On October 15th 1987, Our President Thomas Sankara was brutally assassinated by Blaise Compaoré and his men.

Here is the events that led to this day and the events that followed his death.

Sankara died at only 37
1. Sankara's death was not a surprise to him. He knew Blaise Compaoré was aligning men against him. It was obvious in how Compaoré kept missing meetings

Also Sankara received reports about Compaoré's plans.

Valerie Some, one of Sankara's comrades wrote about it in his memoir
2. 2. I need you all to understand Blaise Compaoré so wanted to ascend to power since day one. Sankara never demanded presidency. It was imposed on him in 1983 when a coup led by Compaoré removed Jean Baptiste from presidency

His comrades voted for Sankara to lead the revolution
3. Sankara served as secretary of State in Saye Zerbo govt then prime Minister in J.Baptiste's govt until he resigned.

As Prime Minister, Sankara developed strong diplomatic ties with former French colonies like Libya and Algeria and it drove the French mad
4. On May 17th 1983, Sankara was removed from prime ministry office and put into house arrest by Pres J.Baptiste and that created youth protests.

Sankara was already loved by the youth.

Sankara arose to power then on August 4th 1983 through a coup by his comrades
5. Sankara's government called itself the revolution. They believed and worked to free Burkina Faso from imperialism and neo-colonialism

The 4 years of Sankara's Presidency became harder than expected for folks like Blaise Compaoré who thought being a revolutionary is just words
6. Sankara's task to lead the revolution in Burkina Faso was actually very hard. First he had to constantly deal with outside forces fighting him for daring to be anti-imperialist. Second, keep his people in check who wanted to abuse power by stealing from the people
7. Internal disagreements among Sankara's government arose by earlier 1985

The people who were happy at first to drive bicycles to work, now wanted bourgeoisie and Compaoré started promising them a luxurious revolution where they get to drive the Mercedes Sankara denied them
8. 3 month before his death, Sankara received a detailed letter (and this is well documented by in Valerie Some's memoir). The letter explained to Sankara he was going to get killed as his govt was divided

That day Sankara invited Valerie for a guitare session
9. The guitare session turns out Sankara explaining to Valerie that he was ready to die. More than ever, he has to choose the people over himself and if a brother like Compaoré chooses to kill him then he prefers to die still in harmony with everything he promised the people
10. I don't know who will continue serving the people knowing he is getting killed soon but Sankara chose so.

So here is the last 7 days of Sankara.

-October 8th: Sankara inaugurated the Che Guevara Road in Burkina with Camillo Guevara (Ché's son)
11. On October 10th 1987, the first anti-apartheid panafrican summit took place in Ouagadougou Sankara welcomed 29 countries and forty Civil society organizations

Sankara share some Burkina's failures to free from imperialism and demand more solidarity from other counties
12. October 11th to 14th: Sankara lead a meeting of ministers where Blaise Compaoré is intentionally absent

Thursday October 15th 1987 Sankara spent his day at his office and around 3pm he left to go meet his member secretary at their usual sports venue.
13. Thursday afternoon was a sports day in Burkina Faso.

Around 16:30, a car with Compaoré's men walked into where Sankara was and started shooting.

At that moment, Sankara told his comrades to stay put as he walked toward them saying take me, I am all you need to kill
14. Unfortunately the killers would not hesitate to brutally kill Sankara and 13 people who were with him.

These are Sankara's comrades killed with him: Christophe Saba, Babou Paulin, Frédéric Kiemde, Patrick Zagre and Bonaventure

Alouna Traoré is the survival of that day
15. Burkina Faso went in 2 days of Silence. Nobody knew what to do next especially the people.

Blaise Compaoré would appear on TV on October 17th claiming that it was either him or Sankara. He shamelessly said Sankara wanted to kill him ...the audacity
16. Mariam Sankara was persecuted.

First she didn't get to see where her husband was buried

Second she was subjected to a house arrest right after. She wasn't allowed to go anywhere and no one was allowed to come mourn with her
17. Décember 1987, Mariame tries to send her kids to Bamako so they can have a proper childhood. They refused her the travel documents.

On January 21st 1988, a national notice is sent on every border that the widow of Sankara must not be allowed to leave the country
18. In February 1988, the police arrested Sankara's brother Pascal accusing him of hiding a suitcase of money in collaboration with Mariame.

The brother is tortured while Mariane is kept under house arrest
19. The international community and allies of Sankara lobbied for Mariame and on June 21st 1988, Mariame is able to leave Burkina Faso to Libreville, Gabon under the warm welcome of President Omar Bongo
20. Mariame returned to Burkina Faso in 2014 at the fall of Compaoré.

We are sending all our love to the Sankaristes.

May we keep our President memory alive. .

Read more about Sankara's here: https://twitter.com/Judicaelle_/status/1052040367753912321?s=19
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