By Elvis Owuor.
Thomas Sankara was Burkina Faso’s president
From August 1983 until his assassination on October 15, 1987. Perhaps, more than any other
African president in living memory, Thomas Sankara, in four years,
transformed Burkina Faso from a poor country, dependent on aid, to an
economically independent and socially progressive nation.
Thomas Sankara began by purging the deeply entrenched bureaucratic and institutional corruption in Burkina Faso.
He slashed
the salaries of ministers and sold off the fleet of exotic cars in the
president’s convoy, opting instead for the cheapest brand of car
available in Burkina Faso, Renault 5. His salary was $450 per month and
he refused to use the air conditioning units in his office, saying that
he felt guilty doing so, since very few of his country people could
afford it.
Thomas
Sankara would not let his portrait be hung in offices and government
institutions in Burkina Faso, because every Burkinabe is a Thomas
Sankara, he declared. Sankara changed the name of the country from the
colonially imposed Upper Volta to Burkina Faso, which means land of
upright men.
Thomas Sankara’s
achievements are numerous and can only be summarized briefly; within the
first year of his leadership, Sankara embarked on an unprecedented mass
vaccination program that saw 2.5 million Burkinabe children vaccinated.
From an alarming 280 deaths for every 1,000 births, infant mortality
was immediately slashed to below 145 deaths per 1,000 live births.
Sankara preached self-reliance, he banned the importation of several
items into Burkina Faso, and encouraged the growth of the local
industry. It was not long before Burkinabes were wearing 100% cotton
sourced, woven and tailored in Burkina Faso. From being a net importer
of food, Thomas Sankara began to aggressively promote agriculture in
Burkina Faso, telling his country people to quit eating imported rice
and grain from Europe, said, “let us consume what we ourselves control,”
he emphasized.
In less than 4
years, Burkina Faso became self-sufficient in foods production through
the redistribution of lands from the hands of corrupt chiefs and land
owners to local farmers, and through massive irrigation and fertilizer
distribution programs. Thomas Sankara utilized various policies and
government assistance to encourage Burkinabes to get education. In less
than two years as a president, school attendance jumped from about 10%
to a little below 25%, thus overturning the 90% illiteracy rate he met
upon assumption of office.
Living way ahead of
his time, within 12 months of his leadership, Sankara vigorously
pursued a reforestation program that saw over 10 million trees planted
around the country in order to push back the encroachment of the Sahara
Desert. Uncommon at the time he lived, Sankara stressed women
empowerment and campaigned for the dignity of women in a traditional
patriarchal society. He also employed women in several government
positions and declared a day of solidarity with housewives by mandating
their husbands to take on their roles for 24 hours.

In 1987, during a
meeting of African leaders under the auspices of the Organization of
African Unity, Thomas Sankara tried to convince his peers to turn their
backs on the debt owed western nations. According to him, “debt is a
cleverly managed reconquest of Africa. It is a reconquest that turns
each one of us into a financial slave.” He would not request for, nor
accept aid from the west, noting that “…welfare and aid policies have
only ended up disorganizing us, subjugating us, and robbing us of a
sense of responsibility for our own economic, political, and cultural
affairs. We chose to risk new paths to achieve greater well-being.”
Thomas Sankara was a
pan-Africanist who spoke out against apartheid, telling French
President Jacques Chirac, during his visit to Burkina Faso, that it was
wrong for him to support the apartheid government and that he must be
ready to bear the consequences of his actions. Sankara’s policies and
his unapologetic anti-imperialist stand made him an enemy of France,
Burkina Faso’s former colonial master. He spoke truth to power
fearlessly and paid with his life. Upon his assassination, his most
valuable possessions were a car, a refrigerator, three guitars,
motorcycles, a broken down freezer and about $400 in cash.
In death, Thomas Sankara’s burial place is unkempt and filled with weeds (click to see Thomas Sankara’s graveyard
Few young Africans
have ever heard of Thomas Sankara. In reality, it is not the
assassination of Thomas Sankara that has dealt a lethal blowed to Africa
and Africans; it is the assassination of his memory, as manifested in
the indifference to his legacy, in the lack of constant reference to his
ideals and ideas by Africans, by those who know and those who should
know. Among physical and mental dirt and debris lie Africa’s heroes
while the younger generations search in vain for role models from among
their kind. Africans have therefore, internalized self-abhorrence and
the convictions of innate incapability to bring about transformation.
Transformation must runs contrary to the African’s DNA, many Africans
subconsciously believe.
Africans are not
given to celebrating their own heroes, but this must change. It is a
colonial legacy that was instituted to establish the inferiority of the
colonized and justify colonialism. It was a strategic policy that
ensured that Africans celebrated the heroes of their colonial masters,
but not that of Africa. Fifty years and counting after colonialism
ended, Africa’s curriculum must now be redrafted to reflect the numerous
achievements of Africans.
The present
generation of Africans is thirsty, searching for where to draw the
moral, intellectual and spiritual courage to effect change. The waters
to quench the thirst, as other continents have already established, lies
fundamentally in history - in Africa’s forbears, men, women and
children who experienced much of what most Africans currently
experience, but who chose to toe a different path. The media,
entertainment industry, civil society groups, writers, institutions and
organizations must begin to search out and include African role models,
case studies and examples in their contents.
For Africans, the
strength desperately needed for the transformation of the continent
cannot be drawn from World Bank and IMF policies, from aid and
assistance obtained from China, India, the United States or Europe. The
strength to transform Africa lies in the foundations laid by uncommon
heroes like Thomas Sankara; a man who showed Africa and the world that
with a single minded pursuit of purpose, the worst can be made the best,
and in record time too.
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