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Foreign Affairs / Facts About Thomas Sankara In Burkina Faso by kobofun(m): 1:09pm On Jan 12, 2018 |
Facts about Thomas Sankara in Burkina Faso After renaming his country to Burkina Faso, here’s Thomas Sankara’s accomplishments, ONLY 4 YEARS in power (1983-87). Thomas Isidore Noël Sankara (21 December 1949 – 15 October 1987) was a Burkinabé military captain, Marxist revolutionary, pan-Africanist theorist, and President of Burkina Faso from 1983 to 1987. Viewed by supporters as a charismatic and iconic figure of revolution, he is commonly referred to as “Africa’s Che Guevara” He vaccinated 2.5 million children against meningitis, yellow fever and measles in a matter of weeks. He initiated a nation-wide literacy campaign, increasing the literacy rate from 13% in 1983 to 73% in 1987. He planted over 10 million trees to prevent desertification He built roads and a railway to tie the nation together, without foreign aid He appointed females to high governmental positions, encouraged them to work, recruited them into the military, and granted pregnancy leave during education. He outlawed female genital mutilation, forced marriages and polygamy in support of Women’s rights He sold off the government fleet of Mercedes cars and made the Renault 5 (the cheapest car sold in Burkina Faso at that time) the official service car of the ministers. He reduced the salaries of all public servants, including his own, and forbade the use of government chauffeurs and 1st class airline tickets. He redistributed land from the feudal landlords and gave it directly to the peasants. Wheat production rose in three years from 1700 kg per hectare to 3800 kg per hectare, making the country food self-sufficient. He opposed foreign aid, saying that “he who feeds you, controls you.” He spoke in forums like the Organization of African Unity against continued neo-colonialist penetration of Africa through Western trade and finance. He called for a united front of African nations to repudiate their foreign debt. He argued that the poor and exploited did not have an obligation to repay money to the rich and exploiting In Ouagadougou, Sankara converted the army’s provisioning store into a state-owned supermarket open to everyone (the first supermarket in the country). He forced civil servants to pay one month’s salary to public projects. He 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. As President, he lowered his salary to $450 a month and limited his possessions to a car, four bikes, three guitars, a fridge and a broken freezer. A motorcyclist himself, he formed an all-women motorcycle personal guard. He required public servants to wear a traditional tunic, woven from Burkinabe cotton and sewn by Burkinabe craftsmen. (The reason being to rely upon local industry and identity rather than foreign industry and identity) When asked why he didn’t want his portrait hung in public places, as was the norm for other African leaders, Sankara replied “There are seven million Thomas Sankaras.” An accomplished guitarist, he wrote the new national anthem himself. Sankara seized power in a 1983 popularly supported coup at the age of 33, with the goal of eliminating corruption and the dominance of the former French colonial power. He immediately launched one of the most ambitious programmes for social and economic change ever attempted on the African continent. To symbolize this new autonomy and rebirth, he renamed the country from Upper Volta to Burkina Faso (“Land of Upright Man”). His foreign policies were centered on anti-imperialism, with his government eschewing all foreign aid, pushing for odious debt reduction, nationalizing all land and mineral wealth, and averting the power and influence of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank. His domestic policies were focused on preventing famine with agrarian self-sufficiency and land reform, prioritizing education with a nationwide literacy campaign, and promoting public health by vaccinating 2.5 million children against meningitis, yellow fever, and measles. Other components of his national agenda included planting over ten million trees to halt the growing desertification of the Sahel, doubling wheat production by redistributing land from feudal landlords to peasants, suspending rural poll taxes and domestic rents, and establishing an ambitious road and rail construction program to “tie the nation together”. On the localized level Sankara also called on every village to build a medical dispensary and had over 350 communities construct schools with their own labour. Moreover, his commitment to women’s rights led him to outlaw female genital mutilation, forced marriages and polygamy, while appointing women to high governmental positions and encouraging them to work outside the home and stay in school even if pregnant. In order to achieve this radical transformation of society, he increasingly exerted authoritarian control over the nation, eventually banning unions and a free press, which he believed could stand in the way of his plans. To counter his opposition in towns and workplaces around the country, he also tried corrupt officials, “counter-revolutionaries” and “lazy workers” in Popular Revolutionary Tribunals. Additionally, as an admirer of Fidel Castro’s Cuban Revolution, Sankara set up Cuban-style Committees for the Defense of the Revolution (CDRs). His revolutionary programs for African self-reliance made him an icon to many of Africa’s poor. Sankara remained popular with most of his country’s impoverished citizens. However his policies alienated and antagonised the vested interests of an array of groups, which included the small but powerful Burkinabé middle class, the tribal leaders whom he stripped of the long-held traditional right to forced labour and tribute payments, and France and its ally the Ivory Coast. As a result, he was overthrown and assassinated in a coup d’état led by Blaise Compaoré on October 15, 1987. A week before his murder, he declared: “While revolutionaries as individuals can be murdered, you cannot kill ideas.” On October 15, 1987, Sankara was killed by an armed group with twelve other officials in a coup d’état organised by his former colleague Blaise Compaoré. Deterioration in relations with neighbouring countries was one of the reasons given, with Compaoré stating that Sankara jeopardised foreign relations with former colonial power France and neighbouring Ivory Coast. Prince Johnson, a former Liberian warlord allied to Charles Taylor, told Liberia’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) that it was engineered by Charles Taylor. After the coup and although Sankara was known to be dead, some CDRs mounted an armed resistance to the army for several days. Sankara’s body was dismembered and he was quickly buried in an unmarked grave, while his widow Mariam and two children fled the nation. Compaoré immediately reversed the nationalizations, overturned nearly all of Sankara’s policies, rejoined the International Monetary Fund and World Bank to bring in “desperately needed” funds to restore the “shattered” economy,[34] and ultimately spurned most of Sankara’s legacy. Compaoré’s dictatorship remained in power for 27 years until overthrown by popular protests in 2014. I wish our youths would wake up and our leaders do what is right and not popular. For more: https://africa-facts.org/facts-about-thomas-sankara-in-burkina-faso/ 1 Like
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Nairaland / General / Re: A Thread For Quotes by kobofun(m): 2:07am On Aug 04, 2014 |
Nice thread... Information is cheap. Meaning is expensive... (Relevant in our age and time, where almost every/anything can be sourced from the almost almighty internet!) |
Computers / Re: 8 Ways Technology Makes You silly. by kobofun(m): 4:05pm On Aug 01, 2014 |
This article is a good one. I believe you all should read with an open-mind. Usually these 'effects' don't happen overnight, they are long-term but trust me, generations yet unborn will totally be different from us... Information is cheap. Meaning is expensive... 2 Likes |
Politics / Re: Nigeria Is The Only Country In The World Celebrating Eid-el-fitri Today by kobofun(m): 9:52pm On Jul 27, 2014 |
Before we celebrate Christmas now we go dey find Sun... President: Sun-sighting Committee 1 Like |
Politics / Re: Lagos Recruits 70 Female Truck-Drivers by kobofun(m): 12:14pm On May 18, 2013 |
bebe2: I bet they will be better drivers, less chance of being drunk and no raging testosterone.who say's..? testosterone has its positives and i also know some women who drink lot than ten men put together. Nice move LASG |
Family / Re: Punishments You Served While Growing Up When You Do Wrong by kobofun(m): 6:31pm On Mar 25, 2013 |
elkol: Normal floggingnothing 'normal' about flogging ooo! i see u so used to it! kai |
Family / Re: House Chores You Hated While Growing-Up by kobofun(m): 6:30pm On Mar 25, 2013 |
seedord247: I hate washing my Assss after excretion.haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa! |
Family / Re: House Chores You Hated While Growing-Up by kobofun(m): 6:29pm On Mar 25, 2013 |
Guess, i was a pretty good kid while growing up. I hated Saturdays though, we had to pick beans, help my younger sister to loosen her hair and take our herbal concoction - foul smelling, gall-tasting 'agbo' ***vomits*** |
Jobs/Vacancies / Re: Had Third Class In Education by kobofun(m): 8:55pm On Jun 09, 2011 |
Luk buddie get a professional degree-ICAN,ACCA,Java,Oracle,wateva u'v gt a flair 4/tink u can do witout failing! If u aint got cash borrow/get a teaching job/any job.D earlia u start d better-d clock's ticking hard n fast! C u @d top! Gudluck |
Politics / Re: Fec Approves N927m ($6.5m) For Fct Waste Bins by kobofun(m): 2:18pm On Sep 23, 2010 |
[center]Nigeria Oh my Nigger area![/center] We import chalk, A4 paper, pencils, human hair, food, any ish u can fink of, :Peven our naira is imported-she una don 4get? maybe we've got to import leaders cuz everything made in 9ja is a fake, a scam, inferior even the PC i'm typing on wuz imported. I tink we also import fertilizer and manure, despite all d SHIT around. [s]Only exports are our best brains, scammers, drug pushers and , [/s] Nigeria @ 50 itself is a waste fit for the best British bin, mayb d one the Queen uses personally. What in ell's name are we celebrating? We shud mourn @ 50 and import bins to hide our disgrace MAY OUR LEADERS ROT IN HELL - bunch of dirt, not even fit 4d bins! Tufiakwa |
Crime / Re: US Police Cracks Nigerian-mexician Drug Cartel Link by kobofun(m): 5:19pm On Sep 22, 2010 |
Hey folks 9ja wuz just de-listed from d major drug trafficking list, Dis may make'em consider and make even stricter immigration laws,which wud invariably afffect a lot of new-comers (like mo!!! ) Igbo/Yoruba/Hausa, itz 9ja & bad, very baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaD |
Business To Business / Energy Needs-diesel by kobofun(m): 12:49pm On May 15, 2010 |
Diesel/AGO Unadulterated & Pure Same day delivery Lagos & environs 3 day credit facility Please Call: Innovative Solutions now on 0706 943 9333 |
Jobs/Vacancies / Re: Are You Going For Interview Next Week? Then You Must Read by kobofun(m): 2:10pm On May 07, 2010 |
hi there, ma e-mail addy: kobofun@yahoo.com, tanx |
Celebrities / Re: Genevieve Denies Dbanj, Says 'he's Not My Kind Of Man' by kobofun(m): 1:16pm On May 07, 2010 |
Publicity Stunt as usual! |
TV/Movies / Re: Which Adverts Motivate You by kobofun(m): 2:15pm On Feb 15, 2010 |
I think d advert of all tyms is the Coke Advert, with the song: 'I am the future of the world, I am the hope of my nation, I am tomorrow's people, I am the new inspiration, " The advert was done some years' back and had this cute girl singing later joined by some other folks. That song should be taught in schools!!! The advert is not only beautiful but its got a message, its inspirational, cutting through all ages and classes!!! |
Events / Re: October Birthday's Only! by kobofun(m): 7:30pm On Oct 02, 2009 |
11th |
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