Captain Thomas Isidore Noël Sankara was born on December 21, 1949.
He was the son of Marguerite Sankara (died March 6, 2000) and Sambo Joseph Sankara (1919 – August 4, 2006), a Gendarme. Born into a Roman Catholic family, “Thom’Sank” was a Silmi-Mossi, an ethnic group that originated with marriage between Mossi men and women of the pastoralist Fulani people. The Silmi-Mossi are among the least advantaged in the Mossi caste system. He attended primary school in Gaoua and high school in Bobo-Dioulasso, the country’s second city.
His father fought in the French army during World War II and was detained by the Nazis. Sankara’s family wanted him to become a Catholic priest. Fittingly for a country with a large Muslim population, he was also familiar with the Qur’an.
Thomas led Burkina Faso (formerly known as Upper Volta) from 1983 to 1987. While noted for his personal charisma and praised for promoting health and women’s rights, he also antagonised many vested interests in the country. He was overthrown and assassinated in a coup d’état on October 15, 1987. Thomas Sankara is the leader of the Burkina Faso revolution movement, and is a most worthy heir of all the revolutions of the world.
He was survived by a wife (Mariam Sankara), family and seven million Burkinabes. Today, a countless number of Sankaratites all over the world miss and honor him.
For the memory of Thomas. Love, Ify. xx
