@thaisleftist: #moodboard #politics #historylovers #targetaudience After Sankara was appointed Prime Minister of the Republic of Upper Volta in 1983, he had political disputes with the sitting government that resulted in his eventual imprisonment. While he was under house arrest, a group of revolutionaries seized power on his behalf in a popular coup later that year.[1][2] At the age of 33, Sankara became the President of the Republic of Upper Volta and launched an unprecedented series of social, ecological, and economic reforms that were part of what he referred to as the people's democratic revolution. In 1984, Sankara oversaw the renaming of the country as Burkina Faso ('land of the upright people'), and personally wrote its national anthem.[3][4] His foreign policy was centered on what he called anti-imperialism and he rejected loans and capital from such organizations as the International Monetary Fund. However, he welcomed some foreign aid in an effort to boost the domestic economy, diversify the sources of assistance, and make Burkina Faso self-sufficient.[5] His domestic policies included famine prevention, agrarian expansion, land reform, and suspending rural poll taxes, as well as a nationwide literacy campaign and vaccination program to reduce meningitis, yellow fever and measles. Sankara's health programmes distributed millions of doses of vaccines to children across Burkina Faso.[6][7][8][9] His government also focused on building schools, health centres, water reservoirs, and infrastructure projects.[1][10] He combatted desertification of the Sahel by causing the planting of more than 10 million trees.[11][9][12] Socially, his government enforced the prohibition of female circumcision, forced marriages, and polygamy.[13] Sankara reinforced his populist image by ordering the sale of luxury vehicles and properties owned by the government in order to reduce costs, and his guilty conscience left him unwilling to even use his office's air conditioning.[14][15] He established Cuban-inspired Committees for the Defense of the Revolution (Burkina Faso) purportedly to serve as a new foundation of society and promote popular mobilization.[16][17] His Popular Revolutionary Tribunals prosecuted public officials charged with graft, political crimes[12] and corruption, considering such elements of the state counter-revolutionaries.[18] Amnesty International criticised his government for alleged human rights violations, such as arbitrary detentions of political opponents.[19]

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Saturday 04 July 2026 17:55:30 GMT