Pan-African Education Center in Burkina Faso

Help us build a Pan-African community library in Burkina Faso! ❤️

Burkina Faso is a country celebrated for its revolutionary history and its contributions to the struggle for African liberation. In the spirit of Thomas Sankara, we are working to develop a Pan-African political education project in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso. This will consist of a local Pan-African study group/ reading circle, public screenings of anti-colonial films and documentaries and, ultimately, the creation of a Pan-African community library.

Your donation will help us collect French-language books by African revolutionaries and scholars. This collection will include works by people such as Thomas Sankara, Kwame Nkrumah, Patrice Lumumba, Assata Shakur, Malcolm X, Amílcar Cabral, Frantz Fanon, Winnie Mandela and Cheikh Anta Diop among other ancestors that inspire us to take action. Some of these books are rare or unavailable in Burkina Faso, making the work that we do to bring them here especially important. These books go a tremendous way in increasing political education about African and world history which continues to shape our lives and struggles.

With your support we will also be able to secure a physical location for our reading group and for a community library that will be open to the public. We will use the space to project documentaries and anti-colonial films.

Inem Richardson is a daughter of the Nigerian diaspora and an organizer with the All-African People's Revolutionary Party and the Chiapas Support Committee of Los Angeles. In the past, she lived in Senegal and Ghana where she studied neo-colonialism and connected with local and international Pan-Africanist organizations. She later spent spent time in Burkina Faso documenting stories of French imperialism and the Burkinabè Revolution. As a recipient of the Davis Project for Peace Award and the Fulbright student award, she lives in Burkina Faso, working on this Pan-African library project and recording oral histories of Burkina Faso's revolution. The objective of her work is to build bridges between Africa and the African diaspora, to promote popular and political education, and to work with others to achieve Pan-Africanism.

Fabrice Simporé is a Burkinabé organizer born in Yako and raised in Ouagadougou. He is an anti-colonial artist and assistant architect, a member of the socialist forum of Ghana (after having previously lived in Accra), and a student of Thomas Sankara's life and legacy. He is active in the movement against the French controlled CFA franc currency and French military invention in the West African Sahel.

Océan Sawadogo is a Pan-African reggae artist born in Passoré, Northern Burkina Faso and residing in Ouagadougou. He draws musical inspiration from the traditional sounds of Burkina Faso and from his rastafarian spiritual practices. As a youth he was a member of the young pioneers program, a revolutionary political education program under the administration of Thomas Sankara. He also played an impactful role in the 2014 uprising in Burkina Faso against the dictatorship of Sankara’s betrayer, Blaise Compaoré. During this crucial moment in Burkina Faso’s history, his music served as a weapon of protest against repression, corruption, neo-colonialism and betrayal. He has released three albums: Paweogo (2006), Buud warba (2012), and Nan lara an sara (2013). He is a husband and a proud father of two.

Prudence Iticka is a Cameroonian born Canada-based Pan-African organizer with the All-African Peoples Revolutionary Party and United African Diaspora Calgary. She is helping to distribute funds from around the world to Burkina Faso to support this project.

We hope that you are moved to contribute to this work if you have the means. Please share this with others in your community and on social media.

Follow @Burkinabooks on Instagram for updates on this project!

Long live Pan-Africanism!

Each one, teach one!

La patrie ou la mort, nous vaincrons!

(Note: The writing above does not represent or speak on behalf of the Fulbright program).