Dispatch: Burkina Faso
by Jean-Marc Mojon

OUAGADOUGOU, BURKINA FASO — It was more like a carnival than an official visit by a head of state. Colonel Muammar Gadhaffi's trip through several African countries on his way to the Organization for African Unity summit in Lomé, Togo, was a grandiose, Hollywood-style production.

For almost a year now, the Libyan president, newly converted to pan-Africanism, has been campaigning for what he calls the United States of Africa. In its ideal form, this wildly optimistic plan calls for a supernational centralized governing structure that would bring Africa under the banner of a single federal power. In this respect, the OAU meeting held in the capital of Togo last week was a crucial stage of his project. This first, more modestly ambitious (if still somewhat unrealistic) vision of African unity was adopted, but has yet to be ratified.

CIA FACTBOOK

Gadhaffi will face opposition from the big African powers such as Nigeria and South Africa, but is having no difficulty convincing the continent's poorer countries. Burkina Faso, a country that has enjoyed strong Libyan ties over the last two decades, was probably the climax of the Colonel's 2,500 mile-long African parade. This West African nation welcomed with open arms the man who was an ally of its legendary idealistic founder, Thomas Sankara.

Often close to being ridiculous, the way the Libyan leader was greeted came as a reminder that the "myth of the leader" is still vivid in this dry little Sahelian country, one of the five poorest in the world. In the streets of the capital Ouagadougou, banners welcomed the "Guide" in emphatic style.

"We find our inspiration in your mind, from which we extract the essence of life" or "The masses of Burkina welcome Africa's only eagle" were only some of the greetings which must have inflated Gadhaffi's ego yet a bit more.

Wearing T-shirts dedicated to the glory of the father of the Libyan Jamahiriyah (nation), thousands of Burkinabè were turned into human advertisements. Paid well enough to be happy, the crowd offered its illustrious guest a flurry of chants and applause. As in the good old days of the single party regime, national TV and radio were politely requested to broadcast the event almost entirely, all day, four days running.

Gadhaffi's visit ended in Ougadougou's stadium where more fans were gathered than for the biggest pop stars or soccer games: 35,000 people listened to his hour-long speech on the future glory of Africa. At the conclusion of the oration, the "Guide" and the Burkinabè president, Blaise Compaoré, completed a lap of honour with their fists raised.

But underneath the surface of this revolutionary folklore and African-style celebration, the issue is essentially financial. In order to break his isolation, Gadhaffi has used his oil wealth to become the poor countries' money-lender, more generous and less critical than the Western powers. The bilateral commission in charge of supervising the use of aid money between Libya and Burkina has not met since 1991. This time, Muammar Gadhaffi's gift to Burkina Faso was a bank, a gigantic five-star hotel, a road, and a few bank notes he threw to the crowd from the presidential Jeep — all of which makes African unity seem like a pretty good deal.

E-mail Jean-Marc Mojon at mojonj at yahoo dot com.