Sahel Revolutions, Uranium Plunder, and Resistance

In this episode, Inem Richardson reflects on her move to Burkina Faso in 2021 to co‑found the Thomas Sankara Center for African Liberation and Unity. She situates the project within the broader struggle to dismantle colonial borders and build a Pan‑African socialist future, explaining how the center became a hub for revolutionary political education and community organizing at a moment when the Sahel was entering a new cycle of anti‑imperialist revolt.

Inem analyzes the revolutionary wave that swept Mali in 2020, Burkina Faso in 2022, and Niger in 2023, culminating in the Alliance of Sahel States (AES). She breaks down how these movements differ from Western‑engineered “color revolutions,” emphasizing their explicitly anti‑imperialist framing, popular mobilization, and the leadership styles of Assimi Goïta, Ibrahim Traoré, and Abdourahmane Tchiani.

She also interrogates the contradictions facing newly sovereign states, including Traoré’s declaration that “Africa doesn’t need the World Bank, IMF, Europe, or America” alongside Burkina Faso’s acceptance of IMF funding in late 2025. Finally, she examines the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) in the Sahel, pointing to projects like West Africa’s largest teaching hospital in Bobo‑Dioulasso, while highlighting the structural challenges of weak infrastructure, Western‑backed destabilization, and the ongoing struggle to assert economic independence.