RAMADJI.com
, updated
25 April
2006
Captain Thomas
Sankara, President of Faso
"I want people to remember me as
someone whose life has been helpful to humanity",
President Thomas Sankara (1949-1987)
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I dedicate
this page to one of the great sons of Africa, Captain Thomas
Sankara. He was the hope of the African youth before being
coldly murdered by his best friend Blaise Compaore Rest In
Peace comrade President. Great men like you never die. The
African youth mourns you and misses you!
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I invite you to
read the following biography of Thomas Sankara.
Thomas Sankara
(1949 - October 15, 1987), born in Yako, Upper Volta now Burkina
Faso, was a charismatic left-leaning leader in West Africa. He
was sometimes nicknamed "Tom Sank". He was considered by some to
be an "African Che Guevara".
A captain in the Upper Volta Air
Force, he was trained as a pilot. He was a very popular figure
in the capital of Ouagadougou. The fact that was he was a decent
guitarist and liked motorbikes may have contributed to his
charisma.
Sankara was appointed Secretary of
State for Information in 1981 and became Prime minister in 1983.
He was jailed the same year after a visit by Jean-Christophe
Mitterrand ; this caused a popular uprising.
A
coup d'Etat organized by Blaise Compaore made Sankara
President on August 4, 1983, at the age of 33. The coup
d'Etat was supported by Libya which was, at the time, on
the verge of war with France in Chad .
Sankara saw himself as a
revolutionary and was inspired by Cuba and Ghana's military
leader, Flight Lt. Jerry Rawlings. As president, he promoted the
"Democratic and Popular Revolution" (RDP Revolution
Democratique et Populaire).
His government included large
number of women. His policy was oriented toward fighting
corruption, reforestation, averting famine, and making education
and health real priorities.
Improving women's status was one
of Sankara's explicit goals, that was unprecedented in West
Africa. His government banned
female circumcision, condemned
polygamy, and promoted
contraception.
The Burkinabe government was also
the first African government to claim that
AIDS was a major threat for Africa.
In
1984, on the first anniversary of his accession, he renamed
the country
Burkina Faso, meaning "the land of upright people" in
Mossi and
Dyula, the two major languages of the country. He also gave
it a new flag and wrote a new national anthem.
On October 15, 1987 Sankara was
killed in a coup d'Etat organized by his former colleague Blaise
Compaore
A week prior to his death Sankara
addressed people and said that "while revolutionaries as
individuals can be murdered, you cannot kill ideas."
Writings :
L'emancipation des femmes et la
lutte de liberation de l'Afrique (Women's Liberation and the
African Freedom Struggle)
Links:
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