Thomas Sankara: A Revolutionary Leader Who Transformed Burkina Faso
Until recently, there was a country in the Sahel that the French colonialists called Upper Volta and that theoretically gained independence in 1960. Theoretically, as the result of imperialist policies, as in most African countries, its government has been corrupted by military juntas that have continued the plunder of natural resources in the service of colonialism.
However, in this land the will of some men of integrity like Thomas Sankara changed the course of history. In 1983, Sankara, son of a humble family of the Simil-Mossi ethnic group –one of the poorest in that land– kept his roots very much in mind when making decisions as prime minister of the country, which shortly after his presidency was renamed Burkina Faso (homeland of men of integrity). He began a revolutionary government of only 4 years that endures in the memory and dignity of the entire African continent.
When Sankara came to power, 90% of the country was illiterate, and in just 4 years his government made a third of the country literate, ended the injustice of ethnic taxes, vaccinated 2.5 million children in one year against meningitis, yellow fever and measles, etc. He promoted food self-sufficiency in one of the poorest countries on the continent. How? He expelled foreign companies that were plundering the country and nationalized land and natural resources.
It was clear that there were plenty of wells to extract oil from more than 3,000 meters deep while the people lacked 100-meter water wells. He provided the country with a national system of roads and railways, and provided seeds and resources to the peasants with an agrarian reform that achieved food self-sufficiency and turned Burkina Faso into a cereal exporter. He also had great awareness of the environment: his government defended that forests were a fundamental part of the popular and democratic struggle against imperialism; for this reason, a broad program was initiated against deforestation and desertification with the planting of thousands of trees, controlling the grazing of livestock and the traditional custom of burning savannah.
He was a strong advocate for equality and the rights of women in his people: he banned female mutilation, polygamy and forced marriages. He urged women to hold public office to ensure these laws, with several ministers in his cabinet. He encouraged aid for professional training and even decreed a “husband’s day” in which men had to do all the housework once a week to become aware of the hardships of maintaining a home.
I hear the roar of this silence of women, I present the roar of their storm, I feel the fury of their rebellion. I have hope in the fruitful irruption of the revolution, to which they will contribute the strength and rigorous justice that come from the very bowels of the oppressed. Comrades, forward in the conquest of the future. The future is revolutionary. The future belongs to those who fight!
The Struggle Against Colonialism and Economic Imperialism
Thomas Sankara denounced until the end of his days that Africa’s poverty was a legacy of colonialism and imperialism. Debt with international organizations such as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund was a burden that needed to be broken. He rejected any foreign “economic aid” for development in order to promote and achieve true economic independence.
One of their best-known slogans was: produce in Africa, manufacture in Africa and consume in Africa, instead of importing. They took the slogan seriously to the point of promoting the national manufacture of textiles, which in turn led to an increase in cotton production. A proud Sankara acknowledged that, despite not being a model, there was not a single European or American thread in his clothes. His speeches are legendary, especially the one he gave at the UN headquarters in 1982, a reflection of revolutionary commitment and internationalist solidarity:
Finally, I want to be outraged and think with the Palestinians, whom an inhuman humanity chose to replace with another people, yesterday still martyred. I think of this brave and Palestinian people; that is, of atomized families who wander everywhere in search of asylum. Brave, determined, stoic and tireless, the Palestinians remind every human conscience of the need and moral obligation that the rights of the people be respected. With their Jewish brothers, they are anti-Zionists
The Determination of a Revolutionary and His Prophetic Death
He was so determined with his ideals that at the 1987 African Union congresses he warned the other countries that if Burkina Faso was the only country opposed to the debt, he would not live to attend the next meeting. He did not live to attend the next meeting. Nor did he hesitate to publicly confront French President Mitterrand and Prime Minister Chirac in 1986 during a diplomatic dinner in the country’s capital, Ouagadougou.
The discussion was caused by France’s interference in African armed conflicts, as well as by Sankara’s position in requesting the UN to decolonize New Caledonia. Also added to this was the fact that the French leaders invited the prominent South African apartheid leader, Pieter W. Botha, to dinner. His words at the last African Union congress he attended were as prophetic as the threats from the French leaders who, after repeatedly threatening him that he was not on the right path, assassinated him along with 12 officials from the country in 1987. His death left three bicycles, a legendary Renault 5, a mortgage, a working mother who never left her place in the market and an exemplary dignity that will live forever.
Although revolutionaries, like individuals, can be assassinated, their ideas can never be killed.
It was a coup d’état carried out by mercenaries, orchestrated by his “comrade in arms” Blaise Compaoré, who rose to power and coincidentally dedicated himself to undoing all of Sankara’s revolutionary measures. He restored each and every one of the links with French imperialism, and rolled back all the freedoms and social measures of a country driven to unprecedented levels of poverty and corruption. Less than a decade ago, protests broke out across the country against corruption and Western-funded jihadist terrorism, which spread across the continent from a Libya that had been plagued since 2015.
Due to popular protests, with great influence of the memory of Sankara among the masses, the traitor Compaoré had to go into exile in Côte d’Ivoire where he still lives. In 2021, a trial began to clarify what happened with Sankara’s death; it was suspended when a new military junta led by Paul-Henri Damiba came to power in 2022, but it continued after two days and was able to end with Compaoré’s life sentence. However, the trial leaves many doubts in the air. Emmanuel Macron promised judge Yameógo in 2017 to declassify secret information from those years, but he has not kept his promise.
We also know from testimonies of members of the Burkinabé secret service that there are telephone conversations of Compaoré that were deleted. On the other hand, thanks to the work of the American historian Brian Peterson – who was able to consult classified archives of the US State Department – we now have CIA testimonies that confirm meetings of the Burkinabé opposition with the World Anti-Communist League (WALC), organized to destabilize Burkina Faso from Côte d’Ivoire, a historical bastion of what was colonially known as “FranceAfrique”.
The Sahel in Struggle: Popular Uprisings and the Persistence of French Imperialism
Currently, the countries of the Sahel are undergoing major transformations, which we cannot ignore in the article, due to the anti-colonial nature of their governments. First, changes occurred in Mali in 2021, with the military uprising backed by popular support that denounced electoral irregularities, corruption and government inaction against the insecurity caused by jihadism – which persists despite the region’s alleged French military collaboration to combat it.
As a result of these popular uprisings, a military junta took power with a transitional government led by Assimi Goït, which in 2022 broke ties with France, expelling French NGOs, the army and the ambassador. Last year they suffered an attempted coup by jihadist mercenaries and Mali assured that there is evidence that they had been armed and promoted by France to destabilize the region and weave excuses to operate in the territory.
These links have now been proven by a batch of smuggled weapons found in the former residence of a high-ranking French official who left Mali. Furthermore, a recent trial in France showed that the construction company Lafarge , through French intelligence, armed jihadists in Syria to overthrow the government of Bashar Al Assad. Nor should we forget how the French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius, in the midst of the Syrian war in 2012, cheerfully assured that “the young men of Al Nusra (the Syrian faction of Al Qaeda) are doing a great job.” We see how the tentacles of imperialism have no borders or scruples when it comes to maintaining their political and economic ends.
Burkina Faso in Transformation: Ibrahim Traoré and the Struggle for National Sovereignty
In the same social context, Burkina Faso has also recently undergone major changes, with a young 35-year-old military man, Ibrahim Traoré, at the head of the new government of the Patriotic Movement for the Salvation and Restoration (MPSR). Traoré, popular in the military for his anti-jihadist tenacity, dismissed the head of the military junta, P. Damiba, due to doubts about his loyalty to the country and his lukewarm attitude towards jihadism promoted by the West.
On the other hand, Traoré has ordered the expropriation of more than 200 kg. of gold from a French mine for reasons of national emergency. Consequently, Burkina Faso has also canceled gold exports to advance industrialization and is promoting food sovereignty plans such as national rice production. With Traoré’s statement that a country that wants to import 10 billion rice should invest 2 billion in jobs, he seems to be following in some of Sankara’s footsteps and recovering in practice the slogan “who feeds you controls you”. Along the same lines, he has been very critical in his speeches, citing the responsibility of Western imperialism for Africa’s current problems.
Niger stands up to imperialism: the coup against French colonial dependency
The latest country in the region to stand up to French colonialism was Niger. Hit by strong anti-colonial protests over the past decade, last year the puppet government of Mohamed Bazoum was overthrown by a military junta led by Abdourahamane Tciani. Bazoum has been arrested for electoral fraud, corruption and high treason for his continued concessions to France – to the point of being decorated as a grand officer of the French Legion of Honor.
However, what was Niger’s situation before the coup? We are talking about a country highly rich in natural resources that has figures of more than 60% illiteracy and 42% of the country in extreme poverty. It has one of the highest infant mortality rates in the world and a life expectancy of only 60 years. Niger, a country in which electricity does not even reach 10% of the population and which suffers from intense desertification. All the while, access to water is 85% in private hands of which only 51% is owned by French companies that continuously pollute the aquifers due to precarious uranium extraction.
A country run by French companies, French currency and the export and plunder of all its resources by the old colonial treaties. The French imperialist exploitation is so aberrant that it can be summarized by the 80 cents it pays for each kilo of Nigerian uranium compared to the more than €230 it pays on the international market. It should be noted that more than 70% of French energy is produced nuclear and, curiously, France imports up to 70% of uranium from Niger.
Precisely because of these scandalous data they suffer the furious reaction of the United States, France and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), which have implemented economic sanctions of all kinds against Israel… sorry! Obviously, I meant against Niger! There have even been threats of imminent military intervention if the puppet Bazoum is not reinstated. Curiously, in Gabon, where a coup in favor of Western interests has taken place, they have not made any of these resounding declarations.
The Sahel Alliance: A Unified Front against Imperialism and Jihadism
Because of these threats and the Pan-African brotherhood for the dignity of the Sahel, Burkina Faso and Mali quickly came to reinforce the defense and security of Niger, with military and anti-terrorist cooperation agreements against any external threat. Currently, they have signed the Sahel State Alliance, a plan for a tri-state federation that is great news for Pan-Africanism and anti-imperialism. The results of these alliances have been practically immediate.
In Mali, they have recovered the nation’s biometric data which, although it may sound incredible, were in the hands of French companies; as incredible as the Alliance has managed in recent months to take one of the capitals that the Islamic State of the Sahel had appropriated, Kidal, demonstrating with facts the French and international ineffectiveness against jihadism.
The first mining waste recycling plant in the entire Sahel has opened in Burkina Faso, which will allow economic activities to continue in a more technical and sustainable way.
In Niger, which according to the IMF and the World Bank itself is the fourth economy in the world that will experience the most growth this year, currently sells the kilo of uranium at the international price and takes active measures to diversify production such as the construction of new pipelines, the supply of diesel to Sahel countries, etc. For these issues, it seems to me vitally important to recognize and remember the problem of the political and economic isolation that Sankara suffered in order to once again emphasize and applaud the great news of this Alliance of Sahel States.
The Awakening of the Sahel: Popular Sovereignty and the Fight Against Global Imperialism
All of the above may offend the sensibilities of some ultra-leftists with a paternalistic and colonial mentality, who will repeat over and over again that these countries are simply abandoning an American or European orbit of exploitation for a Russian or Chinese one. They say this from the total comfort of their sofa, with a full stomach, medicines in the drawer and the air conditioning on full blast. They are completely unaware of the suffering of the peoples who submit to the international division of labor.
A division of labor that they take advantage of to criticize them over their shoulder or while using a latest generation mobile phone made with cobalt batteries that some African child has probably pulled out of a dark hole. While it is true that these social transformations in the Sahel are not socialist in nature, we can draw conclusions as obvious as that the abusive economic conditions of IMF and World Bank loans are dragging African countries, which are rich in resources, into debt, ruin and slavery.
While, on the contrary, these countries see in economic cooperation with China and Russia and the well-known BRICS a fairer possibility of development that in Africa is known as gagnant-gagnant (we all win). As a result, we see the countries that break with Western dependence prosper, recovering popular sovereignty and threatening the privileges of the most powerful capitalist powers in the world. In addition, we must be aware of the historical moment in which we live. We communists continue to be orphans of revolutionary references.
The socialist pole of the USSR will not return, nor will it be resurrected with the BRICS, although the latter allow imperialist contradictions to be sharpened, whether in the Congo, Yemen, Libya or Palestine. We will see how the chains of imperialism are increasingly cracked, which we hope will soon reveal its weakest links in order to destroy it forever. That glorious victory of Algeria today resurfaces with pride in the Sahel. Marx said that a ghost traveled through Europe; today, the spirit of worthy men travels through Africa and, soon, the entire world.
NOTE: Article written in February 2024. Since then, important events should be noted such as Burkina Faso, Niger and Mali being the only West African countries to have reduced their external debt and created the internationalist confederation “AES” (Alliance of Sahel States), governed by its own currency and organized with a popular assembly and legislative system similar to the Soviets. Among some of its successes, Mali has created a national biometric data fund and new AES passports. It has also gained even more ground for terrorism. Niger has nationalized water and uranium and expelled all US and foreign troops. Burkina Faso has nationalized mines, creating the first gold reserve in its entire history, a national railway company, the first 100% national food factory with the capacity to export to neighboring countries. He suffered an attempted coup d’état orchestrated by relatives of the traitor Campaore, and appointed Kyélem de Tambela, a legendary comrade of Thomas Sankara, as minister, changing the country’s national motto: “La patrie ou la mort”.
Frederic Guillem
