Black Hair Media Forum : BLACKOGRAPHY- Thomas Sankara http://Forum.BlackHairMedia.com/ Thu, 23 May 2013 04:39:24 +0000 Fri, 08 Feb 2013 20:52:35 +0000 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss Web Wiz Forums 10.15 360 Forum.BlackHairMedia.com/RSS_post_feed.asp?TID=354408 <![CDATA[Black Hair Media Forum]]> http://Forum.BlackHairMedia.com//forum_images/BHM_Logo_v5_Forum.jpg http://Forum.BlackHairMedia.com/ <![CDATA[BLACKOGRAPHY- Thomas Sankara : I want a big time movie with a...]]> http://Forum.BlackHairMedia.com/blackography-thomas-sankara_topic354408_post10129034.html#10129034 Author: pattigurlatl
Subject: 354408
Posted: Feb 08 2013 at 8:52pm

I want a big time movie with a star cast made about this man.]]> Fri, 08 Feb 2013 20:52:35 +0000 http://Forum.BlackHairMedia.com/blackography-thomas-sankara_topic354408_post10129034.html#10129034 <![CDATA[BLACKOGRAPHY- Thomas Sankara : I learned about him a long...]]> http://Forum.BlackHairMedia.com/blackography-thomas-sankara_topic354408_post10127835.html#10127835 Author: Rumbera
Subject: 354408
Posted: Feb 08 2013 at 10:42am

I learned about him a long time ago, Che was such a huge inspiration to him.]]> Fri, 08 Feb 2013 10:42:32 +0000 http://Forum.BlackHairMedia.com/blackography-thomas-sankara_topic354408_post10127835.html#10127835 <![CDATA[BLACKOGRAPHY- Thomas Sankara : pattigurlatl wrote: EPITOME...]]> http://Forum.BlackHairMedia.com/blackography-thomas-sankara_topic354408_post10127712.html#10127712 Author: EPITOME
Subject: 354408
Posted: Feb 08 2013 at 9:17am

Originally posted by pattigurlatl pattigurlatl wrote:

Originally posted by EPITOME EPITOME wrote:

Originally posted by pattigurlatl pattigurlatl wrote:

Thanks AK for changing the topic title. Epitome had a great idea huh?

Also, can you post more about Black British History. It is just as significant.

lol you sound surprisedLOL 
Oh I didn't mean it like that!

i know...im teasingEmbarrassed
]]> Fri, 08 Feb 2013 09:17:40 +0000 http://Forum.BlackHairMedia.com/blackography-thomas-sankara_topic354408_post10127712.html#10127712 <![CDATA[BLACKOGRAPHY- Thomas Sankara : EPITOME wrote: pattigurlatl...]]> http://Forum.BlackHairMedia.com/blackography-thomas-sankara_topic354408_post10127671.html#10127671 Author: pattigurlatl
Subject: 354408
Posted: Feb 08 2013 at 8:25am

Originally posted by EPITOME EPITOME wrote:

Originally posted by pattigurlatl pattigurlatl wrote:

Thanks AK for changing the topic title. Epitome had a great idea huh?

Also, can you post more about Black British History. It is just as significant.

lol you sound surprisedLOL 
Oh I didn't mean it like that!
]]> Fri, 08 Feb 2013 08:25:45 +0000 http://Forum.BlackHairMedia.com/blackography-thomas-sankara_topic354408_post10127671.html#10127671 <![CDATA[BLACKOGRAPHY- Thomas Sankara : yes ma&#039;am ]]> http://Forum.BlackHairMedia.com/blackography-thomas-sankara_topic354408_post10127666.html#10127666 Author: afrokock
Subject: 354408
Posted: Feb 08 2013 at 8:09am

yes ma'am ]]> Fri, 08 Feb 2013 08:09:22 +0000 http://Forum.BlackHairMedia.com/blackography-thomas-sankara_topic354408_post10127666.html#10127666 <![CDATA[BLACKOGRAPHY- Thomas Sankara : this is really deep to me &#034;he...]]> http://Forum.BlackHairMedia.com/blackography-thomas-sankara_topic354408_post10127660.html#10127660 Author: EPITOME
Subject: 354408
Posted: Feb 08 2013 at 7:56am

this is really deep to me "he who feeds you, controls you."]]> Fri, 08 Feb 2013 07:56:48 +0000 http://Forum.BlackHairMedia.com/blackography-thomas-sankara_topic354408_post10127660.html#10127660 <![CDATA[BLACKOGRAPHY- Thomas Sankara : pattigurlatl wrote:Thanks...]]> http://Forum.BlackHairMedia.com/blackography-thomas-sankara_topic354408_post10127657.html#10127657 Author: EPITOME
Subject: 354408
Posted: Feb 08 2013 at 7:54am

Originally posted by pattigurlatl pattigurlatl wrote:

Thanks AK for changing the topic title. Epitome had a great idea huh?

Also, can you post more about Black British History. It is just as significant.

lol you sound surprisedLOL 
]]> Fri, 08 Feb 2013 07:54:28 +0000 http://Forum.BlackHairMedia.com/blackography-thomas-sankara_topic354408_post10127657.html#10127657 <![CDATA[BLACKOGRAPHY- Thomas Sankara : BeatriceBean wrote:These threads...]]> http://Forum.BlackHairMedia.com/blackography-thomas-sankara_topic354408_post10127655.html#10127655 Author: afrokock
Subject: 354408
Posted: Feb 08 2013 at 7:52am

Originally posted by BeatriceBean BeatriceBean wrote:

These threads are amazing!! Thank you AK and Patti!
]]> Fri, 08 Feb 2013 07:52:40 +0000 http://Forum.BlackHairMedia.com/blackography-thomas-sankara_topic354408_post10127655.html#10127655 <![CDATA[BLACKOGRAPHY- Thomas Sankara : These threads are amazing!! Thank...]]> http://Forum.BlackHairMedia.com/blackography-thomas-sankara_topic354408_post10127622.html#10127622 Author: BeatriceBean
Subject: 354408
Posted: Feb 08 2013 at 6:36am

These threads are amazing!! Thank you AK and Patti!]]> Fri, 08 Feb 2013 06:36:38 +0000 http://Forum.BlackHairMedia.com/blackography-thomas-sankara_topic354408_post10127622.html#10127622 <![CDATA[BLACKOGRAPHY- Thomas Sankara : ]]> http://Forum.BlackHairMedia.com/blackography-thomas-sankara_topic354408_post10127610.html#10127610 Author: afrokock
Subject: 354408
Posted: Feb 08 2013 at 5:33am

]]> Fri, 08 Feb 2013 05:33:22 +0000 http://Forum.BlackHairMedia.com/blackography-thomas-sankara_topic354408_post10127610.html#10127610 <![CDATA[BLACKOGRAPHY- Thomas Sankara : pattigurlatl wrote:Thanks AK...]]> http://Forum.BlackHairMedia.com/blackography-thomas-sankara_topic354408_post10127563.html#10127563 Author: afrokock
Subject: 354408
Posted: Feb 08 2013 at 3:15am

Originally posted by pattigurlatl pattigurlatl wrote:

Thanks AK for changing the topic title. Epitome had a great idea huh?

Also, can you post more about Black British History. It is just as significant.

yeah it was a great idea

isnt it amazing with all this history to learn from, not a damn thing has changed and they are still employing teh same tactics?


i'llpost some black british history soon


Edited by afrokock - Feb 08 2013 at 3:16am]]> Fri, 08 Feb 2013 03:15:31 +0000 http://Forum.BlackHairMedia.com/blackography-thomas-sankara_topic354408_post10127563.html#10127563 <![CDATA[BLACKOGRAPHY- Thomas Sankara : Thanks AK for changing the topic...]]> http://Forum.BlackHairMedia.com/blackography-thomas-sankara_topic354408_post10127543.html#10127543 Author: pattigurlatl
Subject: 354408
Posted: Feb 08 2013 at 2:43am

Thanks AK for changing the topic title. Epitome had a great idea huh?

Also, can you post more about Black British History. It is just as significant.]]> Fri, 08 Feb 2013 02:43:14 +0000 http://Forum.BlackHairMedia.com/blackography-thomas-sankara_topic354408_post10127543.html#10127543 <![CDATA[BLACKOGRAPHY- Thomas Sankara : EPITOME wrote:yall have given...]]> http://Forum.BlackHairMedia.com/blackography-thomas-sankara_topic354408_post10127539.html#10127539 Author: afrokock
Subject: 354408
Posted: Feb 08 2013 at 2:37am

Originally posted by EPITOME EPITOME wrote:

yall have given me so many things to watch this weekend. i didn't know the meaning of Burkina Faso..i like it
]]> Fri, 08 Feb 2013 02:37:54 +0000 http://Forum.BlackHairMedia.com/blackography-thomas-sankara_topic354408_post10127539.html#10127539 <![CDATA[BLACKOGRAPHY- Thomas Sankara : EPITOME wrote:yall have given...]]> http://Forum.BlackHairMedia.com/blackography-thomas-sankara_topic354408_post10127323.html#10127323 Author: pattigurlatl
Subject: 354408
Posted: Feb 07 2013 at 11:13pm

Originally posted by EPITOME EPITOME wrote:

yall have given me so many things to watch this weekend. i didn't know the meaning of Burkina Faso..i like it
I knew you'd appreciate these posts.

Feel free to add your own.
]]> Thu, 07 Feb 2013 23:13:42 +0000 http://Forum.BlackHairMedia.com/blackography-thomas-sankara_topic354408_post10127323.html#10127323 <![CDATA[BLACKOGRAPHY- Thomas Sankara : yall have given me so many things...]]> http://Forum.BlackHairMedia.com/blackography-thomas-sankara_topic354408_post10127319.html#10127319 Author: EPITOME
Subject: 354408
Posted: Feb 07 2013 at 11:12pm

yall have given me so many things to watch this weekend. i didn't know the meaning of Burkina Faso..i like it]]> Thu, 07 Feb 2013 23:12:21 +0000 http://Forum.BlackHairMedia.com/blackography-thomas-sankara_topic354408_post10127319.html#10127319 <![CDATA[BLACKOGRAPHY- Thomas Sankara : Fab AK post bump ]]> http://Forum.BlackHairMedia.com/blackography-thomas-sankara_topic354408_post10127253.html#10127253 Author: pattigurlatl
Subject: 354408
Posted: Feb 07 2013 at 10:39pm

Fab AK post bump]]> Thu, 07 Feb 2013 22:39:11 +0000 http://Forum.BlackHairMedia.com/blackography-thomas-sankara_topic354408_post10127253.html#10127253 <![CDATA[BLACKOGRAPHY- Thomas Sankara : Rumbera wrote:Good post ! ]]> http://Forum.BlackHairMedia.com/blackography-thomas-sankara_topic354408_post10126629.html#10126629 Author: afrokock
Subject: 354408
Posted: Feb 07 2013 at 5:47pm

Originally posted by Rumbera Rumbera wrote:



Good post !
]]> Thu, 07 Feb 2013 17:47:54 +0000 http://Forum.BlackHairMedia.com/blackography-thomas-sankara_topic354408_post10126629.html#10126629 <![CDATA[BLACKOGRAPHY- Thomas Sankara : pattigurlatl wrote:This is...]]> http://Forum.BlackHairMedia.com/blackography-thomas-sankara_topic354408_post10126542.html#10126542 Author: afrokock
Subject: 354408
Posted: Feb 07 2013 at 4:59pm

Originally posted by pattigurlatl pattigurlatl wrote:

This is awesome AK. Thanks!





no problem



i love this man ]]> Thu, 07 Feb 2013 16:59:47 +0000 http://Forum.BlackHairMedia.com/blackography-thomas-sankara_topic354408_post10126542.html#10126542 <![CDATA[BLACKOGRAPHY- Thomas Sankara : Good post ! ]]> http://Forum.BlackHairMedia.com/blackography-thomas-sankara_topic354408_post10126538.html#10126538 Author: Rumbera
Subject: 354408
Posted: Feb 07 2013 at 4:58pm

Good post !]]> Thu, 07 Feb 2013 16:58:35 +0000 http://Forum.BlackHairMedia.com/blackography-thomas-sankara_topic354408_post10126538.html#10126538 <![CDATA[BLACKOGRAPHY- Thomas Sankara : and here is a documentary ]]> http://Forum.BlackHairMedia.com/blackography-thomas-sankara_topic354408_post10126534.html#10126534 Author: afrokock
Subject: 354408
Posted: Feb 07 2013 at 4:57pm

and here is a documentary

]]> Thu, 07 Feb 2013 16:57:24 +0000 http://Forum.BlackHairMedia.com/blackography-thomas-sankara_topic354408_post10126534.html#10126534 <![CDATA[BLACKOGRAPHY- Thomas Sankara : Assassination&#034;Sankara’s...]]> http://Forum.BlackHairMedia.com/blackography-thomas-sankara_topic354408_post10126528.html#10126528 Author: afrokock
Subject: 354408
Posted: Feb 07 2013 at 4:55pm



Assassination

"Sankara’s assassins were guided by imperialism, which could not allow a man with the ideas and actions of Sankara to lead a country on a continent so exploited for hundreds of years by international imperialism, colonialism, and neocolonial governments that do their bidding. Sankara’s political ideas will endure, like those of Patrice Lumumba of Congo and Amílcar Cabral of Guinea-Bissau, also assassinated by traitors at the behest of the empire."

— Ulises Estrada, a key organizer of Che Guevara's 1966-67 guerrilla mission to Bolivia [19]

On October 15, 1987 Sankara was killed by an armed gang with twelve other officials in a coup d'état organised by his former colleague, Blaise Compaoré. Deterioration in relations with neighbouring countries was one of the reasons given, with Compaore stating that Sankara jeopardised foreign relations with former colonial power France and neighbouring Ivory Coast.[1] Prince Johnson, a former Liberian warlord allied to Charles Taylor, told Liberia's Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) that it was engineered by Charles Taylor.[20] After the coup and although Sankara was known to be dead, some CDRs mounted an armed resistance to the army for several days.
Sankara's body was dismembered and he was quickly buried in an unmarked grave,[6] while his widow and two children fled the nation.[21] Compaoré immediately reversed the nationalizations, overturned nearly all of Sankara's policies, rejoined the International Monetary Fund and World Bank to bring in desperately needed funds to restore the “shattered” economy,[22] and ultimately spurned most of Sankara's legacy.
A week prior to his death Sankara gave what would become his own epitaph, remarking that "while revolutionaries as individuals can be murdered, you cannot kill ideas."[1]

Legacy

"Africa and the world are yet to recover from Sankara’s assassination. Just as we have yet to recover from the loss of Patrice Lumumba, Kwame Nkrumah, Eduardo Mondlane, Amílcar Cabral, Steve Biko, Samora Machel, and most recently John Garang, to name only a few. While malevolent forces have not used the same methods to eliminate each of these great pan-Africanists, they have been guided by the same motive: to keep Africa in chains."

— Antonio de Figueiredo, February 2008 [11]

Twenty years later, on October 15, 2007, Thomas Sankara was commemorated around the world in ceremonies that took place in Burkina Faso, Mali, Senegal, Niger, Tanzania, Burundi, France, Canada, and the USA.[7]

Edited by afrokock - Feb 07 2013 at 4:56pm]]> Thu, 07 Feb 2013 16:55:04 +0000 http://Forum.BlackHairMedia.com/blackography-thomas-sankara_topic354408_post10126528.html#10126528 <![CDATA[BLACKOGRAPHY- Thomas Sankara : Second Agacher strip warIn 1985,...]]> http://Forum.BlackHairMedia.com/blackography-thomas-sankara_topic354408_post10126516.html#10126516 Author: afrokock
Subject: 354408
Posted: Feb 07 2013 at 4:50pm



Second Agacher strip war
In 1985, Burkina Faso organised a general population census. During the census, some Fula camps in Mali were visited by mistake by Burkinabé census agents.[17] The Malian government claimed that the act was a violation of its sovereignty on the Agacher strip. Following efforts by Mali asking African leaders to pressure Sankara,[17] tensions erupted on Christmas Day 1985 in a war that lasted five days and killed about 100 people (most victims were civilians killed by a bomb dropped on the marketplace in Ouahigouya by a Malian MiG plane). The conflict is known as the "Christmas war" in Burkina Faso.

Personal image and popularity

The coat of arms of Burkina Faso under Sankara from 1984-87, featuring a crossed mattock and AK-47 (an allusion to the Hammer and Sickle) with the motto "La Patrie ou la Mort, nous vaincrons" (English: "Fatherland or death, we will win").
Accompanying his personal charisma, Sankara had an array of original initiatives that contributed to his popularity and brought some international media attention to the Burkinabé revolution:

Solidarity
He sold off the government fleet of Mercedes cars and made the Renault 5 (the cheapest car sold in Burkina Faso at that time) the official service car of the ministers.
He reduced the salaries of all public servants, including his own, and forbade the use of government chauffeurs and 1st class airline tickets.
He redistributed land from the feudal landlords and gave it directly to the peasants. Wheat production rose in three years from 1700 kg per hectare to 3800 kg per hectare, making the country food self-sufficient.[6]
He opposed foreign aid, saying that "he who feeds you, controls you."[6]
He spoke in forums like the Organization of African Unity against continued neo-colonialist penetration of Africa through Western trade and finance.[6]
He called for a united front of African nations to repudiate their foreign debt. He argued that the poor and exploited did not have an obligation to repay money to the rich and exploiting.[6]
"Thomas knew how to show his people that they could become dignified and proud through will power, courage, honesty and work. What remains above all of my husband is his integrity."
— Mariam Sankara, Thomas' widow [1]
In Ouagadougou, Sankara converted the army's provisioning store into a state-owned supermarket open to everyone (the first supermarket in the country).[1]
He forced civil servants to pay one month's salary to public projects.[1]
He refused to use the air conditioning in his office on the grounds that such luxury was not available to anyone but a handful of Burkinabes.[7]
As President, he lowered his salary to $450 a month and limited his possessions to a car, four bikes, three guitars, a fridge and a broken freezer.[7]

Style
A motorcyclist himself, he formed an all-women motorcycle personal guard.
He required public servants to wear a traditional tunic, woven from Burkinabe cotton and sewn by Burkinabe craftsmen.[6]
He was known for jogging unaccompanied through Ouagadougou in his track suit and posing in his tailored military fatigues, with his mother-of-pearl pistol.[1]
When asked why he didn't want his portrait hung in public places, as was the norm for other African leaders, Sankara replied "There are seven million Thomas Sankaras."[7]
An accomplished guitarist, he wrote the new national anthem himself.[1]
[edit]"Africa's Che Guevara"
“     Che Guevara taught us we could dare to have confidence in ourselves, confidence in our abilities. He instilled in us the conviction that struggle is our only recourse. He, was a citizen of the free world that together we are in the process of building. That is why we say that Che Guevara is also African and Burkinabè.     ”
      
— Thomas Sankara [15]


Children "pioneers" of the Revolution, donning starred berets like Guevara


Sankara, who is often referred to as "Africa's Che Guevara",[1] emulated Guevara (1928–1967) in both style and substance. Stylistically, Sankara emulated Guevara by preferring to wear a starred beret and military fatigues, living ascetically with few possessions, and keeping a minimal salary once assuming power. Both men also considered themselves allies of Fidel Castro (Sankara was visited by Castro in 1987), are well known for having ridden motorcycles, and are often cited as effectively utilizing their charisma to motivate their followers. Substantively, Guevara and Sankara were both Marxist revolutionaries, who believed in armed revolution against imperialism and monopoly capitalism, denounced financial neo-colonialism before the United Nations, held up agrarian land reform and literacy campaigns as key parts of their agenda, and utilized revolutionary tribunals and CDR's against counter-revolutionaries. Both men were also murdered in their late thirties (Guevara 39 / Sankara 38) by opponents, with Sankara coincidentally giving a speech marking and honoring the 20th anniversary of Che Guevara's October 9, 1967 execution, one week before his own assassination on October 15,

Edited by afrokock - Feb 07 2013 at 4:51pm]]> Thu, 07 Feb 2013 16:50:46 +0000 http://Forum.BlackHairMedia.com/blackography-thomas-sankara_topic354408_post10126516.html#10126516 <![CDATA[BLACKOGRAPHY- Thomas Sankara : This is awesome AK. Thanks! ...]]> http://Forum.BlackHairMedia.com/blackography-thomas-sankara_topic354408_post10126506.html#10126506 Author: pattigurlatl
Subject: 354408
Posted: Feb 07 2013 at 4:48pm

This is awesome AK. Thanks!]]> Thu, 07 Feb 2013 16:48:27 +0000 http://Forum.BlackHairMedia.com/blackography-thomas-sankara_topic354408_post10126506.html#10126506 <![CDATA[BLACKOGRAPHY- Thomas Sankara : Military careerAfter basic military...]]> http://Forum.BlackHairMedia.com/blackography-thomas-sankara_topic354408_post10126495.html#10126495 Author: afrokock
Subject: 354408
Posted: Feb 07 2013 at 4:43pm



Military career

After basic military training in secondary school in 1966, Sankara began his military career at the age of 19, and a year later was sent to Madagascar for officer training at Antsirabe where he witnessed popular uprisings in 1971 and 1972 against the government of Philibert Tsiranana and first read the works of Karl Marx and Vladimir Lenin, profoundly influencing his political views for the rest of his life.[10] Returning to Upper Volta in 1972, by 1974 he fought in a border war between Upper Volta and Mali. He earned fame for his heroic performance in the border war with Mali, but years later would renounce the war as "useless and unjust", a reflection of his growing political consciousness.[11] He also became a popular figure in the capital of Ouagadougou. The fact that he was a decent guitarist (he played in a band named "Tout-à-Coup Jazz") and rode a motorcycle may have contributed to his charismatic public images.
In 1976 he became commander of the Commando Training Centre in Pô. In the same year he met Blaise Compaoré in Morocco. During the presidency of Colonel Saye Zerbo a group of young officers formed a secret organisation "Communist Officers' Group" (Regroupement des officiers communistes, or ROC) the best-known members being Henri Zongo, Jean-Baptiste Boukary Lingani, Compaoré and Sankara.

President

“     Our revolution in Burkina Faso draws on the totality of man's experiences since the first breath of humanity. We wish to be the heirs of all the revolutions of the world, of all the liberation struggles of the peoples of the Third World. We draw the lessons of the American revolution. The French revolution taught us the rights of man. The great October revolution brought victory to the proletariat and made possible the realization of the Paris Commune's dreams of justice.     ”
      
— Thomas Sankara, October 1984 [12]
A coup d'état organised by Blaise Compaoré made Sankara President on August 4, 1983,[13] at the age of 33. The coup d'état was supported by Libya which was, at the time, on the verge of war with France in Chad[14] (see History of Chad).
Sankara saw himself as a revolutionary and was inspired by the examples of Cuba's Fidel Castro and Che Guevara and Ghana's military leader Jerry Rawlings. As President, he promoted the "Democratic and Popular Revolution" (Révolution démocratique et populaire, or RDP). The ideology of the Revolution was defined by Sankara as anti-imperialist in a speech of October 2, 1983, the Discours d'orientation politique (DOP), written by his close associate Valère Somé. His policy was oriented toward fighting corruption, promoting reforestation, averting famine, and making education and health real priorities.

Abolition of chiefs' privileges
The government suppressed many of the powers held by tribal chiefs such as their right to receive tribute payment and obligatory labour. The CDRs (Comités de Défense de la Révolution) were formed as popular mass organizations and armed. Sankara's government also initiated a form of military conscription with the SERNAPO (Service National et Populaire). Both were a counterweight to the power of the army.
In 1984, on the first anniversary of his accession, he renamed the country Burkina Faso, meaning "the land of upright people" in Moré and Djula, the two major languages of the country. He also gave it a new flag and wrote a new national anthem (Une Seule Nuit).

Women's rights and AIDS
“     The revolution and women’s liberation go together. We do not talk of women’s emancipation as an act of charity or because of a surge of human compassion. It is a basic necessity for the triumph of the revolution. Women hold up the other half of the sky.     ”
      
— Thomas Sankara [15]
Improving women's status was one of Sankara's explicit goals, and his government included a large number of women, an unprecedented policy priority in West Africa. His government banned female genital mutilation, forced marriages and polygamy; while appointing females to high governmental positions and encouraging them to work outside the home and stay in school even if pregnant.[6] Sankara also promoted contraception and encouraged husbands to go to market and prepare meals to experience for themselves the conditions faced by women. Furthermore, Sankara was the first African leader to appoint women to major cabinet positions and to recruit them actively for the military.[6]
Sankara's administration was also the first African government to publicly recognize the AIDS epidemic as a major threat to Africa.[16]


Edited by afrokock - Feb 07 2013 at 4:43pm]]> Thu, 07 Feb 2013 16:43:18 +0000 http://Forum.BlackHairMedia.com/blackography-thomas-sankara_topic354408_post10126495.html#10126495 <![CDATA[BLACKOGRAPHY- Thomas Sankara : Thomas Isidore Noël Sankara (December...]]> http://Forum.BlackHairMedia.com/blackography-thomas-sankara_topic354408_post10126486.html#10126486 Author: afrokock
Subject: 354408
Posted: Feb 07 2013 at 4:40pm



Thomas Isidore Noël Sankara (December 21, 1949 – October 15, 1987)
was a Burkinabé military captain, Marxist revolutionary, Pan-Africanist theorist, and President of Burkina Faso from 1983 to 1987.[1][2] Viewed as a charismatic and iconic figure of revolution, he is commonly referred to as "Africa's Che Guevara".[1][3][4][5]
Sankara seized power in a 1983 popularly supported coup at the age of 33, with the goal of eliminating corruption and the dominance of the former French colonial power.[1][6] He immediately launched the most ambitious program for social and economic change ever attempted on the African continent.[6] To symbolize this new autonomy and rebirth, he even renamed the country from the French colonial Upper Volta to Burkina Faso ("Land of Upright Men").[6] His foreign policies were centered around anti-imperialism, with his government eschewing all foreign aid, pushing for odious debt reduction, nationalizing all land and mineral wealth, and averting the power and influence of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank.

His domestic policies were focused on preventing famine with agrarian self-sufficiency and land reform, prioritizing education with a nation-wide literacy campaign, and promoting public health by vaccinating 2.5 million children against meningitis, yellow fever and measles.[7] Other components of his national agenda included planting over ten million trees to halt the growing desertification of the Sahel, doubling wheat production by redistributing land from feudal landlords to peasants, suspending rural poll taxes and domestic rents, and establishing an ambitious road and rail construction program to "tie the nation together".[6] On the localized level Sankara also called on every village to build a medical dispensary and had over 350 communities construct schools with their own labour. Moreover, his commitment to women's rights led him to outlaw female genital mutilation, forced marriages and polygamy, while appointing females to high governmental positions and encouraging them to work outside the home and stay in school even if pregnant.[6]

In order to achieve this radical transformation of society, he increasingly exerted authoritarian control over the nation, eventually banning unions and a free press, which he believed could stand in the way of his plans.[6] To counter his opposition in towns and workplaces around the country, he also tried corrupt officials, counter-revolutionaries and "lazy workers" in peoples revolutionary tribunals.[6] Additionally, as an admirer of Fidel Castro's Cuban Revolution, Sankara set up Cuban-style Committees for the Defense of the Revolution (CDRs).[1]
His revolutionary programs for African self-reliance as a defiant alternative to the neo-liberal development strategies imposed by the West, made him an icon to many of Africa's poor.[6] Sankara remained popular with most of his country's impoverished citizens. However his policies alienated and antagonised the vested interests of an array of groups, which included the small but powerful Burkinabé middle class, the tribal leaders whom he stripped of the long-held traditional right to forced labour and tribute payments, and the foreign financial interests in France and their ally the Ivory Coast.[1][8] As a result, he was overthrown and assassinated in a coup d'état led by the French-backed Blaise Compaoré on October 15, 1987. A week before his murder, he declared: "While revolutionaries as individuals can be murdered, you cannot kill ideas."[1]

Early Life

Thomas Sankara was the son of Marguerite Sankara (died March 6, 2000) and Sambo Joseph Sankara (1919 – August 4, 2006), a gendarme.[9] Born into a Roman Catholic family, "Thom'Sank" was a Silmi-Mossi, an ethnic group that originated with marriage between Mossi men and women of the pastoralist Fulani people. The Silmi-Mossi are among the least advantaged in the Mossi caste system. He attended primary school in Gaoua and high school in Bobo-Dioulasso, the country's second city.
His father fought in the French army during World War II and was detained by the Nazis. Sankara's family wanted him to become a Catholic priest. Fittingly for a country with a large Muslim population, he was also familiar with the Qur'an.

Edited by afrokock - Feb 08 2013 at 2:40am]]> Thu, 07 Feb 2013 16:40:21 +0000 http://Forum.BlackHairMedia.com/blackography-thomas-sankara_topic354408_post10126486.html#10126486