[images are from the documentary Concerning Violence: Nine Scenes from the Anti-Imperialistic Self-Defense. the full quote is part of the below excerpt of “‘Concerning Violence’ introduces new generations to Frantz Fanon” in The San Francisco Bay View; the text in the above images is below in bold.]
In an interview with a European journalist in 1987, the revolutionary, Pan Africanist president of Burkina Faso, Thomas Sankara, was asked why he said no to food aid from imperial powers. He answered profoundly: “They have not helped us to develop. They have instead created a beggar mentality. We hold out our hands to receive food. That is not a good thing. Our farmers have stopped producing, because they cannot sell what they produce. The surplus from farmers in other countries is brought in here. We want something else. Those who really want to help us can give us plows, tractors, fertilizer, insecticide, watering cans, drills, dams. That is how we define food aid. Those who come with wheat, millet, corn or milk, they are not helping us. They are fattening us up like you do with geese, stuffing them in order to be able to sell them later. That is not real help.”
Five months after the interview with Sankara was filmed, Sankara was killed in a coup d’etat in October of 1987. He was murdered by his former colleague, Blaise Compaore, who was supported by the governments of France and the USA.
