents, as people with cognitive capacities and even with an intellectual history – attributes denied by modern racism.” The people of Burkina Faso achieved something truly remarkable on 21 October 2014. It remains an inspiration for others around the globe. My work project celebrates that achievement but refuses the straightforward narrative.

The project can be seen and read in its entirety online at: www.asimrafiqui.com/inthepostcolony

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