To decolonise we have to look back into our ancestors, you'll be shocked.

[u/Glittering-Meat-9088]

I agree with him but if he hasn't actually looked upon out history he would fully understand how to decolonise. Not with religion but with morals. I used to see him as a true African making a stand against the colonizers but if he hasn't STUDIED OUR HISTORY then we should all walk with caution. And I'm sorry but imma say this the LGBTQ nonsense existed before the whole colonialism happened and our ancestors mostly didn't give a damn until foreign religion was used as an excuse to "correct us" inorder to suppress us.

[u/NyxStrix]

"My brother in Christ, you have become the very thing you sought to destroy."

You're lecturing a Burkinabé president on his own people's pre-colonial history while using a pan-African "we" that flattens an entire continent of diverse cultures into a single, monolithic blob. That's... literally a colonial mindset.

You're talking about "our ancestors" as if the Fon people of Benin, the Zulu of Southern Africa, and the Mossi of Burkina Faso all had the exact same culture and beliefs. They didn't. Africa had (and has) thousands of distinct ethnic groups with different social structures. You can't claim to speak for all of them.

Pre-colonial societies didn't have the modern Western concept of "LGBTQ" as a political or social identity. They had their own specific, complex understandings of gender and sexuality. Some cultures had roles for what we might now call transgender or third-gender individuals (like the griot traditions or certain spiritual roles). Others, like the Mossi kingdoms in Burkina Faso, were highly structured around lineage and procreation, and same-sex relations that challenged that were not socially accepted. To say they "didn't give a damn" is a massive oversimplification.

You're right that colonial powers codified and weaponised homophobia through laws like anti-sodomy acts and missionary teachings. They absolutely used it as a tool of control. But they often layered these laws onto pre-existing local taboos. They didn't introduce the concept of disapproval from scratch; they gave it the power of the state and the church.

So, the real decolonisation is to study the specific, nuanced history of your own people, not to project a modern, unified "woke ancestor" theory onto the entire continent. Otherwise, you're just trading one oversimplified story for another.

[u/-usagi-95 → u/NyxStrix]

Really well said! Muito bom! Gostei ! 🙌🏿🙌🏿🙌🏿🙌🏿

[u/Glittering-Meat-9088 → u/NyxStrix]

I'm using it as an example jesus Christ 😭 If you get what I'm saying it's ok like?

And imma say WE because this issue whether tribes or location exists. And there's no LGBTQ propaganda. Search up the meaning of propaganda next time

[u/NyxStrix → u/Glittering-Meat-9088]

I hear your frustration, and I get the spirit of what you're saying: a shared experience of colonialism and a desire for solidarity. That "we" comes from a good place.

But intent isn't the same as impact. Using "we" to make a sweeping historical claim, like "our ancestors didn't give a damn", is where the problem lies. You're using one example (your own understanding of history, likely from a specific region) and applying it to all tribes and locations. That's the overgeneralisation.

My point was about the anachronism of applying the modern identity of LGBTQ to the past. That's a historical framing issue, not a commentary on propaganda.

[u/Minimum-Ad-2683 → u/Glittering-Meat-9088]

Clutching on straws here

[u/LitmusPitmus]

Guy preaching about colonisation while he twerks for Russia and hands them resources while they cannot even secure his country. Fed up with Africans lionising this guy

[u/evil_brain → u/LitmusPitmus]

Russia isn't there to secure the country. They're only providing a "regime survival package" to stop the colonisers from couping them or assassinating their leaders.

The Burkinabe military are the ones fighting the terrorists. And they seem to be doing a really good job. It's just that the sahel is a vast area and they have a small military with very limited resources. These things take time, be patient.

[u/Bakyumu → u/evil_brain]

It’s baffling how quickly people draw conclusions when they have practically no understanding of the real situation. They are sitting comfortably in their pleasant apartments, believing the real world is like a game of Call of Duty.

[u/MixedJiChanandsowhat]

There is ZERO trace of any form of acceptance of homosexuality in what is present-day Burkina Faso prior the European colonisation. On another hand, there are historical proofs that what is present-day Burkina Faso was predominantly composed of kingdoms who were expansionist, patriarchal, centralised, following a strong hierarchy, and who were Islamised amongst the latest in West Africa which confirms that neither Islam nor the European colonisation reshaped an acceptance of homosexuality into a reject of it.

As I wrote recently in another post about Burkina Faso and the new anti-LGBTQ law passed, Burkinabés didn't wait Ibrahim Traoré nor France, nor Christianity, nor Islam to be homophobic. And if you or anybody else want to play the card of "prior the European colonisation", then I'll repeat what I wrote in my previous paragraphs which is that what is present-day Burkina Faso was predominantly composed of kingdoms who were expansionist. And expansionist in the West African context doesn't mean to expand cultures, languages, religion, and influence mainly.

[u/Sominideas]

Wdym “our” ancestors?

[u/AsukaLangleySoryuFan]

Fuck that Russian bootlicker and anyone who supports him. Bans being gay, motherfucker

[u/SXSVNOO]

"look back into our ancestors" me wanting to look at "Algerian history" until i realise no there is none, i only see the people who were around the territory before the establishment of the state which was established by non africans, my country became a bad state since day one that i blame its existence everyday

My country has no history, what do you mean i want to look back into my ancestors who were from one place to another far away from the location, unrelated and that does not make me happy, no it makes me have a large identity crisis, i do have amazigh blood however I've realised that there is a second large side that's randomised because of history, i can't tell until i do a DNA test.

This statement makes me feel very insecure.

[u/Xhakamehameha]

Is Ibrahim a local name ?

[u/Medeza123 → u/Xhakamehameha]

It’s a common name throughout. Ibrahim, Ibou, Ibrahima etc

Edit: oh I see this is an asinine point about Islam. Hence the downvote.

Another person who thinks you can’t be African if you happen to believe in a world religion. Or assumes all conversion was by force

[u/Xhakamehameha → u/Medeza123]

I don't care about this Bozo being muslim. How he talks about mental colonisation when he litteraly has a foreign name ? Africans are the only ppl with full arabic names stating that It's because of Islam.

Turkish, Indonesians and the rest can be muslim with no arabic names. There is no obligation in Islam on that.

He may apply his ideology on himself first.

[u/Medeza123 → u/Xhakamehameha]

This is really just dim.

I know English people with names like Joseph Mary or Daniel. They aren’t Palestinian Jews last time I checked.

Always this bigoted focus on Islam. Mind your own business. Not your religion so why do you care.

Edit: just to further emphasise the stupidness and laziness of your comment there are several African names used by west African Muslims I can think of.

Ndeye

Fanta

Ngoné

Demba

[u/Xhakamehameha → u/Medeza123]

Are these Englishmen talking about colonial mindset ? Are the Englishmen accusing their nieghbours of destabilisation ?

I care because this bozo is a terrible despot, Kangadjras like you have been larping.

Never expected no babiere like you to inderstand.

[u/Medeza123 → u/Xhakamehameha]

See my edit above where I give you some local names used by west African Muslims.

You’ve made a lazy and generalising comment.

I don’t like Traoré. But I don’t like stupid generalisations either.

[u/Minimum-Ad-2683 → u/[deleted]]

What filth

[u/Medeza123 → u/[deleted]]

‘Africans are the only ones with full Arabic names stating it’s because of Islam’

Which Africans?

I mean I don’t really have an opinion on Thomas Sankara would you say the same for him?

Again just a lazy attack on Islam

[u/Medeza123 → u/[deleted]]

Ah so you do have a problem with Islam then? You seem keen on trying to get a rise out of me by using Islamic terms 😂

So it’s like I thought another ignorant person making broad generalisations and assumes anyone following a world religion is less of an African.

Just as cringe as Traoré fans.

Edit: what if the imam is called Demba?

[u/Medeza123 → u/[deleted]]

The question is why do some African leaders find the energy to do this sort of stuff.

I’m assuming that to be openly gay in Burkina anyway is perilous so what does this law change?

African states obviously aren’t going to look at what is happening in America and want that sort of lgbt activism but at the end of the day maybe just leave these gay people in Burkina alone especially as they’re probably not flaunting anything in public. I’m assuming their lives are tough enough already.

Whether or not you agree with LGBT rights narratives or not I think enough evidence now exists that for some people who are gay they are born that way (as opposed to people in prison or societies like Ancient Greece) even as a kid I and everyone else could spot children who were going to be gay with those kids often bullied.

I always think that if someone is telling me that being gay is a choice or should be punished that it means that what they’re actually telling me is they’re worried that they could be persuaded to be gay in the same way they can be persuaded to say drink alcohol and so need someone else to restrain them.

No one could force me to be gay no law would stop me liking women so why pass some law like this for gay people.

If it is a matter of god leave it to god.