Thomas Sankara

Thomas Sankara became Prime Minister of Upper Volta in 1983, was imprisoned after political disputes with the sitting government, then seized power that same year in a coup staged on his behalf while he was under house arrest. At 33, he launched what he called a people's democratic revolution: renaming the country Burkina Faso in 1984, rejecting IMF loans, expanding agrarian land reform, suspending rural poll taxes, and running mass literacy and vaccination campaigns that distributed millions of doses to children. His government built schools, health centres, and water reservoirs, planted over 10 million trees against desertification, and banned female circumcision, forced marriages, and polygamy. He sold off government luxury vehicles and properties, prohibited air conditioning in official buildings, and set up Popular Revolutionary Tribunals to prosecute officials for corruption - drawing criticism from Amnesty International for arbitrary detentions. His push for African self-reliance made him an icon across the continent but alienated tribal leaders, the former ruling class, and the governments of France and Ivory Coast. On 15 October 1987, troops led by Blai