Thomas Sankara

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Thomas Sankara (born December 21, 1949 in Yako , Upper Volta ; † October 15, 1987 in Ouagadougou , Burkina Faso ) was the fifth president of Upper Volta from August 4, 1983 until his assassination on October 15, 1987. As an officer and socialist revolutionary came to power through a coup , his policies followed pan-African and anti- patriarchal views and were based on the Ghanaian President Jerry Rawlings . Sankara refused to repay Third World debts to the West and initiated an ambitious health and women's policy . Another concern was the fight against corruption, which is why he renamed Upper Volta to Burkina Faso (“Land of Righteous People”) on the first anniversary of the revolution. In terms of foreign policy, he worked with Accra to establish the West African Union , which became obsolete after his assassination by his political companion Blaise Compaoré .

Live and act

Childhood and youth

Monument de la revolution in Ouagadougou

Thomas Sankara was born in Yako as the firstborn son of Marguerite Sankara and Sambo Joseph Sankara (1919 - August 4, 2006), a gendarme. His original name was Thomas Isidore Noël Ouédraogo, as his father, who converted from Islam to Catholicism, chose this name when he joined the French army during World War II, which was very common among the Mossi . Sankara belonged to the socially marginalized ethnic group of the Silmi-Mossi, who are derived from the Mossi and Fulbe . In Sankara's youth, his father decided to go back to his old surname. Sankara spent early childhood in Gaoua . At the primary school there, he came into contact with European children who were shaped by conflicts. Because of his good academic performance, Sankara encouraged some priests to attend a Catholic seminary . However, after he had passed the entrance exam for the college , he continued his secular education. This went hand in hand with leaving the parental household, as the degree at a Lycée in Gaoua was not offered. Sankara therefore moved to Bobo-Dioulasso , where he attended the Lycée Daniel Ouezzin Coulibaly . Here he met his later political companions Soumane Touré and Fidèle Toé .

Military training

In 1966, after a general strike and mass demonstrations sangoulé lamizana to power and set up a new military academy , which grants offered for College graduates. Since Sankara, who was about to graduate from college, had problems financing secondary education at the Lycée, and the military was very popular in Upper Volta at the time , he successfully applied for the National Military School . He belonged to the first year of this military academy. There he was introduced to the teachings of Marx and Lenin by cadres of the African Independence Party (PAI) . Soon he was trained as an officer in Madagascar and in 1972 witnessed the successful student protests against President Philibert Tsiranana .

During the (first) border war between Upper Volta and Mali in 1974, Sankara, who has meanwhile been ordered back home, stood out. This conflict sharpened his pan-Africanist views and strengthened his conviction that political change would be brought about in Upper Volta. As a captain ( Captain ) of the obervoltaischen Force Sankara became the parachute formed. In the Center national d'entraînement commando (CNEC) in Pô used, he became friends with Captain Blaise Compaoré and founded with him the secret organization Regroupement of officiers communistes (ROC) (dt .: merger of the communist officers) that the fight against Aimed at corruption . Not least as the guitarist of the band Tout-a-Coup Jazz and because of his preference for motorcycles, Sankara became a well-known personality in the capital Ouagadougou.

Political rise

When Saye Zerbo overthrew President Lamizana in November 1980, he later offered Sankara the position of minister of information, while Compaoré became head of CNEC. Because he subsequently distanced himself from the regime, he lost his post and rank and was imprisoned. On 10 January 1983, he became prime minister in the government of Jean-Baptiste Ouédraogo directed against Zerbo coup had. In this position, Sankara tried to fight corruption, took action against absenteeism and was involved in foreign policy. His supporters also called for power to be returned to civilians, which led to the arrest of Sankara for treason and strong public protests. Sankara's imprisonment took place in May 1983 after a meeting with Jean-Christophe Mitterrand , whereby France's involvement in the process is considered likely.

Presidency

With his companion Compaoré and officers Jean-Baptiste Ligani and Henri Zongo, he organized a coup d'état that was carried out on August 4, 1983. Compaoré created the National Revolutionary Council (CNR), of which Sankara became chairman after his liberation. He became the fifth president of Upper Volta. The coup was likely supported by Libya , which at the time was on the brink of war with France due to the Libyan-Chadian border war .

Burkina Faso's coat of arms 1984–1997

Sankara saw himself as a socialist revolutionary. The motto was: “Fatherland or death, we will win” (“La Patrie ou la Mort, nous vaincrons”). He was particularly inspired by the Cuba model and the head of state of Ghana , Jerry Rawlings . During his reign he implemented a highly regarded project for the planned economic and socialist development of the country. The previous government's luxury limousines were sold and ministers were obliged to take the Renault 5 , the cheapest car in Burkina Faso, as a company car. There were more women in his government team than ever before in any African country, and his bodyguard formed a unit on motorcycles made up only of women. Sankara also set up so-called Committees for Defense of the Revolution (CDR). The policy was geared towards the fight against hunger and corruption , the improvement of education and health care as well as reforestation through indigenous trees, shrubs and other crops in order to stop and even reverse desertification , i.e. the progression of the desert. Africa's Green Wall in the Sahel can be traced back in part to this initiative.

On August 4, 1984, the first anniversary of the August Revolution (Révolution d'Août), Upper Volta was renamed Burkina Faso (Land of the Incorruptible / Integral / Righteous), and the country adopted a new national flag and a new national anthem. Sankara's policy was to improve the status of women. Unprecedented in West Africa, he forbade female circumcision , condemned polygamy and promoted contraception . During his tenure, the first Islamic political groups and parties emerged in Burkina Faso. Immediately after Sankara took office, he set up a population- wide vaccination program in the hope of eradicating polio , meningitis and measles . Within two weeks, 2 million Burkinabe were vaccinated, which led to praise from the World Health Organization (WHO) . Sankara's government was also one of the first African governments to publicly recognize the AIDS epidemic as a major risk to Africa.

During his term of office, the war over the Agacher Strip fell and, from 1985 onwards, the attempt to "integrate" or completely merge Burkina Faso with Ghana .

Sankara did not succeed in controlling the conflict of interests between the country and the city. The ambitious development plans were financed by state marketing authorities, which only passed a small part of the agricultural income on to the peasantry. This has led to a systematic neglect of rural resources and increasing dissatisfaction. In a famous speech to the Organization for African Unity (OAU) in July 1987, he refused, among other things, to repay the national debt and appealed to his African counterparts for solidarity on this point. He also publicly criticized and snubbed representatives of Western countries such as the US ambassador and French President François Mitterrand .

He also spoke out vehemently against apartheid in South Africa and expressed his solidarity with the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and the Sandinista in Nicaragua . He put the accumulation of the West in direct connection with the pauperism in the Third World , which is why he refused to repay the debts to the affluent nations and advocated replacing development aid with joint investment funds of the developing countries. Sankara's policies met with increasing resistance at home and abroad. The President of the Ivory Coast, Félix Houphouët-Boigny , and his ally France feared Burkina Faso's links with Libya and Ghana and the spread of Sankara's politics in West Africa . Paris had stopped all development aid to Burkina Faso since 1983. Domestically, Sankara's measures against feudalism and patriarchalism had made the tribal leaders of the Mossi and Islamic communities into enemies. In addition, the deteriorating economic situation aggravated the situation, which was accompanied by inflation and a higher tax burden. Tensions arose between the mass party Parti Africain de l'Indépendance (PAI) and the National Revolutionary Council (CNR), headed by Sankara. When Sankara announced that he would review the court cases in which citizens had been convicted of "anti-revolutionary" actions and intended to form a party of the vanguard , distrust grew among members of the government.

assassination

On October 15, 1987, Sankara was murdered in a military coup led by his successor in office until 2014, Blaise Compaoré . Six of his political companions were killed with him. A natural cause is certified on Sankara's death certificate . On October 16, the radio programs in Burkina Faso reported the dissolution of the CNR and initiated a smear campaign against Sankara, who was reviled as a traitor and fascist, among other things. There have been repeated speculations about foreign participation in this coup, but none of these has yet been proven. France, which had actively promoted Sankara's overthrow as prime minister in 1983, was mostly high on the list of suspects. In addition, the most influential French Africa politician, Jacques Foccart , also known as Monsieur Afrique , was considered a declared enemy of Sankara. In addition to France's allies Togo and Mali, the Ivory Coast, under the leadership of Houphouët-Boigny, who had good connections with Compaoré, had the means to overthrow Ouagadougou. According to Ernest Harsch, a researcher at Columbia University's Institute of African Studies , the most compelling evidence speaks of domestic responsibility for the murders.

In March 2015, the government under President Michel Kafando decided to exhume Sankara's body almost 28 years after his death to confirm the whereabouts of Sankara's body.

Sankarianism

Some socialist parties and groups in Burkina Faso see themselves in the tradition of Thomas Sankara and expressly describe themselves as "Sankarist", for example the Union pour la Renaissance / Parti Sankariste , the Front des Forces Sociales , the Convention Panafricaine Sankariste and the Front Démocratique Sankariste .

Speeches and interviews

  • Thomas Sankara: L'émancipation des femmes et la lutte de libération de l'Afrique , Pathfinder 2001, ISBN 0-87348-938-1 .
  • Thomas Sankara Parle: La Revolution Au Burkina Faso 1983–1987 (collection of his speeches), Editora Politica, 2nd edition, 2007, ISBN 0-87348-987-X - also at Pathfinder
  • Thomas Sankara Speaks: The Burkina Faso Revolution (collection of his speeches), Editora Politica, 2nd edition, 2007, ISBN 0-87348-986-1 .
  • Thomas Sankara: The origins of debts lie in colonialism (speech at the OAU in Addis-Ababa on July 29, 1987) , in: AfricAvenir International e. V. (Ed.): 50 years of African independence - a (self) critical balance sheet, Editions AfricAvenir / Exchange & Dialogue, 2nd edition, digital edition (e-book), 2011, ISBN 978-3-9812733-1 -1 - Contents of the ed.
  • Inga Nagel: Message from the Beyond - The last known interview with Thomas Sankara from October 4, 1987, originally in Jeune Afrique, 1987, translation into German
  • Ismael Sanou et al. (Ed.): Thomas Sankara: The ideas don't die! AfricAvenir International, Berlin 2016, ISBN 978-3-946741-00-8 .

Movies

literature

  • Ernest Harsch: Thomas Sankara: an African revolutionary . Ohio University, Athens 2014, ISBN 978-0-8214-4507-5 .
  • Ndongo Samba Sylla (Ed.): Redécouvrir Sankara - Martyr de la liberté (Postface de Aziz Salmone Fall) , Douala / Berlin / Vienna: AfricAvenir / Exchange & Dialogue 2012, ISBN 978-3-939313-23-6
  • Andreas Pittler : Thomas Sankara: Africa's Che Guevara . In: Pittler / Verdel: The great dream of freedom. Vienna 2010, ISBN 978-3-85371-319-8
  • Bruno Jaffré: BIOGRAPHIE DE THOMAS SANKARA - La patrie ou la mort , Paris: L'Harmattan, 2007, ISBN 978-2-296-04265-0
  • Jean-Philippe Rapp / Jean Ziegler : Burkina Faso - a hope for Africa? Conversation with Thomas Sankara . Zurich 1987, ISBN 3-85869-043-0 .
  • Achim Remde: Thomas Sankara and the new African Left (series of publications by the German Africa Foundation, No. 47) . Bonn 1987.
  • Thomas Sankara , in: Internationales Biographisches Archiv 51/1987 of December 7, 1987, in the Munzinger Archive ( beginning of article freely available)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Décès de Joseph sambo Président du père Thomas Sankara - Ouagadougou au Burkina Faso. (No longer available online.) In: ouaga-ca-bouge.net. Archived from the original on July 22, 2012 ; Retrieved October 4, 2016 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / ouaga-ca-bouge.net
  2. ^ Ernest Harsch: Thomas Sankara: an African revolutionary . Ohio University, Athens 2014, ISBN 978-0-8214-4507-5 , pp. 1950–52
  3. ↑ a b c Abiola Irele, Biodun Jeyifo: The Oxford Encyclopedia of African Thought (Volume 2) . Oxford University Press, Oxford 2010, ISBN 978-0-1953-3473-9 , p. 303
  4. ↑ Gustav Fochler-Hauke (Ed.): Der Fischer Weltalmanach 1987 , p. 693. Frankfurt / Main 1986
  5. ^ Celine A. Jacquemin: French Foreign Policy in Rwanda: Language, Personal, Networks, and Changing Contexts . In: Toyin Falola , Jessica Achberger (Eds.): The Political Economy of Development and Underdevelopment in Africa . Routledge, London 2013, ISBN 978-1-1366-8380-0 , p. 310
  6. ^ John Chipman: French Military Policy and African Security . In: Africa (Volume 2) . Routledge, London 2007, ISBN 978-1-1347-0553-5 , p. 34
  7. ↑ Why Burkina Faso's late revolutionary leader Thomas Sankara still inspires young Africans. Retrieved October 4, 2016 (American English).
  8. ^ Toyin Falola, Matthew M. Heaton: HIV / AIDS, illness, and African well-being . Ed .: University Rochester Press. 2007th edition. ISBN 1-58046-240-5 , pp. 290 .
  9. ↑ a b Abiola Irele, Biodun Jeyifo: The Oxford Encyclopedia of African Thought (Volume 2) . Oxford University Press, Oxford 2010, ISBN 978-0-1953-3473-9 , p. 304
  10. ^ The corpses in Compaoré's cellar , nzz.ch, accessed October 16, 2015
  11. ^ Ernest Harsch: Thomas Sankara: an African revolutionary . Ohio University, Athens 2014, ISBN 978-0-8214-4507-5 , pp . 1988, 89 .
  12. ↑ Burkina Faso has ex-presidents exhumed
personal data
SURNAME Sankara, Thomas
BRIEF DESCRIPTION leftist politician in Burkina Faso
DATE OF BIRTH December 21, 1949
PLACE OF BIRTH Yako ( Upper Volta )
DATE OF DEATH October 15, 1987
Place of death Ouagadougou (Burkina Faso)