[ this artcle is a comment reposted from Quora]
Thomas Sankara.
“Africa’s Guevara” he was termed. A true-blood communist he was. A good fellow I’d like to have a beer with, he was.
He was a low rank Army official when he successfully performed a coup d’état against the unstable Republic of the Haute-Volta and became its leader. Then Sankara began a series of truly “communist” reforms:
- He changed the name of the country from a bland geographical location to “Burkina Fasso” (the land of upright people);
- He stripped feudal landlords of their tax-collecting privileges;
- Distributed land controlled by landlords to peasants who worked on them;
- He set a cap for land size. Before you jump to your seat and say that the country began to starve, well, the country only became self-sufficient in food after these reforms. In fact, the country became a net exporter of food!
- Stimulated cotton plantation and tried to establish textile industries;
- Launched a mass vaccination program that quickly eradicated measles, polio and meningitis. Burkina Fasso was the first African country to recognise the danger of the AIDS epidemic;
- State-built brick factories helped the boor build themselves sturdier houses, improving living conditions;
- During his tenure, the country planted 7 million trees to fight deforestation;
- The country began building roads and rail connecting every major urban centre, all completed in four years;
- These roads and railways were built using locally available materials and voluntary labour;
- He had about a third of his government staffed with women;
- He banned genital mutilation, forced marriages and polygamy;
- He recruited women for the Armed forces;
- There was a widespread sexual education programme to prevent teenage pregnancy and unplanned parenthood;
- He sold the fleet of Mercedes owned by the government and replaced them with much cheaper Renault 5;
- The profession of chauffeur (driver) was discontinued: all government officials, including himself, were required to drive their own cars;
- He refused foreign aid: “Whoever feeds you, controls you.”
- He ordered a large Army supply centre converted into the country’s first supermarket;
- He discontinued the use of air conditioning in government buildings and his own house (that’s why you only see photos of him glistening with sweat drops);
- He required public workers to wear clothes made locally;
- He kept himself fit (at 34) running around the town in jumpers, protected only by a pistol concealed under his sweater;
- He played the guitar and composed the new national anthem. He used to play it sometimes;
- Instead of putting his official portrait in public offices, he instructed public servants to bring their own portraits to the working place because “there are seven million Thomas Sankaras” and because “everyone is the government”.
- Sankara was not very successful in his educational programme, though; but, again, he only had four years in power!
- During his government the country reduced its foreign debt.
In 1987, a group of Liberian and Burkinabé mercenaries, all funded by France and the USA, cornered and killed Sankara. They dismembered and partially burned his body beyond recognition before scattering it in different unmarked graves. The new dictator reversed almost every measure Sankara implemented. Legend has it (but I don’t know if it’s true) that he even ordered trees to be uprooted , textile plants dismantled and a huge IMF loan was taken to “restore” the country’s economy into “good shape.”
Addendum: Unlike most dictators, Sankara looked “bad-ass” in his uniform. A younger Denzel Washington would be perfect for the role.
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