There is a dangerous trend in African politics.  Young Africans, rightly disillusioned by widespread deficit of good governance on the continent, are becoming vociferous supporters of military rule. 

Across the continent, elections are held with outcomes that rarely reflect the will of the people. Rulers lacking democratic credentials emerge, neither representing the people nor accountable to them.  In many African countries, it is dangerous to express any opinion that differs from what the civilian or military head of state says.  Protesters are infiltrated, and protests are criminalized.   Disillusioned at “democracy”, young Africans in the Sahel region apotheosize and eulogize coup plotters as God-sent messiahs.

       When Pope Francis died a few days ago, a video clip went viral.  It contains the voice of someone reading a tribute to Pope Francis attributed to Captain Ibrahim Traore, the new-found messiah of Burkina Faso.  But it takes little effort for a perceptive listener to know that it is not Traore who is speaking.  It is a digital agent whom we have become accustomed to call “Artificial Intelligence”.

       The “tribute” gratefully acknowledged that Pope Francis made Archbishop Paul Zoungrana Cardinal.  But Zoungrana was Catholic Archbishop of Ouagadougou from 1960-1995.  He was made Cardinal by Pope Paul VI in 1965, twenty-three years before Captain Traore was born, and four years before Fr. Jorge Bergoglio, the man who would become Pope Francis, was ordained to the priesthood.  Zoungrana died in 2000 when Traore was twelve.  Yet, this anachronistic and digitally generated tribute by Traore thanked Pope Francis for making Zoungrana a Cardinal.  But that is just one instance of the digitally generated political career and discourses of Traore

       Social media is saturated with video clips of Traore performing wonders, speaking in English to his francophone compatriots.  Traore’s praise is frequently trumpeted by his increasing number of admirers who even go as far as saying he should be President of the whole of Africa.  Traore has been likened to Pope Francis.  But those who do so fail to see the huge difference between the two.  Pope Francis called for inclusion.  In Traore’s Burkina Faso, however, there is no inclusion when it comes to dissenting voices. 

Recently, appearing before a Congressional Committee in Washington, DC, General Langley, an African American, criticized Traoré and accused him of diverting the gold of his country for personal use.  Langley has since been accused of wanting to assassinate Traore.  But does the criticism necessarily mean he wants to assassinate him?

Meanwhile, Traoré, like military tyrants, has silenced all dissenting voices in Burkina Faso. Anyone who interrogates his style is a coup plotter. Is this the type of Africa we want? An Africa where it is criminal to differ from our strong men?  If a soldier came into power by a coup d'état, would it not be hypocritically contradictory on his part to criminalize any military attempt to overthrow him?

In Traore the military dictator, Burkina Faso has passed from one slave master to another. However, as it is in many other African countries deceptively brandishing democratic credentials, expressing a dissenting voice is criminalized.  This was how we canonized a serial coup plotter in 2015. We now no better.

Pope Francis and Captain Traore are not of the same class.  The former was elected; the latter became leader through a military coup.  Their values are not the same.

Pope Francis stood for mercy.  When he was appointed Bishop, he chose as his motto “Miserando atque eligendo” (Having mercy he chose him).  In this, he was inspired by the Gospel account of the call of Matthew. Matthew, as tax collector, was a corrupt public official.  Jesus saw him where he was extorting money, fixed his eyes of mercy on this corrupt public official, and called him to be one of his disciples.  That explains his episcopal motto and the answer he gave to the first question put to him in the first interview he granted as Pope. 

Asked by Fr. Antonio Spadaro, Editor of La Civilta Cattolica: Who is Jorge Bergoglio?  Pope Francis responded: ‘A sinner.’  And that leads to another theme of his Pontificate that distances him from the sanctimonious posture and utterances of Captain Traore.

Pope Francis prioritized inclusion because mercy calls for inclusion.  He knew that   Jesus does not call people because they are holy but in order to make them holy.  Christians are not Christians because they are holy but in order to learn to become holy.  All are invited to Jesus’ school of holiness.  But not all will accept the invitation.  Traore has no mercy for and excludes dissenting voices.

Inclusion calls for listening, a rare virtue in today’s world, where ideologies compete for attention, and where, quite often, the call is by violence and propaganda.  It’s a world where those who are powerful are loud, and their powerful and well-oiled propaganda machinery stifles voices of the weak and defenseless, especially when they are in opposition.   That is why opposition parties are endangered species in many African countries.  That is why, in Nigeria, party affiliation at sunrise changes at noon and at sunrise.

Just as it is necessary to correct the image of Captain Traore in social media, we must do the same of the creation of Pope Francis by a contrived good-Pope-bad-Popes narrative.  For long, the erroneous impression has been peddled that the Papal apartments were opulent, and that Pope Francis, in his simplicity, refused to live in the Apostolic palace for that reason. However, for anyone who knows, living conditions in the Apostolic palace are simple and frugal. Moreover, as Pope Francis himself explained at the beginning of his Pontificate, he chose to live at Domus Sanctae Marthae, not because of the imagined opulence of the Apostolic palace, but because he did not want to be isolated,

I watched the funeral of Pope John Paul II in 2005. He was buried in a simple wooden casket.  And the burial site Pope Francis chose was not chosen because it was simpler or less expensive than the burial site at St Peter’s Basilica. Rather, he chose the Basilica of St Mary Major because of his Marian devotion. He often went there to pray.  He went there to pray the day after his election as Pope, he went there to pray before and after his Apostolic trips, and he went there to pray a few days to his death. In other words, the choice was made out of devotion to Mary, Salus Populi Romani.

On a final note, I was asked by a journalist to comment on the possibility and significance of having an “African Pope”.  To this I replied: “Regarding who succeeds Pope Francis, I must say my concern is not about having an ‘African Pope’. Rather, it is my hope and my prayer, given current ecclesial and global concerns, that the College of Cardinals elect a wise, holy and most suitable successor.  That successor may come from any continent.”

Father Anthony Akinwale, OP