Who killed the lion king? "An incorruptible man and Afrikan Revolution"

[RBG Street Scholar]

Why do We Always Betray those of Us that Fight for Afrika's Freedom?

Who killed the lion king?

There is actually no murder mystery:

When Thomas Sankara was killed after four years as President of Burkina Faso, it was at the orders – if not at the hands – of one of his oldest friends, now President Blaise Compaoré. Echoes of Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar as much as Disney’s The Lion King. Why should we care about this particular African tragedy?

We should care because the revolution Sankara led between 1983 and 1987 was one of the most creative and radical that Africa has produced in the decades since independence. He started to blaze a trail that other African countries might follow, a genuine alternative to Western-style modernization – and, like other radical African leaders such as Patrice Lumumba and Amilcar Cabral, was shot down as a result. Whereas his murderer, still in power eight years later, has pursued self-enrichment and politics as usual – and has been fêted by the West for his compliance.

An incorruptible man

*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 (and as Blaise Compaoré does now), Sankara said ‘There are seven million Thomas Sankaras’.

Chronicle of a revolution

Feb 1984 Tribute payments to and obligatory labour for the traditional village chiefs are outlawed.

4 Aug 1984 All land and mineral wealth are nationalized. The country’s name is changed from the colonial Upper Volta to Burkina Faso, words from two different local languages meaning ‘Land of the Incorruptible’.

22 Sept 1984 A day of solidarity: men are encouraged to go to market and prepare meals to experience for themselves the conditions faced by women.

Oct 1984 The rural poll tax is abolished.

Nov 1984 ‘Vaccination Commando’. In 15 days 2.5 million children are immunized against meningitis, yellow fever and measles.

3 Dec 1984 Top civil servants and military officers are required to give one month’s pay and other civil servants to give half a month to help fund social development projects.

31 Dec 1984 All domestic rents are suspended for 1985 and a massive public housing construction program begins.

1 Jan 1985 Launch of a campaign to plant 10 million trees to slow the Sahara’s advance.

4 Aug 1985 An all-women parade marks the anniversary of the Revolution.

10 Sep 1985 The mounting hostility of the region’s conservative regimes is revealed at a meeting in Yamoussoukro, Côte d’Ivoire.

Feb-Apr 1986 ‘Alpha Commando’. A literacy campaign in nine indigenous languages involves 35,000 people.

End of 1986 A UN-assisted program brings river blindness under control.

15 Oct 1987 Sankara is assassinated in a coup d’état along with 12 aides. His body is unceremoniously dumped in a makeshift grave which quickly becomes a shrine as for days thousands of people file past it to pay their respects. Popular feeling forces the new regime to give Sankara a decent grave.

A villager’s assessment of Sankara

‘I wasn’t surprised when he was killed – the Revolution took me by surprise but that didn’t. He had bad men around him, people who just wanted to get fat and drive around in big cars. Many things changed in the Revolution. Not always in the best way. But because of the Revolution we know a little more about the type of politicians we need. It taught us to work by ourselves for ourselves. But Sankara wanted everything to happen too quickly – he expected too much.

‘If I were President myself I would do just as Sankara did and send my ministers out to the villages to learn what it’s like there and give the peasants help. Sankara’s very best idea was to teach us that it wasn’t enough to live with what we get in wages each month – we should get by with the minimum and give the rest to the development of the country instead of always asking for aid from overseas.’

‘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 nonconformity, 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, 1985


See also this information on Thomas Sankara from the Wikipedia

[kosynchro]

I live in Burkina now and have a lot to say about what remains of the Revolution by Sankara.
What we are living in today would have gone unnoticed, been considered normal, if there had been no Sankara. There is a whole world between the Burkinabe "incorruptible men" of the revolution era and the Compaore polities.
Who would have complain about the damages to the nation, corruption, torture, murders, arrogance of today leaders of the country if the messages of Sankara were not there to remind us of who we are?
We are among the poorest countries in the world. Contrary to other poor countries where they are living in endless war, we are living in peace but unable to grow.
Why is that the majority of voters chose Compaore and his camp although the same voters are the poorest and the most desperate of the country? Because these are made up of two categories of people: poor rural illeterate farmers and intellectuals hoping to escape justice.
Sankara did not live for his own sake. He was so conscious about the extreme poverty of Africa and the constant dictation from the world so-called powerful countries. How is it that countries like the US, France, ect, advocate democraty and freedom when they are the best friends of dictatorship in Africa? They need to clean before their own door instead of yapping before Africa!

[RBG Street Scholar]

Originally Posted by kosynchro

I live in Burkina now and have a lot to say about what remains of the Revolution by Sankara.
What we are living in today would have gone unnoticed, been considered normal, if there had been no Sankara. There is a whole world between the Burkinabe "incorruptible men" of the revolution era and the Compaore polities.
Who would have complain about the damages to the nation, corruption, torture, murders, arrogance of today leaders of the country if the messages of Sankara were not there to remind us of who we are?
We are among the poorest countries in the world. Contrary to other poor countries where they are living in endless war, we are living in peace but unable to grow.
Why is that the majority of voters chose Compaore and his camp although the same voters are the poorest and the most desperate of the country? Because these are made up of two categories of people: poor rural illeterate farmers and intellectuals hoping to escape justice.
Sankara did not live for his own sake. He was so conscious about the extreme poverty of Africa and the constant dictation from the world so-called powerful countries. How is it that countries like the US, France, ect, advocate democraty and freedom when they are the best friends of dictatorship in Africa? They need to clean before their own door instead of yapping before Africa!

Whoo, I feel close to your struggle, Extremely Powerful Stuff Here , this is what Pan-Afrikan digital forums must continue to be all about. We here at Assata are on your side and will continue to educate the world about your/OUR great leader.
FORWARD TO PAN-AFRIKANISM

[G.O.D.F.A.T.H.A.]

Sankara was a leader of honest men..........Uhuru and R.I.P. to this great warrior.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ft8nhh8Zch8