The 'African Che' who traded the state Mercedes fleet for Renault 5s
“While revolutionaries as individuals can be murdered, you cannot kill ideas.” — speech a week before his assassination, 1987
A Marxist pan-Africanist revolutionary of Burkina Faso. Taking power at thirty-three in 1983, he renamed the country 'land of upright people' and drove mass vaccination, literacy and women's-rights campaigns. He rejected IMF structural adjustment and was assassinated in the 1987 coup of his comrade Blaise Compaoré.
Career timeline
1983Takes power at thirty-three; the National Council of the Revolution
1983–1987Vaccination, literacy, reforestation and women's-rights campaigns
1984Renames the country Burkina Faso, 'land of upright people'
1987.7The Addis Ababa speech: Africa must repudiate its debt
1987.10Assassinated in the coup of his comrade Compaoré
1987Delivered Women’s Liberation and the African Freedom Struggle on International Women’s Day
The 'African Che' who traded the state Mercedes fleet for Renault 5s
“While revolutionaries as individuals can be murdered, you cannot kill ideas.” — speech a week before his assassination, 1987
A Marxist pan-Africanist revolutionary of Burkina Faso. Taking power at thirty-three in 1983, he renamed the country 'land of upright people' and drove mass vaccination, literacy and women's-rights campaigns. He rejected IMF structural adjustment and was assassinated in the 1987 coup of his comrade Blaise Compaoré.
Career timeline
1983Takes power at thirty-three; the National Council of the Revolution
1983–1987Vaccination, literacy, reforestation and women's-rights campaigns
1984Renames the country Burkina Faso, 'land of upright people'
1987.7The Addis Ababa speech: Africa must repudiate its debt
1987.10Assassinated in the coup of his comrade Compaoré
1987Delivered Women’s Liberation and the African Freedom Struggle on International Women’s Day
