NEWSLETTER

Discussion
The market closed because of the
putsch.
make a comment, so uncertain
was the situation. In the
midst of this overwhelming
tension, one would hear the
participants making jokes
about the situation, such as
the rather repetitive lunch
menu: due to the acute
food shortage caused by the
putsch, the hotel manager
had arranged for a relative
living in the outskirts of the
city to provide him with chickens, which were served for
lunch every single day!
Four days after the coup, the negotiations between
General Diendéré and the presidential delegation had
concluded in favour of an amnesty for General Diendéré
and the eligibility of the former CDP (Congrès pour la
démocratie et le progrès, Blaise Compaoré’s party) members.
This was clearly a threat to peace; how could the
population accept such a deal? Violent protests were to be
expected. On the Monday following the coup, the regular
army marched into Ouagadougou, publicly announcing its
intention to disarm the RSP while avoiding any fighting.
The night before the announced military manoeuvre, rumours
had spread that the army would march into the city
overnight. I packed my backpack with what I considered
important belongings in case I had to suddenly flee from
the fighting during the night and woke up at dawn, worried
by some voices I could hear outside my bedroom window
which led to a large terrace roof. A glimpse through the
window reassured me; it was only the Radio France International
two man team broadcasting the morning news
from the terrace. No military confrontation could have
taken place since the army had not yet reached the city.
People gathered at sunset cheering on the highway as they
waited for the anticipated entry of Burkina Faso’s regular
army, who vowed to disarm the RSP. That morning, 11
the streets, which had remained silent and empty since the
coup, seemed to come back to life. In the afternoon, Diendéré
publicly gave rather contradictory and inadequate
apologies, asking the people of Burkinabé to forget about
the putsch but claiming full responsibility for it and promising
to restore civilian government.
But, by the evening, the situation radically changed;
we heard that Michel Kafando had asked for protection
from the French Embassy. A veil of silence covered the
city again. Macky Sall, President of Senegal, who had
come over the weekend with Thomas Boni Yayi, President
of Benin, to negotiate with Diendéré, had failed to find a
resolution to the crisis in spite of his political weight and
diplomatic experience. Following an extraordinary summit
meeting of ECOWAS (Economic Community of West
African States), another delegation of presidents 12 arrived
11
On Monday 21 September.
12
A delegation comprising the Presidents of Ghana and Benin,
as well as the Vice-President of Nigeria.
13
On Tuesday 22 September.
14
Nicolas Burq (Orsay), David Dos Santos Ferreira (Nancy)
and Jérôme Le Rousseau (Orléans).
a couple of days later to calm down the situation. This time
their intervention had an effect; a week after the coup, 13
an agreement was passed and a peace deal was presented
to the Mogho Nabaa, King of Burkina Faso’s leading Mossi
tribe. Michel Kafando, who had been under house arrest
for some days after his first detention, was now free and
announcing his return to power.
The school went on running in the midst of the turmoil,
a form of resistance to Diendéré’s diktat. The applications
to climate change and seismology we had planned for the
second week were never discussed during the school. The
flights of the speakers 14 who were due to arrive at the end
of the first week had been cancelled and the airport remained
closed until the middle of the second week. Yet,
the participants were eager and happy to learn about the
fundaments of FIOs and indeed learned a lot of abstract
material during the talks and informal discussions with the
speakers. A couple of participants from Benin had spent
several days on a coach to reach Ouagadougou, having had
to wait on the coach for the border to reopen, and were all
the more determined to make the most out of the school.
One could perceive the anxiety of some of the participants
and most of the speakers but all agreed that, under the
circumstances, it was best to go on with the talks. Keeping
busy with mathematics, claimed many participants, was a
very efficient way to dispel the worries, and various speakers
asked to give more talks to keep their minds occupied
preparing them. The particular circumstances the school
was now held in were actually more propitious to informal
interactions between the speakers and the participants
than the more formal setup the school might have allowed
for had the “event” not happened. I am very grateful to all
the speakers and participants and admire their courage.
Despite questions raised as to the sincerity of Diendéré’s
public apologies, eight days after the putsch and one
day after the Tabaski celebrations, the tension one had felt
on the streets of Ouagadougou melted down and the sun
dared to venture back. The preceding days had not been
too hot, with sudden wind blasts and strong rain showers,
as is to be expected during the rainy season. The city of
Ouagadougou was now glowing with the pride of victory
over the usurpers. With this coup, we (participants, speakers
and organisers of the school) had unexpectedly borne
witness to the complex, painful and still ongoing emancipation
of the Burkinabé people from 27 years of dictatorial
leadership and its ramifications.
Sylvie Paycha is a Professor at the University
of Potsdam, on leave from the Université
Blaise Pascal, Clermont-Ferrand. Her
research topics are pseudodifferential operators,
renormalisation techniques and index
theory. She was the co-organiser of two
schools in Ouagadougou: “Index theory
and interactions with physics”, 21–29 May 2009 (Research
school co-funded by the CIMPA and the University of Ouagadougou,
with the help of external funding), and “Fourier
integrals and applications”, 14–25 September 2015 (School
funded by the Volkswagen Foundation and co-organised
with the University of Ouagadougou).
EMS Newsletter December 2015 47