Titbits from the Sahel

For the past decade, Bobo-Dioulasso’s Maison des martyrs had been one of the headquarters of the IWA, an armed group of political activists who are against the influence of Western countries in West Africa. Recently, however, at the request of the current ailing leader of this armed group, Saye Zoubga, the Maison des martyrs had become the living quarters for Hawa Sawadogo, the thirty-one-year-old masked figure, and future leader of the group. Zoubga, a charismatic man, had been disabled for several months with a strange incurable wound on his left thigh. A wound that he sustained after his group seized control of a town near Sikasso in Mali and were stopped from overrunning Korhogo, in Côte d’Ivoire. Between August 1960 and January 1966, Saye Zoubga was a well-known personality in Upper Volta, present day Burkina Faso. Once the name Zoubga was mentioned, most senior Upper Voltian would quickly associate it with Maurice Yaméogo, the first president of Upper Volta. During Yaméogo’s rule, Zoubga was one of his staunch henchmen. The regime was equivalent to a single political party tyranny that silenced all forms of opposition. Kangaroo courts mushroomed in which accused persons had no right to be defended by attorneys. Theft, misappropriation of public funds, embezzlement, and corruption were the watchwords of Yaméogo’s era. His entourage consisted of people like Zoubga had a field day as their lavish taste for fancy lifestyle was embraced by merchants in Paris and Brussels. As strikes and mass demonstrations by students, labour unions, and civil servants marred Yaméogo’s one-party regime, he was overthrown by General Aboubakar Sangoulé Lamizana. Those within the age group of Zoubga would never forget the days of Maurice Yaméogo. For many Upper Voltians, the name Yaméogo could still implore dread in their hearts. Up to the present time, prudent folks hinted that the topmost offices of Burkina Faso administration still maintained some diehard sympathisers, like Zoubga, of the Yaméogo regime. With the command reshuffle now looming, members of the IWA were looking forward to Sawadogo, wondering what type of leadership she will bring. Moreover, Zoubga had always been very forceful in his display of leadership, leaving Sawadogo less opportunity to engage in decision-making.