Traoré wants Africa's colonisation reclassified as "invasion"
By the AFREEQUE newsroom, based on The Citizen
Burkina Faso's President Ibrahim Traoré said that what is called the "colonisation" of Africa should be reclassified as "invasion", in remarks reported by The Citizen. He intends thereby to correct the reading of the continent's history, against a backdrop marked by his wish to strengthen Burkina Faso's partnerships, notably with Russia.
Burkina Faso's President Ibrahim Traoré proposes reclassifying the colonisation of Africa as "invasion", The Citizen, a media outlet of the Tanzanian group Mwananchi Communications Limited, reports in a Sunday 8 November 2026 edition.
This stance is part of a series of public interventions by Captain Traoré, who came to power in a coup d'État in September 2022. On 29 October, he had called for the partnership between Russia and Africa to be made concrete, and on 1 November he had paid tribute to the Burkinabè soldiers who fell at the front.
Burkina Faso, a member of the AES alongside Mali and Niger, has in recent months multiplied gestures of rupture with the former French colonial power, notably the expulsion of its ambassador and the closure of French military bases on its soil.
The Burkinabè head of state also received his Malian counterpart Assimi Goïta in Ouagadougou in early November, for a working visit devoted to strengthening cooperation between the two countries of the Alliance of Sahel States.
