This October 15, pan-Africanist Africa celebrated the memory of its “Che”, Thomas Isidore Noël Sankara, assassinated precisely 37 years ago. In Niamey a plaque bearing the image of the Burkinabe captain was inaugurated. We should rather speak of “re-inauguration”, the place having been dedicated for decades au French commander and explorer Perfect-Louis Monteil. The new burst of glorification of the man who renamed Upper Volta was part of a larger enterprise taking place inside the Nigerien capital.
Charles de Gaulle thanked
Several regime officials chaired name change ceremonies of places considered too referenced in colonial memory. Exit Avenue Charles de Gaulle, replaced by Avenue Djibo Bakary, named after this historic Nigerian figure who campaigned for independence in the 19th century. General de Gaulle had already lost his permanent tribute, in Ouagadougou, au profit, precisely, from Thomas Sankara.
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Since this same October 15 in Niger, a monument dedicated to the dead of the two world wars is now called “ Bubandey Batama “: in Djerma, the formula “to our deaths” breaks the focus on the conflicts in Europe to make it more widely tribute to all civilian and military victims since colonization. Elsewhere, Place de la Francophonie is renamed Place de l’Alliance des Études du Sahel (AES). Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso were suspended by the authorities of the French-speaking organization.
THE ancestors First of all
In a solemn tone carried by a military orchestra, the Nigerien Minister of Youth and spokesperson for the regime, Colonel-Major Abdramane Amadou, hoped that avenues, boulevards, streets would no longer refer to surnames “which simply recall the suffering et the bullying suffered by our people during the ordeal of colonization.” “Honor our ancestors” is the new leitmotif of the governor of Niamey, Brigadier General Assoumane Abdou Harouna.
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The changes in the names of public spaces in Niger are the natural extension of the breakdown of régime with France. Since the coup d’état against Mohamed Bazoum, French soldiers engaged in the anti-jihadist fight have been asked to leave, as has Ambassador Sylvain Itté. In the logic of the toponymic standoff, the Franco-Nigerian Cultural Center porte now the name of Moustapha Alassane, a Nigerien filmmaker.
New idols?
“Rebaptism” operations do not only concern AES countries. In Senegal, which is also trying to reaffirm its sovereignty with regard to France, the name of the French colonist Louis Faidherbe has disappeared from a place of Saint-Louis and an avenue of Dakar.
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Even if the name changes intend to promote local cultural references, the Russian media Sputnik announced, however, last September, that Nigerien municipalities were considering renaming some of their public spaces in honor of Vladimir Poutine.
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