**Women’s Liberation: Brazos Writes #01**

This is the first of what will hopefully be a never-ending series of me leaving my summarizations, thoughts, and reviews on various political, social, and economic topics and works. This week, we have **Women’s Liberation and the African Freedom Struggle by Thomas Sankara**, the revolutionary leader from Burkina Faso. This book is a small compendium of his speeches (really one full speech followed by an excerpt from a separate speech), with the primary focus being the one that he delivered to a crowd of several thousand women on International Women’s Day, March 8th, 1987. Before we dive in, it’s important to remember that the material conditions surrounding when these speeches were given are necessary to understanding their wording and message. With that in mind, let’s get right into it.

Women’s Role in Burkina Revolution

Though the excerpt from this speech is included at the end of this book, I feel its short nature, contents, and earlier date of occurrence deem it necessary to address first. Given on October 2, 1983, only two months after the successful coup d’état against the former president Jean-Baptiste Ouédraogo, this speech laid the ideological foundation of the revolution. The short speech, only 14 pages, lays out the goals, the theory, and the stances of the revolution underway in the then Republic of Upper Volta. While there are a few things that I want to address in this section, I believe that the following quote is the basis of not only the entirety of Sankara’s Women’s Day speech, but also the liberation of women from capitalism as a whole:

“The women and men of our society are all victims of imperialist oppression and domination. That is why they wage the same battle. The revolution and women’s liberation go together. We do not talk of women’s emancipation as an act of charity or out of a surge of human compassion. It is a basic necessity for the revolution to triumph. Women hold up the other half of the sky.”

It is not merely a one-sided issue, but an all-encompassing perversion that affects every single one of us. Yes, even men. We will address that later. The point Sankara is making is a well-known one amongst “leftists,” whatever that term means anymore. The afflictions of capitalism are applied across the board to men and women, but women suffer further at the hands of men. To change this, a new mentality in women, a new woman, must arise. One that takes “responsibility for the country’s destiny alongside men.” To accomplish this, a new mentality among men, both towards women and themselves, a new man, must also arise. “[Women] will be involved at all levels in conceiving projects, making decisions, and implementing them–in organizing the life of the nation as a whole.” Sankara continues, saying that women’s liberation isn’t found in “mechanical equality” through things like “drinking, smoking, and wearing pants.” He furthers this by saying that acquiring a diploma does not emancipate women.

One thing must be clarified before we dive into Sankara’s definition of true emancipation. These things are non-liberating or enslaving, at least not on the surface level, but they are also not true freedom. They are simply forms of pseudo-liberation whose goal is to “tide women over”. Women who smoke, drink, and wear pants becoming a socially acceptable form of woman is not a bad thing, but rather, indeed, a good thing. Women having access to schools at all levels is not a bad thing, but a good thing. We all know this and agree with this, I’m sure. However, there is an important thing to take note of. Most people, whether knowingly or unknowingly, followers of bourgeois feminism, would tout these things as victories, as freedoms gained from the defeat of the patriarchy. While this is true in spirit, in reality, the only material change that occurs is the shifting of the goal posts.

“The genuine emancipation of women is one that entrusts responsibilities to women, that involves them in productive activity and in the different fights the people face. The genuine emancipation of women is one that compels men to give their respect and consideration. Emancipation, like freedom, is not granted, it is conquered. It is for women themselves to put forward their demands and mobilize to win them.”

The true liberation of women lies not in the freedoms given and concessions made to you by the ruling, bourgeois class, but “by changing the social order that oppresses women [to create] the conditions for their genuine emancipation.” In other words, eliminating the exploitive system that is capitalism and establishing a new system that doesn’t allow for the second wave of exploitation from men to be inflicted on women is what grants true freedom, liberation, or emancipation to women.

“For could it be possible to eliminate the system of exploitation while maintaining the exploitation of women, who make up more than half our society?”

The simple answer to this question is no; it is not possible. To eliminate the system of exploitation, the capitalist base, you must also work to dismantle the superstructure that maintains it, the exploitation and subjugation of women by men, the patriarchy. For a revolution to be lasting and successful, and truly eliminate the oppressive system of capitalism, women must be emancipated from the two forms of enslavement they are subjected to daily.

Women’s Liberation and the African Freedom Struggle

This is the heart of the book, and our primary focus today. Sankara begins by welcoming the women, states his bashfulness speaking in front of them, and explains how the revolution has resulted in substantial change for the country. He then says that the swaths of happiness across the country are simply an illusion. That “there is something crucial missing: women.” He continues, stating that “the revolution’s promises are already a reality for men” and that “for women, they are still merely a rumor”. Despite this, the success of the revolution depends on women. He talks about how men and women need to change not only how they think about themselves, but also how they think about one another. In order to do this, we must understand women’s societal conditions. “The condition of women is therefore at the heart of the question of humanity itself, here, there, and everywhere.” Sankara applies a dialectical materialist lens to this proposition in the following section.

The Class Struggle and the Worldwide Status of Women

We know that human society is not made up of stagnant, unchanging facts. Instead, the exact opposite is true. Society has changed massively over thousands of years. We also know that man has not simply lain down and succumbed to nature. When man conquered nature, it was done with an extension of the hand, a tool. “It was thus not physical attributes alone–musculature or the capacity to give birth, for example–that determined the unequal status of men and women.” It was not the technological advancements that followed this conquering on nature that institutionalized this inequality. It was instead “the transition from one form of society to another that served to institutionalize women’s inequality” that was “produced by our own minds and intelligence in order to develop a concrete form of domination and exploitation.”

For 8 millennia, man and woman lived in a complementary manner, relationships forming from collaboration and interaction. At the rise of private property, we see the transition from one mode of production to another, from one society to another. From collectivist clans with equal and complementary roles in society to a patriarchy “where women’s exclusion is a generalized characteristic.” I do not believe in a “default” order of society since to do so would be to look at humans and society in a vacuum, which is impossible. I do believe that in the contexts and conditions of our Earth, humans tend towards the collectivist spirit, seeking to build relationships and help one another. To build and maintain communities. This belief of mine could stem from some instinct within me, from a by-product of the communities I grew up in, or as a form of belief-rebellion against the larger systems of the superstructures and base of capitalism I grew up under. Whatever it is, one truth is ever evident: capitalism subjugates women and men, then “trains” men to further subjugate women.

“Humankind first knew slavery with the advent of private property. Man, master of his slaves and of the land, also became the owner of the woman. This was the great historic defeat of the female sex… In this way, paternal right replaced maternal right… The patriarchal family made its appearance, founded on the sole and personal property of the father, who had become head of the family. Within this family the woman was oppressed… Women became his booty, his conquest in trade. He profited from their labor power and took his fill from the myriad of pleasures they afforded him.”

Sankara then says something that stood out to me and stuck with me for the multiple days I’ve been working on this (school has gotten in my way a bit). He said that “as soon as the masters gave them the chance, women took revenge in infidelity. Thus adultery became the natural counterpart to marriage.” Further saying it was women’s only form of defense against their domestic slavery. Since women are rarely able to physically harm men without being harmed themselves, they had to resort to other measures to take revenge. Men have been trained by society to seek revenge through violence, through destruction. Women, trained by society to be obedient under the guise of being the physically and intellectually inferior sex, get revenge not only through infidelity, but through lies, gossip, and slander. Men are not excused from these things, but commit these acts differently and for different reasons. Men who lie, gossip, slander, and commit adultery do so as a way to exercise and reaffirm their societally gifted power. When women participate in these things, they do it as an escape from the second layer of oppression that men inflict.

Sankara continues by addressing the various ways women have been marginalized, even in instances where women escaped their chains of oppression. He explains that “the essential features of her subjugation survived and were consolidated, both in everyday activity and in intellectual and moral repression.” This was done through the status of women being relegated to child raiser and servant, being written out of religious and philosophical histories, and “stripped of all worth by mythology.” Being stripped of their humanity. He goes on to say that it is no surprise that capitalist society has exploited women the most, since “human beings are just so many numbers” to capitalism. He explains that manufacturers favored married women with children to work the mechanized looms, since “these women paid greater attention to their work than single women and were more docile.” This was the case since, to provide for their families, they were willing to work until exhaustion overcame them, even if this meant only meeting subsistence. “All the most moral and delicate qualities of her nature become the means by which she is enslaved. Her tenderness, her love for her family, the meticulous care she brings to her work–all this is used against her, as she guards against any flaws she may have.”

Even if expressed in numerous and varied ways, this sort of exploitation and inequality that women face has existed throughout different types of society. In slave society, men were viewed as animals, as a means of production. Women, however, were crushed both outside and within their class. The slave woman had to endure the physical labor of the fields, and then at home, she had to endure her husband. Even in the exploiting classes, these things existed. “In feudal society, women were kept in a state of absolute dependence on men, justified by their supposed physical and psychological weakness.” When it comes to religion, women are “often seen as a defiled object and a primary agent of indiscretion” and are kept out of places of worship because of this. In capitalist society, women are economically subjugated, as well as morally and socially persecuted. If a woman does not work, if she isn’t a slave to capital production, she remains under the rule of a man in the home. At the very least, she is still under the patriarchal moral and social persecutions in the instance of singleness or homosexuality. If she does work and is not economically subjugated (to a degree), she is still subject to the persecution that faces women of her class, race, ethnicity, religion, etc. Thomas Sankara ends this section saying, “We will never be able to paint an adequate picture of the misery women suffer, nor show too strongly that women share the misery of proletarians as a whole.”

The Specific Character of Women’s Oppression

The first thing that stands out to me in this section is when Sankara addresses how men use and exercise their power to oppress women. “He takes advantage of all the shrewdness that class exploitation has to offer in order to maintain his domination over women,” so that he can sow confusion among women. He then states how this is parallel with the use of birthright and divine right to justify supposed superiority over others, and how skin color was used as a supposed scientific justification to rule over those who simply have a different skin color. He goes on to say, “That’s colonial rule. That’s apartheid.” The aforementioned confusion is apparent when women “talk of a war of the sexes, when what we really have is a war of social groups and of classes that should simply be waged together”. He explains that some of the “bold assertions made by feminism” have been at least partially valuable in the fight against oppression. However, some of these assertions just deepen the war of the sexes. Not necessarily because they are incorrect, but because they are poorly received. Sankara then states “that it’s the attitude of men that makes such confusion possible”, and that “we have no choice but to recognize that male behavior–made up of vanity, irresponsibility, arrogance, and violence of all kinds towards women–can in no way result in coordinated action against women’s oppression.”

In other words, men’s behavior toward women sows confusion and division among the sexes, this stupid behavior being indoctrinated into men’s minds through the countless ways capitalism rears its ugly head. “This male stupidity is called sexism or machismo,” and results in bourgeois feminist tendencies gaining a foothold, such as the rise of independent sex work being touted as a victory for women. More on that later. This then leads to men and women becoming further divided, viewing one another as the enemy. Though we shouldn’t be pitted against one another, it’s still true that men’s behavior towards women is inexcusable and must be addressed and rectified. This is not to be done on two different fronts, though. The two fronts that many people will want to fight on are, first, the patriarchy and second, economic inequality. Maybe each front differs person to person, but the idea of two fronts is the problem. These things stem from the same source, which is, of course, capitalist society. Sankara says that “to fight and win, women must identify with the oppressed layers and classes of society–workers, peasants, and others.” Men must realize their behaviors and change their ways, joining arms with women.

Sankara continues his speech by pointing out the different types of men in the world and in Burkina itself. Progressives who live happily in adultery yet would be inclined to murder their wives at the suspicion of infidelity, those who seek comfort from prostitutes and mistresses, those whose money goes solely to fund prostitutes and bars, those who talk vulgarly of women, and even the men who are revolutionary themselves yet disapprove of their wives being politically active, whether in totality or partiality. This section is followed by Sankara calling attention to the double standards that women face in society. Women are called gossipers, liars, actors, materialists, jealous, etc., and even if true of women, it is equally true of men. He says that women are this way because they are condemned to wait for permission to speak and to live by their male masters. These things, gossiping and lying and jealousy, are simple escapes to provide women the illusion of usefulness or importance. “The same attitudes are found among men placed in the same situation.” He doesn’t address this further, but I will. While men do exhibit these behaviors, and is done for the same reason of feeling useful or important, the conditions surrounding it are much different. Gossiping about men more powerful than they, lying about neighbors out of jealousy, etc., these actions are exhibitions of the power men have and an attempt to take back what power they feel that they have lost, of which they are not truly lacking. Aside, of course, the power that is stripped from them by capitalist society. These behaviors do not regain this, though. It is simply a coping mechanism men engage in when they realize they are not in total power over their lives. The final double standard that he addresses is the deeming of women to be forgetful or “birdbrains”. He explains that “we must never forget that a woman’s life is taken up, even tormented, by a fickle spouse, an unfaithful and irresponsible husband, and by her children and their problems. Worn out by taking care of the entire family… forgetting becomes an antidote to pain, a relief from the harshness of her existence, a vital part of self-preservation.” There are a lot of forgetful men, too, of course. The difference is no one ever calls these men forgetful. “What vanity! What banality!” Forgetful men are passed off as commonplace, not thought of at all, and usually just plainly accepted.

“The women who are defiled and, after being used, are sacrificed on the altar of prosperity of a system built on lies and plunder–they are merely scapegoats. Prostitution is nothing but the microcosm of a society where exploitation is a general rule. It is a symbol of the contempt men have for women… In the final analysis, prostitution reflects the unconscious contempt we have for ourselves. There can be prostitutes only as long as there are ‘prostituters’ and pimps.”

Prostitution, and sex work as a whole, is not liberating. It never was, it never is, and it never will be. Says the cisgender heterosexual white Christian(ish) male, am I right? Seriously, though, it isn’t. Sex work of any kind assigns an exchange value to a woman’s body, the value of which “fluctuates according to what’s in the male chauvinist’s wallet.” Women’s bodies are viewed as a commodity to be bought, sold, or traded based on the macroeconomic application of supply and demand, and then microeconomic trends and preferences of the female body (1920s androgyny, 1950s hourglass, or 1990s heroin chic). The concubine, prostitute, pornographic film actress, and independent OnlyFans model are all viewed as commodity producers and are thoroughly exploited. In the eyes of the consumer, predominantly of course men, the women in these roles are only as valuable as their bodies are at the time the “deal” is executed. Specific types of actresses, actors, and porn types are sought after and employed for those specific use cases. “Barely legal”, “SHE WANTED TO DO ANAL”, “cum shot compilations”, “snow bunny can’t handle 5 BBC’s”, and so on. These capitalize on preferences and trends, and reinforce harmful fetishes and addictions present among consumers, who are predominantly men. When the trends shift or the woman’s value wanes, this being their looks, they then lose use value and become obsolete in the greater sexual market. This forces the already outcasted person who is a sex worker to be even further outcasted. My dear friend Valerie informed me that this is also the case for trans women, but this side of the sex work industry has many more factors at play, something out of the scope of this essay.

However, these things extend past women involved in sex work. The same principles of supply, demand, trends, and preferences face the married woman or those seeking marriage. Though it reveals itself differently, it is still ever-present. Men seek women with favorable qualities for marriage. These favorable qualities are influenced by numerous things and change over time. The unchanging fact is that women deemed unfit for marriage are relegated to a lower caste within female society, typically marginalized and forced by either coercion or desperation into the exploitation present in prostitution and sex work. Even if they are not involved in sex work, since they are deemed unfit for marriage, they end up in a cycle of endless, loveless relationships, even being used for sex. They are what we would call “a hoe”, though this term does not truly encapsulate the reasons behind this type of woman’s existence. Even then, this results in the reinforcement and even growth of the prostitution and sex work markets. It is a vicious and never-ending cycle. However, those who are deemed suitable for marriage become a means of production and a source of pleasure in the home, seized and controlled by the man. Their production lies in birthing and caring for children, caring for the family, making the home, etc. These things, when shared unequally between a couple, are, of course, a form of enslavement of the woman. The primary source of pleasure exploited from a woman is sex, often coerced out of and/or forced onto women. This, too, is a form of enslavement of the woman. I could continue for pages and pages on this issue, but I think the point has been made. “The only difference between the woman who sells her body through prostitution and she who sells herself in marriage is the price and duration of the contract… The only difference between the two is that the legal wife, though still oppressed, at least has the benefit of the stamp of respectability that marriage offers.”

Sankara points out that the types of men, the consumers of prostitution, are varied. There are “the husbands who commit their wives to chastity while they relieve their depravity and debauchery upon the prostitute”, the men who are scared to take up the responsibilities of marriage and fatherhood, the men who publicly shame sex workers and those who consume it yet participate in the creation of or in the consumption of it themselves, and lastly the group of men who seek to be a gigolo. Modern-day examples of the third in the list, the denouncer yet the partaker, are people like Andrew Tate, who aggressively rebuke women for “being hoes”, yet run cam-girl businesses. A sentiment of Sankara’s that I find echoing in myself is this final quote of his from this section of the speech:

“Prostitution is a concentrated, tragic, and painful summary of female slavery in all its forms. We should therefore see in every prostitute an accusing finger pointing at society as a whole. Every pimp, every partner in prostitution, turns the knife in this festering and gaping wound that disfigures the world of man and leads to his ruin. By fighting prostitution, by holding out a helping hand to the prostitute, we are saving our mothers, our sisters, and our wives from this social leprosy. We are saving ourselves. We are saving the world.”

Prostitutes and sex workers as a whole should not be further marginalized by our society if we aspire for true material change. We should help them out of those situations and not cast judgment on them. Women should not be encouraged to take up sex work of any kind. Men should be discouraged from consuming sex work. Inside every man dwells a prostitution consumer, and it is up to us, to all of us, to make this known and engage in tremendous efforts to change this fact. My dear friend Annette made me realize something when I asked for her opinion on sex work. She said that women can also find a pseudo-escape from patriarchal oppression by abandoning their womanness and becoming pimps themselves, or at least promoting sex work. Think Ghislaine Maxwell and Bonnie Blue, respectively. Thank you for this, Annette! This section has inspired me to write an entire piece on sex work and the porn industry that is much more organized and thorough, so stay tuned. Back to business now.

Women’s Reality in Burkina Faso

To talk about this section in the best possible way, I emphasize the important Burkina Faso-specific things and draw parallels from them to our larger society. Sankara starts this section off by saying that when a male child is born, it is seen as a gift, but when a female child is born, it is viewed merely as fate. One is a blessing, one is a sad, unchangeable reality that one must accept. The little boys are “taught how to want and to get, to speak up and be served, to desire and take, to decide things on [their] own.” The male toddler is left alone to play and to sit idly, or at most, assist his father with minimal household physical labor. He is essentially left to pave his own path in life. The little girls are taught “by a society that unanimously, as one man,” says they must be mothers, to clean the home, and to be docile and servile, “norms that lead nowhere.” When the female child is still just a toddler, she is assigned the useful trade of being an unpaid assistant housewife. Not that lead housewife is a paid position. In fact, the term “housewife” is assigned to women who we deem “do nothing”. They have no income since they do not work. This is not true, as being a housewife is one of the most toiling and labor-ridden jobs in all of society.

The woman is demeaned to be an object of exploitation in both labor power and biological reproductive capacity. “Woman–source of life, yet object.” The woman is the pillar of society, taking up various unannounced and unappreciated roles, such as midwife, gardener, and healer, putting in countless hours, which results in absurd amounts of unpaid production. Women are then “socially relegated to third place, after the man and the child,” despite being the ones who “[carry] both family and society on her shoulders.” To repay her efforts, the woman is paid with oppression, pro-birth ideologies, food taboos and restrictions, overwork, malnutrition, dangerous pregnancies, religious restrictions, and countless other afflictions. “Capital and bureaucracy have banded together to keep women subjugated. Imperialism has done the rest”. Imperialism in the global south is well known to be the biggest factor for its current underdeveloped state. Denying this would be ignorant at best and a straight-up lie at worst. As capitalism needed its various crops, women carried out both their home duties and the harvesting of these crops. If they weren’t collecting crops, they were decorating the bourgeoisie’s living rooms, enveloped in prostitution, or “serving as commercial bait in advertising.”

Thomas Sankara continues saying that bourgeois women live in the illusion of being freer since they live in a materially better world, but even with this false freedom, the women in Burkina Faso still come after the men, in the men’s shadows. Women’s emancipation never reached anything more than a bourgeois feminist level, so when the Ministry of Women’s Position in Society was created, it was touted as a victory. The thing is, women’s position in society was not thoroughly understood by this ministry. After several years of its existence, things had not materially changed for Burkinabé women. The ministry was not only unable to, but refused to recognize the real causes of women’s suffering in the nation. Sankara says that “despite the existence of this ministry, prostitution grew, women’s access to education and jobs did not improve, their civil and political rights continued to be ignored, and the general conditions of their lives in town and country alike improved not one iota.” Female-focused products, token female politicians, and appeals through female charm in elections did nothing to change the conditions for Burkinabé women. One singular night in Burkina Faso’s history did, though.

“The dawn that followed the night of August 4, 1983, brought liberty with it, calling all of us to march together side by side in equality, as a single people joined by solidarity in common goals. The August revolution found the Burkinabé woman in her state of subjugation, exploited by a neocolonial society deeply imbued with the ideology of backward social forces. The revolution owed it to itself to break with the reactionary policies on women’s emancipation that had been advocated and followed up to then, by clearly defining new, just, revolutionary policies.”

Our Revolution and the Emancipation of Women

Sankara starts off this section by reviewing specific parts of his October 2, 1983, Political Orientation Speech, which we have already discussed. He states that, above all individual desires within the revolution, the emancipation of women is one that everyone must take up. The revolution laid the groundwork and revealed the true enemy of the cause. Working together, alongside one another, is what is required moving forward. And for four years, the Burkinabé people had done so. They did so by establishing the Women’s Union of Burkina (UFB), which gave Burkinabé women the tools, goals, and mobilization needed to wage a successful fight under the leadership of the larger National Council of the Revolution. Sankara called the UFB women’s “combat organization”, and told the women of Burkina to “sharpen it further so its blades will cut more deeply, bringing you more and more victories.” The revolution may have been headed by the man who was Thomas Sankara, but the changes for women were made and enforced by the women themselves.

By working to eliminate prostitution, homelessness, vagrancy, forced marriages, female circumcision, and to solve the water crisis, by providing better appliances, daycare centers, and vaccination programs, and by promoting healthier diets and the consumption of Burkinabé goods, the difficult conditions of women and the Burkinabé people as a whole were greatly improved. Despite this, much remained for the people to address. Illiteracy rates were at nearly 99% among women before the revolution, and little had been done to address that at the time of this speech. Low political consciousness, little training for trade work, and discrimination in jobs were still present and had to be addressed. It was up to the UFB to overcome the reactionary behavior common among women, since “it’s liable to jeopardize any collective effort” that is necessary to achieve the liberation of women. These reactionary behaviors not only lead to women abandoning the cause, but also the possibility of men abandoning the cause in reactionary solidarity with the women.

Sankara explains that women gaining economic independence and education is necessary for the revolution’s success, but in the event of a failure, these women have “a merciless judgement” passed onto them by society and are subsequently abandoned. The educated woman “has trouble finding a husband”, primarily since her knowledge threatens a man’s ability to exert his patriarchal power over her successfully, and the wealthy woman is considered questionable. They are condemned to being single, which, in a good society, would not be a problem. However, this ostracization in a capitalist society leads to women being pushed to the margins, not understanding their supposed flaw or crime, and can even result in them selling themselves into the evilness that is sex work. Evil ouroboros strikes again! To combat this, placing women in positions where they can use their wealth and knowledge for the service of the people allows society to, at worst, appreciate them, and at best, admire them. Sankara goes on to state that women should not marry simply under the worry of “what will people say”, and even worse, demand independence while engaging in a loveless and exploitive marriage.

“We must say again to our sisters that marriage, if it brings society nothing positive and does not bring them happiness, is not indispensable and should even be avoided… Women have shown sufficient proof of their ability to take care of the family and raise children–in short, to be responsible members of society–without the oppressive tutelage of a man… As revolutionaries, we should see to it that marriage is a choice that adds something positive, and not some kind of lottery where we know what the ticket costs us, but have no idea what we’ll end up winning. Human feelings are too noble to be subjected to such games.”

Marriage should not be a contract entered into to gain a stamp of righteousness by society. It shouldn’t be a gamble with no clear prize. It should be a unity of two people in love, in true love, of any kind, that benefits both parties and positively impacts the society in which it occurs. Not only this, but a marriage should not result in the exploitation of anyone involved. Until then, marriage should be avoided by women since they are the exploited party. We should also strive for a society where single women are not marginalized. To do so, men must have their reactionary tendencies and their desire for control eradicated from their behavioral vocabulary. One must be conscious of both the issues women face and the prejudices men harbor to successfully emancipate women. Women and men both have strengths and weaknesses, and emphasizing the strengths of women, both in Burkina and the world, does not place women in some sort of idealistic, utopian vision. Instead, what it does is reveal the many ways that both men and society have attempted to hide and justify the marginalization, exploitation, and subjugation of women.

How should we organize ourselves to accelerate the march forward to emancipation?

This section also applies to Burkina Faso at the time of the revolution, and a good portion of it is not directly applicable to the rest of the world. Organization, carrying out social responsibilities, and encouraging women’s involvement in the efforts of societal change are though. Approaching the situations women face with the attitude of demanding change and not pleading for it is what will result in the most substantial changes. Education is a right for women, not just men, and efforts should be made to instill, maintain, and promote that fact. Outlawing the gender pay gap and discrimination against women for positions is necessary for societal change as well. Despite these things, the usual home and family duties should still be carried out, but men and women should share all tasks in the home. The burden of all the tasks should be lifted from the shoulders of women.

The August Revolution set the precedent that all those who joined the cause were there to “eliminate every breed of exploiter and imperialism’s economic domination” within the country. Sankara states, “only the revolutionary transformation of our society can create conditions favorable for your liberation. You are dominated both by imperialism and by men. In every male sleeps the soul of a feudal lord, a male chauvinist, which must be destroyed.” As society divided labor among the people, women were relegated to roles deemed the least important. Burkinabé women’s apparent physical weaknesses were imposed on them simply as a result of the norms and appearance preferences that society imposed on them, simply because they were women. “Female circumcision, scarring, the filing of teeth, and the piercing of lips and noses” are dangerous, outdated, and exploitive forms of fashion that are pushed on women just for them to find husbands in Burkina Faso. In America, eating disorders, specific clothing styles, and appearance alterations exist as ways for women to appeal more in the dating market. Why should women engage in these horrible, painful, life-altering actions to appeal to men for marriage? The simple answer is that they shouldn’t. Sankara calls for the end of these norms, stating, “You hurt yourselves so that men can hurt you even more!”

He reinforces the fact that he is calling for women to stand up for themselves and to push for the changes that they want for themselves in society. Those in the revolution are not seeking to organize what already exists, but instead overthrow it, “definitively destroy it,” and replace it with something better. He states the fact that next to every strong and successful man, there is a woman at his side. Whether wife, sister, or mother, every man draws his energy from a woman. He says, “The endless source of virility is femininity.” Sankara states that any man who does not love and respect women, who does not wish for their emancipation, despises his own mother. He “destroys the very place from which he has come”, referencing the womb, and exclaims, “woe to him who despises women!”

“Comrades, there is no true social revolution without the liberation of women. May my eyes never see and my feet never take me to a society where half the people are held in silence. I hear the roar of women’s silence. I sense the rumble of their storm and feel the fury of their revolt. I await and hope for the fertile eruption of the revolution through which they will transmit the strength and the rigorous justice issued from their oppressed wombs.”

Final Thoughts

Seven months after this speech was given, Thomas Sankara would be assassinated by his childhood friend and military ally Blaise Campaoré. This is the same man who helped Sankara overthrow Jean-Baptiste Ouédraogo and come to power. His own friend, his own comrade, killed him. Sankara walked out of the government’s headquarters with his hands up, surrendering to the invaders, and he was shot a minimum of twelve times. This French-backed coup was covered up for years, claiming that Sankara had died of natural causes. His body was buried in an unmarked grave and was not exhumed for an autopsy until 2015. This autopsy confirmed a targeted attack had occurred. Then his body was finally properly buried in 2023. The substantial changes that were occurring thanks to Sankara’s leadership were immediately halted, corruption became commonplace, and exploitation and extraction of labor returned in full force.

I believe that this is an absolutely essential read for a few reasons. First, this speech is a great introductory look at what the Burkinabé revolution was striving for. From women’s liberation to relying on nationally sourced products, the speech introduces the reader to the desires of the revolutionary Burkinabé people. Second, it showed just how selfless and truly insightful Sankara really was. He sought nothing in return for leading the revolution. Some information not presented in the speech is that he sold off the government’s fleet of Mercedes-Benz cars and replaced them with Renault 5’s, the cheapest cars available in Burkina Faso at the time, to cut down on useless government spending. He even refused to use the air conditioning in his office since he viewed it as a luxury not available to many Burkinabé people. He limited his possessions, cut his salary, and refused to have his portrait hung up in public places because he claimed, “There are seven million Thomas Sankaras.” He was one of the purest and most morally ideal revolutionaries the world has ever seen, who wanted nothing other than to help the people of his country, and this is evident in this speech. Third, it’s a great introduction to the ideology that is Pan-Africanism. Fourth, and possibly most important, this speech is a necessary stepping stone to understanding the problems that women around the world face, and the steps we can take to liberate them from the enslavement they are held under. While the scope of the speech is limited mostly to Burkina Faso and Africa, some of the foundational ideas are present across all capitalist societies.

Men are not women, so understanding the daily experience, the struggles, and the joys of being a woman is something that men will never truly understand. Seeing their pain, learning about their social standings and situations, and attempting to understand why these things exist is our only chance at even coming close to getting it. However, this simply is not enough. Knowing about all these things is just the first step. The next step is to actually “practice what you preach.” To the men reading, do not consume any form of sex work, do not conform to traditional values, and do not reinforce any social norms that harm women. Continually challenge your viewpoints to grow out of your oppressive tendencies. Abandon the patriarchal power you have in any way you can, lower your social standing by uplifting women around you and moving yourself down the ladder, and join and support causes that aim to do this around the world. To the women reading, fight for what you rightfully deserve. You must communicate the changes that you want to occur, you must form actionable plans to carry out, and you must be the ones to lead in the organization of forces to implement these changes. Without your leadership, nothing will ever truly materially change for the long-term. Without the liberation of women from all of their oppression and exploitation, we as a society will never experience the happiness and freedom that we so desire.