Thomas Sankara et la condition féminine: un discours révolutionnaire?

CONCLUSION

To encourage with the action constitutes the ultimate goal of Sankara. This revolutionary leader declares a war of words against his adversaries. Its speech is with the measurement of what G. Klaus declares : « The language of the policy is an element of the class struggle (...) the words are weapons, poisons or tranquillizing »^189(*). That is all the more true as Sankara tackles a problem anchored in collective mentality. « The tool of the language wants to be a weapon of shock for the new mode »^190(*). Sankara institutes a revolutionary language whose major stake is to reverse the old order, and to create another of them. In this direction, it affirms : « It is thus a question of restoring with the man his true image while making triumph the reign over freedom beyond natural differentiations, thanks to the liquidation of all the systems of hypocrisy which consolidate the cynical exploitation of the woman »^191(*). This profession of faith clarifies the engagement of the revolutionists which is to overcome the multiple enemies. Female emancipation Sankara gives the way here to be followed : it is presented as a guide which gives lessons and which holds the truth. Its force lies in its will to clarify its political project and to transmit a teaching message. The political struggle becomes, above all, a fight to impose an ideological truth.

The policy sankarist is based on the Marxism-Leninism. It engages in the direction of the rupture and is essential a revolution of the verb. It défint the mission of the new woman. « Also, this one must it engage in the application of the anti-impérialistes watchwords, to produce and consume burkinabé, while being always affirmed like an economic agent of foreground, producer as consumer of the local products »^192(*) this supposes a revolutionary will to precipitate the destruction of the systems which control the woman and to build a new economic order in which it would profit from a full blooming. By inviting the women to put itself in the forefront to produce and consume burkinabé, Sankara invites them to show patriotism. This last feature of revolutionary morals is accompanied by a will to acquire ascetic virtues^193(*). To count on its own forces leads the President of CNR to encourage the women to be useful itself of their own weapon which the UFB constitutes. « It rests with to you to sharpen it more so that its blows are sharper and allow you to always gain always and victories »^194(*). This call aims at giving confidence to the women so that they persevere in their permanent search of the emancipation.

The step sankarist consists in educating the women, to provide them the weapons of a later combat. Because, to act, it is essential that those Ci become aware of their critical situation and the need for causing a change qualifier. « One does not fight although what one knows well and a combat succeeds only if one is convinced of his accuracy »^195(*) Sankara note. It tries to reassure the women on the goodwill of the RDP. « It is a question of requiring in the name of the revolution which came to give and not to take, that justice is made to the women »^196(*). The revolution symbolizes a force which delivers. It is presented in the form of a providence, a safety for all the women. It incarnates kindness and generosity, it is thus not segregationist. The RDP does not distinguish the man from the woman, it does not make « discrimination sexist ». The camp of the Good is that of the democratic and popular Revolution, antithesis of the Reaction, camp of the Evil, par excellence. This a little simplistic vision manichéenne delimits the reports/ratios of force that Sankara establishes between the revolutionary camp and the enemies of the Revolution^197(*). The revolution and the women are partners in the constant research of freedom and Sankara clearly expresses it in these terms : « Women, my comrades of fights, it is with you that I speak »^198(*).

Thomas Sankara addresses particularly to the women in a direct way at the time of the meetings and via the media. To gather its audience, to give him a conscience of crowd and to educate it by the means of images and symbols constitute the step specific to the president of CNR. This technique of approach produces undeniable effects which belong to the heritage left by Sankara after its death.

Indeed, Sankara exploits the mass psychology. Its attitude is in conformity with this assertion of Gustave the Good : « by the fact alone that the individuals are transformed into crowd they have a kind of collective heart which makes them feel to think and to act in a way completely different from that of which would feel would think, to act each one of them insulation »^199(*). Sankara, like all « revolutionist », takes care to gather them  « masses » in « press », to impress them by vigorous harangues. Vis-a-vis an acquired audience, Sankara passes from the watchword to the teaching activity. « What very often requires that we make violence on ourselves : To explain and still explain. Lénine said a thing which we often forget : « at the origin of any revolution, it there with pedagogy » never let us forget it. And art to teach, it is the repetition. It is necessary to repeat, and still to repeat »^200(*). To educate and sensitize become the weapons of Sankara. In this project of formation, the speech plays a fundamental part. The abilities rhetorics, the argumentative techniques most various are with the service of the speech sankarist : to convince, move to take part in a work of rebuilding. The image, in the dialectical demonstration of Sankara, is an important figure of speech. It is a key of the particular vision that is made the leader of the political involved forces. The triptych of the representation of the woman, guilty woman, woman victim, positive woman, illustrates well the facets of the political speech of Sankara. The image becomes metaphor then allegory, when that the president of CNR seeks to strike the spirits. The revolutionary world becomes populated beneficial deities, such as the revolution or the night of August 4, and of obscure forces or monsters, like the imperialism and the religious Reaction. As Charles Perelman explains it, symbolism is seizable by a broad audience and involves a strong adhesion : « The symbol is essential to cause a religious or patriotic enthusiasm, because the emotion can stick with difficulty to a purely abstract idea »^201(*). In the same direction, Walter Lippmann known as of the symbol which it is made « to create the feeling of solidarity and to exploit the excitation of the masses at the same time »^202(*). Symbolism is presented in the form of a language of the unconscious one. It seeks to persuade the audience, to lead it by the promises and to frighten it by the threats, to lead it to reject what is condemned and to adopt what is recommended. In the case of the speech sankarist on the female condition, the prostitution, political, social and cultural exclusion of the women is condemned severely. On the other hand political, ideological education of the women, their access to the use and the authorities of decision-makings is recommended. The final objectives is the release and the total emancipation of the woman. This determination leads Sankara to threaten those which are opposed during the Revolution : « Comrades, misfortune with those which scorn the women ! »^203(*). This formula is the echo of the famous sentence pronounced by Sankara. at the time of its resignation of the post of Secretary of State to Information on April 12, 1982 : « Misfortune with those which muzzle their people »^204(*). Protesting against the attacks with freedoms, he becomes at the same time the exemplary leader who fight, counter the injustice, the arbitrary one and the exploitation in all the forms. Sankara creates in its meetings, a total communion with the people^205(*). It adapts its behavior to one « speech of truth which is stated on the mode of the duty- being, at best of the duty food then qu `it indicates the good- food, the line right »^206(*).

The problem of the female condition such as it is posed in the speeches of Sankara concerns major mentalities of a company. Any evolution in this specific field can be obtained only by one long strong psychosociological process. However Sankara had the merit to tackle what, with the eyes of the company is regarded as normal and essential with the maintenance and the cohesion of the community : namely, social oppression, the economic cultural ostracism operating systems of the woman. And three years and half, a significant change appears in the life of the women. Those can reach certain political and administrative stations. The women include/understand the message sankarist and some of them are put at the front of the scene to break their chains symbolically. Sankara allows the political awakening of the women, as testifies to it Marlène Zebango, political woman, former minister for justice: « The fight of the women burkinabé for their rights goes up in Thomas Sankara (...) it gave us confidence in us, because it encensait us and was the first to entrust stations of responsibilities to us. »^207(*).

These remarks are confirmed by historians who note that the effort sankarist made it possible to place the woman at foreground. The question of its condition « was not any more the object of a taboo »^208(*). C. Benabdessadok concludes : « (...) the destiny of the women left the path of the taboo, the exploitation and of « blessed-yes- ouism » »^209(*). According to him, Sankara allowed the starter of a debate which modified in-depth the facts of the case posed. The UFB just like the popular courts of conciliation is presented as a structure by which the women express their concerns and defend themselves^210(*).

The project of Women's Liberation is inseparable from the total and total project formulated by Sankara to reverse the established social order. By its words and its acts, Sankara hustles mentalities and maintains a control social tight. The slowness of adhesion to the policy sankarist on the female condition is related to the fact that revolution of mentalities runs up against the inertia which is clean for them.

It was always difficult to substitute a system of perception for another. And Bruno Jaffré to conclude : « The evolution of mentalities remains a long-term job, still is necessary it to start without a certain courage »^211(*). Heir to a country where the political domination, the economic exploitation and the social exclusion of the woman were the standard, Sankara chose the rupture. Marxist-Leninist, the president of CNR compares the women to proletarians and is determined to organize them, to educate them and to defend them. He wants the responsabiliser for the control of their own destiny, and the result of their release. Conscious of the enormous force that the women represent, Sankara prophesies : « Comrades, there is true social revolution only when the woman is released. That never my eyes do not see a company, that never my steps do not transport me in a company where the half of the people is maintained in silence. I hear the din of this silence in women, I have a presentiment of grondement of their gust of wind, I feel the fury of their revolt. I hear and hope for the fertile irruption of the revolution, they will translate the force and the rigorous accuracy left their entrails oppressed »^212(*). Words and acts of Sankara thus reveal a revolutionary thought authentically feminist. Seldom in the history of the revolutions, the practice went hand in hand with the theory with regard to the Women's Liberation. Olympe de Gouges, to quote only it, does not have T it not paid its life its opposition to Robespierre and a revolution which was a business of man ? The courageous and sincere standpoint of Sankara is without preceding in the history by Burkina and that by the political ideas.

* ¹⁸⁹ PËCHEUX (M), COp cit., p. 259.

* ¹⁹⁰ BANEGAS (R) COp cit., p 17.

* ¹⁹¹ GAKUNZI (D), COp cit. p 222.

* ¹⁹² GAKUNZI (D), COp cit., p. p 235-236.

* ¹⁹³ BANEGAS (R), COp cit. p. 102.

* ¹⁹⁴ GAKUNZI (D), COp cit. p. 235.

* ¹⁹⁵ GAKUNZI (D), COp., cit. p. 123.

* ¹⁹⁶ GAKUNZI (D), COp cit., p. 239.

* ¹⁹⁷ See Appendices III

* ¹⁹⁸ GAKUNZI (D), COp cit. p. 242.

* ¹⁹⁹ Quotation drawn from the course «  Media and Public  » exempted by BALIMA Serge Theophilus (License/MAST1, Arts and Communication, 19/01/98).

* ²⁰⁰ GAKUNZI (D) COp cit. p. 273.

* ²⁰¹ PERELMAN, COp., cit., p 114.

* ²⁰² Quotation drawn from the course  «  Media and public of BALIMA Serge Theophilus (License/MAST1 and Communication, 19/01/98).

* ²⁰³ GAKUNZI (D) COp cit. p. 245.

* ²⁰⁴ ENGLEBERT (P) COp cit. p 112- 113.

* ²⁰⁵ ENGLEBERT (P), COp cit. pp. 112- 113.

* ²⁰⁶ BANEGAS (R) COp cit. p. 109.

* ²⁰⁷ BADINI- FOLANE (D), «  Women in policy in Burkina Faso of 1983 to 1977  », in Athanor n° 9, Ravenna, Longo Eidtore, December 1998, p. 81.

* ²⁰⁸ JAFFRE (B), Burkina Faso, the Sankara years  : revolution with correction, Paris, Harmattan 1989, p 111.

* ²⁰⁹ BENABDESSADOK(c), COp., cit. p. 64.

* ²¹⁰ JAFFRE (B), COp.; cit. p. 111.

* ²¹¹ JAFFRE (B), COp.; cit. p. 111.

* ²¹² GAKUNZI, (D) COp cit. p 245.