Thomas Sankara: The French, the West and the future of Africa

Thomas Sankara was the revolutionary leader of Burkina Faso who was murdered in cold blood (in 1987) by his friend and "trusted" colleague, Blaise Compaore, with the acquiescence of France and Ivory Coast.

Sankara, a charismatic army captain, came to power in Burkina Faso, in 1983, in a popularly supported coup. He immediately launched the most ambitious program for social and economic change ever attempted on the African continent.

To symbolize this rebirth, he even renamed his country from the French colonial Upper Volta to Burkina Faso, "Land of Upright Men."

As soon as he took office, he reduced the salaries of all public servants, including his own, and forbade the use of chauffeur-driven Mercedes and 1st class airline tickets.

In less than four years Thomas Sankara accomplished the following:

a) Burkina Faso attained complete self-sufficiency in food production and even began to export food to other parts of Africa. He accomplished this by redistributing land from the feudal landlords and giving it directly to the peasants. Wheat production alone, rose in just three years from 1700 kg per hectare to 3800 kg per hectare.

b) He promoted local cotton production and even required public servants to wear a traditional tunic, woven from Burkinabe cotton and sewn by Burkinabe craftsmen.

c) He advocated for gender rights and facilitated the removal of the feudal system.

d) He was the first African leader to appoint women to major cabinet positions and to recruit them actively for the military.

e) He outlawed forced marriages and encouraged women to work outside the home and stay in school even if pregnant.

f) He launched a nation-wide public health campaign vaccinating over 2½ million people in a week, a world record.

g) He was "Mr. Green" before it was ever "fashionable" in the West, as he oversaw the planting of over 10 million trees to retain soil and halt the growing desertification of the Sahel.

h) He started an ambitious road and rail building program to tie the nation together, eschewing any foreign aid by relying on his country’s greatest resource, the energy and commitment of its own people.

I am posting a series of videos that show how much Thomas Sankara was ahead of his time, but his ideas and beliefs remain the cornerstone of the fight to free Africa from the clutches of imperialism and neo-colonialism.

This is a must watch for those who really must know exactly what just happened in Ivory Coast, where another stooge of France and the West, was imposed upon the people of Ivory Coast.

Thomas Sankara was indeed a visionary and this will be a well spent 50 minutes watching this great son of Africa, in the mold of Nelson Mandela.