Happy Birthday To The Gawd: Thomas Sankara, the late revolutionary leader of Burkina Faso

[loyola llothta]

 

[Cadillac]

HBD to this great man

 

[loyola llothta]

 

[Black Barbie]

Happy Birthday

 

[loyola llothta]

 

[SubZero]

Salute to the god. HBD!

Rest in power, Africa's Che Guevara.

 

[SubZero]

Happy Birthday

What do you think about his death?

I just thought he never really protected himself, despite how it was obvious that the French were trying to kill him. He got carried away with how his people loved him and never watched his back. The way Blaise Compaoré killed him was just so painful and easy.

Thomas Sankara and Patrice Lumumba - two giants that were never allowed to execute their plans.

 

[loyola llothta]

The Upright Man, Thomas Sankara

Burkina Faso is finally beginning to do right by the memory of Thomas Sankara: Yesterday, a foundation in Sankara’s name, unveiled plans for a public memorial. This happens nearly 29 years ago this month after he was murdered and two years since Blaise Compaoré–considered one of the key people responsible for Sankara’s murder– fled the country.

Throughout this time, Sankara remained an inspiration to young Africans and people committed to a radical pan-Africanist future. His supporters and admirers argue that his short four-year reign as President of Burkina Faso from 1983 to 1987 – for all its faults – pointed briefly to the potential of different political futures for Africans, beyond dependency, neocolonialism and false dawns of “Africa Rising.”

Plans for the memorial and a museum were announced at a symposium in Ouagadougou held in Sankara’s honor and attended by nearly 3,000 people. As the BBC reports: “The proposed memorial is estimated to cost around $8m (£6.2m) and will be funded by small contributions from supporters of the former Burkinabe president.”

On October 15, 1987, armed men burst into the office of Sankara, murdered him and twelve of his aides in a violent coup d’état. In events that eerily paralleled those in the Congo 27 years earlier (when a conspiracy of European intelligence agencies and their Congolese surrogates murdered Patrice Lumumba), the attackers cut up Sankara’s body and buried his remains in a hastily prepared grave. The next day Compaoré, who was Sankara’s deputy, declared himself president. Compaoré then went on to rule the country until 2014, when he was forced to flee the country amidst a popular uprising. Between 1987 and 2014, Compaoré both attempted to co-opt and distort Sankara’s memory and making promises to bring his murderers to justice. Nothing ever came of that.

Burkina Faso (known as Upper Volta until 1984) didn’t attract much attention outside West Africa until Sankara overthrew the country’s corrupt and nondescript military leadership in 1983. (It bears repeating that Burkina Faso had been ruled by military dictatorships for at least 44 years of its independence from France. The military before Sankara basically acted as surrogates for French interests in the region. One year after Compaore fled, there was a brief one week coup, but the country has been ruled by democrats and figuring out a new constitution since then.)

Like Lumumba – an earlier principled political leader who was a violent casualty of the Cold War – Sankara proved to be a creative and unconventional politician. He wanted to a chart a “third way,” separate from the interests of the major powers (in his case, France, the Soviet Union and the United States). This, however, resulted in a complex legacy where those who praise his social and economic reforms — discussed below — have a hard time squaring it with his often-undemocratic politics.

Full Article :
The Upright Man, Thomas Sankara

 

[thekingsmen]

RIP.

 

[Black Cobain]

A very good documentary on him and his government



He was good friends with Fela Kuti too

 

[loyola llothta]

 

[loyola llothta]

 

[loyola llothta]

 

[All Knowledge]

HBD


R.I.P.


His story and demise get me all types of emotional. So inspirational. And so filled with evidence that devils truly run this world

 

[Primetime21]

During his trip to New York, Sankara spoke to a rally of more than 500 at the Harriet Tubman School in Harlem.
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"A moment ago as I watched the ballet, I really thought we were in Africa. Thats why I've always said - and i'll say it again - our White House is in Black Harlem.

There are many who think Harlem is a dump. There are many who think Harlem is a place to suffocate in. But there are also many of us who believe that Harlem will give the African soul its true dimension. There are many of us Africans - very many in fact - who have to understand that our existence must be devoted to the struggle to rehabilitate the name of the African. We must wage the fight to free ourselves from domination by other men and from oppression.

Some Blacks are afraid and prefer to swear allegiance to whites. They must be denounced. They must be fought. We must be proud to be Black. Remember, many of these politicians think of Blacks only on election eve. We must be Black with other Blacks, night and day."