Few African leaders remain as renowned, especially in death, or whose very mention still excites wide adoration in the continent, as Thomas Sankara.
His assassination in 1987 in a coup as a young, charismatic revolutionary is a key feature of his enduring appeal. And, though not everyone would agree that he is the most emulable leader, his image of a committed, self-sacrificing rebel remains idealised by many in the continent.
Hence one finds t-shirts and stickers embellished with his face, even as his signature red beret will be seen being adorned by radical opposition politicians such Julius Malema of South Africa and others around the continent.
The ongoing trial of his assassination underscores his global status, as may emphatically be seen in the wide local and international media coverage it has attracted since its commencement in October 2021.
The trial constitutes yet another chapter in the Sankara story. And though the trial is essentially about unravelling the truth of what happened, perhaps with lessons to be drawn, it is also being viewed as one for posterity.
For this reason, a group supporting preservation of Sankara’s memory is urging the military tribunal hearing the case to reverse a ruling not to have it filmed.
Filming the trial as it unfolds without media and other commentary would constitute an unvarnished archival record of it, which the group argues is not only important for the history of Burkina Faso but for Africa and beyond.
Perhaps the tribunal should agree with the appeal to film, then the trial shall be the Sankara’s swansong; otherwise, it might be his last hurrah.
Either way, the trial is as much about his status as it is about justice, albeit 34 years later, and about completing the story of a radical leader who died too young at only 37 years old.
Born Thomas Isidore Noël Sankara in 1949 in what was then Upper Volta, his political awakening came during his military training in Madagascar where he read extensively and studied the history of the continent’s revolutionary movements.
A particularly formative event was his witness during this period of the toppling of the Madagascar government in by students and workers.
It is also around this time that he became a committed Marxist-Leninist.
By the early 1980s, he had become disillusioned and averse to the post-independence elite that was self-servingly recycling itself in a series of coups since the country’s independence in 1960.
But he had already made his name for his military achievements and charismatic leadership, earning him political appointments.
In January 1983, Sankara was appointed prime minister in the government of President Jean-Baptiste Ouédraogo, the latest coup leader in the troubled country then known as Upper Volta.
The prime ministership would prove a boon in the growth of Sankara’s political stature. It opened him to international politics, offering him the opportunity to meet with influential leaders he especially admired, including Fidel Castro of Cuba and Samora Machel of Mozambique.
But he was always a rebel, while it did not help that his popularity locally was increasing even as his international stature grew. This put him at odds with the elites and the cabal in government.
After being appointed Prime Minister in 1983, disputes with the sitting government led to Sankara’s eventual imprisonment.
His subsequent arrest, and because of his huge popularity in the country, caused much disquiet in the population. While he was under house arrest, a group of revolutionaries led by Blaise Compaoré, his close friend and comrade, seized power on his behalf in a popularly-supported coup on August 4, 1983 and Sankara took over leadership as the country’s president.
He was only 33 years old. And thus began the new president’s renown across the world for his strident anti-imperialist stances and the progressive policies he espoused.
“The revolution’s main objective,“ Sankara is quoted to have said not long after taking power, “is to destroy imperialist domination and exploitation.”
He promoted education, health care and women’s rights while urging reforestation. He expropriated land from the feudal chiefs and redistributed it to poor farmers.
He set up Cuban-style “committees for the defence of the revolution” and “popular revolutionary tribunals”.
His austere lifestyle became a thing to remark. He reduced his own salary, and that of all public servants. He also banned the use of government chauffeurs and first-class airline tickets.
A year into his presidency, he renamed the country Burkina Faso –“The land of upright people”. As much as the renaming was to assert the pride of a people, it was also a pointed jibe to France colonialism which he detested —colonialism which the country’s former name, Upper Volta, stood for.
He was especially irked by France, which to this day retains huge influence in many of its former colonies in Africa.
His reign, which coincided with economic austerity measures that ravaged the continent under structural adjustment policies demanded by the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, fuelled his anti-imperialist stance.
He termed the institutions neo-colonialist, seeing them as part of a pattern in which former colonial powers continued imposing their will. He called for a united Africa against them.
At home, his youth movement, Pioneers of the Revolution, wore berets like Che Guevara. The media has been quick to recall how many Africans liken Sankara to the Cuban revolutionary, though The Economist quips that, “Whether [likening him to Che Guevara] is a compliment or an insult depends on one’s view of handsome, violent Marxists.”
But all was not well. By the fourth year of his reign, and despite the great strides he had made, the country was beset with economic problems and government disunity. There were allegations of political repression by human rights groups. This undermined his popularity, fuelling instances of dissent from some quarters in the country.
On October 15, 1987, he was gunned down in the country’s capital, Ouagadougou, in a coup led by his erstwhile friend, Blaise Compaoré.
And in what would be viewed as a supreme insult, Compaoré had his old friend buried in a commoner’s grave. Sankara’s remains would be recovered only decades later.
Compaoré would go on to lead Burkina Faso for the next 27 years until he was overthrown in 2013 before fleeing into exile in Ivory Coast.
He is being tried in absentia among 14 men accused of plotting Sankara’s death.
For a long time, there have been allegations that France was involved in the assassination, which France denies. Batches of classified documents relating to the Sankara case were released following a 2017 promise by President Emmanuel Macron, though none of the documents are from the office of François Mitterrand, the French president at the time.
The trial may out the truth of what really happened, but experts are doubtful there’ll be a smoking gun implicating any foreign powers, including France.
All told, however, whatever Sankara’s failings as a leader, his idealisation and iconic status among many is destined to endure for the inspiration his example as a revolutionary leader is still able to muster.
Speaking to this is the imposing six-metre-high bronze statue at the Thomas Sankara Memorial Park in the capital, Ouagadougou that was unveiled in 2019.
Even as the statue has proved quite a tourist attraction, a mausoleum, a cinema hall and a media library named after him are in the works. These constitute the sheen of his idealisation, expected to pass on Sankara’s revolutionary ideas to future generations.
Gitura Mwaura is a writer and development journalist
