Burkina Faso: A History of Power, Protest, and Revolution

by Ernest Harsch

In October 2014, huge protests across Burkina Faso succeeded in overthrowing the long-entrenched regime of their authoritarian ruler, Blaise Compaoré. Defying all expectations, this popular movement went on to defeat an attempted coup by the old regime, making it possible for a transitional government to organize free and fair elections the following year. In doing so, the people of this previously obscure West African nation surprised the world, and their struggle stands as one of the few instances of a popular democratic uprising succeeding in postcolonial sub-Saharan Africa.
 
For over three decades, Ernest Harsch has researched and reported from Burkina Faso, interviewing subjects ranging from local democratic activists to revolutionary icon Thomas Sankara, the man once dubbed “Africa’s Che Guevara.” In this book, Harsch provides a compelling and up-to-date history of this little understood country, from the French colonial period to the Compaoré regime and the movement that finally deposed him.
 

Genres: Africa, History, Burkina Faso, Nonfiction, Politics

304 pages, Paperback

Published October 15, 2017

Reviews

[Valerie · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars. This is a very comprehensive and well-researched book on the political history of Burkina Faso. It gives the reader a good understanding of the character of the different regimes that have ruled the country since independence and explains clearly the main drivers of change in the country. I found the section on the Sankara regime particularly informative (which is not surprising since the author also wrote a book on this). It is a bit dry and long-winded on occasion but if you can move beyond that, than this is certainly a very informative read.

[Wim · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you want to know more about this West-African country's peculiar history, this is the book you need. Harsch gives a readable, nuanced and detailed oversight of Burkina Faso from precolonial times upto 2017, focussing mainly on the post-colonial history of popular protest and revolt.

For this topic, Burkina Faso is an interesting case study, because of the revolutionary regime led by Thomas Sankara from 1983 to 1987) and because of the popular insurrection ousting president Blaise Compaoré in 2014.

The book is rather descriptive and not very analytical: just a chronological history of Burkina Faso. Sometimes very detailed and a bit hard to remember the names of protagonists and of organisations or parties. I must say I already had a basic knowledge of Burkina Faso's history and politics. Not sure how someone who doesn't would appreciate the book.

[Tinea · Rating 3 out of 5]

Readable and detailed, a great resource if you need the whole history of Burkina in a book, but a bit much if the highlights would do. I really appreciated how Harsch dove into economic details for both the Sankara years and the IMF structural adjustment imposed with Compaoré, but overall his meticulous attention to political parties and policy crowded out the story of power, protest, and revolution in Burkina Faso. This is a trees blocking the forest book, with the big themes obscured unless you take the time to parse the details or already know what you're looking for.

[Bookworm · Rating 3 out of 5]

Dry, informative book
Burkina Faso is a landlocked African country that grows cotton and mines gold. Its symbol is a white stallion, and its name means "Land of the Honest People".

[Ernst · Rating 5 out of 5]

On August 4, 1983 the people of Upper Volta revolted, and a year later, on the initiative of their leader, President Thomas Sankara, changed the name of the country to Burkina Faso. He had missed an earlier kerfuffle because he was in France training as a paratrooper -- Europe was always more willing to train Africans to fight in their wars than in training the leaders the continent needs.
Sankara inherited a country whose literacy, native languages, and society were in desperate shape and which was riddled by corruption. Soon he had been killed and replaced with Blaise Campoare, a leader more prone to let the west extract the resources it wanted and to allow the corrupt local leaders to continue to be corrupt. Campoare ruled through 2014.
Among modern readers, a history of an African country must have a purpose -- just learning about one of the over 60 African countries is not going to motivate a lot of sales. This books purpose is to show that the revolutionary spirit that led to the 1983 held even as it was suppressed for 31 years and led to the fall of Campoare in 2014. This, if true, would suggest a greater urgency to study African revolutions that modern analysts are willing to forget and consider outdated.
It is hard for me to realize how different things are in Africa from what is familiar to me. At one point Sankara, the good guy, tells the tenants that they will not pay rent to their landlords for a year -- that money will go to the government as taxes, and the landlords are out of luck for a year. Such a dramatic decree is less weird than it sounds -- the landlords were people who succeeded in the colonial system of oppression, so the money they were making as landlords was far from pure. And, in any case, the damage this year did to anyone was far less than the damage done by the west in imposing its various economic schemes in the last 40 years, or by the west by propping up the dictator Campoare. We see shockingly arbitrary policies, and then have to remember that our own society is doing much worse things all the time.
In any case, thanks to this book we have a good and exciting history of one of the African countries, at least in post colonial times, and that is cause for celebration.

[Isabel Arjmand · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fairly comprehensive-seeming look at the political history of Burkina Faso, focusing on the period from the 1980s to 2014 and covering the interactions between the state, coalitions of citizens, and particular political leaders. The book reads as fairly pro-Sankara, though I haven't read enough other sources to have an independent take on whether that's warranted.

It was too dense and detailed for my enjoyment, but that may be entirely a reflection of my preferences – I don't generally enjoy full-length history books. I ended up skimming much of the second half.

[ಥ_ಥ]

Thomas Sankara was intriguing, and the name change from Upper Volta to Burkina Faso was cool to learn about. I wasn't aware that Burkina Faso is a source of gold and how much cruelty came from it.

This book is informative yet not beginner-friendly; after watching a documentary and various YouTube videos, the content was a lot to digest. I completed it, but I am unsure about my retention, hence withholding a star rating. Fascinating topic; planning to revisit after further study.

[Edina · Rating 4 out of 5]

I feel a sense of pride for the people of Burkina Faso. Thanks to Ernest Harsh for sharing his highly researched work with the world. And now I'm forced to go read-up on Thomas Sankara!

[Bill Perrin · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the first book I have read about Bukina Faso. Veery well written and sustains interest throughout. It is a hard task to tell a coherent story about a complex history but this book succeeds.