Sankara, Thomas (1950–1987)

Burkina Faso politician and soldier, prime minister and head of state 1983–87. While serving as a minister in Saye Zerbo's government, he came to believe that only popular revolution would expunge the effects of French colonialism. Leading a coup in 1983, he became prime minister and head of state and introduced a wide range of progressive policies that made him enemies. Despite his great symbolic popularity among young radicals (outside Burkina Faso as much as inside), he was shot during a military coup led by his close associate Blaise Compaoré in 1987.

After seizing power in 1983 Sankara ruled through a council of ministers; opposition members were arrested, the national assembly was dissolved, and a National Revolutionary Council (CNR) set up. His government strengthened ties with Ghana and established links with Benin and Libya. In 1984 he announced that the country would be known as Burkina Faso (‘land of upright men’), symbolizing a break with its colonial past.

Sankara joined the army in Ouagadougou in 1969 and first began to develop radical political ideas while attending the French Parachute Training Centre between 1971 and 1974.