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Celebrating Africa: Thomas Sankara

Thomas Sankara was born on 21 Dec 1949, in Upper Volta (now Burkina Faso). His parents wanted him to be a Catholic priest, but young Thomas was interested in playing guitar and motorcycles. He was a member of a jazz band called Tout-a-Coup Jazz. In 1966 after completing his high school, he started a career in the military. He pursued his further studies in the military in Madagascar in the 1970s, and it is here that he was introduced to Marxism. It is clear that Sankara was a disciplined soldier, because at the age of 27 he was promoted to be commander of a training unit,and it is during this time that time that he became friends with Blaise Compaore (current president of Burkina Faso). Sankara later gained prominence as a military leader during a border conflict with Mali in December 1974 and January 1975. From the beginning, Sankara was ceased with the task of rooting out corruption, which reared its ugly head shortly after Burkina Faso gained its independence from French rule.

At the age of 30 he was appointed as state secretary of the Information Department. It is said that at the first seating of the cabinet he arrived by bicycle. He would later resign from this post having served only six months, citing government gagging of the people. A coup d'etat in January 1963 saw Sankara ascend to the post of Prime Minister. In May of the same year he was sacked and placed under house arrest. This angered the Burkinabe, sparking a ground swell of support for Sankara. In August 1983, his close friend and now current president of Burkina Faso,
Blaise Compaore staged a coup d'etat that will see Sankara becoming the president of Upper Volta.

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