Burkina Faso’s Traoré Says God Is Angry With Black People for Refusing to Use Their Brains

Burkina Faso’s military leader, Captain Ibrahim Traoré, has said God is angry with Black people because they have refused to use their brains, arguing that Africa’s progress will not come from waiting for divine intervention. The remarks were made during a speech at the 2026 Youth Excellence Day ceremony in Ouagadougou and have since been widely circulated across social media and news platforms.

In the speech, Traoré said: “God is angry with Black people because we’ve refused to use our brains”. He stressed that God would not come down from heaven to solve Africa’s problems, noting that humanity was created with the ability to think, work and take action. He told young people not to sit in mosques, churches or temples waiting for miracles, but to use their intelligence and work for themselves, their families and their communities. “God will not come and give you what you want,” he said. A person who contributes nothing, he added, “is an enemy of God”.

Traoré also criticised the misuse of religion, saying it lulls young people into passivity and stunts critical thought. He blamed a poor teaching of faith for feeding extremism and urged clergy to stop lulling youth to sleep. In a related remark, he said: “Misunderstanding religion makes us stupid. It completely shuts down our brains. We can no longer think”.

The Burkina Faso leader also lamented that African societies had rejected or ignored their own spiritual figures and guides, saying God had sent many prophets and guides to Black people, but “unfortunately, we spent our time killing them. We never recognised our guides, we never recognised our prophets”.

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He invoked the famous parable of Kenya’s founding president Jomo Kenyatta, recalling that when missionaries arrived in Africa, Africans had the land and the colonisers had the Bible. “They taught us to pray with our eyes closed. And when we opened our eyes, the white man had the land and we had the Bible,” Traoré said. He added: “Let’s not just read the quotes, let’s read the scope of the messages”.

Traoré’s remarks are the latest in a series of provocative statements from the Burkinabè leader, who has positioned himself as a champion of Pan-African self-reliance since seizing power in a 2022 coup. He has expelled French and American troops, turned to Russia for security support, and pursued policies aimed at increasing state control over Burkina Faso’s natural resources. His government has nationalised gold mines, opened a state-owned gold refinery, and introduced measures requiring foreign mining firms to give the state a larger stake in their operations.

The speech has drawn mixed reactions. Some have praised Traoré for challenging religious fatalism and calling for a mindset shift toward work, innovation and self-sufficiency. Others have accused him of attacking religion and overstepping his role as a political leader. The quote has been shared widely on social media, with supporters using it to argue for a more proactive approach to Africa’s development, while critics question whether a military ruler has the moral authority to lecture Africans about using their brains.

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