By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network<\/p>\n\n\n\n
NEW YORK (IDN) \u2014 The trial of the accused killers of Thomas Sankara, revolutionary leader of Burkina Faso\u2014including his former friend Blaise Compaore who succeeded him as president and went on to rule for 27 years\u2014 has now been adjourned to October 25 after defense lawyers asked for more time to prepare their case. It was to have opened on October 11 in the capital Ouagadougou.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Fourteen men are being tried over the assassination in 1987. Near the Thomas Sankara memorial site, many expressed the hope that the trial would shed light on his murder.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Dubbed Africa\u2019s Che Guevara, Sankara pledged to \u201cdecolonize minds\u201d in Burkina Faso and across the continent, but his revolutionary dreams were cut short after just four years in power. He was 37 years of age.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Compaore is currently in exile in neighboring Ivory Coast, where he fled following a wave of popular protests in 2014. Despite Compaor\u00e9\u2019s absence, the trial is hotly anticipated \u2014with more than 200 hundred journalists from across the world accredited to cover the proceedings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cFor us, Sankara was a patriot. He loved his people. He loved his country. He loved Africa. He gave his life for us,\u201d Luc Damiba, secretary general of the Thomas Sankara Memorial Committee, told the BBC.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
During Sankara\u2019s administration the country was renamed from Upper Volta to Burkina Faso, meaning \u201cLand of Upright People\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He reduced his own salary and that of all public servants. He banned the use of government chauffeurs and first-class airline tickets. He banned female genital mutilation, polygamy and forced marriages, among other measures to promote women\u2019s rights.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Education was a key priority. While he was in power, the literacy rate increased from 13% in 1983 to 73% in 1987, and he also oversaw a massive national vaccination campaign.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Land was taken from feudal landlords and given directly to poor farmers, which led to a huge increase in wheat production.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sankara called for a united Africa to stand against what he called the \u201cneo-colonialism\u201d of institutions such as the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. \u201cHe who feeds you, controls you,\u201d he was quoted to say.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There has been much speculation about the possible role of foreign countries\u2014including France, Ivory Coast, Liberia and Libya\u2014in the killing of Sankara. In 2017, French President Emmanuel Macron promised to declassify secret French files about the circumstances of Sankara\u2019s death, however only three batches of declassified documents have been sent to Ouagadougou and do not include any documents from the offices of Fran\u00e7ois Mitterrand and Jacques Chirac, who were respectively president and prime minister of France at the time of the assassination.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve waited a long time, all along the 27 years of Blaise Compaor\u00e9\u2019s regime,\u201d said Paul Sankara, his brother. \u201cUnder his rule we couldn\u2019t even dream of the possibility of a trial.\u201d [IDN-InDepthNews \u2013 13 October 2021]<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Photo: Captain Thomas Sankara and journalist Sennen Andriamirado in Paris in 1986. Pascal Maitre\/Archives JA. Source: The African Report.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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