and social measures that curtailed the rights and prerogatives of the region’s landed aristocracy and wealthy merchants. They joined with working people the world over to oppose imperialist domination. Mass organisations of peasants, craftsmen, workers, youth, women, and elders were initiated.
With broad popular support, the government abolished tribute payments and compulsory labour services to village chiefs. It nationalised the land to guarantee rural toilers – some 90 per cent of the population – access to the fruits of their labours as productive farmers. The prices peasants received from the government for basic food crops were increased. The government launched tree-planting and irrigation projects to increase productivity and stop the advance of the desert in the Sahel region in the north of the country. It organised massive immunisation campaigns, and made basic health care services available to millions. By 1985 infant mortality had fallen from 208 for every 1,000 live births at the beginning of the decade to 145, and the accelerated spread of parasite-induced river blindness had been curbed. In a country where illiteracy was 92 per cent – and even higher in the countryside – literacy campaigns in its indigenous languages were initiated. Steps were taken to combat the age-old subjugation of women, who were encouraged to organise to fight for their emancipation. The government funded public works to build roads, schools, and housing. Trusting in the justice of the working class and peasantry, it set up popular revolutionary courts to try former leaders and high officials accused of corruption.
Led by Sankara, the Burkinabè Revolution charted a course of internationalist solidarity with those fighting oppression and exploitation in Africa and worldwide. Sankara championed the fight of the people of Western Sahara against the occupation of their country by Morocco and helped lead a successful fight to admit the Saharawi representatives to the Organisation of African Unity. He actively organised support, in Africa and beyond, for the struggle against the apartheid regime in South Africa and for the Palestinians’ fight to re-establish their homeland. Sankara campaigned for cancellation of the onerous debt imposed on semi-colonial countries by imperialist governments and banks. He spoke in New York City’s Harlem to demonstrate support for African-Americans’ fight against racist oppression and for other struggles by working people in the United States. He extended Burkina’s hand to rising revolutionary struggles in Central America and the Caribbean, visiting Cuba in 1984 and 1986, and Nicaragua in 1986, where he spoke on behalf of all the international guests at a 200,000-strong rally marking the twenty-fifth anniversary of the Sandinista National Liberation Front.
In August 1987, speaking in Burkina Faso on the anniversary of the revolutionary uprising four years earlier, Sankara emphasised that, “The democratic and popular revolution needs a convinced people, not a conquered people – a convinced people, not a submissive people passively enduring their fate.” Growing numbers of workers, peasants, and youth issuing from the ranks of such a people were becoming involved in social and political life in Burkina Faso, setting an example that was already reverberating throughout Central West Africa – far beyond the borders of that landlocked country. On October 15, 1987, Capt. Blaise Compaoré led a military coup serving the interests of those – at home and abroad – whose property and class domination were threatened by this deep-going revolutionary mobilisation. Sankara and twelve of his aides and bodyguards were assassinated and the revolutionary government destroyed.
A week before his death, at a special commemoration in the capital of Ouagadougou, Sankara had spoken about Ernesto Che Guevara, the Argentine-born leader of the Cuban Revolution who died in combat twenty years earlier during an internationalist mission in Bolivia. In a speech reproduced in this book, Sankara, speaking of Che’s legacy, noted that revolutionaries as individuals can be killed but “you cannot kill ideas”. Thomas Sankara has himself become a symbol for millions of workers, peasants, and youth throughout Africa especially, who recognise in the Burkinabè Revolution – and in its continuing political heritage – a source of political ideas and inspiration for the battles for genuine liberation on the continent.
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The present collection of speeches and interviews is a new edition, entirely revised and expanded, of two earlier books. The first, Thomas Sankara Speaks, was rapidly published in English in the months following the assassination of Sankara. The second, Oser inventer l’avenir [Dare to invent the future], was co-published in French in 1991.
Particular attention has been paid to placing the Burkinabè Revolution in its historical and international context. This edition includes five new documents:
1.The remarks Sankara made at an official reception in Ouagadougou for French president François Mitterrand, 17 November 1986.
2.A speech on the foreign debt given during a conference of the Organisation of African Unity in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, in July 1987.
3.And the last major speech given by Sankara, 2 October 1987, on the fourth anniversary of the Political Orientation Speech, the programmatic document of the Burkinabè Revolution.
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This edition of Thomas Sankara Speaks could not have seen the light of day without the help and encouragement of numerous people.
First and foremost, our thanks go to Mariam Sankara, wife of Thomas Sankara, and to Paul Sankara, his brother. Both of them were generous in helping to clarify a number of questions about Thomas Sankara’s words as well as various events of the revolution.
Our thanks also go to Germaine Pitroïpa, high commissioner of Kouritenga province during the revolution. She patiently answered numerous questions directed her way as we prepared.
Production of this book was made possible by the work of more than 200 volunteers who offered their time and skills to review the documents and their translation, set and proofread the type, prepare the many digital files for printing, and, finally, to help get out the finished product, making possible its distribution in bookstores, on street corners, at factory gates – wherever the workers, farmers, and youth to whom these books are dedicated can be found. It is they who will respond to Thomas Sankara’s call, “dare to invent the future”.
July 2007
Who are the enemies of the people?
(At mass rally in Ouagadougou, 26 March 1983)
Speaking as prime minister of the Council of Popular Salvation (CSP), Sankara delivered this speech to a rally of several thousand in the country’s capital city. The text appeared in the 1 April 1983 issue of the weekly Carrefour africain, published in Ouagadougou.
Thank you for having gathered here at 3 January Square. I salute you for answering the call of the Council of Popular Salvation. By doing so you are showing that the people of Upper Volta are coming of age.4
When the people stand up, imperialism trembles. As it watches us, imperialism is worried. It is trembling. Imperialism is wondering how to break the bond that exists between the CSP and the people. Imperialism trembles. It is trembling because it is afraid. It is trembling because right here in Ouagadougou we are going to bury it.
I also salute you for coming to show that all our detractors, who are both inside and outside the country, are wrong. They have misjudged us. They thought they could stop the CSP’s march toward the people with their manoeuvre of propaganda and intimidation. By coming here, you have shown that the opposite is true. Imperialism is trembling and will keep trembling.
People of Upper Volta, represented here by the inhabitants of the city of Ouagadougou, thank you. Thank you for giving us the opportunity to provide you with truthful information, information that comes up from the ranks.
What is our purpose here? Our purpose is to tell you exactly what our enemies want, what the CSP wants, and
