Thomas Isidore Noël Sankara (21 December 1949 – 15 October 1987) was a Burkinabé military captain, Marxist revolutionary, pan-Africanist theorist, and President of Burkina Faso from 1983 to 1987. Viewed by supporters as a charismatic and iconic figure of revolution, he is commonly referred to as “Africa’s Che Guevara”

More than three decades after his assassination, Burkina Faso is celebrating Thomas Sankara with a new monument. Two years ago the revolutionary leader once again became the face of a popular movement, and the new statue unveiled over the weekend in Ouagadougou formalizes his place in a new political era.



The five-meter bronze statue, which stands on a four-meter base, depicts Sankara in his army fatigues, ready to take a step forward with his arm raised and his face to the horizon. It is exactly the kind of leadership Sankara has come to represent to a new generation of Burkinabé and across Africa.

Sankara is memorialized along with the busts of 12 of his comrades who were also killed in the 1987 coup. The monument was designed by Burkinabé sculptors who answered a public call to artists and architects to contribute to the project and was led by renowned artist Jean-Luc Bambara.  The statue will form part of mausoleum, museum, gallery and conference space, all of which are are the result of a national effort to revive the legacy of Thomas Sankara.

Below are a few of his legacies:



– He vaccinated 2.5 million children against meningitis, yellow fever and measles in a matter of weeks.

– He initiated a nation-wide literacy campaign, increasing the literacy rate from 13% in 1983 to 73% in 1987.

– He planted over 10 million trees to prevent desertification

– He built roads and a railway to tie the nation together, without foreign aid

– He appointed females to high governmental positions, encouraged them to work, recruited them into the military, and granted pregnancy leave during education.

– He outlawed female genital mutilation, forced marriages and polygamy in support of Women’s rights

– 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.

– He opposed foreign aid, saying that “he who feeds you, controls you.”

– He spoke in forums like the Organization of African Unity against continued neo-colonialist penetration of Africa through Western trade and finance. • 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

– In Ouagadougou, Sankara converted the army’s provisioning store into a state-owned supermarket open to everyone (the first supermarket in the country).

– He forced civil servants to pay one month’s salary to public projects.

– 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.

– 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.

– 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. (The reason being to rely upon local industry and identity rather than foreign industry and identity)

– 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.”

– An accomplished guitarist, he wrote the new national anthem himself.

– Changed the name of the country from Upper Volta to Burkina Faso, which means “the land of upright men”

– Killed in mysterious circumstances by a group of soldiers in October 1987

https://www.247nigerianewsupdate.co/2019/03/who-is-thomas-sankara-and-why-is-he.html?m=1

He was a true depiction of Africanism... I had to google about him after watching a documentary on AlJazeera

today how far?

Atb for lagosians

He was a great man then, Tanzania had Julius Nyerere. Who do we have from the beginning that we can boldly say he was upright? I am thinking Prof Ambrose Alli but that was state level

We had Buhari/Idiagbon whose govt mirrowed great African revolutionarists in the fight for the poor against their oppressors the rich. Remember Buhari/Idiagbon regime was the inspiration for Rawlings of Ghana. Sad the regime was short-lived.

princekalani:
Atb for lagosians

An upright man sighted.

The captain was killed by the globalist mafia that makes a living on crashing Africa with debt,.
He refused to be a Trojan horse.

cyrilamx:
We had Buhari/Idiagbon whose govt mirrowed great African revolutionarists in the fight for the poor against their oppressors the rich. Remember Buhari/Idiagbon regime was the inspiration for Rawlings of Ghana. Sad the regime was short-lived.

YOU'RE A ZOMBIE.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w0CeMHeoejw

cyrilamx:
Thomas Isidore Noël Sankara (21 December 1949 – 15 October 1987) was a Burkinabé military captain, Marxist revolutionary, pan-Africanist theorist, and President of Burkina Faso from 1983 to 1987. Viewed by supporters as a charismatic and iconic figure of revolution, he is commonly referred to as “Africa’s Che Guevara”

More than three decades after his assassination, Burkina Faso is celebrating Thomas Sankara with a new monument. Two years ago the revolutionary leader once again became the face of a popular movement, and the new statue unveiled over the weekend in Ouagadougou formalizes his place in a new political era.



The five-meter bronze statue, which stands on a four-meter base, depicts Sankara in his army fatigues, ready to take a step forward with his arm raised and his face to the horizon. It is exactly the kind of leadership Sankara has come to represent to a new generation of Burkinabé and across Africa.

Sankara is memorialized along with the busts of 12 of his comrades who were also killed in the 1987 coup. The monument was designed by Burkinabé sculptors who answered a public call to artists and architects to contribute to the project and was led by renowned artist Jean-Luc Bambara.  The statue will form part of mausoleum, museum, gallery and conference space, all of which are are the result of a national effort to revive the legacy of Thomas Sankara.

Below are a few of his legacies:



– He vaccinated 2.5 million children against meningitis, yellow fever and measles in a matter of weeks.

– He initiated a nation-wide literacy campaign, increasing the literacy rate from 13% in 1983 to 73% in 1987.

– He planted over 10 million trees to prevent desertification

– He built roads and a railway to tie the nation together, without foreign aid

– He appointed females to high governmental positions, encouraged them to work, recruited them into the military, and granted pregnancy leave during education.

– He outlawed female genital mutilation, forced marriages and polygamy in support of Women’s rights

– 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.

– He opposed foreign aid, saying that “he who feeds you, controls you.”

– He spoke in forums like the Organization of African Unity against continued neo-colonialist penetration of Africa through Western trade and finance. • 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

– In Ouagadougou, Sankara converted the army’s provisioning store into a state-owned supermarket open to everyone (the first supermarket in the country).

– He forced civil servants to pay one month’s salary to public projects.

– 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.

– 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.

– 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. (The reason being to rely upon local industry and identity rather than foreign industry and identity)

– 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.”

– An accomplished guitarist, he wrote the new national anthem himself.

– Changed the name of the country from Upper Volta to Burkina Faso, which means “the land of upright men”

– Killed in mysterious circumstances by a group of soldiers in October 1987

https://www.247nigerianewsupdate.co/2019/03/who-is-thomas-sankara-and-why-is-he.html?m=1

and the coup plotter is his best friend Blez Campaore,

Thomas Sankara was a very handsome man, he was always neatly dressed.

dnawah:
and the coup plotter is his best friend Blez Campaore,

The enemy within.


Sankara was killed because French African mafia feared the ripple effect of his self reliance policy.
The mafia hit two birds with one stone ( killing Sankara and preparing the ground to invade Liberia ).