Today marks thirty-eight (38) years since the former President of Burkina Faso, Captain Thomas Sankara was tragically murdered in an act of anti-African violence in Ouagadougou. The deep grief felt by the Burkinabe people and Africans, both at home and abroad continue to reverberate today with all black people across the global village. Although this dastardly act remains one of the most terrorism unleashed on the African continent, the crime is still unsolved and no meaningful accountability.
Thomas Sankara was made a martyrdom when he was gunned on 15th October, 1987 in what was believed to be a watershed moment for the African continent, sparking a feeling of senseless violence, harmful rhetoric, and foreign suppression that Africans had been subjected to, for the past six decades (60 years) of independence. As we continue to remember the life and legacy of this illustrious Pan-African revolutionary leader, we are still reminded of the horror and indignities that the anti-African outdated policies and prejudices, hate and xenophobic rhetoric continue to harm our continent.
The conspiracy against Thomas Sankara was not only about silencing the architect of the modern African revolution of the 21st century, it was also about subjecting the African people to the whims and caprices of foreign criminal adventurers on the continent. The international community has brushed aside concerns over the involvement of former colonial masters in the assassination of progressive African leaders, like Captain Thomas Sankara of Burkina Faso. On the 38th anniversary of the murder of the Burkinabe leader, the Sahel Solidarity Campaign Network (SaS-CaN) seeks accountability for the murder of one of Africa’s iconic revolutionary leaders.
This anti-African project is still hunting our continent and black people everywhere. Anti-African rhetoric led to the Libyan genocide in 2011, which was spearheaded by European nations and the United States and other hostile countries to Africa. Former leaders of France, Britain and the United States repeatedly used anti-African aggressive rhetoric and stereotypes to launch the genocide campaign against Africans in Libya, leading to the brutal murder of Muammar Gaddafi and the death of over two million blacks in the North African nation.
Today, President Donald Trump continues to use same anti-African aggressive rhetoric and false narratives that undermine peace, stability and development in Africa. While his European allies are threatening to unleash mayhem if their economic agenda on the continent are challenged, it is despicable for any foreign powers to treat Africa as a testing ground for all sorts of outdated policies and prejudices.
American and European politicians, opinion leaders, governments, think tanks and some members-states of the United Nations, NGOs and the media that have recently expressed their hatreds for the ongoing revolution in the Sahel region must realise that Africa is in another level, trying to carve its own destination. We wish to remind them that for most parts of post-independence Africa, one of the worst tragedy of the twentieth century that has been inflicted on the continent was the brutal assassination of twenty-seven (27) of our progressive leaders.
Ironically, the brutal murder of Captain Thomas Sankara was inspired by a foreign government that pretended to be a friend of Africa. The said government and its allies initiated the ongoing terrorism war against Africans in the Sahel.
The ongoing terrorism war has brought untold suffering, misery, insecurity and underdevelopment in the Sahel, a genocide campaign that led the patriotic men and women in the Malian, Burkinabe and Republic of Niger military to intervene to restore peace and to protect, defend and save at all costs the region and its people from drowning into the mighty ocean. Throughout the history of post-independence Africa, the West has been hiding behind the façade of democracy and human rights to destroy leaders who refused to pawn the dignity and integrity of their peoples to Western manipulations.
Since the current revolution in the Sahel, some foreign powers attempted in so many ways to return the region back to the old system or status quo. The same powers have condemned the governments of the three wise men and Leaders of Mali, Burkina Faso and the Republic of Niger for their determination to crush the terrorists out of the Sahel.
How can those foreign powers claim about their commitment to promote democracy, human rights and the rule of law in the Sahel by ways of spewing out anti-African aggressive rhetoric, sidelining the competent authorities in Bamako, Ouagadougou and Niamey, ignoring national ignoring sovereignty and independence? Or to put it in a more subtle way: Why is it that the Sahel, which was once labelled as the poorest and educationally backward region in the world, be the subject of so much foreign interference?
The truth is that, the activities of those foreign powers go a long way to expose the incessant attempts of a far distant superpower interfering in the domestic affairs of the Sahel region to achieve its geopolitical ambition irrespective of the ensuing consequences and worse at the pity and mercy of poor innocent masses of the African people. Unfortunately, there are African puppet leaders on the continent, who have been enlisted as collaborators and cheap pawns; they are repeating their past mistakes as they push to provoke regime change in Mali, Burkina Faso and the Republic of Niger, but in a more sophisticated and covert forms. The masquerading rhetoric used has always been in the defence of democratic principles and universal human rights.
It has taken a tremendous collective effort to keep Sankara’s memory alive and to ensure accountability for his brutal assassination. For this, the Sahel Solidarity Campaign Network (SaS-CaN) is deeply grateful to the monuments and structures that have been built in Burkina Faso and other parts of the world in honour of Thomas Samkara.
It pains some foreign powers to suffer retreat in Africa. There is no choice but to rally behind the three wise-men and leaders of the Sahel region for peace, sovereignty, freedom and homeland dignity. Our plea is for the West and the United States not to repeat the same mistakes and miscalculations of imposing terrorism war in the Sahel region. We deem it unfair and unjust, should the West insist on hiding behind ECOWAS (Economic Community of West African States) to reverse the revolution in the Sahel region. The current revolutionary leaders in the Sahel are making so much efforts to end the proxy terrorism war, to restore peace, stability and development, and the only wise-men and God-sent Messiahs to stand up to protect and defend sovereignty, national independence and homeland dignity.
In the face of the darkest tragedy and grief, the competent authorities in Ouagadougou have helped to restore African people’s lost hope. And as decades passed, the media, both print, television, podcast, and social have played meaningful role in continuing to remind the global community who Captain Thomas Sankara was and why his life mattered.
Signed:
Alimamy Bakarr Sankoho-founder and President
The Sahel Solidarity Campaign Network
SaS-CaN