Thomas Sankara and His Role in The History of Burkina Faso

Introduction

Ideologies have run countries into and out of war there have been part of man since the first recorded documents and until this day and age, the new and the old ideologies still emerge through the political leaders who try and enforce them to the people in their countries. Before a full analysis on Burkina Faso’s ideologies under the Thomas Sankara one must try and understand the history of how they came to be on that position.

The country is a francophone, with French being the main administrative language used in schools and businesses. Burkina Faso is located in the west plains of Africa and it is a land locked country. The country shares its borders with six other countries Benin being on the south east, with Ivory Coast to the south west, Ghana and Togo to the south, Niger to the east and Mali to the north. Before the country was called the Republic of Upper Volta, although they got their independence in the fifth of August 1960 they did not change the name of the country until it was changed by the fifth president Thomas Sankara on the fourth of August 1984 this was to symbolize the rebirth of the country he named it Burkina Faso that meant the land of upright man. The concentration of this thesis is going to be the ideologies implemented by President Thomas Sankara and how he went about making changes for the new independent country of Burkina Faso and the approach he used to implement them, then the analysis goes further on the negative and positive effects his ideologies had on the economics of his country. Also, one must ask that was it in the form of violence or it was a smooth sail with the changes he implemented. Sankara was a pro people he was more of a leftist faction as his ideologies focused on social, gender, economic and ecological changes, the main ideas of Sankara are usually divided into three categories these being populism, socialism and democracy. He also wanted to remove the concept of reliance and make his country man self-reliant.

Thomas Sankara

He was born in 1949 on the twenty-first of December in a place called Yako in the Republic of Upper Volta. His full name was Thomas Isidore Noel Sankara and he was the third child out of ten children to Joseph and Marguerite Sankara. His father was one of the important military components so as a child Sankara enjoyed the privileges of being the son of a high ranking officer. At the age of 17 in 1966 he attended the military academy.

In 1972 he returned back to his home the Republic of Upper Volta to join the border wars between his nation and the Mali Nation where they were Victorious. From that war Thomas emerged as a hero as he had an outstanding performance. In 1976 he was made the commander of the military training center in a place called Po. This is where he met of the comrades that will be on his side to his rise these where people like Blaise Compaoré, Henri Zongo and Jean-Baptiste Boukary together with Sankara they became known as the “Communist Officers Group”.

Into the Presidency seat

Before Thomas Sankara was a president, they came one before him in 1983 his name was Jean-Baptiste Ouédraogo he also went into power through a coup d’état and he made Sankara a Prime minister and after some allegations of Sankara meeting up with the son of the French president he was demoted and put under house arrest. Not that long in the same year another coup d’état was implemented by one of the members of the Communist officers group Blaise Comaoré to remove Ouédraogo and he elected his former friend and comrade Thomas Sankara on the fourth of august 1983 as the new leader. At the age of 33 Thomas Sankara began his career as the new President of Upper Volta which still had its colonial name at the time.

The idea of self-sufficiency

He was a revolutionary he tended to fall towards the Marxist views or ideologies, a president for the people usually referred to as a pro people revolutionary and he also was a pan Africanist. He took inspiration from the likes of the Cuban President Fidel Castro and Che Guevara. In 1984 fourth of august he changed the name of the country into Burkina Faso as it was one of his revolutionary ideas, as he believes that the idea of revolution is the arch-nemesis of imperialist ideologies. This was also meant to be a sign of rebirth, breaking away from the western ways. Sankara believed that his country many suffered from a dependency syndrome and he wanted he wanted to eradicate that as in his states’ “Our country produces enough to feed us all. Alas, for lack of organization, we are forced to beg for food aid. It's this aid that instills in our spirits the attitude of beggars” this was a good way to show that African countries can sustain themselves without the aid from the outside organisations. Sankara's incredible notoriety is to some extent an impression of Africans’ frustration with degenerate leaders unequipped for meeting the fundamental needs of their countrymen, and who are the puppets of the Western capital and foundations like the Universal Money related Reserve (IMF)and big organisations like the world bank, the aim was to try and show that a state can be completely sovereign from the world economic and political issues.

To show this he had to implement the changes himself, yet the economic structure of his country flourished as he excelled in food security, within four years he had stored food that will sustain his country for years His other concern was to be established in the significant genuineness of his pledge to serving his people and dedication to the reason for the liberation of all African individuals. as it is expected that for every positive reaction a negative one must be present, the (IMF) did not approve of Sankara's way and they made him an outsider in his own continent and became the enemy of all African capitalist presidents and the economic mafia. This also took a drastic in his rise to power Sankara took away most of the land from the local chiefs and the nobleman that had influenced in the country in the name of equality which he divided it amongst the peasantry, by doing so he created what some call his demise as these men tried in every way to dethrone him from his presidency seat. This made Burkina Faso move slowly towards its great transformation as they were resistance rising against him.

Social and environmental impacts

Thomas Sankara was a very big environmentalist many may come to say he was far ahead of his time he was concerned with the matters that many leaders came to deal with it now. He was the first president in Burkina Faso to fight for the women rights as he condemned female genital multination. He created a non-discriminatory social structure, in October second, 1983 in one of his rally speeches he said “we cannot transform society while maintaining domination and discrimination against women who constitute over half of the population” - Thomas Sankara. The way Sankara used his ideologies in may resemble a little bit of Liberalism as he followed the concept of individualism acceptance, the freedom, liberation and constitutionalism which he was willing to sacrifice patriarchy and the liberty of one to stabilize the community.

This influenced a lot of women to be interested in educating themselves and have power to aim for work position that where usually reserved for males only. He got and still gets praises from a lot of feminist for being one of the first pioneers to recognize the opposite gender as more and as able to do even greater things. This impacted Burkina economical as women were not working at home but also in other sectors as the economy for the company tried to boom, they increased in their exports for cotton.

Populism

This was the most common ideology that the Burkabe relate too as most the time they tend to fall to the populism ideology. Most of the leaders who came into power came throw the coups led by the military. Sankara was more of a populist compared to other ideas he made the ideology recognizable to the global politics.

Democracy

Democracy is the ideology of “rule by the people” the idea inspires to be totally sovereign, when a person can participate in any governmental structures or societies through the people who vote for them, the involvement of the community is crucial. The involvement of community this Sankara was good at and he tried to give individuals the freedom of education along the way but again the way Sankara approached the ideology of democracy is very much debatable because he used some of the ideas that contradict with the idea of the democracy.

Yes, Sankara might have tried to end the mistreatment of women in Burkina Faso and fought for the poor to be looked after but there are some characteristics he showed that where vail to the ideology of Democracy like the banning of free media as he said they would interrupt his plans as they tended to be biased towards him.

Sankara did not stop with the banning of the media but went forward to ban the opposition parties and was left as the sole ruler of the nation. This only steered the more tension with the opposition this only solidify his assassination on the fifteenth of October in 1987 as one the army coup d’état to over throw him.

Conclusion

Thomas Sankara, the president of Burkina Faso from 1983 to 1987, was assassinated in the belief that it could change or influence fear to the loyal followers of Sankara, the example he set for the young Africans across the continent was imbedded in them so deep that up till this day he is still praised for the ideas and the vision he had for his countrymen and the African continent. So, the idea of thinking that they were going to eradicate his influence could not have been more wrong. A week before his assassination, Sankara said in a speech marking the 20th anniversary of the assassination of Argentinean‐born revolutionary Ernesto "Che" Guevara, he said “Ideas cannot be killed, ideas never die. " History is replete with martyrs whose ideas and actions have survived the passage time to inspire future generations. That is why 22 years after his death, Sankara continues to guide those who are struggling to end the domination of their continent and the enslavement of its people.