Thomas Sankara, an African military and political leader from Burkina Faso, ruled his country for 4 years and carried out economic and social changes in it, gaining a presence at the international level in support of liberation issues. He was assassinated in 1987 in a military coup that overthrew his rule, and his personality became an icon for generations of Africans, and he became known as "African Che Guevara."
Origin and formation
Thomas Isidore Noel Sankara was born on December 21, 1949 in the town of Yakou in Burkina Faso, which was then called Upper Volta, into a Catholic family from the lower classes of society.
His father was from the Flan nationality and had fought in the First World War, while his mother was from the Mossi nationality, and he was the third in the order among 11 brothers and sisters.
Scientific study and training
After completing elementary and preparatory studies in Ouagadougou, he joined the preparatory military high school in the city, contrary to the aspirations of his family, who nominated him to receive religious formation to become a priest. He emerged at this stage with his academic excellence and high mathematical skills.
In his twenties, he traveled on study missions as part of his military training to both Madagascar and Cameroon, and he lived in Madagascar with the events of a revolution of workers and students that overthrew the government.
In the early seventies, he joined the Paratroopers Training Center in France, and took advantage of his presence there to initiate contacts with African organizations and African students with Marxist revolutionary tendencies.
Military and political experience
Starting in 1974, Sankara began to be secretly active in opposition left-wing circles, including trade unions, in parallel with the gradual advancement in the ranks of the army and assuming military responsibilities, as his name emerged in a short military confrontation with neighboring Mali after a border dispute between the two countries, and he began to acquire the image of the national hero, Then, in 1976, he assumed command of the National Commando Training Center.
He resided between January and May 1978 in Morocco as part of a military formation at the Paratroopers Training Center, in which he was with his companion Blaise Compaore (who would turn against him later) and they founded, along with other officers, the "Communist Officers Group".
The political and economic conditions in this poor country were deteriorating with the establishment of the one-party system in the country since November 1975, and the spread of corruption, political turmoil and coups.
In February 1981 he was promoted to the rank of captain and appointed commander of the Operations Division of the Staff Command, and in the same year he entered the government as a state clerk in charge of communication, but he soon resigned with the escalation of anger at the repressive nature of President Sayi Zerbo's regime, and he was thrown with some of his comrades in prison.
On November 7, 1982, the country witnessed a new coup that overthrew Colonel Zerbo, after which Jean-Baptiste and Drago headed, and Sankara was appointed prime minister in January 1983.
This position enabled him to acquire international relations among the leaders of the Non-Aligned Movement, and he had, in particular, contacts with the Cuban leader Fidel Castro, but Sankara's position against imperialism and the popular support he enjoyed and his support for the break in the relationship with France (the colonial power that controlled the country) All factors sparked disagreements with the most conservative front of army officers, led by the President and Drago, and thus Sankara was sacked and arrested again.
Burkina Faso President Thomas Sankara (right) and his French counterpart Francois Mitterrand in 1986 in Ouagadougou (Getty Images)
The national revolution
Turmoil continued in the country with the division of the army and rebel movements, and the situation resulted in the fall of the regime on August 4, 1983, and the entry of Blaise Compaore's forces into the capital, Ouagadougou, on the impact of mass demonstrations in support of the coup, and Sankara was installed at the helm of power in the country.
Sankara declared the revolution, supported by his fellow officers and left-wing groups, and established the "National Revolutionary Council" and waged war against the traditional classes in power as soon as he came to power. and political action and local production.
The Sankara regime took a number of symbolic steps, most notably abandoning the country's name "Upper Volta" inherited from colonialism and changing the country's name to "Burkina Faso", meaning "land of the pure" in the local language, in addition to changing the national flag and anthem.
Faced with the country's economy largely relying on external support, he initiated measures to rationalize spending, fight corruption, and encourage local production, and obligated officials to wear local clothes, and the procedures included reducing the privileges of officials so that he (as one of his ministers tells) wanted each two ministers to have one car before backing down. Finally about that procedure.
Sankara was assassinated by his colleague Blaise Compaore, who turned against him and ruled the country after him (Getty Images)
In the face of "imperialism"
On the external level, he gained his country an international presence and emerged as a supporter of the causes of oppressed peoples, African unity and decolonization.
He did not hesitate to take sharp positions that brought him trouble and accusations of "idealism". Thus, Burkina Faso boycotted the Olympic Games in Los Angeles in 1984 in protest against American support for the Israeli occupation and the apartheid regime in South Africa.
In his speeches, he defended the Third World, criticizing the "formal independence" invented by the countries of the "other world" in order to ensure intellectual, cultural, economic and political alienation in their colonies, considering it a "colossal historical hoax" and expressing his refusal for his country to be "a tail of the overstuffed West."
His bold rhetoric and radical policies brought foreign troubles. Relations with Côte d'Ivoire deteriorated, and cooperation agreements with France were disrupted, which he continued to openly criticize the pattern of its relations with its former colonies based on continued dependence and exploitation.
Sankara boycotted the French-African summit held in Bujumbura in December 1984, but he visited Paris in February 1986, participating in the summit of French-speaking countries in Versailles and met President Francois Mitterrand, and yet his differences with Paris continued and deepened.
Burkina Faso President Sankara at the funeral of Mozambican President Samora Machel (Getty Images)
In December 1986, he aroused great anger in Paris by supporting General Assembly Resolution No. 41/41, which included the right of New Caledonia (one of the French overseas territories) to self-determination, and France responded with economic measures to the step described by Jacques Chirac, Prime Minister At the time, in a letter to the French Minister of Cooperation, he said, "Enough is enough."
And in return for the deterioration of relations with France and the regimes loyal to it, Sankara was keen to consolidate relations with Marxist countries such as Cuba, Angola and Nicaragua, and he also had a distinguished relationship with the regime of Colonel Muammar Gaddafi in Libya. in their area of influence.
The debt problem of poor countries was one of the most important contents of his speech, and he explicitly called on poor countries to collectively default on debt payments, telling his African counterparts, "If Burkina Faso alone abstains, I will not be with you at the next summit," referring to the possibility of his overthrow.
Sankara was always critical of the roles of the Bank and the International Monetary Fund and the economic dependence suffered by poor countries, which he saw as one of the faces of "imperialism", saying, "Some ask me where is imperialism? Look at your plates ... there is no need to go far."
internal disagreements
The year 1987 (the last years of his rule) was marked by unrest and suspicion of coup attempts and internal disputes that afflicted the army, which represents the backbone of the regime, and he faced accusations from some of his comrades of following impromptu policies and making decisions without considering the consequences, and due to the impact of these differences, popular support for his government began to gradually decline, and internal crises increased. .
Despite a number of important steps he took, especially at the level of education and women's empowerment, the voices opposing him increased, with the aversion of traditional circles from some of his social policies that were considered progressive, in addition to the structural economic problems in a poor country and a turbulent context.
In his last year, Sankara canceled foreign visits and tried to focus on rebuilding the system by establishing new bodies, but these measures deepened the crisis and removed the rift between him and his opponents in the army.
The government received reports about his comrade Blaise Compaore preparing a coup against him, "and the conspiracy was on every tongue, but he did not even want to listen to that, despite the intelligence, police and army reports," says Ernest Wedrago, one of his aides.
Sankara made many changes to refute the effects of colonialism in his country, one of which was changing its name from "Upper Volta" to "Burkina Faso" (Getty Images)
Notable achievements
Sankara was able to implement health, social and educational programs that contributed to a significant reduction in child mortality through massive vaccination campaigns, and to raising the rate of access to education and reducing the rate of illiteracy in the country, and the presence of women in official positions increased.
He inaugurated a project to combat desertification, which made it possible to plant 10 million trees and to reform the land that took land away from the feudal owners and redistributed it among the population.
His government was able to build a large number of new schools within the framework of a reform that sought to formulate an education that supports production and avoids the negative aspects of education inherited from colonialism, in addition to building road projects, hospitals and water points without external support, and increasing the country's grain production by 75%.
The symbolic aspects remained a decisive factor that made him one of the most prominent political leaders in Africa after independence, as his simple personal style, his enthusiastic, frank and close speech to the people, and the violent circumstances of his assassination were factors that turned him into an icon for youth in his country and Africa in general, with what is included in the image that was drawn for him. than ideal.
assassination
Sankara was shot dead along with 12 of his aides in the capital, Ouagadougou, while he was in the process of an official meeting on October 15, 1987. The authorities announced his death in natural circumstances and concealed the circumstances of his death.
Months of turmoil in the country resulted in his assassination, and Blaise Compaore, who ruled the country for 27 years, took power until he was overthrown after a popular uprising in October 2014.
Fingers of accusation - in supporting the coup against him and his assassination - were pointed at France and its networks of influence in its former colonies despite its official denial, and French President Emmanuel Macron promised in 2017 to declassify documents related to the incident, but some of the archive documents that Paris handed over to the judiciary in Burkina Faso did not include information. New.
After the fall of President Compaore's regime, the file was reopened, and in April 2021, Compaore and the two officers close to him, Gilbert Diendre and Hyacinto Kafando, were convicted of life imprisonment on charges of responsibility for the assassination.