A popular coup d’état led by Captain Thomas Sankara made him President of, what was then called Upper Volta on August 4, 1983. He was only 33 years old. Four years later he was assassinated.
Sankara saw himself as a revolutionary and defined the ideology of the Revolution in his Political Orientation Speech in October, 1983 (see www.scribd.com/doc/96585260).
Thomas Sankara
Domestic policies were focused on preventing famine with agrarian self-sufficiency and land reform, prioritizing education with a nation-wide literacy campaign and promoting public health by vaccinating 2.5 million children against meningitis, yellow fever and measles.
Foreign policies were centred around anti-imperialism, with the government refusing all foreign aid, pushing for odious debt reduction, nationalizing all land and mineral wealth. Burkina Faso was one of the few African countries to reject structural adjustment programmes and so avoid the power and influence of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank.
Sankara’s revolutionary program for African self-reliance was a defiant alternative to the neo-liberal development strategies imposed on Africa by the West, both then and today. But despite its many significant achievements, this was socialism from above, not the self-emancipation of the working and popular masses. This approach was to lead to the regime coming into conflict with sections of the working class. This contributed to Sankara’s downfall.
Thomas Sankara, defined his aims shortly before he was assassinated in 1987 : “Our revolution will be of value only if, looking back… we are able to say that the Burkinabe people are a little happier because of it. Because they have clean drinking water, because they have plenty to eat, because they are in good health, because they have access to education, because they have decent housing, because they have better clothing, because they have the right to leisure, because they have greater freedom, more democracy and greater dignity… Revolution means happiness. Without happiness we cannot speak of success.”
Women’s rights
Sankara’s government included a large number of women. Female genital cutting was banned, polygamy condemned and contraception promoted. Women were appointed to high government positions and actively recruited to the military. They were encouraged to work outside the home and girls were encouraged to stay at school even if pregnant. The Burkinabé government was also the first African government to publicly recognize AIDS as a major threat.
Opposition to trade unions
In spite of this, the trade unions and independent organisations were considerably weakened as a result of repression (including dismissal of civil servants, arrests and torture, etc). By 1986 the Sankara’s rapid, and sometimes authoritarian approach, had begun to alienate sections of the Burkinabe population, leaving Sankara and his allies isolated. Sankara were committed to achieving his ideals, but these were being imposed rather than being won through collective action by the workers and mass of the poor people.
Trade unions and the free press were banned as they were seen as coming in the way of Sankara’ reforms. To counter opposition in towns and workplaces around the country, corrupt officials, counter-revolutionaries and “lazy workers” were tried in peoples’ revolutionary tribunals. The public trials of former senior government officials was a positive development, but these trails were also be used against genuine critics of the regime. When the school teachers went on strike, they were all dismissed.
Sankara found himself in a situation where there was an absence of dialogue over both his objectives and the means to achieve them. In the name of wanting to make a revolution for the mass of poor people, he did it without them or even against them. Sankara recognised this in a self-critical speech two weeks before his death. But he and his allies did not have time to restore the links with the mass independent working class organisations.
Sankara was assassinated with twelve of his comrades by the Blaise Compaoré, the current president of Burkina Faso, on October 15, 1987. A week before his execution, he declared: “While revolutionaries as individuals can be murdered, you cannot kill ideas”.
Sankara is commonly referred to as “Africa’s Che Guevara”. He remains an inspiration for many young people across the region and proof that another world is possible for Africa. But this will be built through the collective action of the trade unions, the working class and other poor people rather than military coups and saviours, no matter how charismatic.