Library Weekly

The ASCL's Library Weekly is our library’s weekly spotlight on African people and events. Inspired by the SciHiBlog, this service is based on information retrieved from Wikipedia and Wikidata and is completed with selected titles from the ASCL Library Catalogue. 

N.B. The weeklies are not updated and reflect the state of information at a given point in time.

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Thomas Sankara

Thomas Sankara (Copyrighted picture, source: Burkinabé government via English Wikipedia. The publication of the picture is considered to qualify as fair use as the picture is published on this website in law resolution for educational purposes.)On 21 December 1949, Burkinabé military officer, Marxist revolutionary, and pan-Africanist President of Burkina Faso Thomas Sankara was born in Yako, French colonial Upper Volta. Viewed by supporters as a charismatic and iconic figure of revolution, he is often referred to as 'Africa's Che Guevara'.

After being appointed Prime Minister in 1983, disputes with the sitting government led to Sankara's eventual imprisonment. While he was under house arrest, a group of revolutionaries seized power on his behalf in a popularly-supported coup later that year. Aged 33, Sankara became the President of the Republic of Upper Volta. He immediately launched programmes for social, ecological and economic change and renamed the country from the French colonial name Upper Volta to Burkina Faso ('Land of Incorruptible People'), with its people being called Burkinabé ('upright people'). His foreign policies were centred on anti-imperialism, while he rejected aid from organisations such as the International Monetary Fund. Sankara welcomed foreign aid from other sources but tried to reduce reliance on aid by boosting domestic revenues and diversifying the sources of assistance. His domestic policies were focused on preventing famine with agrarian self-sufficiency and land reform, prioritising education with a nationwide literacy campaign and promoting public health by vaccinating more than 2 million children against meningitis, yellow fever and measles.

As an admirer of the Cuban Revolution, Sankara set up Cuban-style Committees for the Defense of the Revolution. As such, he encouraged the prosecution of officials accused of corruption, counter-revolutionaries and 'lazy workers' in Popular Revolutionary Tribunals. Such programmes led to criticism by Amnesty International and other non-governmental organisations for violations of human rights, who alleged that there were extrajudicial executions and arbitrary detentions of political opponents. Opposition parties and unions were also banned and media freedoms curtailed. Although his revolutionary programmes for African self-reliance made him an icon to many of Africa's poor, and Sankara remained popular with most of his country's citizens, his policies alienated and antagonised several groups, which included the small but powerful Burkinabé middle class, the traditional leaders who were stripped of their long-held traditional privileges of forced labour and tribute payments, and the governments of France and its ally the Ivory Coast. On 15 October 1987, Sankara was assassinated by troops led by Blaise Compaoré, who assumed leadership of the state shortly thereafter.

(Source: Wikipedia)

Selected publications

by Thomas Sankara

Thomas Sankara / Thomas Sankara; Bruno Jaffré. - Genève : CETIM, 2014

Thomas Sankara speaks : the Burkina Faso revolution 1983-1987 / Thomas Sankara; Michel Prairie. - New York, NY [etc.] : Pathfinder, 2007

We are heirs of the world's revolutions : speeches from the Burkina Faso revolution 1983-87 / Thomas Sankara. - New York [etc.] : Pathfinder, 2007

Women's liberation and the African freedom struggle / Thomas Sankara. - Toronto : Pathfinder Press, 2005

"Oser inventer l'avenir" : la parole de Sankara (1983-1987) / Thomas Sankara. - Paris [etc.] : L'Harmattan [etc.], cop. 1991

about Thomas Sankara

Thomas Sankara : le messie de l'Afrique ou le repère d'une génération : essai biographique / Adama Amadé Siguiré. - Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso : Les éditions La République. 2020

A certain amount of madness : the life, politics and legacies of Thomas Sankara / Amber Murrey. - London : Pluto Press, [2018]

Sankara, leader africain / Djilali Benamrane. - Paris : L'Harmattan, cop. 2016

Thomas Sankara : an African revolutionary / Ernest Harsch. - Athens, OH : Ohio University Press, 2014

Portrait de Thomas Sankara / Alain Foka. - [Paris] : Radio France Internationale, 2013

Thomas Sankara's wife: 'He knew he was at risk all the time' - BBC Africa, 22 October 2021

Timeline of Burkinabé military personnel via Wikidata and DBpedia

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