10/06/2026
"The War We Are Waging Is Science": Ibrahim Traoré's Charge to Burkina Faso's Youth
An analysis of the Burkinabè leader's address on religion, knowledge, and national development
A Mission He Cannot Keep Silent About
Captain Ibrahim Traoré, Burkina Faso's head of state, opened his address with a confession of obligation rather than authority. "I have a mission," he told an audience of high school graduates and teachers. "And if I do not pass this message on to you, the younger ones, I will have betrayed that mission."
What followed was not a conventional graduation speech. It was a sweeping critique of how religion has been taught and used, a lament over Africa's developmental stagnation, and above all a demand that the continent's youth abandon passive faith for active scientific labor.
The Central Argument: Faith Without Works
The speech's most provocative thread is Traoré's insistence that a distorted understanding of religion has been weaponized to keep Africans passive. Quoting Jomo Kenyatta's famous observation “When the white people first arrived, we had the land and they had the Bible... when we opened our eyes, the white people had the land and we had the Bible" Traoré argues that religious instruction has been used to direct African attention toward the afterlife while others extracted the continent's wealth.
"You are advised to find yourselves in mosques, in temples, in churches, waiting for everything from God," he said. "God will not come to give you what you want. If he created you with a brain and limbs, it is so that you can use them."
He was careful to distinguish between belief in a divine force and the institutional religions he criticizes. "The divine force is one thing, but religion is another. The misunderstanding of religions... and the use of religions for exploitation, politics and for domination."
His language grew sharpest when addressing religious leaders who, in his view, "lull our youth to sleep" while living in luxury themselves. "A poor understanding of religion leads us to be stupid. Very stupid. It completely shuts down our neurons. We can no longer think."
Traoré extended this critique to terrorism, describing fighters convinced that dying in battle secures them paradise “even going into battle knowing they are going to die, wore metal codpieces to protect their ge****ls because they have 72 virgins waiting for them."
Rejecting the Curse Narrative
A striking passage addresses the historical narrative of Black inferiority. Traoré invoked the medieval scholar Ibn Khaldun's claim that Black Africans were "closer to wild beasts than to the human race" words he argues facilitated slavery and colonialism.
"You were made to understand that you are the first on Earth, but that you are a cursed race," he said. "God never sent a people to Earth without sending guides. Black people also have many prophets, many guides. But you will never be told that."
He argued that Africans themselves participated in this erasure: "God sent us many prophets, many guides. Unfortunately, they were assassinated and we spent our time conspiring and assisting in killing them. We never recognized our guides."
The Practical Turn: A Nation That Cannot Build
The speech's second half pivoted from historical and spiritual critique to hard technical realities. Traoré described a Burkina Faso rich in resources but lacking the human capacity to exploit them.
"Suppose that tomorrow we discover oil in Burkina... There is no one capable of manufacturing the pumps to do it. We will go and pay for those pumps, those drills. And even if we extract the crude oil and I say, 'Build me a small refinery'... No one can build a refinery for me. No one can weld it."
He cited concrete statistics: of roughly 65,000 high school graduates, nearly half come from the literary A series, while only about 571 students enroll in the E series focused on industrial technology and just 38 in certain key technical pathways.
"With such numbers, we cannot realistically expect to build a strong industrial economy."
The problem, he argued, extends to those already credentialed: "Most of the engineers you see... don't know how to make anything. It's all theory. Rare are those who know how to actually do something."
A Direct Call to Youth
The core of Traoré's message to the graduates was a demand for a shift toward science, technology, engineering, and vocational skills without dismissing the humanities entirely.
"Literature nourishes the mind, opens up neurons and all that. It's very good, but we need few literary experts and many scientists."
He urged students to use the internet to train themselves, "to manufacture, to copy, to do everything that is necessary." He warned against treating a diploma as an endpoint: "Excellence lies in the ability to influence and impact the lives of those around you."
"You are capable of things you cannot even imagine, because you are the divine force with everything necessary, but it is up to you to work to unlock that."
On Gender: A Rejection of the Concept
In a brief but notable passage, Traoré addressed the Achille Mouga competition, launched to encourage young women into sciences. He rejected the framing of "gender" itself:
"I am opposed to the concept of gender because it is discrimination in itself to create the concept of gender. Everyone is the same. That's the basic principle. When people bring up these gender issues, it's to discriminate against you, the women."
His stated rationale for the competition was practical rather than ideological: girls are disproportionately concentrated in the literary A series, and the initiative aims to redirect them toward scientific fields and to encourage the teachers who guide them.
Patriotic Education and the Nation-Building Project
Traoré described reforms across the education system—modern schools, revised curricula, and what he called "civic and patriotic speech education" integrated throughout. The goal is a generation that is not only technically competent but "responsible, principled, and patriotic citizens."
"A nation cannot be built by human resources who are technically is capable yet disconnected from the values, sacrifices, and collective destiny of their own country."
The Stakes: "We Must Change the Game"
The speech's urgency rests on Traoré's conviction that Burkina Faso and Africa more broadly stands at a hinge point. He described a generation "lulled to sleep" and "dumbed down," and set a timetable: "In two or three years I can see a change and be told that it is these young people we spoke to, that it is this generation that is doing something wonderful."
His final framing was stark: "The war we are waging is science. Weapons, mechanics, am******on, explosives everything is science. But we are useless. We cannot produce anything. It hurts, but I have to say it bluntly, because we have been lulled to sleep."
He concluded with a challenge: "May the number of industries flourish. We must have thousands and thousands, hundreds of thousands of industries in Burkina Faso to produce everything locally... Guys, science, science, and science. Let's change the game."
Assessment
Traoré's speech is a document of considerable rhetorical force, weaving together Pan-Africanist critique, religious reformism, and a hard-nosed developmental agenda. Its diagnosis of Africa's structural weakness a shortage of practical, technical human capital is difficult to dispute. Its call for youth to embrace science and industry is concrete and actionable.
The also, however, a political act. Its critique of religious authority, its framing of gender, and its emphasis on patriotism and national discipline all serve to consolidate a particular vision of Burkina Faso's future under Traoré's leadership. Whether that vision produces the engineers and industries he demands or simply another generation "lulled to sleep" by a different set of promises remains to be seen.
What is undeniable is the speech's central demand: that young Africans stop waiting for miracles and start building. As Traoré put it, "As long as you do not fight, God will not accompany you."
