It was in 1984 that Burkina Faso president Thomas Sankara uttered the iconic words “he who feeds you, controls you”. Although the African revolutionary icon was assassinated in a western-backed coup in 1987, his exposure of the architecture of modern imperialism remains relevant.

Rather than being a gesture of Western altruism, history has taught us how “aid” is a calculated mechanism of debt-trap diplomacy and structural underdevelopment designed to keep the Global South poor and in a perpetual state of crisis. Furthermore, aid dependency is the “soft power” equivalent of a military occupation.

When a local market is flooded with “donated” grain, local farmers are unable to compete and go out of business, thus forcing Third World states to import for survival. Then, they rely on aid that rarely comes without strings attached, often tied to Structural Adjustment Programs (SAPs) demanding that nations facilitate resource extraction by foreign corporations.

In addition, high-interest “development” loans ensure that the Third World spends more
debt servicing to Western banks than actual development, effectively transferring wealth from the poor to the rich.
By rejecting this system, Sankara proved that a nation could move from famine to surplus through a rejection of foreign handouts. He showed that dignity is found in the soil, and that true revolution begins when you refuse the bowl of the master. While Sankara is no longer alive, his message remains: he who feeds you, controls you.

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