Journey through the Sahel: Burkina Faso

Traoré: Transformation and Resilience The suitables of Thomas Sankara still resonate in Burkina Faso, and the present leader Ibrahim Traoré is developing brand-new history in real time. The nation’s modern history and political landscape is to a big degree formed by these two specifying figures.

Thomas Sankara: The Che Guevara of Africa

Thomas Sankara was the revolutionary leader of the 1980s. He became president through a popular coup in 1983, and rapidly got a lot of attention global for his anti-imperialist, Pan-Africanist vision, and making sweeping changes right off the bat. He started by altering the country’s name from Upper Volta to Burkina Faso, Land of Upright People, and introducing extensive reforms in education, healthcare, females’s rights, and self-reliance. It is not hard to see how he became referred to as Africa’s extremely own Che Guevara.

A real socialist

Sankara practiced what he preached. He

• reduced the wages of well-paid public servants, and made them pay the equivalent of a month’s income to public jobs
• made it prohibited for federal government authorities to fly first-class and have drivers
• sold off the federal government’s Mercedes fleet and replaced them with cheap Renault 5s
• banned air condition in federal government workplaces, including his own, since that high-end was just offered to a couple of
• reduced his own income to the equivalent of 450 USD/month, less than half the then typical for African leaders
• converted the army’s supply shop to Burkina Faso’s very first super-market, available to everyone
• didn’t want his picture on every wall, since ‘There are seven million Thomas Sankaras’
• was opposed to foreign help, and famously stated ‘He who feeds you, manages you.’
• prohibited forced marital relationships, polygamy and female genital mutilation
• selected females to high positions in the federal government and the military
• promoted birth control, and urged women to stay in school, even if pregnant
• initiated a national literacy project and a vaccination program for meningitis, yellow fever and measles

And– fun fact– he was a knowledgeable guitar player, and wrote Burkina Faso’s national anthem himself.

You will not be surprised to learn this was not popular among the facility. Thomas was assassinated in October 1987, (20 years and 6 days after Che), however his perfects stay powerful still. You can see him on murals, and hear him in the voices of young Burkinabé who see him as a sign of what the nation could still become.

In 2023, on the anniversary of his assassination, Boulevard Charles de Gaulle, one of Ouagadougou’s main roads, was relabelled Boulevard Capitaine Thomas Isidore Noël Sankara.

Location Thomas Sankara in Ouagadougou– memorial honouring the revolutionary leader While revolutionaries as people can be

Inside, I am drawn to the metal works, specifically to these sculptures of colourfully dressed ladies, so I purchase a one. In a red dress. She will be ideal on a bookshelf at home.

Seated, second from the right She makes it through Ouagadougou’s airport security, my little lady. However a few days later on, in Niamey, she is deemed a risk, a possible weapon, and is seized, along with a pair of tweezers and a non reusable razor. Bit on the zealous side, Niger’s security.

I’m sad to have to offer her up. That’s the disadvantage of taking a trip with carry-on only.

Marche Betails Sougr-Nooma, the animal market

Vitali has been wanting to purchase a goat and welcome all of us to a banquet. It’s not happening here in Burkina Faso.

Appears like you’ll live to see another day, kid Cour Royale de Tiébélé: where tradition is painted in clay Burkina Faso is dealing with security challenges, specifically in border locations up north. Best to stay away from that. Rather, we are heading south-east to Tiébélé, an expedition that takes most of a day. It is a great 3.5-hour drive from Ouaga.