“In the heart of Africa, I see a flame. A young man rise, they call his name. Ibrahim Traoré standing tall for the love of his people. He risked it all. Bullets fly but he don't fall. He’s walking through the fire. Still answering the call with faith in his chest and the Word in his hand. He's fighting for peace in his motherland.”
So go the lyrics to a lilting, pseudo-religious R&B song purporting to be written and performed by the disgraced American former singer, producer and convicted sex trafficker R Kelly, who is in prison serving a 30-year sentence for his many crimes.
However, it was created and posted on YouTube by Nnamdi Kenneth Oguji, a Nigerian producer, and is accompanied by an AI-generated “music video” — which one might call a “shallow fake” — lavishing praise upon the 37-year-old leader of Burkina Faso, Capt Ibrahim Traoré.
The video, which has amassed more than 2-million views in less than three weeks, features rudimentary, falsified images of Traoré defusing a bomb, being given a guard of honour by saluting children, comforting a mother for the loss of her son, leading troops and tanks into battle, and tending to wounded soldiers — all with synthetic, unbalanced vocals from a tearful AI-generated R Kelly. The result is a dystopian loop of propaganda and deception that paints a false picture of a hero. An icon of the African continent.
In reality, Traoré is an unelected dictator, the beneficiary of a coup and a foreign-sponsored propaganda campaign whose aim is to undermine democratic norms and values in Africa.
Oguji’s shallow-fake is the latest in a raft of online and offline propaganda flooding the media since the controversial remarks made by US Africa Command commander Gen Michael Langley during a US Senate armed services committee hearing on April 3.
Langley told committee members that Traoré was misusing Burkina Faso’s substantial gold reserves to prop up his military regime instead of benefiting the Burkinabé people. His comments were swiftly followed by allegations of a Western-backed coup attempt in Burkina Faso, and on April 30 — after government calls for huge public demonstrations in support of Traoré's regime — thousands of citizens gathered together in the capital, Ouagadougou, in solidarity with the military junta.
As with so many online political propaganda campaigns, all roads lead to Russia. Traoré has formed close ties with Moscow since his ascension to the “interim” presidency of Burkina Faso after a Russian-backed coup in September 2022, with the Russian embassy reopening in 2023 after a 31-year hiatus. A paramilitary group, the Bear Brigade, has also provided protection to junta officials, including Traoré.
The old, hackneyed argument that Africans are not capable of choosing their own leaders is a hallmark of the settler-colonial propaganda machine — one of the many ways in which autocracy is often indistinguishable from conquest and colonial rule
Misinformation, disinformation, public diplomacy and foreign political interference have long been essential tools in Russia’s arsenal in the great information game of the 21st century. Polarising political topics are often amplified on social media through an incessant overload of falsehoods and half-truths, sowing seeds of division within local communities and undermining democratic principles and values — among them, the fundamental right of self-determination.
A messianic online cult has thus been constructed to prop up the image of Traoré — even as evidence of intensifying insurgency and shrinking civic space suggest that his leadership has been flawed at best. While there have been widespread claims that Traoré has implemented reforms such as reducing the salaries of parliamentarians and increasing those of civil servants, no such evidence exists. Traoré is also said to have driven large-scale education reforms, providing free education from nursery to university for all citizens. This is another false claim. Nurseries were free long before the military coup that brought Traoré to power, and at no other level is free education provided by his government.
Traoré's geopolitical allegiances lie firmly with Moscow. He first visited Russia in July 2023 for the Russia-Africa Summit and recently participated in the 80th anniversary celebrations of Victory Day in Moscow.
President Vladimir Putin’s Victory Day speech spoke of “constructive and productive” conversations with Traoré, excited about the prospect of deepening commercial and military ties between the two nations. Concurrently, the Russian mining giant Nordgold, owned by Alexey Mordashov, the country’s second-richest man, was granted permission to expand its operations into Kourweogo province in Burkina Faso. Such fortunes contrast with those of other foreign-owned companies like Sarama Resources — the Australian miner — which has brought a $115m (about R2bn) lawsuit against the government of Burkina Faso for the loss of its licence in late 2024.
It would seem that, for Traoré, African self-determination amounts to being able to choose one colonial master more than another. He has already withdrawn his country’s participation in the Economic Community of West African States (Ecowas), joining neighbouring Mali and Niger. Previously, Traoré and Ecowas had agreed that he would guide the country through a period of transition with the aim of restoring democracy in July 2024.
A new transition plan, which comes into effect this July, instead consolidates Traoré's power, proposing that the junta will retain control until 2029 when an “interim president” will be eligible to contest elections. These will no doubt be rigged to ensure that he can remain in power until he is as elderly and useless as the African leaders whose power he claims to be disrupting.
Traoré’s justification for rejecting democratic systems and values is that Burkina Faso, given its ongoing security and economic concerns, is not yet ready for democratic governance. The old, hackneyed argument that Africans are not capable of choosing their own leaders is a hallmark of the settler-colonial propaganda machine — one of the many ways in which autocracy is often indistinguishable from conquest and colonial rule.
Elections and protests, Traoré says, distract from pursuing the national interest, and a firm hand is required to guide the country through a vital period of transition. As the White Queen told Alice in Lewis Carroll’s Through the Looking-Glass: “The rule is, jam to-morrow and jam yesterday — but never jam to-day.”
Traoré is not the first leader to have promised to hand back unchecked authority before later changing his mind. Nor will he be the last.
For opinion and analysis consideration, e-mail Opinions@timeslive.co.za
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