Thomas Sankara

Thomas Sankara (Copyrighted picture, source: Burkinabé government via English Wikipedia. The publication of the picture is considered to qualify as fair use as the picture is published on this website in law resolution for educational purposes.) On 21 December 1949, Burkinabé military officer, Marxist revolutionary, and pan-Africanist President of Burkina Faso Thomas Sankara was born in Yako, French colonial Upper Volta. Viewed by supporters as a charismatic and iconic figure of revolution, he is often referred to as 'Africa's Che Guevara'.

After being appointed Prime Minister in 1983, disputes with the sitting government led to Sankara's eventual imprisonment. While he was under house arrest, a group of revolutionaries seized power on his behalf in a popularly-supported coup later that year. Aged 33, Sankara became the President of the Republic of Upper Volta. He immediately launched programmes for social, ecological and economic change and renamed the country from the French colonial name Upper Volta to Burkina Faso ('Land of Incorruptible People'), with its people being called Burkinabé ('upright people'). His foreign policies were centred on anti-imperialism, while he rejected aid from organisations such as the International Monetary Fund. Sankara welcomed foreign aid from other sources but tried to reduce reliance on aid by boosting domestic revenues and diversifying the sources of assistance. His domestic policies were focused on preventing famine with agrarian self-sufficiency and land reform, prioritising education with a nationwide literacy campaign and promoting public health by vaccinating more than 2 million children against meningitis, yellow fever and measles.

As an admirer of the Cuban Revolution, Sankara set up Cuban-style Committees for the Defense of the Revolution. As such, he encouraged the prosecution of officials accused of corruption, counter-revolutionaries and 'lazy workers' in Popular Revolutionary Tribunals. Such programmes led to criticism by Amnesty International and other non-governmental organisations for violations of human rights, who alleged that there were extrajudicial executions and arbitrary detentions of political opponents. Opposition parties and unions were also banned and media freedoms curtailed. Although his revolutionary programmes for African self-reliance made him an icon to many of Africa's poor, and Sankara remained popular with most of his country's citizens, his policies alienated and antagonised several groups, which included the small but powerful Burkinabé middle class, the traditional leaders who were stripped of their long-held traditional privileges of forced labour and tribute payments, and the governments of France and its ally the Ivory Coast. On 15 October 1987, Sankara was assassinated by troops led by Blaise Compaoré, who assumed leadership of the state shortly thereafter.

(Source: Wikipedia)