A thread on Sankara: his life, his death, his wife Mariam Sankara and his two sons Philip Sankara and August Sankara.

Three words to describe Sankara:
Decolonization - Pan Africanism - Women's liberation.

1. Isidore Thomas Sankara born in 1949, in Yako. His father was a war prisoner during the second world war.

He attended a catholic primary school made of white teachers and that's where he developed his anti colonization conscience through the eyes of White privilege

2. As he grew socially conscious, he joins the army training in Ouagadougou then relocate to Antsirabé in Madagascar where he attended an actual military school.

He served in the Malagasy military during the revolution before he relocated back to Burkina Faso ready to fight

3. October 1973, he moved back to Burkina Faso and founded an association of young officers trained abroad. The " Communist Officers' Group".

In 1976, while in Morocco, Sankara met Blaise Compaoré who then became a comrade, later an enemy and the mind behind his death

4. In 1979, Sankara married Mariam Sereme. She was still a law student. Mariam is the reason Sankara centered women in his work. Mariam was behind his policies.

In 1981, a coup took place by Sayé Zerbo. Sankara was given a position in the new government and later he resigned.

5. In 1983, Compaoré organized a coup with the support of Libya.

It was after Sankara, and Jean Baptistse Lingani were arrested for resigning.

Sankara then became President with one agenda: Liberate all Burkinabé from the west influence then the whole Africa

6. In 1983, Sankara nominated Compaoré as the Minister of state.

But the relationship between Compaoré and Sankara went left . Blaise wanted the presidency and was not happy with Sankara's success.

7.Sankara appeared in many international meetings where his speeches centered decolonization, communism, women's rights and anti-apartheid. He then became a threat to France, a country that built itself on exploitation , slavery and colonization

8. In July 1984, Sankara decide Burkina Faso to not be part of the Olympics in Los Angeles. In his letter he mentioned that the United nations were silent about apartheid in South Africa.

That same month, Sankara organized the first panafrican conference by Burkinabe women

9. October 1984, Sankara is spotted in Harlem supporting the black civil rights movement

December 1984, Sankara refused to attend the summit France-Africa in Bujumbura. He refused to sit and watch France be a colonizer while African leaders kisses its ass

10. Sankara spent 1985 and 1986 touring Africa and networking with other revolutionary leaders from Niger, Ghana, Mali, Togo, Tchad, Ethiopie, Mozambique, Burundi, Tanzania, Zambia, Angola Sao Tome, DRC

1987 started with tensions between Burkina Faso and Mali

11. Sept 1987, Blaise Compaoré who has grown into an enemy of Sankara, travelled to LIBYA WHERE HE MET WITH JERRY RAWLINGS AND YOWERI MUSEVENI. He was lobbying for his coup.

A coup that later was financed by France

12.October 8th 1987, Sankara ordered Hussein Compaoré to arrest Blaise Compaoré and Henri Zongo. Hussein didn't. He hid them

October 10th 1987, the first anti apartheid panafrican summit took place in Ouagadougou. 29 countries and 40 civil society organizations were represented

13. 5 days later, Sankara and his 7 comrades were killed. Blaise Compaoré became president after a well staged coup.

Blaise Compaoré's coup was supported by France. He later denied to be responsible of Sankara's death even though his men killed him

He said "It wasn't my orders"

14. Sankara was buried in an unmarked grave . Compaoré denied Sankara's family the permission to exhume Sankara's corpse for 27years.

And anyone who protested against Sankara's death was jailed.

Traoré was the only man among who survived the people who were with Sankara

15. Mariam Sankara then fled to France where she raised her two sons in total privacy. She appeared again in 2014 where she led the revolution to remove Blaise Compaoré.

Black organizers in Harlem are known among the people who financially supported Mariam and his two sons.

16. Few things to know about Sankara:

- Sankara called his wife " a partner". In his speech addressing how all Burkinabe were going to address gender inequalities, he mentioned his responsibilities to rule the country according to Mariam's accord.

17. Later on after his death, Mariam wrote a letter highlighting their shared vision for Burkina Faso and confirmed Compaoré was corrupted.

The 2017 letter of Mariam to the people of Burkina Faso was a voice of a woman who lost a companion and dreams of a better africa gone

18. Sankara's regime had the highest number of women in government(80% were women)
In history

- his administration stopped Female genital mutilation, forced marriages and polygamy.

All of this is an extract of a biography paper I did on Sankara for a political science class I took.

My paper highlighted his short journey as an effective leader and the life of Mariam Sankara

My resources were different French archives and interviews from 1980

I will do another thread, another day about my research on the life of Mariam Sankara.

Her role and influence on Sankara's politics. Her fight of 27 years to destroy the Compaoré's administration.

And why France must be held accountable.

But the pertinent question is and one day we will theorize about it:

Since Compaoré met with Jerry Rawlings and Yoweri Museveni in sept 1987, lobbying for his staged coup. So were these two aware of the plan to kill Sankara? ............

One day we will know

Someone just quoted this thread saying they would love me to be their history teacher

I am going to need the same energy when I launch my patreon(only $2/a month)

You will be able to read my research papers on African leaders and other cool stuff centering Africa's liberation

And almost a year after,

I had started my patreon and I am publishing my full research on Sankara by June 5th.

So Subscribe and let me be your history teacher https://www.patreon.com/judicaelle