Africa Is a Country

Who killed Thomas Sankara?

Who killed Thomas Sankara?

By
Shamira Muhammad

A French Communist MP announced he would press the French National Assembly to create an inquiry commission to investigate the 1987 assassination of Thomas Sankara.

Blaise Compaore, President of Burkina Faso, and the main suspect in Thomas Sankara's murder, poses with his wife, Chantal, and the Obamas at the UN (Wiki Commons).

Burkina Faso’s president, Blaise Compaoré, is experiencing some mixed PR right now. On the hand, he is developing a reputation as the chief negotiator of regional conflicts in West Africa. Not everyone is impressed or convinced.  Peter Dorrie argues in African Arguments that Compaoré may be helping to “resolve” conflicts that he’s already benefitted from.

On the negative side, he can’t shake the suspicion that he was involved in the 1987 murder of his former comrade, Thomas Sankara.

A few weeks ago a French MP, André Chassaigne, announced he would press the French National Assembly to create an inquiry commission to Sankara’s assassination. Chassaigne, a member of the Communist party (yes, it is significant that he is not from the ruling party or the main, conservative, opposition party), is following up on a letter written by 12 Burkinabe MPs in 2011, who’d asked for the commission.

Sankara, who was the president of Burkina Faso for four years until his assassination on October 15, 1987, brought in a tremendous amount of reform in a short period. Literacy and vaccination programs were launched, and Burkina Faso was nearly completely self-sustaining. Compaoré, who some implicate in Sankara’s assassination, came into power immediately after.

It is worth repeating what Chaissaigne told journalists in regards to his proposition to the Assemblée Nationale of France:

France, to an as-yet unknown extent, is responsible for this assassination…I believe that France, which today claims to behave differently towards Africa under what I personally would call a virtuous circle, must tell the truth…We cannot leave the people of Burkina Faso, and more broadly speaking, the peoples of Africa in the dark about what really happened.

Meanwhile, Compaoré’s government is in a bind about recommending a national hero to the African Union as part of the organization’s 50th anniversary this year. Basically each country has to recommend one person. The only one outstanding is Burkina Faso’s nomination. There’s no doubt Sankara’s name deserves to represent Burkina Faso at the AU celebrations. While Compaoré gave Sankara a national honor in 1991 (along with three others), his regime is clearly embarrassed as well as skittish about honoring someone held in such esteem by large sections of the population — especially the youth — as well as beyond Burkina Faso’s borders.

Further Reading

A power crisis

Andre De Ruyter, the former CEO of Eskom, has presented himself as a simple hero trying to save South Africa’s struggling power utility against corrupt forces. But this racially charged narrative is ultimately self-serving.

Cinematic universality

Fatou Cissé’s directorial debut meditates on the uncertain fate and importance of Malian cinema amidst the growing dismissiveness towards the humanities across the world.

The meanings of Heath Streak

Zimbabwean cricketing legend Heath Streak’s career mirrors many of the unresolved tensions of race and class in Zimbabwe. Yet few white Zimbabwean sporting figures are able to stir interest and conversation across the nation’s many divides.

Victorious

After winning Italy’s Serie A with Napoli, Victor Osimhen has cemented his claim to being Africa’s biggest footballing icon. But is the trend of individual stardom good for sports and politics?

The magic man

Chris Blackwell’s long-awaited autobiography shows him as a romantic rogue; a risk taker whose life compass has been an open mind and gift to hear and see slightly into the future.

How to think about colonialism

Contemporary approaches to the legacy of colonialism tend to narrowly emphasize political agency as the solution to Africa’s problems. But agency is configured through historically particular relations of which we are not sole authors.

More than just a flag

South Africa’s apartheid flag has been declared hate speech by a top court. But while courts are important and their judgments matter, racism is a long and internationally entrenched social phenomenon that cannot be undone via judicial processes.

Resistance is a continuous endeavor

For more than 75 years, Palestinians have organized for a liberated future. Today, as resistance against Israeli apartheid intensifies, unity and revolutionary optimism has become the main infrastructure of struggle.

Paradise forgotten

While there is much to mourn about the passing of legendary American singer and actor Harry Belafonte, we should hold a place for his bold statement-album against apartheid South Africa.