‘Nothing will be as before!’: Anthropological perspectives on political practice and democratic culture in ‘a new Burkina Faso’

This study is the result of ethnographic research on socio-political transformations in Burkina Faso. With the popular insurrection in October 2014 that ousted President Blaise Compaoré from power, this country marks a break with its authoritarian past. Burkina Faso is engaged in democratic renewal, at the same time as political continuity is evident. President Roch Marc Christian Kaboré, elected in November 2015, was one of the architects of the regime of ex-President Compaoré. Similarly, the current ruling party, the MPP, is allegedly the carbon copy of the former ruling party, the CDP. Rupture seems to be operating with a certain continuity!

The research on the socio-political transformations of Burkina Faso from 2014 to 2016 presents the perceptions and perspectives of ‘ordinary citizens’. It also engages a diachronic analysis of the ways of doing politics and the meanings that actors give to political practice. The collective fervor following the 2014 October revolution à la sauce burkinabè indicates that popular expectations are immense in ‘a new Burkina Faso’ where nothing will be as before.

This is the English edition of Transformations sociopolitiques burkinabè de 2014 à 2016: Perspectives anthropologiques des pratiques politiques et de la culture démocratique dans “un Burkina nouveau”.