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Black Critique
A Certain Amount of Madness: The Life, Politics and Legacies of Thomas Sankara
Thomas Sankara (1949–87) was one of the most important anti-imperialist leaders of twentieth-century Africa. His declaration that fundamental change would require “a certain amount of madness” was a driving force behind the Burkinabè Revolution that eventually led to his being elected president of Burkina Faso.
This book examines Sankara’s political philosophies and legacies and their relevance today. Amber Murrey analyzes his synthesis of Pan-Africanism and humanist Marxist politics, as well as his approach to gender, development, ecology, and decolonization. She doesn’t shy away from detailing the limitations of the revolution he led, but nonetheless she finds potent sources of inspiration for today’s struggles in Sankara’s example.
This book examines Sankara’s political philosophies and legacies and their relevance today. Amber Murrey analyzes his synthesis of Pan-Africanism and humanist Marxist politics, as well as his approach to gender, development, ecology, and decolonization. She doesn’t shy away from detailing the limitations of the revolution he led, but nonetheless she finds potent sources of inspiration for today’s struggles in Sankara’s example.
384 pages, Hardcover
Published July 15, 2018
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May 2, 2020
I guess I was waiting for the right kind of book on Thomas Sankara before I’d engage and I think I found it in ‘A certain amount of madness. The life, politics and legacies of Thomas Sankara’ (Pluto Press, 2018).
I wanted to avoid the hagiographies as much as the liberal’s usual ‘just-another-African-dictator’ spin. And before I forget this, it’s interesting how the IMF and World Bank propagate their bullshit concept of ‘good governance’ to imply some kind of western democracy in exchange for loans. My friends, where exactly is the democratic element in the structural adjustment programmes? And just because they now call the IMF reforms ‘post-Washington consensus’ (or ‘homegrown economic reform in today’s Ethiopia) it’s the same crap, it’s a consensus of maintaining the status quo, five hundred years of plunder of the global south, essentially. There, it had to be said (again).
So, this year I am continuing my reading journey on imperialism, including anti-colonial, post-colonial and ‘black radical’ writers but also some of the more recent history of decolonization in Africa and some of the figures who have tried to pursue alternative and independent models of development, before they gave in to the IMF in one way or another. And one of the icons of African self-reliance is of course Africa’s ‘Che Guevara’, Thomas Sankara, who became the President of what was then ‘Upper Volta’ in 1983 at age 33 and which he quickly renamed ‘Burkina Faso’. Long story short, he was assassinated after only four years in power (1983- 1987) and guess what happened right after his death – Burkina Faso got onto the IMF and World Bank development train. There’s a such a long history of ‘third world leaders’ who are a little too far on the left (remember what happened to Mossadegh when he nationalized Iranian oil) and are being ousted either by coups or outright assassinated. The only good thing about Trump is that when he orders extrajudicial killings of America’s enemies like recently Suleimani, he will just boast about it and we don’t need to wait 50 years to open the archives of western secret services to find out who was behind it.
So, the book brings together 23 essays (some better and more interesting than others) from various backgrounds and academic disciplines to look at Sankara’s life, (short lived) ‘revolution’, political and ideological context (cold war, Africa’s ‘debt crisis’ in the early 80s etc) and legacy from various angles. Some of the authors are more critical of him than others, depending also on the focus of the chapter. So, yes, there were arrests of trade union leaders and other political opponents but there were also Sankara’s efforts to advance women’s rights, equality, and social programmes for the poor. As often, it’s a complex story and it’s best to read it from so many angles by a wide range of writers. One shouldn’t engage with the legacy of Sankara from the point of view of an adjudication but use it as lens to understand post-independence Africa and efforts to pursue alternative paths to development.
Sixty years or so later, Africa is still being systematically impoverished, with ever stronger visa and border regimes to ensure that other than the tiny African elites (who will of course post selfies in front of the Eiffel tower on Facebook) , people kept in the continent. WFP just warned of famines of biblical proportions, with 265 million people living on the edge of starvation. But this is just the tip of the iceberg really, a billion people live in slums, expected to reach 2 billion in the coming years. By 2050, the slum population is expected to grow to more than three billion, a third of the projected population of 9.7 billion in 2050. Not to mention working conditions and wages of 1-2 US$ per day in many parts of sub-Sahara Africa. Despite all of this, the statistics wizards will be able to produce annual reports of progress with indicators (sanitation coverage) that have nothing to do with the human potential of the 21st century which should be the yard stick of progress for all human beings. But you only need to be bit of a human being to understand that this ‘development model’ is a direct continuation of exploitation and plunder of resources of the global south, by design, plus minus vaccination coverage and a few rural women groups sewing reusable sanitary pads under a tree (gender empowerment! Income generation!). In the words of Sankara “The colonialists have transformed themselves into technical assistants…turning each of us into a financial slave of those who had the opportunity, the craftiness, the deceitfulness to invest funds in our countries we are obliged to repay.”
So, this is why it’s interesting to read up on the trials, including the one led by Thomas Sankara, and debates on African independence. You can laugh at the various strands of pro-Moscow or non-aligned Afro-Marxists (mostly in some kind of military outfit) and experiments of African socialism (mostly dictatorships or juntas, yes) but intellectually speaking I prefer those to the current generation of people speaking in world bank language of African competitiveness, private sector driven growth and ‘ease of doing business’ to attract foreign direct investment, plus a concept of education and 'skills' that is relevant for the ‘21st labour market’ (often designed by McKinsey consultants who know no nothing about the country or education) when that’s actually sewing shirts for 27$ a month for H&M and other multinationals who are relocating Africa for the cheap labour and ten-year tax breaks. Add some kind of regular formally free elections as expressions of ‘democracy’ in otherwise totally unequal societies and the reports will tell you that the country is 'on track', improving in governance and other bullshit indicators.
Jokes aside, the western left is fairly blind on its internationalist eye and as Mike Davis recently said, the US Bernie movement is pursuing its own left-wing version of America first. While it’s rather depressing, I don’t think any African country can stand up against the pressure of the current global financial order and it’s either competing for foreign investment and loans or die. The anti-imperialist struggle has to be waged at the centre, and Corbyn was probably the closest we came to in this regard. However, it doesn’t mean that there’s no African anti-imperialist tradition and thinking and a need for strategies to link these with wider struggles against racism and capitalism (e.g., black lives matter). Without ending the oppression and exploitation of the global south, the west will also not find its freedom and humanity. The rise of fascism ‘at home’ and the wars and violence produced by the west in the global south are two sides of the same coin, the postcolonial gang has said this much better but that’s the essence. There is no liberal social democratic paradise in the west while 2 billion people die in wars, slums and sweatshops behind fences. Once you really get this, you start to understand imperialism.
I wanted to avoid the hagiographies as much as the liberal’s usual ‘just-another-African-dictator’ spin. And before I forget this, it’s interesting how the IMF and World Bank propagate their bullshit concept of ‘good governance’ to imply some kind of western democracy in exchange for loans. My friends, where exactly is the democratic element in the structural adjustment programmes? And just because they now call the IMF reforms ‘post-Washington consensus’ (or ‘homegrown economic reform in today’s Ethiopia) it’s the same crap, it’s a consensus of maintaining the status quo, five hundred years of plunder of the global south, essentially. There, it had to be said (again).
So, this year I am continuing my reading journey on imperialism, including anti-colonial, post-colonial and ‘black radical’ writers but also some of the more recent history of decolonization in Africa and some of the figures who have tried to pursue alternative and independent models of development, before they gave in to the IMF in one way or another. And one of the icons of African self-reliance is of course Africa’s ‘Che Guevara’, Thomas Sankara, who became the President of what was then ‘Upper Volta’ in 1983 at age 33 and which he quickly renamed ‘Burkina Faso’. Long story short, he was assassinated after only four years in power (1983- 1987) and guess what happened right after his death – Burkina Faso got onto the IMF and World Bank development train. There’s a such a long history of ‘third world leaders’ who are a little too far on the left (remember what happened to Mossadegh when he nationalized Iranian oil) and are being ousted either by coups or outright assassinated. The only good thing about Trump is that when he orders extrajudicial killings of America’s enemies like recently Suleimani, he will just boast about it and we don’t need to wait 50 years to open the archives of western secret services to find out who was behind it.
So, the book brings together 23 essays (some better and more interesting than others) from various backgrounds and academic disciplines to look at Sankara’s life, (short lived) ‘revolution’, political and ideological context (cold war, Africa’s ‘debt crisis’ in the early 80s etc) and legacy from various angles. Some of the authors are more critical of him than others, depending also on the focus of the chapter. So, yes, there were arrests of trade union leaders and other political opponents but there were also Sankara’s efforts to advance women’s rights, equality, and social programmes for the poor. As often, it’s a complex story and it’s best to read it from so many angles by a wide range of writers. One shouldn’t engage with the legacy of Sankara from the point of view of an adjudication but use it as lens to understand post-independence Africa and efforts to pursue alternative paths to development.
Sixty years or so later, Africa is still being systematically impoverished, with ever stronger visa and border regimes to ensure that other than the tiny African elites (who will of course post selfies in front of the Eiffel tower on Facebook) , people kept in the continent. WFP just warned of famines of biblical proportions, with 265 million people living on the edge of starvation. But this is just the tip of the iceberg really, a billion people live in slums, expected to reach 2 billion in the coming years. By 2050, the slum population is expected to grow to more than three billion, a third of the projected population of 9.7 billion in 2050. Not to mention working conditions and wages of 1-2 US$ per day in many parts of sub-Sahara Africa. Despite all of this, the statistics wizards will be able to produce annual reports of progress with indicators (sanitation coverage) that have nothing to do with the human potential of the 21st century which should be the yard stick of progress for all human beings. But you only need to be bit of a human being to understand that this ‘development model’ is a direct continuation of exploitation and plunder of resources of the global south, by design, plus minus vaccination coverage and a few rural women groups sewing reusable sanitary pads under a tree (gender empowerment! Income generation!). In the words of Sankara “The colonialists have transformed themselves into technical assistants…turning each of us into a financial slave of those who had the opportunity, the craftiness, the deceitfulness to invest funds in our countries we are obliged to repay.”
So, this is why it’s interesting to read up on the trials, including the one led by Thomas Sankara, and debates on African independence. You can laugh at the various strands of pro-Moscow or non-aligned Afro-Marxists (mostly in some kind of military outfit) and experiments of African socialism (mostly dictatorships or juntas, yes) but intellectually speaking I prefer those to the current generation of people speaking in world bank language of African competitiveness, private sector driven growth and ‘ease of doing business’ to attract foreign direct investment, plus a concept of education and 'skills' that is relevant for the ‘21st labour market’ (often designed by McKinsey consultants who know no nothing about the country or education) when that’s actually sewing shirts for 27$ a month for H&M and other multinationals who are relocating Africa for the cheap labour and ten-year tax breaks. Add some kind of regular formally free elections as expressions of ‘democracy’ in otherwise totally unequal societies and the reports will tell you that the country is 'on track', improving in governance and other bullshit indicators.
Jokes aside, the western left is fairly blind on its internationalist eye and as Mike Davis recently said, the US Bernie movement is pursuing its own left-wing version of America first. While it’s rather depressing, I don’t think any African country can stand up against the pressure of the current global financial order and it’s either competing for foreign investment and loans or die. The anti-imperialist struggle has to be waged at the centre, and Corbyn was probably the closest we came to in this regard. However, it doesn’t mean that there’s no African anti-imperialist tradition and thinking and a need for strategies to link these with wider struggles against racism and capitalism (e.g., black lives matter). Without ending the oppression and exploitation of the global south, the west will also not find its freedom and humanity. The rise of fascism ‘at home’ and the wars and violence produced by the west in the global south are two sides of the same coin, the postcolonial gang has said this much better but that’s the essence. There is no liberal social democratic paradise in the west while 2 billion people die in wars, slums and sweatshops behind fences. Once you really get this, you start to understand imperialism.
November 2, 2022
Great bundle of papers on the legacy of Thomas Sankara, how to understand his thought and action and how this can still be of value today in the struggle for decoloniality and liberation.
March 22, 2023
An excellent collection of essays about the life, politics, and legacy of Thomas Sankara. The brief period in which he led his revolution, before his brutal murder at the hands of his best friend and the forces of imperialistic capital, is dissected from multiple angles and from multiple perspectives.
After gaining power through a military coup (arguably backed by popular support from a variety of bases, though the unions quickly turned against him), Sankara distinguished himself from other governments of Africa and the world through his staunch opposition to neoliberal restructuring and imperialist debt traps, and for his unwavering championing of women's rights, environmental protections, public health, and his country's dignity and self-sufficiency. The amazing legacy resulting from this ranges from massive immunisation drives that saved the lives of at least 50,000 people, the building of a health centre in nearly every village, increasing the literatacy rate from potentially as little as 1% to over 60% without foreign aid, leaps in the number of students attending schools at every level, the planting of millions of trees, the near complete eradication of corruption at a government level, an outsized platform at the international level which was used unrelentingly to challenge the factors keeping Africa impoverished, the banning of child marriage and female genital mutilation, and the fact that Burkina Faso was one of the first countries in the world to recognise the AIDS epidemic.
This legacy is of course not without blemishes - the alienation of the unions and the sacking of resistant primary school teachers (later given apologies and reinstated shortly before his murder), the increasing isolation of Burkina Faso on the world stage, the occasional haphazard violence of his revolutionary citizen committees and their failure to effectively mobilise the population in a way that would continue the revolution after his death - but throughout these failures his personal charisma and optimism shine through to illuminate the possibility of a better world. Indeed, it is in envisioning a radical alternative to the oppressive stipulations of the IMF and World Bank, which all other African nations were falling prey to and remain deeply immiserated by, that Sankara as a man and a symbol is most powerful. In his powerful and prophetic speeches, quoted throughout the book, he highlights how revolutions neccessarily have to pave new roads and make decisions which will prove incorrect and have to be learned from. Better this, he argues, than accept ever-worsening oppression which robs the majority of agency. The quote used in the title and repeatedly across most of the essays is striking:
Despite decades-long attempts of the many governments involved in his murder to erase his legacy, it is this unwavering belief in the power of the human spirit and capacity for love in the face of a world shaped by immense inequality and cruelty that have made him a potent symbol utilised by youth movements, political parties, and activists all across Africa (and the globe) today. This collection does valuable work in illuminating his character, achievements, and search for justice.
After gaining power through a military coup (arguably backed by popular support from a variety of bases, though the unions quickly turned against him), Sankara distinguished himself from other governments of Africa and the world through his staunch opposition to neoliberal restructuring and imperialist debt traps, and for his unwavering championing of women's rights, environmental protections, public health, and his country's dignity and self-sufficiency. The amazing legacy resulting from this ranges from massive immunisation drives that saved the lives of at least 50,000 people, the building of a health centre in nearly every village, increasing the literatacy rate from potentially as little as 1% to over 60% without foreign aid, leaps in the number of students attending schools at every level, the planting of millions of trees, the near complete eradication of corruption at a government level, an outsized platform at the international level which was used unrelentingly to challenge the factors keeping Africa impoverished, the banning of child marriage and female genital mutilation, and the fact that Burkina Faso was one of the first countries in the world to recognise the AIDS epidemic.
This legacy is of course not without blemishes - the alienation of the unions and the sacking of resistant primary school teachers (later given apologies and reinstated shortly before his murder), the increasing isolation of Burkina Faso on the world stage, the occasional haphazard violence of his revolutionary citizen committees and their failure to effectively mobilise the population in a way that would continue the revolution after his death - but throughout these failures his personal charisma and optimism shine through to illuminate the possibility of a better world. Indeed, it is in envisioning a radical alternative to the oppressive stipulations of the IMF and World Bank, which all other African nations were falling prey to and remain deeply immiserated by, that Sankara as a man and a symbol is most powerful. In his powerful and prophetic speeches, quoted throughout the book, he highlights how revolutions neccessarily have to pave new roads and make decisions which will prove incorrect and have to be learned from. Better this, he argues, than accept ever-worsening oppression which robs the majority of agency. The quote used in the title and repeatedly across most of the essays is striking:
I would like to leave behind me the conviction that if we maintain a certain amount of caution and organisation we deserve victory... you cannot carry out fundamental change without a certain amount of madness. In this case it comes from nonconformity, the courage to turn your back on the old formulas, the courage to invent the future. It took the madmen of yesterday for us to be able to act with extreme clarity today. I want to be one of those madmen... we must dare to invent the future"
Despite decades-long attempts of the many governments involved in his murder to erase his legacy, it is this unwavering belief in the power of the human spirit and capacity for love in the face of a world shaped by immense inequality and cruelty that have made him a potent symbol utilised by youth movements, political parties, and activists all across Africa (and the globe) today. This collection does valuable work in illuminating his character, achievements, and search for justice.
February 14, 2022
A thorough analysis of the life, legacy and politics of Thomas Sankara. Enlightening to say the least. The collection of essays is very intensive and at times extremely specific touching on topics from Sankara’s political relations with Gaddafi, to his perspectives on teachers unions to his impact on contemporary Burkinabe art. I found myself quite taken by Sankara’s policies and views as they were portrayed in this collection of essays. I also enjoyed the attempts to genuinely criticize Sankara’s presidency despite the overall positive opinions of him. A few cons: Some of the essays included in this book were really awfully written, the book overall is at times repetitive due to the varying authors, and quite a few of the contributors are extremely repetitive in their writing. However, all these cons are quite common in most nonfiction books of this variety. I would overall highly recommend if an individual wishes an in depth breakdown on revolutionary Burkinabe history under/influenced by Sankara.
September 15, 2020
For those interested in Thomas Sankara, I would advise you to watch the documentary "Thomas Sankara: The Upright Man".
A Certain Amount of Madness is quite an exceptional collection of essays on the life and legacy of Thomas Sankara. Sankara, in his short reign as leader of Burkina Faso, had shown us a prospect of another future for Africa by building upon humanist socialist ideologies. His focus on the historically disenfranchised — the peasantry, women, the non-urban Burkinabè society — while rejecting neocolonialism and imperialism showed his dedication to reinventing an egalitarian society. His untimely death at the hands of his close ally Compaoré backed by imperialistic France had brought all this progress to a halt. Under Compaoré's rule, Burkina Faso suffered the very problems that Sankara had warned about in accepting foreign aid and loans. Presently, Burkina Faso is a country with one of the lowest HDIs, suffering from effects of structural adjustments, and is rife with corruption, inequality, and many other social problems. From Sankara's ideology, one could imagine a better future that never came true.
The different essays touch on different parts of Sankara's life, policies and ideas, showing his 'madness' in his rejection of Western hegemonic ideologies that were imposed upon many post-colonial western Africa states, favouring instead a society that believes in self-determination over imperialist control. While this book is largely approving of Sankara's rule, it does not shy away from criticising Sankara's shortcomings, some of which had led to his eventual assassination.
While most of the 23 essays in this volume are of quite a high standard, there are a handful that fail to reach this level. Some of the essays are too superficial and others are jargon-filled to the point of unintelligibility. It is interesting how some authors disagree with one another in their essays, presenting a well-rounded view on Sankara from both sides.
As one of the few English compendiums on Thomas Sankara, A Certain Amount of Madness was quite the comprehensive overview of what Sankara's impact on the world is. I must give credit to Murrey for the well-structured and edited book. Sankara allows us to glimpse a possible socialist future for the world. Let us remember the name of the greatest African revolutionaries: Thomas Sankara.
A Certain Amount of Madness is quite an exceptional collection of essays on the life and legacy of Thomas Sankara. Sankara, in his short reign as leader of Burkina Faso, had shown us a prospect of another future for Africa by building upon humanist socialist ideologies. His focus on the historically disenfranchised — the peasantry, women, the non-urban Burkinabè society — while rejecting neocolonialism and imperialism showed his dedication to reinventing an egalitarian society. His untimely death at the hands of his close ally Compaoré backed by imperialistic France had brought all this progress to a halt. Under Compaoré's rule, Burkina Faso suffered the very problems that Sankara had warned about in accepting foreign aid and loans. Presently, Burkina Faso is a country with one of the lowest HDIs, suffering from effects of structural adjustments, and is rife with corruption, inequality, and many other social problems. From Sankara's ideology, one could imagine a better future that never came true.
The different essays touch on different parts of Sankara's life, policies and ideas, showing his 'madness' in his rejection of Western hegemonic ideologies that were imposed upon many post-colonial western Africa states, favouring instead a society that believes in self-determination over imperialist control. While this book is largely approving of Sankara's rule, it does not shy away from criticising Sankara's shortcomings, some of which had led to his eventual assassination.
While most of the 23 essays in this volume are of quite a high standard, there are a handful that fail to reach this level. Some of the essays are too superficial and others are jargon-filled to the point of unintelligibility. It is interesting how some authors disagree with one another in their essays, presenting a well-rounded view on Sankara from both sides.
As one of the few English compendiums on Thomas Sankara, A Certain Amount of Madness was quite the comprehensive overview of what Sankara's impact on the world is. I must give credit to Murrey for the well-structured and edited book. Sankara allows us to glimpse a possible socialist future for the world. Let us remember the name of the greatest African revolutionaries: Thomas Sankara.
March 24, 2022
His picture in a captain's uniform and the ever present beret smiling with an undying youthfulness has attained icon status. This is a picture of a true leader with a moral compass that points to the true north. A person of the people, who spoke and acted for the people...
It's possible to speak about Thomas Sankara in nothing but platitudes and still get the message across, the problem is a person described only in platitudes is not a real person but a cardboard cutout of the real thing. Real people have good traits as well as flaws, other times they make good decisions while on other occasions a second counsel should have been listened to. I read this collection to try and get the real Sankara and not just his cardboard cutout.
This collection is a mixed bag. There were really good entries especially the ones that took an anthropological bent; the one by a peace corp volunteer, the other one about the health sector in Burkina Faso or the one the author interviewed people who were close and knew Sankara, but there were also many weak entries here. These are the ones that took an academic bent and got caught up in quoting other papers while offering nothing new or the ones that circled the 1985 Phelippe interview over and over as if this was Sankara's holy grail...You just have to contend with wading through the chaff to get to the wheat.
The collection did justice to Captain Sankara, his good policies such as self sufficiency, women empowerment and the need to call out injustice in every corner of the world were given a fair hearing while his flawed decisions such as trying to clip the unions or his other conflicts with world leaders where a diplomatic touch might have been required were also explored. Ultimately we judge him by his intent and it was in the right place. All of Africa's desert roses are always plucked before their time and in their stead weeds take hold. The dark ages are forever stalking the enlightenment and even the land of upright people was not spared. Most of the essays here were written around 2017 when the heady days of the 2014 uprising were still abound. We are now in 2021 and those days are gone, the coups came back and the people's leaders were imprisoned. Still the spirit of the revolution will never die and brighter days will dawn over the horizon
It's possible to speak about Thomas Sankara in nothing but platitudes and still get the message across, the problem is a person described only in platitudes is not a real person but a cardboard cutout of the real thing. Real people have good traits as well as flaws, other times they make good decisions while on other occasions a second counsel should have been listened to. I read this collection to try and get the real Sankara and not just his cardboard cutout.
This collection is a mixed bag. There were really good entries especially the ones that took an anthropological bent; the one by a peace corp volunteer, the other one about the health sector in Burkina Faso or the one the author interviewed people who were close and knew Sankara, but there were also many weak entries here. These are the ones that took an academic bent and got caught up in quoting other papers while offering nothing new or the ones that circled the 1985 Phelippe interview over and over as if this was Sankara's holy grail...You just have to contend with wading through the chaff to get to the wheat.
The collection did justice to Captain Sankara, his good policies such as self sufficiency, women empowerment and the need to call out injustice in every corner of the world were given a fair hearing while his flawed decisions such as trying to clip the unions or his other conflicts with world leaders where a diplomatic touch might have been required were also explored. Ultimately we judge him by his intent and it was in the right place. All of Africa's desert roses are always plucked before their time and in their stead weeds take hold. The dark ages are forever stalking the enlightenment and even the land of upright people was not spared. Most of the essays here were written around 2017 when the heady days of the 2014 uprising were still abound. We are now in 2021 and those days are gone, the coups came back and the people's leaders were imprisoned. Still the spirit of the revolution will never die and brighter days will dawn over the horizon
December 12, 2020
This is a collection of essays of varying quality compiled from various authors. I haven't read all of them in there and skipped around the book after finding some to be lackluster. That said, this is an excellent collection if only for being an accessible distillation of not only Sankara's biography, but the history surrounding his life, politics, the context in Burkina Faso at the time, as well as the current circumstances in the country and the influence of Sankara's legacy on those circumstances. Even if I found some individual essays lackluster in their writing or content, none of them are truly bad, and the variety of (sometimes conflicting or at least constrasting in their conclusions) accounts alongside a ton of sources that are otherwise hard to come by make this the most comprehensive and complete English language book on Sankara that I am aware of. There are also some good biographies, but for a person who has become inseperable from his iconography and relation to a complex historical and contemporary situation, there's no way to responsibly learn about the biographical details of the man's life without learning about the wider context that Sankaea insisted was more important and inseperable from himself.
February 5, 2019
A collection of 23 essays, which go into detail into Sankara's politics, history and the legacy he leaves behind. The texts also speak about diverse topics such as Panafricanism, Colonialism & Coloniality, Debt & Dependence, and refer to current movements in Burkina Faso and abroad which try to resurrect and continue Sankara's legacy. Overall a solid book, and a coherent collection. It avoids hagiographic treatment of Sankara, and criticizes him at points, putting into context why it took so long for his legacy to be revived.
July 3, 2021
I have learnt more on the account of the death of Thomas Sankara. Great contribution from the author.
March 19, 2021
A great collection of essays about an understudied revolutionary, historical figure, and theoretician- whose legacy looms large over social movements, politics, and life throughout Africa. For a long time, Sankara has been living in the shadow of a clichéd comparasion to Ché Guevara, one which masks the specificity of his African 'post-colonial' moment, his deep commitment to the people, and his uniquely womanist-inflected thought. Study of Sankara has perhaps been limited because of his lack of theoretical writings , but his speeches, addresses, and actions have provided ample materials for this important contribution to the scholarship of the Burkinabè leader.
If you're already searching for material on this great revolutionary, you're probably interested enough for this book (or at least some of its essays) to be of interest to you.
The essays within range from contemporary analysis, to the theoretical, to the biographical. A valuable contribution to the library of anyone looking to study decolonial movements, African liberation, or mass movements and their relation to emancipatory or revolutionary politics.
The essays which concerned Sankara himself and his revolutionary government's relation with unions, social movements, and mass political participation all clarified the actual material and historical faults, foibles, and possibilities of Sankara. It is telling that a slightly distorted image of Sankara remains inspirational- attributing to him a mass participation that (mostly) remained only aspirational while he was in power. However, the analysis of the parallels between the mass movement and ideology that underlies historic and contemporary Sankarism is brilliant: the essential role of women in liberatory politics, the questioning of established hegemonies, the fundamental pan-Africanist/decolonial challenge to the international system of debt and finance, food sovereignty, the contradictions of petty bourgeois and trade union consciousness in the revolutionary movement, the (potential) antagonism between a politics of class and a politics of anti-imperialism, the role of the people in constructing a "democratic and popular revolution"... incredible material to work with in this book.
If you're already searching for material on this great revolutionary, you're probably interested enough for this book (or at least some of its essays) to be of interest to you.
The essays within range from contemporary analysis, to the theoretical, to the biographical. A valuable contribution to the library of anyone looking to study decolonial movements, African liberation, or mass movements and their relation to emancipatory or revolutionary politics.
The essays which concerned Sankara himself and his revolutionary government's relation with unions, social movements, and mass political participation all clarified the actual material and historical faults, foibles, and possibilities of Sankara. It is telling that a slightly distorted image of Sankara remains inspirational- attributing to him a mass participation that (mostly) remained only aspirational while he was in power. However, the analysis of the parallels between the mass movement and ideology that underlies historic and contemporary Sankarism is brilliant: the essential role of women in liberatory politics, the questioning of established hegemonies, the fundamental pan-Africanist/decolonial challenge to the international system of debt and finance, food sovereignty, the contradictions of petty bourgeois and trade union consciousness in the revolutionary movement, the (potential) antagonism between a politics of class and a politics of anti-imperialism, the role of the people in constructing a "democratic and popular revolution"... incredible material to work with in this book.
February 13, 2024
De liefhebbers kunnen hier mijn breakdown per hoofdstuk lezen die te lang is voor op goodreads: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1D...
tl;dr: zeker de moeite waard. Tot het einde bleven de meeste hoofdstukken mij interesseren en aansporen om tussendoor extra info op te zoeken (ik ben niet de efficiëntste lezer). Het boek beperkt zich niet tot de regeerperiode van Sankara maar gaat ook uitgebreid in op ontwikkelingen die sindsdien in Burkina hebben plaatsgevonden. De grootste flaws zijn: de herhalingen en soms oppervlakkigheid die ontstaan doordat elke auteur een eigen hoofdstukje schrijft en daardoor dezelfde basisnoties steeds weer introduceert; de occasionele hagiografische tintjes; enkele hoofdstukken met te veel onnodige antrospeech; soms sloppy redactiewerk (fouten of ongemakkelijke vertalingen). De hoofdstukken die originele research bevatten, zoals interviews met diplomaten, activisten of militairen, zijn een grote meerwaarde.
tl;dr: zeker de moeite waard. Tot het einde bleven de meeste hoofdstukken mij interesseren en aansporen om tussendoor extra info op te zoeken (ik ben niet de efficiëntste lezer). Het boek beperkt zich niet tot de regeerperiode van Sankara maar gaat ook uitgebreid in op ontwikkelingen die sindsdien in Burkina hebben plaatsgevonden. De grootste flaws zijn: de herhalingen en soms oppervlakkigheid die ontstaan doordat elke auteur een eigen hoofdstukje schrijft en daardoor dezelfde basisnoties steeds weer introduceert; de occasionele hagiografische tintjes; enkele hoofdstukken met te veel onnodige antrospeech; soms sloppy redactiewerk (fouten of ongemakkelijke vertalingen). De hoofdstukken die originele research bevatten, zoals interviews met diplomaten, activisten of militairen, zijn een grote meerwaarde.
August 29, 2019
Some of these essays are jargon-ridden in order to avoid saying the word "capitalism" since, as one of the last essays mentions, discussing Sankara from his own Marxist-influenced perspective is something that contemporary scholarship and perception in the West ties itself in knots to avoid doing. Many of these essays, however, are well-written and contain a lot of useful information about a criminally under-discussed figure and time period.
The worst essay is absolutely, unequivocally, Craig Phelan's. Whoever that man is, his political analysis is laughably bad and his work in this volume embodies the worst tendencies of white academics to soften the politics of the Global South into something palatable by liberals who don't want to question the current order.
The worst essay is absolutely, unequivocally, Craig Phelan's. Whoever that man is, his political analysis is laughably bad and his work in this volume embodies the worst tendencies of white academics to soften the politics of the Global South into something palatable by liberals who don't want to question the current order.
July 2, 2019
After only reading bits and pieces about Sankara on FB and other political sites, I didn't know much about him. This book is a collection of papers and essays about Sankara's politics, policies, stances, speeches, faults, and accomplishments. As well as his influence on Pan-African thinking and current activists and revolutionaries. What Sankara accomplished is truly impressive. It is "Socialism from Above," but one could also say he was trying to create a vanguard party. If you are interested in true leaders that not only challenged the status quo but dared people to challenge him, this book is for you.
December 18, 2022
Diverse (and unequal) set of essays on the legacy of Thomas Sankara.
June 3, 2025
3.5 Star
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