Heroes do exist – and Thomas Sankara was surely one of them. Born on 21 December 1949, among some of the most disadvantaged people of what was then Upper Volta, he brings to mind the Biblical story of Gideon – a powerful and revolutionary leader rising out of the midst of some of the least influential people of his land.
Thomas Isidore Noel Sankara entered military service at a young age and was deployed to Madagascar, where he was influenced by seeing that country’s leader overthrown in a revolution. He also read writings by other revolutionaries such as Lenin and Marx that greatly shaped his thinking.
On his return to Upper Volta, his popularity grew in the wake of his performance in the border war with Mali. His path in life quickly led to politics, and he served as Secretary of State for Information in the military government. But he resigned from the cabinet in 1982 due to the government’s increasingly anti-labour policies, and he became even more popular.
After a coup by the revolution-minded ‘Communist Officers Group’, Thomas Sankara was pronounced president of Upper Volta in 1983. Aged just 33 at the time, it was a golden opportunity for this young leader to put everything he had learnt to use.
Sankara had an anti-imperialist agenda. He wanted Africa to be African, to wear African, think African, act African. He had seen his father arrested by the Nazis fighting for a foreign country, and the thought likely didn’t sit well with him. Why should we be free but still take commands from our colonial masters, he reasoned.
So Sankara got to work. He was the one of the first leaders in the world, let alone Africa, to actively promote women’s rights. He was also the first African leader to appoint women to key positions in the cabinet. He replaced the government’s fleet of expensive Mercedes cars with Renault 5s – the cheapest cars sold in the country.
Under Sankara, the country achieved food sufficiency by way of sensible land distribution. He also refused to take foreign aid, believing it was the most effective way to be controlled by outside forces. It was widely reported, too, that he lowered his salary to just $450 a month.
A year into his presidency, he changed the name of the country to Burkina Faso – the ‘Land of Upright Men’. An accomplished guitarist, he even composed the country’s new national anthem.
But by not ‘playing ball’ and maintaining the status quo, Thomas Sankara had stepped on many toes. And like the Congo’s Lumumba before him, the end was nigh.
On15 October 1987, a week after he uttered a now-famous prediction of his own fate – “While revolutionaries as individuals can be murdered, you cannot kill ideas” – Sankara was murdered in a coup led by Blaise Compaore, his one-time best friend and the man still in power today.
Flimsy excuses were given, but the main reason was simply to silence another leading spark of light in our dark continent, to muzzle another voice that had dared to speak and act up against the imperial authorities. And they have succeeded so far.
Sankara played his part, and though his legacy in Burkina Faso was all but completely reversed, his legend will live on. The question now is whether his dream for Africa ever see the light of day.
Olajide Jatto is a software engineer and writer based in Dublin.
