Kanko was born in Godyr, Burkina Faso in 1980 to a Muslim family and grew up in a small village where her father worked as a teacher and according to Kanko was engaged in multiple polygamous relationships. She was subjected to female genital mutilation (FGM) as a child and has since campaigned for the practice to be banned. In a 2016 interview, Kanko explained that she was tricked into the procedure by her mother who told her she was being taken to a friend's house to play. At a young age, she discovered books by French feminist author Simone de Beauvoir and European enlightenment philosophers which made her question the society in which she was raised.[2][3]
She has said her first exposure to politics was the assassination of Burkina Faso president Thomas Sankara. After the murder of the influential Burkinabè journalist Norbert Zongo in 1998, she studied journalism in Ouagadougou and took an interest in human rights activism.[4] Kanko moved to the Netherlands in 2001 to continue journalism studies and settled in Brussels in 2004 after meeting her husband. She became a Belgian citizen in 2008.[5] In 2010, she became a member of the think tank Liberales and worked as a parliamentary aid to the Flemish Open VLD party. From 2011 to 2015, Kanko worked in communications for the bank BNP Paribas before studying a master's degree in international politics at the CERIS-ULB Diplomatic School of Brussels. From 2015 to 2019, she worked for the Belgian Technical Cooperation (now Enabel) as a director and in 2018 was an advisor to Mouvement Réformateur (MR) politician Denis Ducarme on issues related to violence against women.[6]
In 2023, Kanko supported Ukraine during the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine and was critical of the EU's response, arguing the Union "woke up too late" to the problem and "took peace for granted". She argued against neutrality with Russian president Putin and supports sending surplus military equipment to Ukrainian forces, stating: "If I were Bambi, unarmed, why would I negotiate peace with a lion? I would see peace, but the lion would only see a meal."[9]
In 2023, an investigation was opened against Kanko following complaints about her intimidating her parliamentary staff. This investigation was closed due to insufficient proof.[10][11]
Following the 2023 Hamas attack in Israel, Kanko called for Hamas to be "dismantled" during a speech in the European Parliament and argued the West should "not be naive about radical Islam." She has also called on Belgium and the European Union to review its funding towards UNRWA, arguing the organisation has become corrupted by Hamas. She has also spoken out against antisemitism in European and American universities.[12]
Kanko was reelected during the 2024 European Parliament elections and resumed her role as vice-chairwoman of the ECR group. In the 2024 Belgian municipal elections, she was elected as a councilor for the N-VA in Vilvoorde.[14]
Activism and other work
In addition to her political work, Kanko has also been active as an author (see Bibliography), as an advisor to companies on how to best implement Sustainable Development Goals, and as a columnist for De Standaard.[15]
In 2017, Kanko received the Ebony Spur award from the N-VA before she became a member, an annual award given by the party to an individual from a non-Flemish background who has made a special contribution to Flemish society. The award was presented by N-VA general secretary Louis Ide who justified the prize by stating: "As a politician, she tells a story about security, about the economy, about education that is a breath of fresh air in French-speaking Belgium. As a writer, her story gives female migrants the strength to escape the social pressure that they often still experience within their own communities and thus really build a new life here."[16]
Personal life
Kanko is married to a Belgian man and has one daughter (born 2008) and lives in Brussels with her family.[15]
Bibliography
Omdat je een meisje bent. Verhaal van een besneden leven (Because you are a girl. Story of a circumcised life) s.l. : Doorbraak, 2019
Leading ladies: maak je ambities waar (Leading ladies: realize your ambitions) Tielt: Lannoo, 2018
De tweede helft. Tijd voor een nieuw feminisme (The second half. Time for a new feminism) [Tielt] : Lannoo, 2015[17]
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