Ouagadougou: Independent Burkina Faso celebrates its 64th birthday this Monday, August 5, 2024. Independence proclaimed on August 5, 1960 by Maurice Yaméogo. The proclamation was the culmination of a decolonization process started after the Second World War in 1945 and marked by the reconstitution of the colony of Upper Volta in 1947. One of the determining periods of this decolonization was the capture taken over the management of the country by the Voltaïques on May 17, 1957 under the leadership of Daniel Ouézzin Coulibaly.
Political life in Upper Volta began in 1945. We are at the end of the Second World War. And France, weakened and demystified, emerged victorious from the war in part thanks to the Voltas and the Africans who fought alongside it and who paid the price with their lives.
For Daniel Ouézzin Coulibaly, teacher and trade unionist from Volta, through the fight and the blood shed by Africans, ‘Africa has paid its contribution to peace, it has acquired the right to live on the basis of the equa
lity of men, races and peoples.
Also, faced with pressure from the emerging African elite, traditional and customary chieftaincy as well as uninhibited African populations, France grants a deputy position within its National Assembly to each of its colonies.
The Voltaic people who are largely part of the colony of Ivory Coast with Bobo-Dioulasso and Ouagadougou will have as their first deputy Felix Houphouët-Boigny supported by Daniel Ouézzin Coulibaly.
In the French parliament, Felix Houphouët-Boigny and the other elected African deputies demanded and obtained for the Voltaics, and all black peoples, several rights that the latter had lost since the start of colonization, such as the end of forced labor.
However, in reality, the colonial administration continued to exploit the populations as reported by Daniel Ouézzin Coulibaly.
‘On November 10, 1946, I passed through Kaya on my way to Dori. On the Ouagadougou-Dori route, I encountered crowds of men who were digging the ground and carrying the tradition
al baskets of earth on their heads. (…) As I told them that forced labor had been eliminated, they told me that in their village ‘nothing had been changed’.
In 1946, new elections to the French parliament granted three deputy positions to the Upper and Lower Ivory Coast. At the end of these elections, Felix Houphouët-Boigny was re-elected with the first two Voltaic deputies, Daniel Ouézzin Coulibaly and Philippe Zinda Kaboré.
The three elected deputies, in agreement with other African elected officials in other French colonies, will fight for the application of the laws which guarantee the rights of Africans, in particular that on the end of forced labor.
The year 1946 was also the year of the creation of the first political parties in the French colonies of black Africa.
The Mogho Naba Sagha II created the Voltaic Union (UV) in June 1946 in Ouagadougou and Daniel Ouézzin Coulibaly created the Voltaic Democratic Party (PDV), section of the African Democratic Rally (RDA) on December 20, 1947, in Bobo-Dioul
asso.
Daniel Ouézzin Coulibaly is the political secretary of the RDA created on October 21, 1946 in Bamako. In this capacity, he traveled throughout black Africa to install sections of the RDA: in Sudan (present-day Mali), in Guinea, in Niger, in Congo, in Senegal, in Dahomey (present-day Benin), in Cameroon, etc. The RDA is similar to the French Communist Party.
From 1947 to 1954 it was these two parties that would drive political life in Upper Volta and battle to occupy positions in the political institutions newly created with the reconstitution of the territory.
On September 4, 1947, the President of the French Republic Vincent Auriol promulgated the law adopted by the French National Assembly which reestablished the colony of Upper Volta.
The reestablishment of Upper Volta, demanded by the customary and traditional chiefdom for more than a decade as well as the emerging political elite and carried out in 1947 by the French colonist, is not intended to reward the Voltas.
It aims to weaken the RDA, th
e main strongholds of which are between Ivory Coast and western Upper Volta, led by RDA president Felix Houphouët-Boigny and the lion of the RDA, Daniel Ouézzin Coulibaly. After recovery, Daniel Ouézzin Coulibaly remains a deputy for Côte d’Ivoire because for him his fight remains pan-African.
The reestablishment had the advantage of the creation of a General Council (ancestor of the Burkinabè National Assembly) in 1948 and the election of its members. It is a consultative body with no real power.
Under the weight of the repression of the colonial administration, the elected representatives of the RDA in the French parliament announced on October 18, 1950 that they were separating themselves from the parliamentary group of the French Communist Party (PCF).
In July 1951, Daniel Ouézzin Coulibaly condemned electoral fraud in Upper Volta and Ivory Coast before the French parliament. Governors Péchoux and Mouragues maintain against him in Ivory Coast and Upper Volta, around ten charges accompanied by legal pro
ceedings forcing him to take refuge in France.
From 1954, the Voltaic Union broke up: Nazi Boni created the Popular Movement for African Evolution (MPEA) which would become the African Popular Movement (MPA). Joseph Conombo and Henri Guissou formed the Social Party for the Emancipation of the African Masses (PSEMA) in January 1955. In July 1956, Colonel Michel Dorange created the Voltaic Democratic Movement (MDV) with Gerard Kango Ouédraogo. Maurice Yaméogo joins this new party, who occupies the position of financial controller.
In October 1954, the train arrived for the first time in Ouagadougou with Daniel Ouézzin Coulibaly and Felix Houphouët-Boigny on board who inaugurated it.
In France, there was a change of government at the end of 1955 which was favorable to the RDA with the entry of its president Felix Houphouët-Boigny into the new government as Minister Delegate to the Presidency of the Council.
The RDA, which had been fought since its creation in 1946 by the colonial administration, became an al
ly of the French government from 1956. The movement will therefore take the opportunity to demand new reforms for the African colonies.
One of the major reforms will be the adoption on June 23, 1956 of the framework law proposed by the French overseas minister Gaston Defferre and the minister Félix Houphouët-Boigny. The framework law authorizes the establishment in African territories of elected government councils, which allows the local executive power to be more autonomous vis-à-vis France.
In 1956, Daniel Ouézzin Coulibaly was the greatest political figure in Upper Volta and it was his movement, the RDA, which worked for the adoption of the framework law which offered Africans relative autonomy, a step towards independence. He was therefore essential in the formation of the first government of Upper Volta.
Also, Voltaic political leaders will work to ally with him in order to play a role in the new autonomous and independent Upper Volta which was taking shape. Two political figures, Joseph Issoufou Con
ombo and Gérard Kango Ouédraogo are disputing the authorship of the return to the Voltaic political scene of Ouézzin Coulibaly who was still a deputy for Côte d’Ivoire.
For the formation of the first autonomous government in the history of Upper Volta, Daniel Ouézzin Coulibaly advocates compromise and the unity of the political family. It merged on September 23, 1956 in Ouagadougou with Joseph Conombo, the Voltaic Democratic Party (PDV), territorial section of the RDA and the PSEMA to give birth to the Unified Democratic Party (PDU).
Very optimistic, Daniel Ouézzin Coulibaly writes that ‘the colossal Upper Volta took the start and rushed into the arena. Let’s wish him well and good luck. We are with her.’
The effective application of the framework law took place in 1957 with the adoption on February 2, of implementing decrees and the organization of legislative elections in Upper Volta on March 31, 1957.
These elections were won by the PDU of Daniel Ouézzin Coulibaly and Joseph Issoufou Conombo with 37 se
ats. The MDV of Colonel Michel Dorange and Gérard Kango Ouédraogo won 26 seats, one of the elected representatives of this party was Maurice Yaméogo. Nazi Boni’s MPEA won 5 seats and the Independents 2 seats, making 70 seats in total. Although the winner of the vote, Daniel Ouézzin Coulibaly sealed an alliance with the second-placed political party, the MDV, for the formation of the government.
The first government in the history of Upper Volta was formed on May 17, 1957 in Ouagadougou, with extensive executive powers. Daniel Ouézzin Coulibaly is vice-president of the government council, minister of inter-territorial affairs and minister of information. French Governor Yvon Bourges is the president of the council but he now has only a symbolic role.
The number 2 in the government is the head of the MDV, Colonel Michel Dorange who holds the post of Minister of the Interior. In 10th ministerial rank, we find Maurice Yaméogo who is Minister of Agricultural Economy.
As soon as the government was established, D
aniel Ouézzin Coulibaly called out: ‘Neither politics nor the mandate are an end in themselves. These are means that should only be used in the public interest and the acceleration of social progress.’
In the government formed, Joseph Issoufou Conombo and Gerard Kango Ouédraogo do not appear. They broke away and took advantage of a certain number of incidents to form a group hostile to the government at the end of 1957 in the Volta Territorial Assembly. They allied themselves with the other opposition leader Nazi Boni and voted for a motion of no confidence demanding the resignation of President Ouézzin Coulibaly with his government. Upper Volta is in crisis and negotiations are underway.
On January 12, 1958, President Daniel Ouézzin Coulibaly benefited from the rallying of the Minister of Agricultural Economy Maurice Yaméogo with other members. On February 6, 1958, he formed a new government in which Maurice Yaméogo was promoted to number 2 as Minister of the Interior.
On May 20, 1958, Daniel Ouézzin Coul
ibaly delivered his memorable and historic keynote speech to the Territorial Assembly, which presented great ambitions for his country.
‘The colossal pyramids of Egypt, the Great Wall of China, the Gothic cathedrals of Western Europe owe nothing to modern industrial techniques. These monuments erected by the work and faith of men are the work of societies whose material deprivation was equal to ours. Let us meditate on their lesson, let us know that nothing is impossible for the man of will animated by great courage.’
In July 1958, Daniel Ouézzin Coulibaly became president of the government council and head of the Upper Volta territory. Having been ill for some time, he went to Paris at the end of July 1958 to undergo medical examinations. He appoints Maurice Yaméogo to take over as interim leader.
On September 2, 1958, interim Maurice Yaméogo visited the government president Daniel Ouézzin Coulibaly, who asked him to take stock of the progress of the construction of the Ouagadougou hospital and the broadc
asting of Upper Volta. , etc.
Daniel Ouézzin Coulibaly, died on Sunday September 7, 1958 at 7:30 a.m. at the Saint Antoine hospital in Paris of an undetermined illness to this day. This death is an earthquake throughout black Africa and in France.
The day after his death, Guinean President Sékou Touré, one of his protégés, paid tribute to him by declaring September 9, 1958, a day of contemplation and prayer on the part of the Guinean population.
Modibo Kéita from Mali writes: ‘My dear master, my very late guide, my eldest and brother in struggle, now entered into legend, our brother of dark days and days of glory, farewell, sleep in peace.’
Felix Houphouët-Boigny affirms ‘The comrade, the friend, the companion, the brother in struggle, the president of the RDA, reached in what he has dearest, because with you, dear Ouézzin, it is a lot of him -even who leaves’.
Daniel Ouézzin Coulibaly receives tributes and honors in Paris and Abidjan. His mortal remains were then brought back to Upper Volta where he rec
eived a national funeral in Ouagadougou and Bobo-Dioulasso on September 14 and 15, 1958.
For his successor Maurice Yaméogo, Daniel Ouézzin Coulibaly, “was the compass that shows the path of Voltaic interests, the indisputable leader who knew how to reconcile the differences of views during our debates, the giant of thought and action.”
His political opponent Gérard Kango Ouédraogo affirms: ‘Upper Volta and with it the whole of Africa, mourns the best of its sons, (…) the pride of the Voltas, their glory, their torch’.
Two weeks after these funerals, the Voltaïques approved by more than 98%, the Constitution on the Franco-African Community. Once the funeral is over, negotiations are underway among political actors for the succession of President Daniel Ouézzin Coulibaly.
Maurice Yaméogo wants to be confirmed by Parliament but the former adversaries of President Daniel Ouézzin Coulibaly, namely Nazi Boni, Joseph Issoufou Conombo and Gerard Kango Ouédraogo, believe that the position belongs to them.
To thei
r great surprise, an unexpected actor appears on the scene: the Mogho Naba Kougri, king of Ouagadougou. The young monarch succeeded his deceased father Mogho Naba Saga II in December 1957.
On October 17, 1958, the Mogho Naba Kougri appeared in front of the palace of the Territorial Assembly with his supporters to put pressure on the Voltaic deputies for the establishment of a constitutional monarchy.
At the request of interim President Maurice Yaméogo, the Colonial Police and the Republican Guard intervened, fired into the air and dispersed the crowd and supporters of the Mossi sovereign.
This event brought together the political class (opposition and majority) and the parliamentarians confirmed Maurice Yaméogo, at the head of the country on October 20, 1958, definitively defeating the attempted coup d’état of the sovereign of the Mossis.
Maurice Yaméogo formed a unity government on December 10, 1958 and the next day, December 11, 1958, the Republic was proclaimed and the Territorial Assembly became the L
egislative and Constituent Assembly.
The new Legislative Assembly opts for the federation of Mali but within the framework of the community. Unanimity emerged among all the Voltaic parties of the time; they are federalists.
But Maurice Yaméogo abandoned the federation and created on May 29, 1959, the council of understanding with Dahomey (current Benin) of Hubert Maga, Ivory Coast of Félix Houphouët-Boigny and Niger of Hamani Diori.
On October 25, 1959, in Bobo-Dioulasso, Maurice Yaméogo presided over the transfer ceremony of the mortal remains of Daniel Ouézzin Coulibaly to the family vault.
An open letter criticizing government action was signed on June 28, 1960, by Nazi Boni, Joseph Ouédraogo, Diongolo Traoré, Edouard Ouédraogo, Gabriel Ouédraogo and Paul Nikiema with the aim of obtaining the holding of a round table. In response to this request, Maurice Yaméogo had them all interned on July 2, 1960 in Gorom-Gorom, except Nazi Boni who had already gone into exile.
Nazi Boni finds asylum in Bamako with
Modibo Keïta. On the eve of August 5, 1960, at 8:15 p.m., Nazi Boni spoke through Radio Mali to the people of Volta who were preparing to be independent.
‘The independence imposed on the government by the people (and) by the opposition and literally offered by France will be proclaimed by those who are its bitterest enemies who, today as tomorrow, are ready to sabotage it.
This is the paradox of life. It’s the human comedy. But, whatever the form taken by our accession to international sovereignty, it constitutes a positive fact which we must rejoice…’ affirms Nazi Boni.
On August 5, 1960, Maurice Yaméogo proclaimed independence. ‘Today, August 5, 1960, at midnight, in the name of the natural right of man to liberty, equality and fraternity, I solemnly proclaim the independence of the Republic of Upper Volta.’
Source : Burkina Information Agency