Before Thomas Sankara (aka Africa’s Che Guevera) was installed as president by his then friend Blaise Compaore following a coup, Burkina Faso was called the République de Haute-Volta (Upper Volta). Sankara changed the name of his nation to “Land of the Incorruptible People” and even wrote their national anthem entitled One Single Night. With communist leanings and beliefs, the United States (and specifically the CIA) viewed him as a major threat. As the 1985 Scranage scandal revealed, the CIA was active in various African nations employing spies within their own governments and political parties.“American Spy” is both a fictionalized telling of Sankara’s downfall and a commentary on what it means to be a black woman in both an American and African society. The novel’s protagonist is a black female FBI agent Marie, haunted by her sister’s death and stifled by the lack of opportunity in her office. When she gets a chance to become a real spy she dives into it but soon realizes that many of her assumptions may have been wrong.
I hesitated to use this on my Reading the Continent List for Burkina Faso because the author is American but I finished this novel impressed by the background it gives on the formation of Burkina Faso as a modern state and its insight into the Burkinabe inner political machinations at a key point in the country’s history. The novel is further valuable for any Africanist in its examination of the effects of US and colonial foreign policy on the continent.
The novel is strongest though examining Marie struggles with Sankara’s charisma and his communist views. Here he pontificates on what the results of colonial power has wrought for Burkina Faso: “Of our seven million inhabitants, over six million are peasants. And this peasantry, our peasantry, has been subjected to the most intense exploitation at the hands of imperialism and has suffered the most from the ills we inherited from colonial society: illiteracy, obscurantism, pauperization, cruelty in many forms, endemic diseases, and famine. Imperialism tries to dominate us from both inside and outside our country. Through its multinational corporations, its big capital, its economic power, imperialism tries to control us by influencing our discussions, and influencing national life.”
Marie listens to his speeches mesmerized by the man, but not convinced ideologically, noting: “The problem with the good he was doing was that it made his Communism palatable. He was too charismatic. Although his country was one of the poorest in the world, he had still managed to galvanize support across the continent. It was worrisome when that happened in countries that had recently become independent. Because they were no longer under the control of a colonial power, there were ideological vacuums in those countries. And I understood the fear that Communism would rush in and fill those voids.”
*One of my Reading Around the Continent books--the full list is here.
See our 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015 and 2014 Reading Lists.
Key Tidbit
- Little known fact that Sankara went to the Malagasy ACMIL (Military Academy) in Antsirabe
Key References:
National Anthem Chorus (One Single Night)
And one single night has drawn together
The history of an entire people,
And one single night has launched its triumphal march.
Towards the horizon of good fortune.
One single night has brought together our people
With all the peoples of the World,
In the acquisition of liberty and progress.
Motherland or death, we shall conquer.
NPR Book Review
NYT Review Gutsy Debut Thriller
Johannesburg Review of Books Review
OFFICIALS THINK SPYING LED TO DEATH OF C.I.A. INFORMANT IN GHANA
The Nation Book Review: Undercover
Key Quotes:
It made me think of how much like your father you are. You believe you can correct me, my feelings, purely through the force of your will. That impulse at its most essential is what your father understood love to be. Location 301
followed the Sharon Scranage case particularly closely because she was the only black woman among the eight, and it was the first time an American had been caught spying for an African intelligence outlet. Location 377
But recruiting and running informants was about cultivating their trust. To do that I found it worked best to lie frequently to them. Location 696
I still can’t help but wonder at her. Where had she picked up the idea that she could do anything? Be anything? That the world was so much bigger than Queens? Location 882
That is all a spy does—they hide in plain sight, and once they’ve exploited all they can from their relationships, they leave. Location 938
Being her sister often felt like trying to catch up to someone who was beating you so effortlessly that they weren’t even aware you were trying to compete. Location 1044 accepted that I had to be twice as upright for white folks to think I was half as virtuous. Location 1082
He was the type of guy that, had he been born white, especially if he’d grown up with a little money, would probably have wound up at an excellent business school. Location 1309
Thomas Sankara renamed the country Burkina Faso—the Land of Incorruptible People—and wrote the national anthem. Location 1412
I’d long since stopped feeling obligated to respond to every strange man who spoke to me. Location 1956
“Of our seven million inhabitants, over six million are peasants. And this peasantry, our peasantry, has been subjected to the most intense exploitation at the hands of imperialism and has suffered the most from the ills we inherited from colonial society: illiteracy, obscurantism, pauperization, cruelty in many forms, endemic diseases, and famine.” Location 1961
“Imperialism tries to dominate us from both inside and outside our country. Through its multinational corporations, its big capital, its economic power, imperialism tries to control us by influencing our discussions, and influencing national life.” Location 1977
The problem with the good he was doing was that it made his Communism palatable. He was too charismatic. Although his country was one of the poorest in the world, he had still managed to galvanize support across the continent. It was worrisome when that happened in countries that had recently become independent. Because they were no longer under the control of a colonial power, there were ideological vacuums in those countries. And I understood the fear that Communism would rush in and fill those voids. Location 1983
Reaganomics was an unpleasant little philosophy too, and when you added the punitive character of our country to it, we emerged as a breeding ground for a really virulent strain of cruelty. But the alternative was worse. Location 2097
“The PF doesn’t want to show up to the rally in a chauffeured car,” he said, using a nickname for the president of Faso. Location 2144
understand that black Americans also want their freedom. But Location 2145 don’t confuse real freedom with the freedom of the few to exploit the rest.” Location 2677
“You don’t owe them anything. You give them what you want to give them. But it’s easier if they think you’re one of them. It’s easier to work from the inside. That’s what I try to do. I’ve been a spy in this country for as long as I can remember.” Location 2859
It is humbling to have your social fluency, your sense of yourself as a competent, independent person, upended by a foreign city. Location 2886
would later hear the word disquette used to describe a particular type of Burkinabè girl—one who was as thin as a floppy disk, because that was what appealed to the French men they hoped to marry. One who wore chic, Western clothes, spoke fluent French and maybe even a little English. She could easily have been dismissed as a disquette. But it was a lazy characterization of any woman, and I would come to realize that was especially so in the case of Nicole Ouédraogo. Location 3855
“Slater,” I said, and then I kicked him awake. Although he was still drowsy, his eyes were open when I shot him. Location 4035
The only anger I ever expose to the world is through implication, by suggesting that I’m on the brink of no longer being able to contain my fury. That is what a woman’s strength looks like when it’s palatable: like she is containing herself. Location 4211
just wanted to get one thing, even if it was small, under my control. It was terrifying to lose command over my own body, the only thing that, through all that had happened, I’d remained convinced I could depend on. Labor made me understand that too was an illusion; it was like a trapdoor opening beneath my feet. I can laugh about it now, almost, but at the time it was terrifying. I don’t think I’ve ever been so scared, and it wasn’t the kind of thing I could express to my mother just then. Location 4325
His interest in the law also reflects a belief that it isn’t equitably applied and therefore that he shouldn’t be held to its discretion. I might be cynical, but he’s even more so, because he’s willing to game the system for the right price. Location 4376
I love you. I hope you grow into men who are the best parts of your father and me. I hope that if you’re called to resist injustice you’ll have the courage to do so. I hope you’ll love fiercely and freely. In those ways I hope you’ll be good Americans.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Une_Seule_Nuit
And one single night has drawn together
The history of an entire people,
And one single night has launched its triumphal march.
Towards the horizon of good fortune.
One single night has brought together our people
With all the peoples of the World,
In the acquisition of liberty and progress.
Motherland or death, we shall conquer.
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