Thomas Isidore No5el Sankara (December 21st 1949 with Yako, Upper Volta - October 15th 1987 with Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso), soldier and politician panafricanist and Burkinabe third-mondiste , it incarnated and directed the Révolution Burkinabe of the August 4th 1983 until its assassination at the time of the coup d'etat of its successor Blaise Compaoré. He is regarded as the Che Guevara African. He made in particular change the name resulting from the imperialism of the the Upper Volta into a name resulting from the African tradition the Burkina Faso, the country of the just men and led a policy of stamping from the Burkinabe people until his assassination.

Biography

The political and “identity” heritage of Thomas Sankara - just like those of Patrice Lumumba, Amílcar Cabral or Kwame Nkrumah - is considerable in Africa and in particular in African youth.

Its government undertook major reforms to fight corruption and to improve education, the agriculture and the statute of the women. Its revolutionary program encountered a strong opposition of the traditional capacity which it marginalized as well as middle-class very few but relatively powerful. Added to the tensions between radicals and moderated, these factors caused its assassination at the time of the coup d'etat strapping of October 15th, 1987.

Resulting from a catholic family, Thomas Sankara was a “Peul - Mossi”. His/her father was a war veteran and prisoner of war of the Second world war. He made his secondary studies with the College Ouézin Coulibaly of Sore-Dioulasso, second city of the country. He followed a training of officer to Madagascar and became in 1976 commander of the center of Po commando. The same year, it becomes acquainted with Blaise Compaoré with which it will form the Regrouping of the communist officers (ROCK) whose other most known members are Henri Zongo and Jean-Baptiste Boukary Lingani.

In September 1981, he becomes Secretary of State to information in the government of the colonel Saye Zerbo. He will resign on April 21st, 1982, informant Misfortune with those which muzzle the people!

November 7th, 1982, a new coup d'etat carried to the capacity the army medical officer Jean-Baptiste Ouédraogo. Sankara became Prime Minister in January 1983, but was dismissed and shut down on May 17th, after a visit of Guy Penne, adviser of François Mitterrand. ^{, ,}

A new coup d'etat, on August 4th, 1983 places Thomas Sankara at the presidency. It defines its program as Anti-impérialiste, in particular in its “Speech of political orientation”, written by Valère Somé. Its government withdrew with the traditional chiefs the feudal capacities which they continued to exert. It created CDR (Defense committees of the revolution), which tended however to behave in revolutionary militia sometimes making reign a terror not very in conformity with the objectives of fight against corruption.

October 15th, 1987, Thomas Sankara was assassinated at the time of a coup d'etat organized by that which was regarded as his/her brother, Blaise Compaoré. Several days later, he was declared deceased of natural death by an army medical officer. The absence of any lawsuit or any investigation on behalf of the Burkinabe government was condemned in 2006 by the Comité of the human rights of the United Nations. This decision constitutes first world in the fight against impunity. Thomas Sankara was proclaimed besides model by African youth with the African Social forum of Bamako 2006 and with the Worldwide social forum of Nairobi in 2007.

Since the December 28th 2005, an avenue of Ouagadougou bears its name, within the more general framework of a process of rehabilitation issued in 2000 but since then blocked. Various initiatives aim at gathering the sankarists and their sympathizers, in particular by the means of a national committee of organization of the twentieth birthday of its death, to celebrate its memory, in particular by cultural events, as well in Burkina Faso as in various countries of establishment of Burkinabe immigration. In 2007, for the first time for 19 years, the widow of Thomas Sankara, Mariam Serme Sankara has been able to go to collect itself on its tomb supposed at the time of the 20 commemorations with Ouagadougou.

Additional details

Its speeches

• Extracts from the speech on the debt of the African countries by Thomas Sankara with the 25e Conférence of OAU (Addis-Abeba, on July 29th, 1987) (text: Wikisource, video:)

• the list of the speeches of Thomas will sankara.
• the list of the interviews of the captain Thomas Sankara.