The Divide: Global Inequality from Conquest to Free Markets

by Jason Hickel

Sankara had thrown down a gauntlet at the feet of the president of France, his region’s former colonial power. He challenged the postcolonial order by striking at its very core: debt. ‘Debt must be seen from the standpoint of its origins,’ Sankara said. ‘And the origins of debt lie in colonialism. Our creditors are those who had colonised us before. They managed us then and they manage us now. But we did not ask for this debt,’ he continued. ‘And therefore we will not repay it. Debt is neocolonialism. It is a cleverly managed reconquest of Africa. Each one of us becomes a financial slave. We are told to repay. We are told it is a moral issue. But it is not.’ And then he delivered the clincher: ‘The debt cannot be repaid. If we don’t repay, the lenders will not die. That is for sure. But if we do repay, we will die. That is also for sure.’ Sankara was considered dangerous not only because he threatened to default on Burkina Faso’s debt, but because he was spreading that idea across the continent. He was on the verge of galvanising a continent-wide debt-resistance movement – and from the perspective of Western creditors, it had to be stopped. Three months after his speech, Sankara was assassinated in a coup widely believed to have been backed by France, which brought Blaise Compaoré to power – a dictator who ruled for twenty-seven years.