Burkina Faso: the corrected statue of Thomas Sankara unveiled in Ougadougou

Text by: RFI Follow

A first version of this statue was unveiled last year, in March 2019. But many believed that it did not look like the father of the Bourkinabè revolution. The international Memorial Committee, Thomas Sankara, therefore had to bring it back to the workshop.  

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With our correspondent in Ougadougou , Yaya Boudani

A year ago, it was in March 2019, the Thomas Sankara Memorial International Committee had unveiled a first giant statue of the father of the Burkinabè revolution on the very site where he was assassinated on October 15, 1987. Faced with criticism of the quality of the statue, which did not look like Captain Thomas Sankara, the initiators of the project had to bring the statue back to the workshop and the new copy was unveiled from Sunday May 17 to the populations. The new statue has features of resemblance, but it remains perfectible. 

Like Mousbila Sankara, ambassador to Libya during the revolution, many Burkinabè had rejected the first statue of Captain Thomas Sankara, a year ago. But today opinions are moderate: " The resemblance is there, it can never be the person in question, we can be content, " says one of the present. " This statue compared to that which was there before, we think that this one corresponds exactly, " adds another.

For the sculptor Jean-Luc Bambara, it was the lack of time and the technique used that made his work difficult: “ What didn't work the first time was the delay. Then there were the climatic conditions. And lost wax is a material that melts in a slightly warm atmosphere. So 45 degrees it melts, so that when pouring some parts of the belt had to turn ”.

Six ministers of the Republic were present at the ceremony to support the international committee of the Thomas Sankara Memorial. “ It will be difficult to say that we can reproduce Thomas Sankara 100%, but what is there represents Thomas Sankara and that is the main thing. The government is strongly mobilized behind this project so that we arrive at a memorial worthy of the name, "Alpha Alpha Barry, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation, told RFI.

The international committee for the Memorial assures that other statues of Captain Thomas Sankara will be made progressively on the site which covers 14 hectares.

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• Burkina Faso
• Thomas Sankara