Thomas Sankara Luminary Son of AFRICA. ‘Homeland or death, we will triumph’

Born Thomas Isidore Noël Sankara on 21 Dec 1949, in what was then called Upper Volta, Sankara was the 3rd of 10 children. He is remembered as a Pan-African, a revolutionary, a president, a musician and an upright man. His parents wanted him to be a priest, he wanted to be a doctor, but when corruption prevented him from getting into medical school, he became a soldier. He was a very talented musician, who believed the power of music as a force for building community.

 

Sankara’s position in the army and his natural charisma made him a good choice for political appointments, but his personal convictions also meant that he was often arrested. In May 1983, Sankara was removed as prime minister of then President Ouédraogo’s government and arrested once again. On August 4, 1983, Compaoré, led a group that freed Sankara, overthrew the Ouédraogo regime, and formed the National Council of the Revolution (Conseil National de la Révolution) and Sankara became its president. President of the country.

At the age of thirty, Sankara was the youngest President on the African continent. Sankara changed the name of the country from Upper Volta to Burkina Faso, which means ‘the land of upright men’ in Mossi and Dyula. He instituted many changes to shake the old order. He donated all the Mercedes and Chevrolet owned by top civil servants and government officials to the National Lottery, and the money acquired was used on public spending. Sankara himself drove a Renault 5. He readjusted salaries so that all ministers and public servants earned the same wage of FCFA 192,500 (£480); he himself received the same monthly sum.

He made jogging and aerobics compulsory twice a week for all civil servants. School attendance went from 6% to 22%, millions of children were vaccinated, and 10 million trees were planted. The number of women in government soared, female genital mutilation was banned, and contraception was promoted. He shunned World Bank loans and promoted local food and textile production. Sankara outlawed tribute payments and obligatory labor to village chiefs, abolished rural poll taxes, instituted a massive immunization program, built railways and kick-started public housing construction. His administration aggressively pushed literacy programs, tackled river blindness and embarked on an anti-corruption drive in the civil service.

He had a vision for an Africa that was bold, free, proud and unfettered and he proclaimed this vision insistently. Ending all his speeches with the words, ‘Homeland or death, we will triumph!’ Sankara openly challenged both French hegemony in West Africa. He called for the scrapping of Africa’s debt to international banks, as well as to their former colonial masters.

Sankara was criticized in the West for being undemocratic as he banned protesting and striking, abolished trade union and party politics. Some Burkinabè intellectuals felt his quest to develop the country had an overly paternalistic, authoritarian edge. He prevented people from becoming excessively wealthy. His fervent socialism and uncategorical independence was seen as nearly frightening to the petite bourgeoisie in Burkina Faso, neighboring Francophone leaders (such as Félix Houphouët-Boigny of Côte d’Ivoire) as well as leaders of the West to which he had adamantly refused to show obeisance (François Mitterrand, to name one). The dust clouds were gathering.

 

On 15 October 1987, Sankara was assassinated in a coup led by soldiers loyal to his erstwhile brother-in-arms and best friend Blaise Campaoré – who went on to lead the country for the next 27 years. (The insect that destroys the ugwu plant, lives on the ugwu itself.) Blaise Compaoré called Sankara a traitor to the ‘Popular Revolution.’ Compaoré reversed everything Sankara instituted and Sankara’s death remains unsolved. Though fingers remain pointed at all the entities who decried his work within and outside Africa.

 

 

Blaise Compaoré and Sankara met for the first time in Morocco 1978. Sankara and Compaoré were inseparable friends who told each other everything. The two officers from the Parachute Regiment were so close that people often mistook them for brothers. Sankara was to claim a few months before his death that he valued his friendship with Blaise more than any other thing. He said: ‘I was lucky to have someone who I could trust completely. The day you hear that he [Compaoré] is planning to stage a coup against me, don’t bother wasting your time trying to stop him, it’ll be too late for that …’

some of Sankara speeches:

‘Debt’s origins come from colonialism’s origins. Those who lend us money are those who colonized us. They are the same ones who used to manage our states and economies. These are the colonizers who indebted Africa through their brothers and cousins, who were the lenders. We had no connections with this debt. Therefore we cannot pay for it.

Debt is Neo-colonialism, in which colonizers have transformed themselves into “technical assistants.” We should rather say “technical assassins.” They present us with financing, with financial backers. As if someone’s backing could create development. We have been advised to go to these lenders. We have been offered nice financial arrangements. We have been indebted for 50, 60 years and even longer. That means we have been forced to compromise our people for over 50 years.

 

you can not carry out fundamental change without a certain amount of madness. In this case, it comes from nonconformity,the courage to turn your back on the old formulas, the courage to invent the future.  

We often decry our current African leaders in Africa, their incompetence, corruption, complete lack of willingness to stand up for the good of their countries or their people. But while we decry them, let us not forget that we sometimes had leaders with the required amount of madness. Let us not forget what happened to them. Let us keep their visions alive as we dare to invent a future Africa.

 

He who feeds you, controls you

‘Homeland or death, we will triumph’