Happy birthday thomas sankara

You deserved to be a king without royalty strong enough to not reign in kingdom. A leader to his people and not their banks. It was not to last, nor are most good men. Rest. You died just in time to see a height of what was achievable without the fall.

I knew of him and actually was rather positive towards him when I was a Turd Positionist actually.

Holla Forums doesn't believe Africa has any history prior to the 1600s.

-Thomas Sankara

Taken from “Thomas Sankara Speaks: The Burkina Faso Revolution 1983-1987” (pages 54-55).

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Thomas & Mariam Sankara's wedding

Who was Thomas Sankara?

Thomas Sankara, often referred to as “Africa’s Che Guevara” was the president of Burkina Faso from 1983 to 1987. He seized power in a 1983 popularly supported coup, with the goal of eliminating corruption and the dominance of the former French colonial power.

Sankara’s foreign policies were centered around anti-imperialism, with his government eschewing all foreign aid because, as he often said, “he who feeds you, controls you.” He pushed for debt reduction and nationalized all land and mineral wealth, averting the power and influence of the IMF and World Bank.

His 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. And his was the first African government to publicly recognize the AIDS epidemic as a major threat to Africa.

He outlawed female genital mutilation, forced marriages, and polygamy and was the first African leader to appoint women to major cabinet positions and actively recruit them for the military. A motorcyclist himself, he formed an all-woman motorcycle personal guard.
He encouraged women to work outside the home and stay in school even if pregnant.

He launched a nation-wide public health ‘Vaccination Commando’ a state run program that in a period of only 15 days in early November 1984, completed the immunization of 2.5 million children against meningitis (a world record), yellow fever and measles. This operation was so successful in that children in neighbouring countries like the Ivory Coast and Mali were sent to Burkina Faso for free immunization that helped curtail high rates of infant and child mortality.

He sold off the government fleet of Mercedes cars and made the Renault 5 (the cheapest car sold in Burkina Faso at that time) the official service car of the ministers. He lowered his salary, as President, to only $450 a month and limited his possessions to a car, four bikes, three guitars, and a refrigerator.
He planted over ten million trees to halt the growing desertification of the Sahel and established an ambitious road and rail construction program to “tie the nation together.”

He was known for jogging unaccompanied through the capital city in his track suit and posing in his tailored military fatigues with his mother-of-pearl pistol. And when asked why he didn’t want his portrait hung in public places, as was the norm for other African leaders, he said ”there are seven million Thomas Sankaras.”

Sankara’s revolutionary policies for self-reliance and defiance against the neoliberal development strategies imposed by the West made him an icon to many supporters of African liberation. But his policies alienated and antagonized the vested interests of the small but powerful Burkinabe middle class, the tribal leaders who he stripped of the traditional right to forced labor and tribute payments, and the foreign financial interests in France and their ally Ivory Coast.

Compaore and Sankara
On October 15, 1987 Sankara was killed by an armed militia of twelve officials in a coup d’état organized by Compaore. Sankara’s body was dismembered and buried in an unmarked grave. Compaore immediately took power, overturning most of Sankara’s policies. Compaore reportedly ousted Sankara because he believed that his revolutionary policies were jeopardizing Burkina Faso’s relationship with France and Ivory Coast. Sankara and Compaore were not only colleagues, they were childhood friends.

This is why ‘Bad Karma’ should be Blaise Compaore’s middle name. He is a ruthless man who orchestrated the brutal assassination of his best friend.

She is beautiful

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Happy birthday, comrade. Rest in peace.

Fuck I didn't know he played guitar

Newfag here. Why tf have I never heard of this guy if he's so great?

Surely he has some black spot you conveniently forgot

He didn't. He literally had no black spot and so he was dismembered and partially cannibalized by reactionaries/fascists/nationalists on behest of one man, because his potential to organize was threatening French interests in a supposedly post colonial region.

Research him yourself if you're skeptical. Don't expect to be spoonfed.

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Holy fucking shit you're right I can't find anything that he did wrong even The Economist just shits on him for arbitrarily hurting the economy and that's it. I can't find records of mass killings like che guvera or Castro

I'm completely blown away this guy was literally a perfect revolutionary Jesus why haven't I heard of him

READ A BOOK OR AT LEAST READ SOME OF GOT DAM BOARD IF YOU HAVEN'T HEARD OF SANKARA

He is black, of course he plays base.

happy birthday sankara 🎂🎈🎉

Delete this

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He did crack down on unions pretty hard, I think that's worth noting

Thanks comrade Sankara

He didn't accomplish anything, he was just a professional quote maker talking about things hed like to do.

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See

Thomas Sankara in Concerning Violence (Olsson, 2014)

words nor reaction images can describe the rage I'm filled with

hahahahaha you really believe this

true

REEEEEEEEEE, DISLOYAL DOG

Rip Thomas Sankara.

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I think it's worth noting too.

What is leftypols thoughts on Sankara's authoritarian shit. Also why does he say "Anarcho-Syndicalism, down with it" in this speech? Haven't read much about the conflict so actually curious as to what Anarcho-Syndicalism has to do with any of this.

He was a bourgeois-romantic revolutionary who initiated a development regime. Unfortunately, the third world is so reactionary without the proper propaganda that even this was likely to fail.

lmao if I didn't know who he was I'd think this was LARPing

marxists.org/reference/archive/stalin/works/1906/12/x01.htm

Marxists hate anarchists

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Anarchism really would be disastrous in Africa.

probably would have just been a good addition to the tribal structures, in fact the perfect mechanism for development

Based as fuck tbh.

says who

lel, didn't think someone would save that gif

;_;

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Same fangirl from earlier but I dislike it when people describe Sankara as "Africa’s Che Guevara." He was Africa’s "Thomas Sankara."

It also forgets that Guevara fought in the Congo.