Thomas Sankara Bio, Spouse, Children, Cause of Death, Quotes, Quick Facts

Publish date: 2024-05-02

Best described as “Africa’s Che Guevara”, Thomas Sankara, of blessed memory, was a Burkinabé military captain, Marxist revolutionary, pan-Africanist and President of Burkina Faso whose leadership regime began in 1983 ended in 1987.

He was indeed a disciplined and true Africa leader whose focus was on Burkina Faso, his home country.  From being appointed as Secretary of State for Information in the military government in September 1981, Thomas’ next political position was the presidency on the 4th of August, 1983, at the age of 33 years. He overthrew a controversial tyrant, Jean-Baptiste Ouédraogo and took over leadership which lasted for 4 years.

His political interests were influenced by the works of Karl Marx and Engels Lenin. Thomas was a radical social changer. Over 3 decades and Sankara remains one of Africa’s Youngest And Most Devoted presidents in history.

Thomas Sankara Bio

Thomas Sankara was born Thomas Isidore Noël Sankara to Joseph Sankara (father) and Marguerite Kinda (mother) on December 21, 1949, in Yako, French Upper Volta.

The iconic African leader was born into an average Roman Catholic family of 10 children. He was the 3rd child of Joseph, a gendarme who was of mixed Mossi–Fulani (Silmi–Moaga) heritage, and Marguerite, a direct Mossi descent.

Thomas had his primary school education at Bobo-Dioulasso where he notably excelled in mathematics and French. He continued his education at lycée Ouezzin Coulibaly, a secondary school in Bobo-Dioulasso.

Military Career

At age of 16, he would join the military academy of Kadiogo in Ouagadougou with the academy’s first intake of 1966, kicking off his military career at the age of 19.

At age 20, precisely in 1970, Sankara enrolled at the military academy of Antsirabe (Madagascar) to further his military career. He later graduated as a junior officer in 1973.

Thomas was not always the serious “super-hero wannabe”, he loved life too. He played in a band named “Tout-à-Coup Jazz”. He was their guitarist. Not even on his assumption as president of Burkina Faso, did he do away with his musical talent. He personally composed the nation’s national anthem.

The name “Burkina Faso” is courtesy of Thomas Sankara. Initially, the country which was a French colony was known as “Upper Volta”. He changed it to Burkina Faso- meaning the “Land of Upright Men”.

Sankara was perhaps the only president in African history who rode to work on 2 wheels. For some empathetic reason, he refused to use the air conditioner in his presidential office. He wanted to feel what majority of the people were feeling and not to be isolated in a luxurious lifestyle.

As a disciple of the Marxist theory, he hated injustice and had no patience with “lazy workers”. He set up tribunals to try corrupt officials from the past administration.

Just like Tanzania’s Magufuli, Thomas Sankara cut off all lavish expenditures of government officials. He made government works less attractive by mandating well-off civil servants to pay one month’s salary to public projects.

His economic policies were geared towards the fight against corruption, Agriculture/reforestation, hunger alleviation, educational and health reforms.

The economic upgrade within the few years of leadership brought the West African country into food self-sufficiency. There was also a boost in the country’s cotton production which aim was to develop the clothing and textile industries.

In the “sanitation” process, the “Che Guevara” of Africa as fondly called was accused of extrajudicial executions and violations of human rights.

Spouse, Children

Thomas Sankara’s widow is Mariam Sankara (née Sereme). She was born March 26, 1954. The couple had two children together. Their first child Philippe Sankara was born on August 10, 1980, while the second August Sankara was born on September 21, 1982.

Following the coup and Thomas’ assassination, Mariam was forced to flee Burkina Faso along with her kids. She would later go into exile in France, where she spent the next twenty years.

She returned to her country in 2007 to grace the 20th anniversary of her husband’s death. Following the 2014 uprising in Burkina Faso, Miriam congratulated the Burkinabé people for their victory and also called for the prosecution of Compaoré for his crimes against the people.

She closed her touching letter by stating: “Long live the Republic and long live Burkina! The motherland or death, we shall overcome.”

Cause of Death

While Sankara was commander of the Commando Training Centre in Pô, in 1976, he met Blaise Compaoré. Together with other “like minds”, they formed a secret organisation called the “Communist Officers’ Group”.

Thomas Sankara was assassinated on 15 October 1987, during a coup execution masterminded by Blaise Compaoré and carried out by an armed group with twelve other officials in Ouagadougou.

Deterioration in relations with neighbouring countries and accusation of him jeopardising foreign relations with former colonial power France and neighbouring Ivory Coast were reasons given for his assassination.

A week before his assassination, Sankara gave a speech marking and honouring the 20th anniversary of Che Guevara’s 9 October 1967 execution. He also declared: “While revolutionaries as individuals can be murdered, you cannot kill ideas“.

30 years after Sankara’s assassination is still under investigation. The French government is also a suspect in the case. So far they have declined co-operation to get to the root of the assassination.

After much restraints from the former sit-tight government of Blaise Compaoré, there are increasing calls for the death of the much-loved pan-Africanist to be judicially revisited and the culprits brought to book. On that note, Blaise was forced to resign and flee Cote d’Ivoire.

According to Mariam Sankara’s lawyers in 2015, autopsy revealed that Sankara’s body was “riddled” with “more than a dozen” bullets.

Thomas Sankara Quotes

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