Burkina Faso is preparing for the reburials of the remains of Thomas Sankara and his companions
Entrance to the Thomas Sankara memorial at the Conseil de l'Entente, Ougadougou, March 3, 2019. © Creative Commons
Text by: RFI Follow
1 min
The ceremony will take place on the site of the Thomas Sankara memorial, where he was assassinated in 1987. A solemn ceremony will be dedicated to the father of the revolution on October 15.
His family will not participate in these funerals because they wanted the body to find the earth on another site.
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Despite the refusal of his family, the remains of Thomas Sankara will be reinterred on the site of the Council of the agreement.
The choice of this place is guided by "
socio-cultural and security imperatives of national interest
", according to the government, which specifies that the ceremony will take place according to customary and religious funeral rites.
On the spot the tombs have already been built.
“
Our family is still undergoing a hard test
, declared Blandine Sankara, younger sister of the former president and spokesperson for the family,
that of seeing Thomas Sankara buried against our will, at the place where he been murdered.
»
The children of journalist Paulin Bamouni will also be absent.
If they obtained the right to bring a coffin for the remains of their father, failing to be able to rebury him themselves, they believe that their "
personal convictions
[...]
do not allow them to take part in the ceremony
": "
35 years later, history seems to be repeating itself!
He is assassinated a second time before our eyes
, ”regrets Céline Bamouni, the daughter of Thomas Sankara's ex-adviser.
A regrettable situation according to Professor Albert Ouedraogo, professor of African oral literature at Joseph Ki Zerbo University, who believes that funerals are a time when the living and the dead tune in.
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