Burkina Faso's military junta uses culture to shape a new national and pan-African narrative.

Amid a regional crisis marked by terrorism and the reconfiguration of political alliances, Captain Ibrahim Traoré, who has led Burkina Faso since the coup he led in October 2022 , has turned culture into a key tool for building a new national and pan-African narrative. Film and architecture are some of the new instruments with which the president seeks to reaffirm collective identity and legitimize a political project that challenges old pacts with the West and reinforces the image of the Alliance of Sahel States (AES), the trident he forms with Mali and Niger, also led by military juntas.

A good example of this is the recent inauguration of the mausoleum dedicated to the former president and leader of the Burkinabe socialist revolution, Thomas Sankara, a perfect way to unite the cult of revolutionary heroes with the defense of local culture. After 36 years buried in the Dagnoen popular cemetery, his remains and those of his 12 comrades killed on October 15, 1987, while meeting at the headquarters of the National Revolutionary Committee (CNR) in the heart of Ouagadougou, have been transferred to a new pantheon. The choice of architect is no coincidence: Burkinabe Francis Kéré, the first African to win the Pritzker Prize , the highest international architecture award.

"It's been an impressive challenge," says Kéré in an interview with this newspaper. He has designed buildings such as the parliament of Benin , the Goethe Institute in Dakar , and the Las Vegas Art Museum . However, his professional career began with the construction of a school for his home village of Gando, in the Central-East region of Burkina Faso, where there was no electricity. "I wanted to give something back to my people, and this gave me an international career," says the architect, who admits that he accepted the Sankara pantheon project at the insistence of his family.

“The cultural message is very powerful. Burkina Faso is fighting terrorism, but its strategy includes reinforcing a collective imagination that exalts local values in the face of imperialist and modern elites,” says Fahiraman Koné, coordinator of the Sahel Program at the Institute for Security Studies (ISS). According to the 2025 Global Terrorism Index , one in five terrorist murders worldwide occurs on Burkinabe soil, making it the most affected country. “Culture thus becomes a tool for political legitimization, international visibility, and symbolic antagonism with the outside world,” the expert adds.

The cultural message is very powerful. Burkina Faso is fighting terrorism, but its strategy includes strengthening a collective imagination that exalts local values.

Fahiraman Koné, coordinator of the Sahel Program at the Institute for Security Studies

The mausoleum "is a space for reflection for Burkinabe and Africans," explains Zeyé Noufou, a young geography student at Joseph Ki-Zerbo University who traveled to the Thomas Sankara mausoleum on May 17 to closely observe its inauguration. For him, the building is not just a monument: it's a living political message. "I feel like he's here with us. He already said it, that if Sankara were killed, thousands of Sankarists would be reborn."

Sankara, popularly known as the African Che Guevara , only lasted four years (1983-1987) but left a historic legacy in the country and the African continent. On the one hand, he rebuilt the identity of the state, changing its colonial name from Upper Volta to Burkina Faso, meaning "country of men of integrity," and wrote its national anthem. On the other hand, he launched mass literacy programs , created child vaccination centers, built social housing—the neighborhood still exists and is called 1200 logements —and sought to boost the national economy by promoting local products such as Faso Danfani fabric. Indeed, Traoré, who seeks to draw a parallel between himself and Sankara, last year discarded the black satin toga worn by judges, a legacy from France, in favor of a traditional suit made from Burkinabe cotton and dyed locally.

In another tribute to the local community, the mausoleum, part of a much larger project measuring between 14 and 20 hectares, is built with lateritic soil, a mixture of natural sand with a bit of cement, extracted from the Burkinabe town of Kaya. "If we extract the soil from the villages, we minimize the use of cement and transportation, and it has economic benefits for the population," says Kéré.

Cinema as a cultural trench

The other great example of this phenomenon, with which Traoré seeks to reconstruct the Burkinabe nationalist imaginary, is the Ouagadougou Pan-African Film and Television Festival (FESPACO) . For one week every two years, the country's capital becomes the cultural center of the African continent, a showcase in which the spotlight of cinema illuminates a state that normally makes headlines for jihadist violence.

The patriotic and revolutionary stage setting is carefully designed. The 29th edition of FESPACO, held in February, opened with a giant screen featuring, in addition to Sankara, historical figures such as Patrice Lumumba (the first head of government of the Democratic Republic of the Congo), the Senegalese writer and filmmaker Ousmane Sembène, and the boxer Muhammad Ali, symbols of anti-colonialism and Pan-Africanism. This year's chosen motto, "I am Africa," encapsulates the military junta's declaration of intent: to build a shared identity through the arts.

The political appropriation of these cultural spaces by the military juntas is palpable. At the entrance to the International African Film Market (MICA), two giant balloons welcomed visitors with messages such as "Full support for IB!"—the initials of Burkinabe President Ibrahim Traoré—and "Long live the AES!", referring to the Alliance of Sahel States. Inside the venue, a tent with a life-size image of the president allowed people to take photos and make donations to a national fund "to support the war effort." In 2024, this fund raised 166 billion francs (about €254 million), thanks also to increased phone and beer prices and the withholding of at least 1% of civil servants' salaries, Prime Minister Emmanuel Ouedraogo said at a press conference.

“The African population is very young, and so is President Ibrahim Traoré [born in 1988]. This breaks with certain dynamics on the continent, and he has also managed to connect with Generation Z by launching messages on social media that question the colonial legacy and the identity of African countries,” explains Beverly Ochieng, an analyst at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). She adds: “The West has dominated the culture, the language, the way of behaving and acting, but now there are many young people who are questioning this colonial identity, and Ibrahim Traoré has managed to connect with them.”

"The African population is very young and so is President Ibrahim Traoré, which breaks with certain dynamics of the continent and has also managed to connect with Generation Z."

Beverly Ochieng, analyst at the Center for Strategic and International Studies

But the festival served not only to celebrate cinema, but also to showcase new geopolitical alliances. In previous editions, Mali and Niger—Burkina Faso's partners in the ESA—were the guest countries of honor. This year, it was Chad's turn, a key country for the balance of power in the region after hosting French troops expelled from its neighbors. The visit of Chadian President Mahamat Idriss Déby to Ouagadougou, where he paid tribute to Sankara alongside Traoré, was interpreted as a political gesture of rapprochement.

Alongside FESPACO, there are other soft diplomacy events. Burkina Faso was also a guest country at the Segou'Art art and music festival in Mali, held under the theme "AES Fraternity Week."

“The AES has established its own joint military force, and this could progress further if Chad were to join. Considering the warm reception it received during FESPACO, we could see the emergence of a new G5 Sahel, but one that is sovereign and rooted in the Sahel itself,” explains Ochieng. The G5 Sahel was a multilateral development and security platform created in 2014 and comprised of Mauritania, Mali, Niger, Burkina Faso, and Chad, with the support of the French military operation, Barkhane . In 2022, Mali left the alliance after being denied the presidency of the group, citing internal political instability. “This isn't just a military club. They are building an alternative institutional framework,” concludes Ochieng, who points out that the AES has launched its own passport, a common flag with a baobab tree as its central symbol, and has imposed a 0.5% tax on imports to fund a common fund.