André-Eugène Ilboudo

André-Eugène Ilboudo is building a nonpartisan citizen movement that is opening up a new political space in Burkina Faso that reflects the democratic expression of ordinary citizens and stands in deliberate contrast to the state, political parties and dominant special interest groups.

In nearly four decades of African independence, the majority of Africans have hardly begun to have real opportunities to determine their own political destinies. State and economic power has tended to be concentrated in a small elite ruling class that has failed to produce either widespread economic opportunity or to consolidate and extend the promise of democracy implicit upon independence from colonial rule. André-Eugène Ilboudo, the son of peasant farmers, is building democracy in Burkina Faso from the ground up. Highly skeptical of state power and the self-serving elites who have run and own his country, André-Eugène is creating Burkina's first nonpartisan citizens' political movement to scrutinize the government, hold it accountable and mobilize and channel citizenship self-development.
André-Eugène's National Association for Popular Participation (popularly known as Prom'Act) operates from two core ideas. "First, second, third, and fourth," as André-Eugène says, "we believe that the individual, no matter how humble, can make a difference." The second principle of the group, notes André-Eugène, is, "Everybody's problems are political, and political problems are everybody's problems." One cannot leave the field to the politicians or powerful special interests on the grounds that one might be too political. "In fact," he adds, "in a democracy, he has a duty to participate."
André-Eugène emphasizes individual citizen responsibility as a counter to the prevailing defeatism among ordinary people. He is changing the way that citizens of Burkina Faso view their government. He is convinced that democracy will only function once the people understand that the government exists to serve them, and he is building a vehicle that conveys this understanding through direct action. To promote its vision, Prom'Act started a monthly newsletter, Au Courant Alternatif, for NGOs and other citizen organizations throughout Burkina Faso. It also launched a community radio station, offers citizenship education in schools and encourages NGOs that concentrate on "material development" to broaden their outlook to include democratization issues.

Ghanaian independence from Britain in 1957 was the first in a series of new states to emerge from European colonialism, concluding in 1994 with the election of Nelson Mandela as the president of South Africa. Marking his first three years in office, President Mandela wrote, "The elections did not set us free but we did achieve the freedom to be free." He might well have been introducing the problem of democracy and governance almost 40 years after independence for African states more generally. After three decades of consolidating political and economic power in a state run by an unaccountable elite, it is only in the past decade that Africans have begun to seriously address the need to democratize. Economic reforms were forced by IMF-and World Bank-driven "structural adjustments" on overly centralized and poorly managed African economies. Political reforms have followed less energetically, but one can see the emergence of meaningful political opposition in a number of countries and, right across Africa, a growing public debate about human rights, the rule of law and democratic governance.

There are two major hurdles to building democracy in Africa today. First, there is widespread and deeply felt alienation of most Africans from their governments. African states have no citizens, per se. Second, there are very few intermediary institutional mechanisms by which citizens could participate in a democratic political life if they chose to. For example, in Burkina Faso, it is almost impossible to get texts of bills under consideration in the Legislature, or even of the laws once they are passed. There is no media publicity to speak of around the legislative process. There is no formal mechanism for public comment on legislation. There is not even a public directory of ministers or members of the national assembly.

One absolutely vital intermediary institution of democracy is a free press. While Burkina Faso has a small number of independent newspapers, only 19.2 percent of the population is literate, and the 74.7 percent of the population that lives in the rural areas is not served by print media. Radio is universally accessible, but there is only one private radio station in the country, and it devotes most of its programming to music while studiously avoiding public affairs. There is no private television station.

André-Eugène's National Association for Popular Participation (Prom'Act) is a movement that people can join to take nonpartisan political action. Prom'Act is important in opening up a new political space in Burkina Faso, and as its founder, André-Eugène has touched on a deeply felt chord in Burkinab society. Simply by refusing to take partisan political positions but steadfastly representing the broad public interest, Prom'Act is building a new kind of democratic power in society. André-Eugène knows that for Prom'Act to remain credible it must have no links to political parties and must not be confused with a political party. Prom'Act would not and constitutionally cannot seek to hold power. Prom'Act must, according to André-Eugène, make clear judgments and pronouncements based on the welfare of the people rather than on political interests. André-Eugène explains, "If the government does something bad today you have to be able to say that, while yesterday they did something good, today they did something bad."

Prom'Act is also working to define an emerging Burkinab citizenship in three programmatic ways.

First, Prom'Act has an ambitious media strategy that pushes its message out through existing media outlets as well as operating an independent radio station. André-Eugène has been inspired by the profound impact that the explosion of private radio stations in neighboring Mali has had on political consciousness there and wants to find a model suitable for his own country. His station will inform citizens about the political process, spotlighting current issues and government actions. The radio station will broadcast much of its programming in indigenous languages. It will feature call-in and "open mike" shows both to let the common person's voice be heard and to encourage people to believe in the power of public opinion. André-Eugène also plans to air live telephone interviews with ministers and members of the national assembly to give the public a better sense of their positions, as well as to provide a mechanism for the public to monitor them.

Second, he is piloting a model for citizenship education in his home village. As a complement to his activities with Prom'Act and the radio station, André-Eugène is also carrying out plans to create a new kind of secondary school in Saponé, the village where he was born. The goal is to demonstrate how schools can contribute to democratization by preparing young citizens for participation in a democracy. Such an initiative will also demonstrate the more general principle of active citizen involvement and creativity in public affairs.

"We have the same old school system in Burkina Faso, but the end result, the guaranteed government job, is no longer there. Our schools are not communicating the idea that school can give you the know-how to make your place in society," explains André-Eugène. Thus, his pilot program will focus on providing the skills necessary for students to make their way in a democratic society after school. His curriculum will also emphasize the virtue of tolerance, the importance of being open to the ideas of others.



Third, Prom'Act reaches out to the development NGOs, who tend to define development as apolitical, and seeks to build links with them. "Every decision," argues André-Eugène "from where to dig a village well to which region to target for infant nutrition programs, is a political decision. That is, these decisions create winners and losers and, as a result, there are competing interests and influences at stake." He concludes, "There are no organizations that don't 'do' politics. Anyone who says so is either myopic or lying. I want to help African NGOs see problems in structural terms and not just in terms of so-called professional development."

André-Eugène was born in Saponé, a village 40 kilometers from the capital, where his parents were peasant farmers. He completed primary school in Saponé but did not receive a scholarship to continue his studies–at that time the only possible way for him to attend secondary school. Thus, after primary school he spent nine years as a farmer alongside his parents. At the age of sixteen he went to neighboring Cote d'Ivoire and performed back-breaking labor on a plantation for three years.

Upon returning home, he was part of a football team whose ball burst. The eleven young men organized themselves to replace the ball, and Association Vive le Paysan (AVLP) was born. André-Eugène emerged as the critical leader of AVLP, which, over the next thirteen years, provided a range of services to its members, from schools and clinics to gardening to career training, while retaining a highly participatory structure.

In these years André-Eugène continued his studies (through a university master's) and became a teacher.

His experience with AVLP sparked in André-Eugène a deep vocation for democracy, civil society and governance. Concluding that the vital transformations needed to build a healthy society cannot come from the government, he has set himself the task of creating new institutions that can enable society to claim independence from and vigilance over its government.