He is the first president of The Ceguevara in Africa and the small African country of Burkina Faso, he strives to build an independent and democratic country, in order to change the status quo of the country, he took the initiative to lower the presidential standards, reduce his own salary, and is known as the cleanest president in the world. His implementation of measures such as the distribution of land to farmers, the advancement of women, national literacy, and free vaccination of children made Burkina Faso, the poorest country, once show a vibrant scene. However, in just 4 years, the president was overthrown by his closest comrade-in-arms and right hand, and he himself was assassinated: Thomas Sankara. Welcome to today's story.
Sankara was born in 1949 to a military family in Pasore province in northern Burkina Faso, where his country was still called Upper Volta, colonized by invaders France and one of the poorest in the world.
However, since Sankara's father was a former gendarme, he was drafted into the French army during World War II. Thus, Sankara's family conditions belonged to the middle class, and he was not bad in the poor Upper Volta, and Sankara received a good education, but at a young age he was very concerned about the suffering of the people, and he saw too many of his compatriots under the colonists being enslaved.
In 1966, at the age of 17, Sankara did not choose the priest his parents expected, but chose to join the army without hesitation, and went to several foreign military schools, and achieved excellent results in each course. It was during this period that he came into contact with Marxism and read a large number of works by Marx and Lenin, which had a very far-reaching influence on him. At the same time, he also became acquainted with a group of young people who shared a common ideal, their future comrades-in-arms and partners, Compaoré, and they secretly formed the Communist Officer Corps.
In 1974, after returning from school, Sankara was sent to serve in the border guard at the border between Upper Volta and Mali, and officially began his military career.
In the army, Sankara's leadership has been revealed, the troops under his leadership can always win the battle, and he himself has been greatly praised for his bravery and integrity in the blitzkrieg of the Soum Swamp, and has become a hero known throughout the country. He was appreciated by his superiors, which allowed him to quickly climb to the position of commander of the paratroopers, up to the rank of captain.
Soon after, Colonel Zebo took office through a military coup d'état, and in order to maintain his rule, he recruited a large number of officers to take up his post, and thanks to this, Sankara was also pushed from the army to politics. In 1981, he became state secretary of information for the junta.
During this period, he used the national television as a medium of propaganda, dedicated to understanding and reporting on real and reliable things that concern the people, which is rare in Africa. However, because he preached press freedom, he had a disagreement with Zebo. Sankara was forced to resign, and at the same time he was expelled from the military and exiled to a military camp in the desert of the Northwest Province.
As a result, Sankara is determined to overthrow Zebo, and he begins to secretly contact his former paratroopers.
On November 7, 1982, Sankara and Major's military doctor, Ouederaogo, joined forces to lead a group of young paratroopers, disguised as athletes, carrying guns and ammunition into the capital, targeting the Presidential Palace. To the surprise of many, Zebo was easily overthrown, and Sankara won.
After that, military doctor Vedraogo became President of Upper Walter, and Sankara took on the post of Prime Minister. At this time, he had a high prestige among the people of Upper Volta and was deeply loved by the people.
But the combination of a doctor president and a military prime minister is doomed to not last long. After 1983, Sankara advocated close and friendly relations with countries such as anti-imperialist and anti-colonial Libya, while Ouedraogo had little to say, even taking pride in hugging the thighs of former colonizer France.
This deepened the contradictions between the two sides, and in April 1983 the contradictions were completely detonated. At that time, Sankara alone invited Libyan President Gaddafi to visit Upper Volta, which naturally caused the dissatisfaction of Ouederaogo, as president.
He arrested Sankara and relieved him of his post as Prime Minister.
It turned out that Ouedraogo was reckless, he underestimated Sankara's prestige, and after Sankara's capture, the pro-Sankara army, led by Compaoré, was strongly opposed, and the two sides almost fought each other. At the same time, the general public also spoke out in defiance, and under this pressure, Vidraogo had to release Sankara.
At this time, Sankara has realized that the president has changed from one term to another, but it is always a change of soup and not a change of medicine, and the country and the people have suffered a lot, and there is no end in sight. He decided to overturn all this and change the status quo himself.
On August 4, 1983, Sankara and Compaoré led their troops in a military coup d'état in which they surrounded important locations such as the Presidential Palace, the Police Headquarters, and the General Directorate of Posts and Telecommunications, and quickly brought the situation under control. At the same time, many people are also very supportive of Sankara, and they have taken the initiative to help cut off the power supply line in the capital. In the end, Sankara became the new president of Upper Walter. This year, he was only 34 years old. Not only that, but the average age of the new government members formed is 15 civilian officers and 5 military personnel, all of whom are around 30 years old.
In order to change the status quo of the country, Sankara immediately embarked on ambitious reforms, nationalizing the land and redistributing it to the peasants. Cotton, the former staple crop, was then changed to growing food, enabling the people to achieve self-sufficiency.
In addition, the poll tax and land rent were abolished, and a series of measures had a remarkable effect, and the wheat production of Upper Walter increased from 1700 kg per hectare to 3800 kg, basically achieving food self-sufficiency.
In order to improve the people's living standards, he raised the purchase price of agricultural products and strictly controlled the prices of daily necessities and medicines. Not only that, but Sankara has provided free vaccines to millions of children, carried out literacy campaigns across the country, and advocated for women's liberation, saying that women can support half the sky.
In order to implement this measure, he took the initiative to recruit female public officials, and strictly banned female circumcision, abolished polygamy, encouraged women to receive education, work outside the home, and so on.
In 1984, he also made an important decision to abolish the existing name of the country, Upper Volta (a name acquired during the French colonial period), and renamed it Burkina Faso, meaning the country of the righteous and the gentleman. And the versatile Sankara also personally composed the national anthem and designed the national flag for his country.
At the same time, a larger project was put on the agenda – the construction of roads and railways. Just as the so-called road is to get rich first, if you want to break the gap between the rich and the poor in the country and achieve common prosperity, you must first have convenient transportation. But because Burkina Faso was already poor, there was little money to build infrastructure. In addition, Sankara's foreign policy is anti-imperialist and anti-colonial, so relations with France and other countries are not good, and France has also reduced a lot of aid to it.
The only thing Sankara could turn to for help was the Soviet Union, but by then the United States and the Soviet Union had stopped competing for spheres of influence in Africa, and the Soviet Union had taken care of itself, so it only gave Burkina Faso verbal support and did not provide substantive assistance.
Sankara had to make a fuss about open source and throttling. He led by example, selling his Mercedes for the cheapest car, and banning air conditioning in his office. He also traveled abroad only in economy class, and he lowered his own salaries as well as the salaries of public officials, and asked senior officials to donate a month's salary for public projects, among other things.
Sankara's series of measures, supported by the people, is also known as the Cegvara of Africa.
At the same time, however, his measures also touched the interests of some people in the country, especially in France. As a result, after the next war and a meeting, he left the scene regretfully, even paying the price of his life.
In 1985, Burkina Faso went to war with neighbouring Mali, a battle that lasted only a few days and ended in the defeat of Burkina Faso. The defeat in this war caused Sankara's prestige in the army to decline.
This was followed by a visit by the French fuehrer Mitterrand in 1986. He offered to visit Burkina Faso, but he was greeted domestically by the cries of the people to overthrow imperialism. What's worse, at the state dinner, Sankara lashed out at France in front of everyone, and everyone present was shocked. This is the first time in a diplomatic setting.
Although Mitterrand did not show dissatisfaction during the visit, it was clear that the seeds of hatred had been sown. During this period, the contradiction between Sankara and his old comrade-in-arms Compaoré became increasingly serious. Compaoré and others became increasingly dissatisfied with Sankara's radical measures. The two quarreled many times over this.
The French secretly provoked and instructed the personnel to propose to Sankara to solve Compaoré, but this proposal was rejected by Sankara. But this advice soon reached Compaoré's ears. Compaoré decided to strike first, and on October 15, 1987, he led his army to launch a military ZB and rushed directly to the conference room, where Sancarra, who was in the process of holding a meeting, was shot and killed indiscriminately. He was only 38 years old.
After that, Compaoré became the new president, he imposed dictatorship, and Burkina Faso returned to its former misery under his rule, becoming the poorest country in the world, and it still does. It was as if Burkina Faso during Sankara's reign was short-lived and dissipated.
Today's story ends here, what are your thoughts on Sankara, welcome to leave your opinion in the comments section.