Deciphering Burkinsa Faso’s Socio-Political Situation from 2015 to 2024 in Songs by Comedy Groups “ Les Séparables ” and “ Dabross Feat El Présidente BF ”

Abstract

Since January 15, 2016, the historical date of the terrorist attack on the Cappuccino café restaurant in the hSeart of the capital Ouagadougou, the socio-political and security situation in Burkina Faso has continued to exacerbate. In addition, a succession of coups d’état toppled the democratically-elected ex-president Roch Marc Christian Kaboré, who Lieutenant-Colonel Paul Henri Sandaogo Damiba replaced on January 24, 2022, who in turn was overthrown by Captain Ibrahim Traoré on September 30, 2022. In such a troubled socio-political context, it is customary to hear the voices of political players, civil society, the international community and certain cultural players, about the problems of the moment and their solutions. With this in mind, we take a look at the musical discourse of two comedy groups, “ Les séparables ” and “ Dabross feat El présidente BF ”, who perform musical parody while painting a picture of the country’s socio-political realities. Told in a comic register, this speech depicts the socio-political and security reality and draws the attention of the actors to certain misbehaviors. The study aims to analyze the musical discourse of these cultural actors by describing: 1) The overall communication situation that characterizes their discourse on the one hand; 2) The positioning strategies of these humorists concerning the country’s socio-political problems on the other. The study falls within the field of discourse analysis and draws on the works of Charaudeau, P. The study reveals that various socio-political and security problems characterize the global and specific communication situation of political actors and society.