REMEMBERING AN AFRICAN LEADER AND LEGEND; THOMAS SANKARA.

On this day, 15th October 1987, Africa lost one of its greatest Pan-Afrcanist and revolutionary Thomas Sankara. A man who over the course of just 4 years transformed Burkina Fasso from a struggling country dependent of foreign aid, to an economically self-sufficient and socially progressive sovereign state. Sankara immediately rejected the Colonial designation 'Upper Volta' renaming his homeland 'Burkina Fasso' (The Land of Upright Men). A symbolic gesture of defiance to French domination in the region, and a sincere effort to decolonize the minds of his Burkinabbe and African people.

From 1983-1987 Sankara would set out on a mission to eliminate French control and influence over the region by increasingly making the country self reliant and refusing to pay colonial Tax and Debt which he considered "a cleverly managed re-conquest of Africa" and that its aim for Africa was "subjugating its growth and development through foreign rules. Thus, each one of us becomes the financial slave, which is to say a true slave".

Sankara uprooted the endemic bureaucratic and institutional corruption in Burkina Fasso, reduced child mortality rate by 50%, school enrollment increased by 10% followed by a 90% literacy level in just 2 years, and banned the importation of several items in an effort to promote the growth of local industry saying "Everything that man can imagine, he is capable of creating". So incredibly effective were his policies that Burkina Fasso became Food Self Sufficient in less than 4 years! Declaring "He who does not feed you can demand nothing of you" and it wasn't long before everyone was wearing 100% locally sourced cotton.

All these, and much more, were overturned when he was Assassinated on this day, in a Coup plot orchestrated by the CIA and French Secret Service.

"I want people to remember me as someone whose life has been helpful to humanity." - Thomas Sankar:
 Source : Pan-African Renaissance