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...