"I would like to leave behind me the conviction that if we maintain a certain amount of caution and organization we deserve victory... You cannot carry out fundamental change without a certain amount of madness.
In this case, it comes from non-conformity, the courage to turn your back on the old formulas, the courage to invent the future.
It took the madmen of yesterday for us to be able to act with extreme clarity today. I want to be one of those madmen. We must dare to invent the future." -Thomas Sankara
In the mid eighties, the name Thomas Sankara became a household name across the African continent.
Thomas Sankara rose to become the leader of Burkina Faso following a military revolution.
He was renowned across the Continent as a revolutionary whose ascent to power marked a critical moment for progressive social movements in Africa.
A major anti-corruption drive began in 1987. The tribunal showed captain Thomas Sankara to have a salary of only $450 a month and his most valuable possessions to be a car,
four bikes, three guitars, a fridge and a broken freezer. He was the world's poorest president.
Sankara refused to use the air conditioning in his office on the grounds that such luxury was not available to anyone but a handful of Burkinabes.
When asked why he had let it be known that he did not want his portrait hung in public places, as is the norm for other African leaders, Sankara said' there are seven million Thomas Sankaras'.
After the revolution that brought Sankara to power in 1983, the small West African nation formerly known as upper Volta was renamed Burkina Faso; meaning " the land of upright people".
During his time as president of Burkina Faso, Thomas Sankara was an active advocate for Pan-African self determination.
The gains that Nigeria and indeed a host of other African nations are enjoying in terms of foreign national dept cancellation today are as a result of tireless efforts of people like Sankara.
Under Sankara, the country presented a concept of development that was a radical departure from the charity model that depicted African countries going cap-in-hand to beg Western and European nations for aid.
Thomas Sankara was born to the family of Marguerite Sankara and Sambo Joseph Sankara a gendarme. He was born into a silmi-Mossi ethnic group that hat it's origin in marriage between Mossi men and Women of the pastoralist Fulani people.
Sankaras'military career commenced at the age of 19 upon completion of his basic military training in 1966. Following this period he was sent to Madagascar for training as an officer at Antsirabe where he saw popular uprising.
Subsequently, Sankara became popular in Ouagadougou. He was skilled at playing the guitar and even played in a band named "Tout-a-coup jazz".
As his military career progressed, he rose to be the commander of the commando training centre in Po sometimes in 1976. It was around this period that he met Blaise Compaore in Morroco. At that time Col. Saye Zerbo was president. The foursome of Henri Zongo, Jean-Baptiste Boukary Lingani, Campaore and Sankara formed a secret organization known as "Communist Officers Group".
Blaise Campore organized a coup and Sankara emerged as president on August 4, 1983 at the age of 33. The coup had the backing of Libya.
Sankara was killed on the 15 of October 1987, after four years in office. Many suspect his friend and long time comrade Blaise Campore to be behind the assassination of Thomas Sankara based on the prompting of western powers.
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