You can find out more about which cookies we are using or switch them off in settings. As President, he lowered his salary to $450 a month and limited his possessions to a car, four bikes, three guitars, a fridge and a broken freezer. In Ouagadougou, Sankara converted the army’s provisioning store into a state-owned supermarket open to everyone (the first supermarket in the country). The media, entertainment industry, civil society groups, writers, institutions and organizations must begin to search out and include African role models, case studies and examples in their contents. He reduced the salaries of all public servants, including his own, and forbade the use of government chauffeurs and 1st class airline tickets. Deterioration in relations with neighbouring countries was one of the reasons given, with Compaoré stating that Sankara jeopardised foreign relations with former colonial power France and neighbouring Ivory Coast. This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Sankarism stands out as a visionary politics at a time when many assumed the Third World liberation project had already been extinguished. Thomas Sankara was born Thomas Isidore Noël Sankara, on December 21, 1949, in Yako, French Upper Volta, into a Roman Catholic family. It was a strategic policy that ensured that Africans celebrated the heroes of their colonial masters, but not that of Africa. Compaoré immediately reversed the nationalizations, overturned nearly all of Sankara’s policies, rejoined the International Monetary Fund and World Bank to bring in “desperately needed” funds to restore the “shattered” economy,[34] and ultimately spurned most of Sankara’s legacy. From an alarming 280 deaths for every 1,000 births, infant mortality was immediately slashed to below 145 deaths per 1,000 live births. Sankara remained popular with most of his country’s impoverished citizens. It is a reconquest that turns each one of us into a financial slave.” He would not request for, nor accept aid from the west, noting that “…welfare and aid policies have only ended up disorganizing us, subjugating us, and robbing us of a sense of responsibility for our own economic, political, and cultural affairs. Black people have Eumelanin and everyone else has pheomelanin. We are using cookies to give you the best experience on our website. “Thomas Sankara speaks: the Burkina Faso revolution, 1983-87”, Pathfinder Pr 416 Copy quote Inequality can be done away with only by establishing a new society, where men and women will enjoy equal rights, resulting from an upheaval in the means of production and in all social relations. A week before his murder, he declared: “While revolutionaries as individuals can be murdered, you cannot kill ideas.”. Sankara changed the name of the country from the colonially imposed Upper Volta to Burkina Faso, which means land of upright men. He argued that the poor and exploited did not have an obligation to repay money to the rich and exploiting. His foreign policies were centered on anti-imperialism, with his government eschewing all foreign aid, pushing for odious debt reduction, nationalizing all land and mineral wealth, and averting the power and influence of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank. Compaoré’s dictatorship remained in power for 27 years until overthrown by popular protests in 2014. He appointed females to high governmental positions, encouraged them to work, recruited them into the military, and granted pregnancy leave during education. Other components of his national agenda included planting over ten million trees to halt the growing desertification of the Sahel, doubling wheat production by redistributing land from feudal landlords to peasants, suspending rural poll taxes and domestic rents, and establishing an ambitious road and rail construction program to “tie the nation together”. Sankara affirmed in addressing the United Nations in 1984: ‘In acknowledging that we are part of the Third World we are, to paraphrase José Martí, “affirming that our cheek feels the blow struck against any man, anywhere in the world”’. The strength to transform Africa lies in the foundations laid by uncommon heroes like Thomas Sankara; a man who showed Africa and the world that with a single minded pursuit of purpose, the worst can be made the best, and in record time too. You can adjust all of your cookie settings by navigating the tabs on the left hand side. In 1987, during a meeting of African leaders under the auspices of the Organization of African Unity, Thomas Sankara tried to convince his peers to turn their backs on the debt owed western nations. Living way ahead of his time, within 12 months of his leadership, Sankara vigorously pursued a reforestation program that saw over 10 million trees planted around the country in order to push back the encroachment of the Sahara Desert. His commitment to women’s rights, the importance of environmental sustainability and a strong national pride distinguish his political vision from traditional Marxism, incorporating internationalist, Third Worldist, and Pan-Africanist humanism. Sankara disdained formal pomp and banned any cult of his personality. Discover all the facets of the new GLB. His life and political praxis continue to be influential in shaping anti-imperial and Pan-African resistance across the African continent, including the protests across Burkina Faso in late October 2014. A personal fitness enthusiast, Sankara encouraged Burkinabes to be fitted and was regularly seen jogging unaccompanied on the streets of Ouagadougou; his waistline remained the same throughout his tenure as president. It sought to fundamentally reverse the structural social inequities inherited from the French colonial order. Facts about Thomas Sankara in Burkina Faso, African Countries That Manufacture Some of Their Own Weapons, Over 50 Amazing Facts You Never Knew About the Great Benin Kingdom, Top 6 Reasons Why Radio Remains Africa’s Best Media Tool, 10 of Africa’s most amazing Tourist places you must visit, The 10 Best Africans In The English Premier League, 16 Reasons Why You Should Visit South Africa For The Holidays, Botswana police ranked Africa’s best, Nigeria at bottom of global report, Isabel dos Santos only African on Forbes 2017 ‘100 most powerful women’, 11 Businesses Owned By Asamoah Gyan You Probably Didn’t Know About, The 10 Best South African Summer Songs of 2017. The present generation of Africans is thirsty, searching for where to draw the moral, intellectual and spiritual courage to effect change. To his admirers, his assassination in 198. In less than two years as a president, school attendance jumped from about 10% to a little below 25%, thus overturning the 90% illiteracy rate he met upon assumption of office. According to him, “debt is a cleverly managed reconquest of Africa. When most African countries depended on imported food and external assistance for development, Sankara championed local production and the consumption of locally-made goods. Among physical and mental dirt and debris lie Africa’s heroes while the younger generations search in vain for role models from among their kind. Additionally, as an admirer of Fidel Castro’s Cuban Revolution, Sankara set up Cuban-style Committees for the Defense of the Revolution (CDRs). He also employed women in several government positions and declared a day of solidarity with housewives by mandating their husbands to take on their roles for 24 hours. Perhaps, more than any other African president in living memory, Thomas Sankara, in four years, transformed Burkina Faso from a poor country, dependent on aid, to an economically independent and socially progressive nation. No comprehensive analysis has been published to date on his political philosophies and praxis. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. To his admirers, his assassination in 1987 during a coup that delivered to high office his former friend, Blaise Compaoré, has fixed him as a martyr figure not only for Burkinabe politics, but also for progressive politics in the world over (dubbing him ‘Africa’s Che’). Moreover, his commitment to women’s rights led him to outlaw female genital mutilation, forced marriages and polygamy, while appointing women to high governmental positions and encouraging them to work outside the home and stay in school even if pregnant.[5]. His salary was $450 per month and he refused to use the air conditioning units in his office, saying that he felt guilty doing so, since very few of his country people could afford it. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website. After renaming his country to Burkina Faso, here’s Thomas Sankara’s accomplishments, ONLY 4 YEARS in power (1983-87).