Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

Chronicle of a Student Strike in Africa: The Case of Burkina Faso, 1996-1997

1998; Cambridge University Press; Volume: 41; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.2307/524825

1555-2462

Christopher Wise,

Philosophy, Ethics, and Existentialism

During the 1996-1997 academic year, students at the University of Ouagadougou went on strike for three months. This strike was the worst in Burkina Faso's history (or in the history of the former Upper The author, who was a visiting American professor at the time of the strike, details what happened at the university and in related incidents in Ouagadougou and Bobo-Dioulasso. The author suggests that the strike may have resulted from the erosion of democratic rights within Burkinabe society, following the assassination of former President Thomas Sankara and the rise to power of current President Blaise Compaord. Our attention is drawn to contributing factors behind the strike, including long-standing structural problems at the University of Ouagadougou and the politically motivated killing of popular professors and the former student body president Dabo Boukary, all of whom had spoken out against the Compaord regime. R6sumw: Pendant l'annde scolaire 1996-1997, les etudiants de l'universite de Ouagadougou sont allis en grave pendant une dur&e de trois mois. Cette greve etait la pire dans l'histoire du Burkina Faso (ou dans l'histoire de l'ancienne Haute Volta). L'auteur, qui &tait alors professeur visiteur americain, raconte en detail les evenements A l'universit6 par rapport a des evenements A Ouagadougou et Bobo-Dioulasso. L'auteur soutient que la grave a dfi &tre le r6sultat d'une erosion des droits democratiques dans la socidtd burkinab6 a la suite de l'assassinat de l'ancien president Thomas Sankara et l'arrivee au pouvoir du president Blaise Compaore. L'auteur attire notre attention sur les facteurs qui ont contribue A la greve, parmi lesquels les problemes structurels de longue date de l'universite et l'assassinat politique de celkbres professeurs et de Dabo Boukary, ancien president des &tudiants qui avaient critique le regime de Campaore. African Studies Review, Volume 41, Number 2 (September 1998), pp. 19-36 Christopher Wise is Assistant Professor of English at Western Washington University in Bellingham. He has published numerous articles in professional journals and now serves as Contributing Editor of Arena Journal, Littiratures du Sahel, and The Journal of African Travel Writing. He recently edited Yambo Ouologuem: Postcolonial Writer Islamic Militant (Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner, forthcoming).