Friday, October 10, Ouagadougou - Twelve descendants of Bissa and one descendant of Mossi prisoners taken during the Dum Diversas War have signed a Petition to the President of Faso, Head of State, His Excellency Captain Ibrahim Traoré to Launch a Decade of Return Initiative and Provide Citizenship to the Descendants of the People of Burkinabe Origin and Afrodescendants Who were taken from their Ancestral Homeland and Enslaved in the Americas. The petition to President Traoré was delivered through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Cooperation and Burkinabé Abroad in Ouagadougou yesterday by the Afrodescendant Special Envoy to Burkina Faso, Mr. Siphiwe Baleka.
In support of the Right of Return of the Afrodescendants of Burkinabé origin, the petition cites the landmark United States v The Libelants and Claimants of the Schooner Amistad (1841) case, the Geneva Convention (1949), the working paper on desirable results of the 6th Pan African Congress held in 1974, the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights adopted in 1981, the World Conference Against Racism and its Durban Declaration and Program of Action (2001), the African Union’s Constitution Article 3(q), the Declaration of the Global African Diaspora Summit in South Africa in 2012, the AU 50th Anniversary Solemn Declaration of May 2013, the Resolution on Africa’s Reparations Agenda and The Human Rights of Africans In the Diaspora and People of African Descent Worldwide (ACHPR/Res.543 (LXXIII) 2022), and Articles 5, 36, 101, 107 and 151 of the Constitution of Burkina Faso.
“The African Union declared 2025 as the ‘Year of Justice for Africans and People of African Descent Through Reparations’ and have extended it to a decade from 2026 to 2036,” said Mr. Baleka. “I have been campaigning at the highest levels for Afrodescendant citizenship to be the first reparations priority. The petition is designed to assist the Parliament of Burkina Faso and the inter-ministerial Citizenship Committee which recently postponed the granting of citizenship that was promised to occur during the African Diaspora Development Institute (ADDI) Business Summit from October 26 to November 8. We hope that President Traoré will cause Burkina Faso to join Ghana, Sierra Leone, Guinea Bissa and Benin in leading the way for justice for the victims of the criminal Trans-Atlantic chattel enslavement of African people. It is the legal obligation of the Burkinabé government to its own Burkinabé people still living in the land of their captivity.”
Read the English version of the letter to President Ibrahim Traoré and the full petition below
A follow-up nnouncement on January 18, 2025 from the African Diaspora Development Institute (ADDI) states “The government of Burkina Faso has asked ADDI to spearhead a citizenship initiative that invites African Diaspora to apply to be citizens of Burkina Faso” and that President Traore put an executive order in place in which “There will be two Tiers of applications. Tier I=All those who have traced their lineage to Burkina Faso through their DNA. Tier II=Any black Diaspora. The government of Burkina Faso has indicated that the ceremony conferring citizenship will happen in June 2025”. Another announcement on July 14 after the Friends of President Ibrahim Traore in the West (FPITW) delegation’s debriefing following their successful mission to Burkina Faso, the ADDI announced, "The government of Burkina Faso has confirmed that our ADDI mission trip to include the conferment of Burkina Faso citizenship will take place from October 26th to November 8th, 2025.”