TRAORÉ UPLIFTS WOMEN FARMERS

International Women's Day, or as it was initially called, International Working Women's Day, is a revolutionary holiday founded to recognise working-class women’s quest for humanity.

The first known celebration took place in 1909 in New York. In 1910, German communist Clara Zetkin (1857-1933) changed it from ‘Women’s Day’ to ‘Working Women’s Day.’ In 1922, Russian revolutionary Vladimir Lenin (1870-1924) announced that 8 March would be celebrated as ‘International Women’s Day’ to honour women’s contributions to the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution.

In Burkina Faso, the holiday has retained much of its revolutionary roots, largely thanks to the liberatory work of assassinated Pan-African leader Thomas Sankara (1949-87). Today, President Ibrahim Traoré continues to honour, celebrate and uplift women.

On 8 March, Traoré visited the village of Zongo, located in the department of Loumbila in the Central Plateau region, to meet with a cooperative of women farmers. The women were surprised and thrilled to be face to face, exchanging with the president. Traoré thanked them for their hard work and promised to relieve many of their hardships with more tools and resources necessary for their agricultural production. Traoré called women farmers the backbone of the country's economy.

Let us know in the comments how you or your country honours the day.

Video credit: @faso7_bf (IG + X) / @sigbf (X)