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Thomas Sankara was one of Africa's most important anti-imperialist leaders of the late 20th Century. His declaration that fundamental socio-political change would require a 'certain amount of madness' drove the Burkinabe Revolution and resurfaced in the country's popular uprising in 2014.
This book looks at Sankara's political philosophies and legacies and their relevance today. Analyses of his synthesis of Pan-Africanism and humanist Marxist politics, as well as his approach to gender, development, ecology and decolonisation offer new insights to Sankarist political philosophies. Critical evaluations of the limitations of the revolution examine his relationship with labour unions and other aspects of his leadership style. His legacy is revealed by looking at contemporary activists, artists and politicians who draw inspiration from Sankarist thought in social movement struggles today, from South Africa to Burkina Faso.
In the 30th anniversary of his assassination, this book illustrates how Sankara's political praxis continues to provide lessons and hope for decolonisation struggles today.
Thomas Sankara was one of Africa's most important anti-imperialist leaders of the late 20th Century. His declaration that fundamental socio-political change would require a 'certain amount of madness' drove the Burkinabe Revolution and resurfaced in the country's popular uprising in 2014.
This book looks at Sankara's political philosophies and legacies and their relevance today. Analyses of his synthesis of Pan-Africanism and humanist Marxist politics, as well as his approach to gender, development, ecology and decolonisation offer new insights to Sankarist political philosophies. Critical evaluations of the limitations of the revolution examine his relationship with labour unions and other aspects of his leadership style. His legacy is revealed by looking at contemporary activists, artists and politicians who draw inspiration from Sankarist thought in social movement struggles today, from South Africa to Burkina Faso.
In the 30th anniversary of his assassination, this book illustrates how Sankara's political praxis continues to provide lessons and hope for decolonisation struggles today.
Foreword by Horace G. Campbell
Acknowledgements
Introduction by Amber Murrey
Part I: Life and Revolution
1. Military Coup, Popular Revolution or Militarised Revolution?:
Contextualising the Revolutionary Ideological Courses of Thomas
Sankara and the National Council of the Revolution - De-Valera
N.Y.M. Botchway and Moussa Traore
2. The Perils of Non-Alignment: Thomas Sankara and the Cold War -
Brian Peterson
3. Thomas Sankara and the Elusive Revolution - Leo Zeilig
4. When Visions Collide: Thomas Sankara, Trade Unions and the
Revolution in Burkina Faso, 1983-1987 - Craig Phelan
5. Africa’s Sankara: On Pan-African Leadership - Amber Murrey
6. Who Killed Thomas Sankara? - Bruno Jaffré
7. ‘Incentivized’ Self-Adjustment: Reclaiming Sankara’s
Revolutionary Austerity from Corporate Geographies of Neoliberal
Erasure - Nicholas A. Jackson
Part II: Political Philosophies
8. Madmen, Thomas Sankara and Decoloniality in Africa - Ama
Biney
9. With the People: Sankara’s Humanist Marxism - Ernest Harsch
10. Thomas Sankara & Tajudeen Abdul-Raheem: The Untimely Deaths of
Two New Generation African Visionaries - Patricia Daley
11. Women's Freedoms are the Heartbeat of Africa's Future: A
Sankarian Imperative - Patricia McFadden
12. Re-Reading Sankara’s Philosophy for a Praxeology of Debt in
Contemporary Times - Sakue-C. Yimovie
13. Sankara’s Political Ideas and Pan-African Solidarity: A
Perspective for Africa’s Development? - Felix Kumah-Abiwu and
Olusoji Alani Odeyemi
14. ‘Revolution and Women’s Liberation Go Together’: Thomas
Sankara, Gender and the Burkina Faso Revolution - Namakula E.
Mayanja
Part III: Legacies
15. Balai Citoyen: A New Praxis of Citizen Fight with Sankarist
Inspirations - Zakaria Soré
16. La Santé Avant Tout: Health Before Everything - T. D.
Harper-Shipman
17. Social Movement Struggles and Political Transition in Burkina
Faso - Bettina Engles
18. To Decolonize the World: Thomas Sankara and the ‘Last Colony’
in Africa - Patrick Delices
19. ‘Daring to Invent the Future’: Sankara’s Legacy and
Contemporary Activism in South Africa - Levi Kabwato and Sarah
Chiumbu
Part IV: Contestations and Homages
20. The Academy as Contested Space: Disappearing Sankara from the
‘Acceptable Avant-Garde’ - Nicholas A. Jackson
21. Art and the Construction of a ‘Sankara Myth’: A Hero Trend in
Contemporary Burkinabè Urban & Revolutionary Propaganda Art -
Sophie Bodénès Cohen
22. Slanted Photography: Reflections on Sankara and My Peace Corps
Experience in Burkina Faso - Celestina Agyekum
23. ‘We Are the Children of Sankara’: Memories as Weapons during
the Burkinabe Uprisings of 2014 and 2015 - Fiona Dragstra
Afterword by Aziz Salmone Fall
Notes on Contributors
Index
Amber Murrey is Postdoctoral Fellow in Sociology at The American University in Cairo, Egypt. Her award-winning research considers contemporary Pan-Africanism, resistance to neo-colonial violence, resource extraction and decolonisation. She has been published in a variety of academic journals, including Third World Quarterly, Political Geography, The Journal of Black Studies, The Postcolonialist and Capital and Class. She is the editor of A Certain Amount of Madness (Pluto, 2018).
'The legendary Thomas Sankara - hero, revolutionary leader,
anti-imperialist - receives deserving analytical treatment from the
most prominent radical voices here assembled for one the greatest
sons of Africa. The book enhances our understanding of the
pragmatism of politics, the rhetoric of revolutionary actions, and
the resurgence of reactionary forces. A must read'
*Toyin Falola, Honorary Professor, University of Cape Town,
University Distinguished Professor and Jacob and Frances Sanger
Mossiker Chair in the Humanities, The University of Texas at
Austin*
'This book by a wide range of committed scholars, including,
crucially, a significant number of African scholars, is a necessary
and illuminating intervention. The Sankara that emerges here is
more than 'Africa's Che Guevara', a man whose ideas and politics
are 'rich with a thousand nuances' that distinguish them from other
forms of Marxism and Pan-Africanism. Sankara comes alive in all his
complexity'
*Sean Jacobs, Associate Professor of International Affairs at The
New School and Founder and Editor, Africa is a Country*
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