Ousmane Sonko's speech on Martyrs' Day

Dear compatriots,
Brothers and sisters of pain and hope,
Bereaved families whose hearts are still bleeding,
Former political prisoners whose spirit has never been captured,
Courageous wounded who bear in your flesh the truth of our history,

Today, I'm speaking to you not just as President of PASTEF, still less as Prime Minister. I stand before you as a marked brother, shaped by the same tears, the same injustices, the same dreams broken and rebuilt.

We have come together to honor those who will never return, those whose laughter was stifled by the brutality of a system that sought to crush a standing people.
Senegal remembers.
The price of our freedom.
Today, Senegal pauses, Senegal meditates, Senegal remembers.

We remember every face, every name, every life interrupted or shattered. These young people, these students, these ordinary citizens took to the streets, not out of violence, but out of a visceral love for their country and an absolute refusal of injustice. Their only weapon was their right, their only shield was the Constitution.

To the families of the martyrs,
Dear mothers, fathers, brothers and sisters,

The whole nation shares your pain. Your children are not statistics: they are heroes. Their courage shook the walls of oppression. Their dignity in the face of repression paved the way for the historic changes we are living through. Their ultimate self-sacrifice for the homeland is our eternal debt.

Your child didn't die for nothing. He was the victim of a system that chose repression over dialogue. Justice, the real justice, will come. The State will ensure that every responsibility is established, that every case is clarified. We owe you the truth. We owe you a country worthy of the sacrifice of your children.

To former political prisoners and the wounded,
To you who have returned from the darkness,
To you whose bodies tell the story better than any commentary,

Your scars are national decorations. Your dignity in the abyss has guided an entire people towards liberation, towards a new lease of life. You are the living flags of Senegalese resistance.

PASTEF was born of the cry of the people. PASTEF was not born in an air-conditioned office for political ambition. It was born from a cry: a cry from the diasporas, the working-class neighborhoods, the countryside; a cry from the awakened consciences of a youth that refused resignation.

Our movement is growing, driven by a simple but revolutionary idea: to demarchandize politics and build a Senegal governed by and for its sons and daughters, according to the intangible principles of work, ethics and fraternity in justice, transparency and sovereignty.

Persecuted for these ideas, we have been dissolved, arrested, defamed, imprisoned, insulted, slandered and killed. But each oppression has strengthened our conviction. By closing our doors, they opened our hearts. By imprisoning our bodies, they liberated our consciences. We were a cry from the people; we became their hope, then their choice.

My commitment is born of an ancient oath: never to put up with injustice. As a former tax inspector, I have seen the hands that sell the country. I saw the betrayal of the elite. That day, I made a choice: never to look away, never to submit.

That oath led me to unionism, then to politics, then to you.
Then to disbarment.
Then to persecution.
Then to the courts.
Then to prison.
Then to power.

Like our martyrs, I knew the cell, the disqualification, the distortion, the extreme hunger. But I never gave in, because my strength came from you. If I am Prime Minister today, it's because your votes carried me. I am not your leader. I am your representative. The hand that signs is your hand. The voice that speaks is your collective voice.

Honoring our martyrs is not just about mourning or celebrating them once a year. It's about building: uncompromising truth and justice; clarifying events; establishing responsibility; ending impunity; ensuring that no names are forgotten, no files are buried.

It's also about building a fair state, reforming institutions so that they serve citizens rather than special interests.
It's about building an economy of dignity, applying PASTEF's economic project: job creation, industrialization, resource development for the benefit of the people.

To honor this memory, we need to invest massively in education, training and entrepreneurship. Two proposals have been submitted to me: one for the erection of a memorial to the victims; the other for the creation of a pantheon of Senegalese democracy, a founding act affirming that our Republic will no longer tolerate citizens falling for expressing their convictions.

We need to protect this revolution.
Revolution always begins in fragility.
The greatest danger facing us today is no longer the repression of yesterday. The greatest danger is forgetting. It's falling asleep.

We have no right to sleep.
We have no right to betray the memory of our own.

I'm issuing an order today: the order of sacred duty to the great patriotic family.

This order is :

1. Consolidate PASTEF's large civic army, with the goal of one million active members by the end of 2026. Every card is a commitment to democracy, freedom and the success of the project.

2. Vitalize 10,000 PASTEF and citizen vigilance cells in every neighborhood and village. Be the sentinels of ethics, good governance and sovereignty.

3. Revitalize our service movement, our DNA: blood donations, cleaning up public spaces, free school support, active solidarity. Let blood spilt be replaced by blood given for life.

Dear comrades, dear brothers,

A power that forgets its base is lost. A party that forgets its ethics dies. PASTEF must remain the living conscience of the nation, a benchmark in Africa for the strength of its ideas and the exemplarity of its action.

To achieve this, we rely on our values: fraternity, solidarity, hard work and unwavering ethics.

I say it before history: the martyrs aren't behind us, they're ahead of us. I feel their breath here. I feel their gaze weighing on our shoulders.

It is before them, before you, before our collective conscience that I take this oath:
We will not fail.
We will not weaken.
We will never betray.
We will never betray them.

We will build a sovereign, just, proud and prosperous Senegal.
Brick by brick.
We will build it, or perish trying.

For the memory of martyrs.
For dignity regained.
For a sovereign Senegal.

Long live the martyrs of freedom.