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WHO WAS THOMAS SANKARA

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23 views3 pages

WHO WAS THOMAS SANKARA

Uploaded by

Lenin Vladmir
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© © All Rights Reserved
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WHO WAS THOMAS SANKARA, THE REVOLUTIONARY ANTI-COLONIST WHO GAVE HIS

LIFE FIGHTING NEOCOLONIALISM?

On Thursday (February 23), Thomas Sankara’s exhumed remains were


reburied at a ceremony in Burkina Faso’s capital Ouagadougou.
Sankara was a charismatic anti-colonist, whose brief time at the helm
of Burkina Faso is remembered for his revolutionary socio-economic and
political vision, specifically the rejection of Western economic and
political “support” for his West African nation.

Often called “Africa’s Che Guevara”, Sankara was gunned down


during a violent coup in 1987, led by his former ally turned foe,
Blaise Compaoré. He was only 37 at the time.

Compaoré ruled for nearly three decades, being ousted in 2014. After
his ouster, authorities exhumed Sankara’s remains in 2015 to
identify them and help with investigations into Sankara’s murder.
Last year, Compaoré was handed a sentence in absentia to life
imprisonment for complicity in Sankara’s murder. Two of his aides
received the same sentence in 2021.

Sankara’s reburial at the scene of his murder, after the completion


of the investigation, brought closure to some but the scars from his
untimely death run deep.

“It is emotional to find myself here again,” Mayamba Malick


Sawadogo told _Reuters_, holding back tears. “It is true that more
than 30 years have passed… but it is not easy.” Sawadogo was an
ally of Sankara and spent time in prison during the 1987 coup.

A BRAVE LEADER WHO STOOD AGAINST NEOCOLONIALISM

Sankara came to power after a coup in 1983. At the time, the Republic
of Upper Volta was one of Africa’s poorest countries which
officially attained independence in 1958 but remained afflicted by the
dark legacy of French colonialism and heavily dependent on western aid
and corporate interests.

Sankara understood that true independence was more than a new flag and
currency — it meant political and economic independence, too. Thus,
upon coming to power, Sankara gave his country a new name, Burkina
Faso or “Land of Upright Men”, indicating a radical new vision of
self-reliance for the country.

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According to _The Jacobin_, “Sankara’s leadership was


characterised by nationalisation, land redistribution, and expansive
railway building programs”. In one of the most successful
inoculation drives in Africa at the time, over two million children
were vaccinated. He was also one of the first African leaders to raise
awareness about HIV AIDS. Sankara also built schools and hospitals
across the country and planted over 10 million trees to combat
desertification. In just four years of his rule, Burkina Faso had
attained food sufficiency.

One of Sankara’s great political achievements was bringing women


into all levels of government in Burkina Faso. His government also
banned female genital mutilation as well as polygamy.
Crucially, Sankara rejected aid from international institutions such
as the World Bank and the IMF, focussing instead on building
self-reliance where possible and cultivating relationships with other
countries of the global south.

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When asked about his revolutionary goals, Thomas Sankara once said,
“Our economic ambition is to use the strength of the people of
Burkina Faso to provide, for all, two meals a day and drinking
water.”

A LIFE CUT SHORT AND A DREAM SHATTERED

While Sankara was wildly popular among the masses, his political
ideology and programme was inconvenient for Burkina Faso’s
traditional elites as well as Western capitalist interests. After
Sankara’s murder, not only were his close supporters persecuted for
decades, much of Sankara’s work was undone.

Entities and businesses he had nationalised were privatised again, IMF


became one of the country’s biggest lenders, and his successor
cozied up to France, re-establishing old colonial connections Sankara
had worked hard to move away from. Successor Blaise Compaoré was not
only warmly received in Paris, the commander of Sankara’s assassins,
Gilbert Diendéré (sentenced to life alongside Compoaré), was even
awarded France’s highest order of merit, the National Order of the
Legion of Honor.

Burkina Faso was flooded with anti-Thomas Sankara propaganda, which


framed the coup as “rectifying the Revolution”. But ideas do not
die easily and today, amidst 21st century’s ‘Great Game’ in
Africa between the West and China, Sankara’s legacy provides a
welcome alternative, based on self-reliance and pan-African
solidarity.

FOR THE COMMON GOOD

“They are about the ideal that political power can and must be used
for the common good,” Andile Mngxitama, a South African columnist,
told the BBC in 2014. Mngxitama was referring to Sankara’s influence
in the then upcoming elections in South Africa, talking about how his
political ideology guides leaders across all of Africa, till date.

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Brian Peterson, in his book _Thomas Sankara: A Revolutionary in Cold


War Africa_, wrote that Sankara’s enduring appeal lies in the fact
that the conditions which Sankara sought to change continue to plague
not just Burkina Faso but all of Africa. Whether it be European mining
companies or American Banks, big philanthropists and international
development organisations or ‘aid’ from states such as China and
the US – all of these continue to keep Africa subservient to foreign
interests, and enrich a tiny section of local elites who weild
political power.

“Imperialism is a system of exploitation that occurs not only in the


brutal form of those who come with guns to conquer territory.
Imperialism often occurs in more subtle forms, a loan, food aid,
blackmail . We are fighting this system that allows a handful of men
on Earth to rule all of humanity,” Thomas Sankara had once said in a
speech.

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“At the core was his visceral opposition to injustice and a sense of
moral outrage at oppression and inequality,” says Peterson in an
interview to _The Jacobin_. Add to that an immensely disciplined and
modest lifestyle, it is not hard to see why Sankara still speaks to so
many.

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