I love history because I get to learn about the past and somehow relate it to the present.
Going through the list of the amazing people I have been reading on for the past two weeks, I decided to start home, Africa. This was after I got to watch two documentaries that left me wondering how this man is not every African's role model.
Coming from a country where politicians are greedy and wouldn't care about the citizens, reading and watching how Thomas Sankara gave Upper Volta (now Burkina Faso) hope and wisdom really inspired me.
So let's get to it!
His term lasted from 1983-1987
He gave Upper Volta the name Burkina Faso, which meant ' the land of incorruptible people''. The first thing that strikes me from his speech is that he had a vision of an Africa without outsiders. This is hard to imagine now seeing as we have lost any form of independence we had because of our selfish rulers.
Having a leader who sees beyond the aid the white man lures us with? Well, Thomas Sankara did and he used his position in power to change that.
He was against food aid and cautioned his people from being beggars. In one of his speeches he said that if you look at your plate today, all you see is imperialism. We import almost everything, yet we ourselves produce enough to sustain us.
This takes me back to our local rulers here who just recently washed off a couple of tonnes of contraband sugar into the ocean ( I will not even go into the ecological consequences the marine life will have to face for them to make whatever point that was) but the fact is that we import sugar in a country where we have so many sugar plantations, we have to get sugar from abroad.
Whatever justification they will give you for this, famine, not enough machinery to harvest...don't buy into that... these are some of the consequences of making deals with other countries especially those where the white man is involved. I digress..
Back to this hero Sankara!
His first move as president was to reduce salaries of ministers and public servant, himself included. Hard to believe as a Kenyan, right? In a country where MPs are increasing their pension by 700%! Well, Thomas Sankara stripped all these country servants of all their privileges.
He banned unions and opposition parties (a bold move. We have seen how opposition parties are just after power, pretending to care for the common mwananchi then settling for some deal-frauds!)
Sankara ended colonial taxes on farmers which promoted farmers and yielded a lot of positive results in the agricultural sector.
Unlike here where the youth, especially the poor are destined to either catch a police bullet or be lured into gangs, he made sure the youth were recruited into training camps for the revolution. They were taught to resist imperialism, neo-colonialism and incompetence.. Something those of us who underwent western education were never taught to embrace.
These young boys and girls not only got food, clothing and shelter but they also grew to be conscious. Something some of us have to learn after we are done with the education system.
Sankara was not done with improving Burkina Faso, he pushed for an agenda most African countries are failing. Uplifting women.
One interesting thing he did was that on one Women's day celebration, he decided to switch up the roles in Burkina Faso, the women were to stay at home as their men did the shopping for the meals that day. Sankara appointed more women to positions of power and this motivated the women.
In one of his public meetings with the locals (yes, he went out to villages and sat down with the people and talked with them and gave them a chance to air their problems) he spoke against the expulsion of girls from school when they got pregnant. Imagine if these so-called leaders got on this line of thought!
In his bid to improve food production, housing and medical care, he launched several projects such as a campaign against desertification, he initiated housing campaigns, affordable medical treatment and he helped build the railway line.
Sankara did not use any outsider aid in the building of the Railway. It was built by the locals! If you do not have this man as your hero so far, worry not for it goes on! All this is during his term.
As I said earlier, Thomas Sankara hated the idea of a rich continent borrowing from exploiters, so he stressed on goods produced and consumed locally. He claimed that disorganization is the only reason we find it hard to produce and consume our own products locally (something your favourite rulers are preying on heavily to put our country in more debt) By 1986, food scarcity was a thing of the past for the people of Burkina Faso.
He grew the cotton industry and came up with a locally made gown and required that all public servants be dressed in it.
At the OAU, he challenged other leaders on foreign debt. He declared that his people would not pay the foreign debt as we could not be held in the same standard as those who exploited our resources for so many years.
In his 3rd year as president, he made a move to punish leaders who were found corrupt or underperforming in their duties. Those found guilty were to publicly justify themselves and face the law *Laughs in NYS SCANDALS*. In Burkina Faso, if you were suspended from office, you were to work without pay during that period.
His intention to arm his citizens in the preparation of the French trying to ruin their country again was one of the areas he failed to manage. This was because he wanted to include everyone..while some citizens would use this power of arms to push personal agendas. His right-hand man, Blaise Compaore, leader of the army used this opportunity to destroy Sankara and all he stood for. He worked with the French government to destroy a true African leader.
Sankara was later assassinated.
So it is true what they say, Our true heroes either died or were killed. I didn't know how best to end this because Africans destroying Africa has to be the worst form of betrayal of your people. We already had colonizers for that and you collaborating for a few trinkets is unforgivable!
It is only right that I end this with one of the slogans Sankara would always use 'Our homeland or death, we will win!'