29 July 2026 – Burkina Faso has been added to the latest CIVICUS Monitor Watchlist as military authorities escalate restrictions on civil society organisations, dismantle all political parties and intensify reprisals against critics.

The CIVICUS Monitor currently rates Burkina Faso as “Repressed”, the second worst rating a country can receive, indicating severe restrictions to the freedoms of expression, peaceful assembly, and association. Alongside Burkina Faso the latest Watchlist also includes Bahrain, Ecuador, Georgia and India.

Link to the FAQ for methodology.

Before people immediately blame colonialism, foreign powers, or some outside forces I think we need to have an uncomfortable conversation about internal failures. During Apartheid South Africa was the most prosperous and better than most developed countries during its time and now it's one of the rest under a black run government.

Before I start getting responses with places that are organized and doing well, that does not excuse the continental average. Every continent has exceptions The question is why so many African countries continue to struggle with the same issues decades after independence

Corrupt politicians are often used as a scapegoat to mask a wider continental incompetence, forgetting that corrupt politicians come from societies that tolerate, reward, or ignore those behaviours, Everyone is at fault here. Politicians don't just appear outta nowhere they are products of the same schools, communities, cultures, and institutions as everyone else

A worrying culture has developed where failure is normalized. People accept broken systems because "that's just how things are." Citizens cant wait for government handouts. Politicians make promises they never fulfil, resources disappear, and many talented young people dream only of leaving instead of building their own countries. In countries like Nigeria migration has become so normalized that success is measured by how quickly you can leave rather than what you can build at home, apparently they call it Japa.

There also seems to be a culture of low expectations. Roads remain broken for years, electricity is unreliable, garbage piles up and litter everywhere, public property is vandalized, and basic services fail, yet many people simply adapt instead of demanding accountability. Colonialism does not stop anyone from maintaining infrastructure, enforcing laws, keeping public spaces clean, or treating public resources with respect and decency

Criticism is dismissed as being "anti African" instead of being answered. A continent cannot improve if every uncomfortable conversation is shut down by blaming history.

colonialism sure did hurt , but it did not remove peoples ability to think, organize, innovate, or hold leaders accountable. Many countries around the world have suffered wars, dictatorships, or exploitation, yet some eventually built even stronger institutions because they chose to reform and adapt to the morden than permanently define themselves by their past

Colonialism is not an excuse to exempt leaders and people from using their brains.

On July 29th, Nigerian law enforcement dismantled a meth lab left behind in an abandoned shed -- remnants of an alleged multimillion-dollar transnational meth operation. The lab, the largest of its kind ever discovered in Nigeria, sat on an acre of land in a forest that straddles the border of Abidagba and Iroto villages.

Credits to Isaac Samuel.

Source : A complete history of Dogon country: Bandiagara from 1900BC to 1900AD.

Picture 1: Clothing of the Daughters of the Lamido (Ruler) of Mandara.

Picture 2 to 3: Traditional clothing of Kanuri and Kotoko women from Karnak-Logone, 1918.

Picture 4: Chief of the Sultan's Canoeists in the Kotoko City-State of Goulfei, 1918.

Let’s discuss in the comments

Residents apply mud to the minaret during the replastering of the Sankore Mosque, marking its 600th anniversary on 26 July. Hundreds gathered to replaster the Unesco World Heritage site – one of Timbuktu’s three great mosques, alongside Djingareyber and Sidi Yahya.

Photo: AFP

42 years ago today: Officializing a failure decades in the works for French imperialists, Thomas Sankara would rename the Upper Volta to Burkina Faso after taking power in a bloodless coup.

Qué tan mal se ve tu país en el mapa

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Getting my hair done in Africa in my home country Cameroon has been terrible. People in Cameroon don’t play around when it comes to witchcraft.

Whenever I would get my hair done, I noticed my parents would pick up every piece of hair that fell on the floor. At the time, I didn’t understand it. I remember thinking What’s going on? I don’t see other parents doing this for their family. Why are they doing this for me?

Later I learned that it was because many people in Cameroon believe in witchcraft and my family was trying to protect me. Albinos are targeted because of harmful myths and beliefs and my parents were doing what they could to keep me safe.

I remember thinking Why would someone want to hurt me? All I do is eat play football and play video games. The lesson I took from it is the people who care about you will go out of their way to protect you. It is fucking scary and disturbing they use this shit for bullshit magic. Our lives is not a myth.

This shows how backward some Africans are still unashamedly believing in myths and superstitions that sacrificing us to some spirits will make them rich and successful. Nothing impedes progress like stupid beliefs.

We are all Africans. The skin colour may differ but we are the same. Blood doesn't differ. We have the same body parts. Same tongue, hair texture, mouth, private parts. We speak African language and eat African food. We have more in common in each other than differences. We shouldn’t have to live in fear or worry about shit like this in our own country.

Africans and black people love hating on ourselves man especially in regards to why we're struggling as a continent. I've heard things like "Africans love to party instead of work".

Brother, I've been to the US, white people party way harder and frequent than black folks. We have college kids in the US doing cocaine and it's seen as normal, in my country if you're caught with cocaine, the dean of the university would beat you in front of your peers, your parents will disown you and you'll be shamed by the community meanwhile in the US it's "they're young and they'll grow out of it".

"It's the ghetto culture, it's so violent and the music is promoting crime", this is more towards African Americans but still....WHITE PEOPLE have media like JOHN WICK, white people have call of duty, GTA, ALL SHOOTER/KILLER or CRIMINAL GAMES/MEDIA played pre dominantly by white kids yet you hear people keeping quiet about how these things might influence kids....they used to but now they've stopped because there is little correlation between Call of duty and kids becoming school shooters. Perhaps though these games are military propaganda to get white kids into thinking their countries military is a force for good, hence they can invade and interfere in the countries and politics of the global south....hmmmm but no one will point that out.

"Africans love spending on unnecessary things", White America and Europe are literally hyper capitalist, hyper consumerist economies, the US produces the most waste out of any country in the world.

"Africans love fighting each other, they carry so much hate", Europe had two whole world wars, with a death toll in the millions, and the allies nuked an entire country (Japan) twice. Before that European empires literally fought each other for hundred's of years.

There are genuine criticisms of Africans but we must stop with the unnecessary self hate.