[TEASER] Alliance of Sahel States Ep. 2: A View from Within w/ Inem Richardson

This is a free preview of the episode "Alliance of Sahel States Ep. 2: A View from Within w/ Inem Richardson." You can listen to the full episode by subscribing to our Patreon here: https://www.patreon.com/upstreampodcast

As a Patreon subscriber you'll get access to biweekly bonus episodes ranging from conversations to readings and more. Signing up for Patreon is a great way to make Upstream a weekly show, and it will also give you access to our entire back catalog of Patreon episodes along with stickers and bumper stickers at certain subscription tiers. You'll also be helping to keep Upstream sustainable and allowing us to keep this project going.

It can be quite difficult for someone on the left in the United States or the UK—or in any Western state for that matter, to feel patriotic. Patriotic? About what, exactly? I mean, for most of us, the American flag is a symbol that represents nothing but pain, immiseration, destruction, genocide…so it's hard to imagine what it must feel like to be a part of a state project that you're actually proud of. One that's standing up to that blood-drenched American flag—standing up to the flags of all the imperialists and genocidaires across the globe.

But there are countries where national pride is well-deserved, where patriotism is appropriate, and where hope for a better future is alive and well. And in Part 2 of our series on the Alliance of Sahel States, we're going to be in conversation with someone who is right in the middle of one of those countries.

Inem Richardson is the President and Co-Founder of the Thomas Sankara Centre for African Liberation and Unity, a member of the All-African People's Revolutionary Party, and a journalist with African Stream based out of Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso.

In this conversation, Inem tells us about the journey that brought her to Burkina Faso and led her to co-founding the Thomas Sankara Centre. We talk about what it was like to live through Burkina Faso's revolution, some of the undertakings and achievements of Ibrahim Traore's government, what the Alliance is up against, and what its future might hold, and why the world should be paying attention to what's happening right now in the Sahel.

Although the episodes in our series build on each other in certain ways, all of our series are designed so that each episode can be listened to as a standalone.

Further resources:

• The Thomas Sankara Centre
• The All-African People's Revolutionary Party
• The Coalition for the Elimination of Imperialism in Africa (Instagram)
• Africa's Last Colonial Currency: The CFA Franc Story by Fanny Pigeaud and Ndongo Samba Sylla
• Libyan Arab Jamahiriya

Related episodes:

• Our ongoing series on the Alliance of Sahel States
• Our ongoing series on Iran
• Western Marxism w/ Gabriel Rockhill
• Listen to our ongoing series on China
• The Fight for The Congo w/ Vijay Prashad
• Walter Rodney, Marxism, and Underdevelopment with D. Musa Springer & Charisse Burden-Stelly

Upstream is a labor of love — we couldn't keep this project going without the generosity of our listeners and fans. Subscribe to our Patreon at patreon.com/upstreampodcast or please consider chipping in a one-time or recurring donation at www.upstreampodcast.org/support

For more from Upstream, visit www.upstreampodcast.org and follow us on Instagram and Bluesky. You can also subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to your favorite podcasts.