Right away he launched into progressive policies aimed at reorienting perhaps the poorest country on the African continent. Changing Upper Volta’s name to Burkina Faso was spectacular, but other less dramatic events marked Sankara’s short tenure. Within a few years, the country saw positive changes in the conditions of women, children and poor farmers, including efforts at arresting desertification and improving transportation in a landlocked country.
Sankara had lit a fire and cast warm brilliance far and wide. “Neocolonialism” was his bugbear, and he never stinted in his attacks on colonial practices persisting in nefarious ways in the wake of African flag independence. He met Fidel Castro, spoke haughtily to the United Nations General Assembly, and tried unsuccessfully to lead the Economic Community of West African States, ECOWAS. He tended to shoot from the hip, but he was uncommonly forthright.
Docking Compaoré has implications beyond the country and the continent. Following the 2018 conviction of Hissene Habre, former president of Chad, in a Senegalese court for crimes against humanity, the trial is another indication that reckoning awaits African rulers who govern with impunity.
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