From Coup to Cult: The Transnational Construction of Power in West Africa’s Information Space -The Case of Burkina Faso

The Sahel region has emerged as a key setting for significant evolutions in cognitive warfare, where the contest for its information space, although underreported, has global impact and relevance.

A new analysis by Tim Stark uses a case study of Burkina Faso under Captain Ibrahim Traoré to provide a deep dive into these dynamics. It details how West African influence campaigns exploit the region’s fertile ground for narrative warfare—an environment where traditional oral storytellers have morphed into digital influencers—through the use of synthetic propaganda and hybrid operations, all in the context of a struggle by foreign powers to fill the strategic vacuum left by departing Western nations.

Traoré’s trajectory from coup leader to mythologized icon of Pan-African resistance illustrates a broader transformation in the global information environment, whereby authoritarian leaders in fragile states can now project narratives across borders to build legitimacy while reshaping perceptions abroad.

Stark concludes this is more than simple regime consolidation; it is a durable, transnational mythmaking effort that achieves global resonance by linking local grievances to potent anti-imperialist rhetoric, infiltrating Western timelines and directly influencing democratic discourse.

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From Coup to Cult_ The Transnational Construction of Power in West Africa’s Information Sp.

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