February 17, 2021 Dr. Benjamin Nnamdi Azikiwe (1904-1996) Thomas Isidore Noel Sankara (1949-1987) Dr

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February 17, 2021 Dr. Benjamin Nnamdi Azikiwe (1904-1996) Thomas Isidore Noel Sankara (1949-1987) Dr. Benjamin Nnamdi Azikiwe, popularly known as “Zik”, was the founder of modern Nigerian nationalism and the first President of Nigeria, holding the position througout the First Nigerian Republic. Apart from having become the first Nigerian president, Nnamdi Azikiwe was a Pan- Africanist who revolutionized the West African newspaper industry. Azikiwe was born on November 16,1904 to Igbo parents in Zungeru, Northern Nigeria which is the present-day Niger State of Nigeria. He is revered as the towering African pragmatic progressive philosopher, scholar and eminent journalist of the 20th century. He was a scholar who wrote many works of educational philosophy. Thomas Sankara was the President of one of the poorest countries in the world. Sankara believed fervently that Burkina Faso could learn to sustain itself without foreign aid. He refused aid packages from the International Monetary Fund that, he said, came with strings attached. As he famously proclaimed, “The one who feeds you usually imposes his will upon you.” At the summit of the Organization of African Unity in July 1987, he tried to persuade other African countries to collectively refuse to pay their financial debts to their former colonizers. “The origins of debt go back to colonialism’s origins,” he said, his voice brimming with emotion. “We cannot repay the debt because we are not responsible for this debt. On the contrary, others owe us something that no money can pay for. That is to say, the debt of blood.” Sankara fought against poverty, illiteracy, and for women’s rights. He left a legacy to future generations that included the spirit of hope, the emblem of integrity, and the historic conscience of the inalienability of the fight against all oppressions. .

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Lessons from Burkina Faso's Thomas Sankara By
Pan-Africanism and African Renaissance in Contemporary Africa: Lessons from Burkina Faso’s Thomas Sankara By: Moorosi Leshoele (45775389) Submitted in accordance with the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy At the UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH AFRICA SUPERVISOR: Prof Vusi Gumede (September 2019) DECLARATION (Signed) i | P a g e DEDICATION I dedicate this thesis to Thomas Noel Isadore Sankara himself, one of the most underrated leaders in Africa and the world at large, who undoubtedly stands shoulder to shoulder with ANY leader in the world, and tall amongst all of the highly revered and celebrated revolutionaries in modern history. I also dedicate this to Mariam Sankara, Thomas Sankara’s wife, for not giving up on the long and hard fight of ensuring that justice is served for Sankara’s death, and that those who were responsible, directly or indirectly, are brought to book. I also would like to tremendously thank and dedicate this thesis to Blandine Sankara and Valintin Sankara for affording me the time to talk to them at Sankara’s modest house in Ouagadougou, and for sharing those heart-warming and painful memories of Sankara with me. For that, I say, Merci boucop. Lastly, I dedicate this to my late father, ntate Pule Leshoele and my mother, Mme Malimpho Leshoele, for their enduring sacrifices for us, their children. ii | P a g e AKNOWLEDGEMENTS To begin with, my sincere gratitude goes to my Supervisor, Professor Vusi Gumede, for cunningly nudging me to enrol for doctoral studies at the time when the thought was not even in my radar.
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African Coups
Annex 2b. Coups d’Etat in Africa, 1946-2004: Successful (1), Attempted (2), Plotted (3), and Alleged (4) Country Month Day Year Success Leaders Deaths Angola 10 27 1974 2 Antonio Navarro (inter alia) 0 Angola 5 27 1977 2 Cdr. Nito Alves, Jose van Dunen 200 Benin 10 28 1963 1 Gen. Christophe Soglo 999 Benin 11 29 1965 1 Congacou 0 Benin 12 17 1967 1 Alley 998 Benin 12 13 1969 1 de Souza 998 Benin 10 26 1972 1 Maj. Mathieu Kerekou 0 Benin 10 18 1975 2 Urbain Nicoue 0 Benin 1 16 1977 2 unspecified 8 Benin 3 26 1988 2 Capt. Hountoundji 0 Benin 5 1992 2 Pascal Tawes 0 Benin 11 15 1995 2 Col. Dankoro, Mr. Chidiac 1 Burkina Faso 1 3 1966 1 Lt. Col. Sangoule Lamizana 0 Burkina Faso 11 25 1980 1 Col. Saye Zerbo 0 Burkina Faso 11 7 1982 1 Maj. Jean-Baptiste Ouedraogo 20 Burkina Faso 8 4 1983 1 Capt. Thomas Sankara 13 Burkina Faso 10 15 1987 1 Capt. Blaise Campaore 100 Burkina Faso 10 20 2003 4 Norbert Tiendrebeogo, Capt. Wally Diapagri 0 Burundi 10 18 1965 2 unspecified 500 Burundi 11 29 1966 1 Capt. Micombero 999 Burundi 5 1972 4 unspecified 100000 Burundi 11 1 1976 1 Lt. Col. Jean-Baptiste Bagaza 0 Burundi 9 3 1987 1 Maj. Pierre Buyoya 0 Burundi 3 4 1992 2 Bagaza? 0 Burundi 7 3 1993 2 officers loyal to Buyoya 0 Burundi 10 21 1993 2 Gen. Bikomagu, Francois Ngeze 150000 Burundi 4 25 1994 2 Tutsi paratroopers 999 Burundi 7 25 1996 1 army 6000 Burundi 4 18 2001 2 Lt.
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Rawlings, Sankara, Ghaddafi, and Nasser: Soldiers As Intellectuals, Nationalists, Pan-Africanists, and Statesmen
H-Announce Rawlings, Sankara, Ghaddafi, and Nasser: Soldiers as Intellectuals, Nationalists, Pan-Africanists, and Statesmen Announcement published by Sabella Abidde on Monday, March 29, 2021 Type: Call for Papers Date: May 30, 2021 Location: Alabama, United States Subject Fields: African History / Studies, Area Studies, Black History / Studies, Middle East History / Studies, Political Science Rawlings, Sankara, Ghaddafi, and Nasser Soldiers as Intellectuals, Nationalists, Pan-Africanists, and Statesmen Editors: Sabella Abidde, Ph.D. and Felix Kumah-Abiwu, Ph.D. In the annals of modern African political history, four soldiers and coup plotters -- Jerry Rawlings (Ghana), Moammar Gaddafi (Libya), Thomas Sankara (Burkina Faso), and Gamal Abdel Nasser (Egypt) -- were rarities. They were at once intellectuals, nationalists, pan-Africanists, and statesmen. Their exceptionality is the reason for this edited volume. For more than four decades, beginning in the early 1950s through the tail-end of the twentieth century, Africa was the bastion of military coups bested perhaps only by Latin America. These sudden and extralegal overthrows of governments were so routine that many came to view coupists as unprofessional and unpatriotic members of the military that were ill-equipped to govern modern states and their various institutions. Nonetheless, there were exceptions to the typical: soldiers who transformed their immediate communities and, by extension, the continent. While the military’s role in politics is still a subject of intense debate in the scholarly/public domain, it is indisputable that some of Africa’s former military leaders went on to become icons and respected leaders of their time. The aim of this paper, therefore, is to examine why and how Rawlings, Gaddafi, Sankara, and Nasser became rarities in African and world politics.
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Latest Revelations on the Assassination of Thomas Sankara
Latest revelations on the assassination of Thomas Sankara from The Italian documentary -‘African Shadows’ SILVESTRO: Were you there? Of Course I was in Burkina Faso, I was part of the operation. SILVESTRO: And were you present when Sankara was assassinated? MOMO: Of course, I was in the room when he was assassinated.SILVESTRO: What do you remember of that moment? MOMO (laughs). SILVESTRO: Sankara was waiting to meet Blaise Compaoré? NARRATOR: As General Momo states, Taylor was at this point working for the CIA, spying on Gaddafi and infiltrating African liberation movements that were training in Libya. PRINCE: There was an international plot to get rid of this man, and if I tell you how this happened, are you aware the secret services could kill you? SILVESTRO: An international plot. Because the truth would harm the current president Blaise Compaoré. In 1987 when Sankara was murdered, Compaoré was considered his best friend. Immediately after Sankara’s death, Compaoré said 'I was ill' 2009-09-03, Issue 446 http://pambazuka.org/en/category/features/58463 Astounding allegations have come forth about the 1987 assassination of the former president of Burkina Faso, Thomas Sankara, through a documentary aired on Italy’s public channel RAI3. The documentary, entitled ‘African Shadows’ and by Silvestro Montanaro, details the alleged links of the American and French secret services to Sankara’s assassins and the involvement of the current President of Burkina Faso Blaise Compaoré. This week’s Pambazuka News brings you the striking three-part transcript of the recent documentary, featuring the testimonies of well-known Liberian figures.
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Regime Change in North Africa and Implications
Journal of Language, Technology & Entrepreneurship in Africa Vol. 4 No. 1 2013 Regime Change in North Africa: Possible Implications for 21st Century Governance in Africa Frank K. Matanga [email protected] Masinde Muliro University of Science and Technology, Kenya. Mumo Nzau [email protected] Catholic University of Eastern Africa (CUEA), Kenya. Abstract For most of 2011, several North African countries experienced sweeping changes in their political structures. During this period, North Africa drew world attention to itself in a profound way. Popular uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt forced long serving and clout wielding Presidents out of power. Most interestingly, these mass protests seemed to have a domino-effect not only in North Africa but also throughout the Middle East; thereby earning themselves the famous tag- “Arab Spring”. These events in North Africa have since become the subject of debate and investigation in academic, social media and political and/or political circles. At the centre of these debates is the question of “Implications of the Arab Spring on Governance in Africa in the 21st Century”. This Article raises pertinent questions. It revisits the social and economic causes of these regime changes in North Africa; the role of ICT and its social media networks and; the future of repressive regimes on the continent. Central to this discussion is the question: are these regime changes cosmetic? Is this wind of change transforming Africa in form but not necessarily in content? In this light the following discussion makes a critical analysis of the implications of these changes on 21st century governance in Africa.
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Facts and Figures
44 FACTS AND FIGURES Area: 274,000 sq km (slightly bigger than the United Kingdom) Population: 8.8 million (1989 estimate) Population growth rate: 2.7 per cent per annum Main ethnic groups: Mdssi, Peul, Lobi, Mande, Bobo, Gourounsi, Gourrhantche, Senoufou Life expectancy: 48 years Climate: Three climatic zones: the Sahelian (north), maximum annual rainfall 300 mm; Sudano- Sahelian (central), max. rainfall 300-600 mm; Sudano-Guinean (south/south west), rainfall 600- Preparing the evening meal In Titao 1200 mm. village: the leaves of the baobab tree will go in the sauce which flavours the Religion: Traditional animist 60 per cent, Moslem 30 per to. cent, Christian 10 per cent (all approximate) (Jeremy Hartley/Oxfam) Languages: Official language: French. Main national languages: Moore, Dioula, Fulfulde Capital: Ouagadougou (pop. 500,000). Other towns: Bobo Dioulasso (250,000), Koudougou (54,000), Ouahigouya (40,000) Currency: Franc CFA =100 centimes (under a fixed exchange rate, 50 FCFA = 1 French franc) National budget: FCFA 100 billion (£200 million) (1988 est.) 0 Average income: £135 p.a. per capita Exports: Gold, raw cotton, livestock, shea nuts, hides and skins, sesame seeds Foreign debt: £480 million (at 1 January 1988). Debt service as a percentage of export earnings, 1987: 12.7 per cent (due), 7.8 per cent (paid) (Jeremy Hartley/Oxfam) (Mark Edwards/Oxfam) 45 DATES AND EVENTS 1100-1400 An early branch of the Mossi people arises north of the River Niger and captures Timbuktu (1337) and other lands, before being finally defeated by Moslem forces of the Songhai empire. Late 1400s Naaba Oubri founds the Kingdom of Ouagadougou, marking the beginning of the Mossi empire.
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Burkina Faso: Echoes of a Revolution Past
5/5/2017 Africa at LSE – Burkina Faso: Echoes of a Revolution Past Burkina Faso: Echoes of a Revolution Past Ernest Harsch discusses the enduring appeal and influence of the revered revolutionary leader, Thomas Sankara. There is probably no time when people are more aware of history than when they are in the midst of making it. In Burkina Faso, President Blaise Compaoré had scarcely fled from huge crowds of angry demonstrators when protesters and commentators alike began drawing parallels with other momentous uprisings. The revolutionary spirit of the former Burkina Faso leader Thomas Sankara is still a source of inspiration to some, 27 years after his assassination Some recalled the Arab Spring revolts three years earlier, and wondered if this was the start of a subSaharan “Black Spring”. For others, the sacking and burning of the National Assembly on 30 October 2014 was reminiscent of the storming of the Bastille—an event featured in the former French colony’s school textbooks. Yet others saw similarities with January 3, 1966, when a popular outpouring ousted the first president of Upper Volta, as Burkina Faso was then known. The most common reference, however, has been to the revolutionary period led by Thomas Sankara, who was president from August 1983 until his assassination in Compaoré’s October 1987 military coup.[1] Some of today’s older protest figures had been colleagues of Sankara. Yet the big majority of insurgent youths who mobilised to bring down Compaoré are far too young to have had any direct experience with that charismatic leader. Despite the passage of time, the ideas promoted by Sankara remain attractive to disgruntled youth.
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Burkina Faso
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Press Clippings
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Visual Tactics of Contemporary Senegal
ALLEN F. ROBERTS AND MARY NOOTER ROBERTS Visual Tactics of Contemporary Senegal VENUE FELIX EBOUE is a major artery that skirts industrial parks dus A tered dose to the great harbour of Dakar, Senegal. I Because of heavy vehicular and human traffic, it can take an automobile more than an hour to navigate the avenue's several kilometres. All along the way, cranes, machinery, and towering chimneys rise above factory walls topped by razor wire and iron spikes. Just across from a crowded roundabout, an unexpected wall mural portrays a man robed in white, praying on ocean waters. The avenue proceeds north eastward towards a large military base on the Point of Bel-Air, and soon astreet branches to the right between a lumberyard and a fish-processing plant. Here portraits and complex painted scenes unfurl along more than two hundred metres of cement-block wall. The same figure robed in white appears in this mural (Figure 35). He is Amadou Bamba, a Senegalese Sufi saint (WaU Allah, or 'Friend of God') who lived from 1853 till 1927 and around whose teachings the Mouride Way has been created? A I Avenue Felix Eboue was given its name toward the end ofthe colonial period. Eboue (1884- 1944) was born in French Guiana of African heritage. He served in a number of important French colonial posts, and as administrator of Chad, he was the first colonial governor to join the Free French forces. For his heroism, Eboue was named governor of French Equatorial Africa, and his remains are enshrined in the Pantheon.
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Liberians in Ghana: Living Without Humanitarian Assistance
NEW ISSUES IN REFUGEE RESEARCH Working Paper No. 57 Liberians in Ghana: living without humanitarian assistance Shelly Dick International Development Centre Queen Elizabeth House, Green College Oxford University United Kingdom E-mail: [email protected] February 2002 These working papers are issued by the Evaluation and Policy Analysis Unit, and provide a means for UNHCR staff, consultants, interns and associates to publish the preliminary results of their research on refugee-related issues. The papers are written in a personal capacity and do not represent the official views of UNHCR. They are also available online under ‘Publications’ on the UNHCR website, http://www.unhcr.org ISSN 1020-7473 Introduction1 Being a refugee doesn’t mean that I am helpless and in need of assistance. I want UNHCR to know that yes, I am a refugee as long as I am living in exile as one who had to flee persecution and problems in my country, but I don’t want one dollar of their help. Don’t give me material assistance. Give me economic opportunity so that I can help myself. That’s all I ask. (Wilfred Brown, a Liberian refugee in Accra, Ghana) A long brewing crisis in Liberia broke out on 24 December 1989 in Nimba County, plunging the country into seven years of intermittent anarchy and bloodshed. As a result, Liberians fleeing the violence scattered throughout the West African region and beyond. Liberians who escaped to Ghana began arriving there around May 1990 on evacuation flights meant for Ghanaian nationals leaving Liberia. By August 1990 the Ghanaian government set up an ad hoc Committee on Refugees in response to the arrival of an increasing number of Liberian refugees by land and sea.
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Hip-Hop Culture and Social Mobilization in Post Colonial Senegal Lucie Latuner Connecticut College, [email protected]
Connecticut College Digital Commons @ Connecticut College Anthropology Department Honors Papers Anthropology Department 2018 Y’en a Marre! Hip-Hop Culture and Social Mobilization in Post Colonial Senegal Lucie Latuner Connecticut College, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.conncoll.edu/anthrohp Part of the African Languages and Societies Commons, Anthropology Commons, Music Commons, and the Race, Ethnicity and Post-Colonial Studies Commons Recommended Citation Latuner, Lucie, "Y’en a Marre! Hip-Hop Culture and Social Mobilization in Post Colonial Senegal" (2018). Anthropology Department Honors Papers. 16. https://digitalcommons.conncoll.edu/anthrohp/16 This Honors Paper is brought to you for free and open access by the Anthropology Department at Digital Commons @ Connecticut College. It has been accepted for inclusion in Anthropology Department Honors Papers by an authorized administrator of Digital Commons @ Connecticut College. For more information, please contact [email protected]. The views expressed in this paper are solely those of the author. Y’en a Marre ! Hip-Hop Culture and Social Mobilization in Post Colonial Senegal An Honors Thesis Presented by Lucie Latuner To the Department of Anthropology CONNECTICUT COLLEGE NEW LONDON, CONNECTICUT MAY 3, 2018 1 Table of Contents Abstract 3 Acknowledgements 4 Introduction 6 Chapter I: Y’en a Marre, a History of Social Mobilization, and Figures of Resistance: Responsibility to Pan-Africanist Discourse 16 Chapter II: Expressing Responsibility Through Rap: Creating Urban Spaces of Resistance 43 Chapter III: Responsibility to the Constitution: Maintaining Democracy through Mobilization 66 Chapter IV: Pan-Africanist Responsibility Today: Civic Action in the Face of Neocolonialism 88 Conclusion 110 Bibliography 114 2 Abstract After over fifty years since decolonization, Senegal is seen as a success story in establishing democracy in sub-Saharan Africa.
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