IndexIntroductionThomas Sankara To the PresidencyThe idea of self-sufficiencySocial and environmental impactsPopulismDemocracyConclusionIntroductionIdeologies have brought countries into and out of war have been part of man since the first documented documents and up to this day, new and old ideologies still emerge through political leaders who try to impose them on the people in their countries. Before a full analysis of Burkina Faso's ideologies under Thomas Sankara one must try to understand the history of how they arrived at that position. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay The country is French-speaking, and French is the main administrative language used in schools and businesses. Burkina Faso is located on the western plains of Africa and is a landlocked country. The country borders six other countries: Benin to the southeast, Ivory Coast to the southwest, Ghana and Togo to the south, Niger to the east, and Mali to the north. Before the country was called the Republic of Upper Volta, although they gained independence on 5 August 1960, they did not change the name of the country until it was changed by the fifth president Thomas Sankara on 4 August 1984. They symbolize the rebirth of the country which he called Burkina Faso which meant the land of the righteous man. The focus of this thesis will be the ideologies implemented by President Thomas Sankara and how he made changes for the newly independent country of Burkina Faso and the approach he used to implement them, so the analysis goes further on the negatives and positives effects his ideologies had on his country's economy. Also, one has to wonder if it was in the form of violence or if it was smooth sailing with the changes he implemented. Sankara was a pro people, it was more of a leftist faction as its ideologies focused on social, gender, economic and ecological changes, Sankara's main ideas are usually divided into three categories: populism, socialism and democracy. He also wanted to eliminate the concept of dependency and make his countryman self-sufficient. Thomas Sankara He was born in 1949 on the twenty-first of December in a place called Yako in the Republic of Upper Volta. His full name was Thomas Isidore Noel Sankara and he was the third son of ten children of Joseph and Marguerite Sankara. His father was one of the most important military personnel, so as a child Sankara enjoyed the privileges of being the son of a high-ranking officer. At the age of 17 in 1966 he attended the military academy. In 1972 he returned to his homeland, the Republic of Upper Volta, to join the border wars between his nation and the nation of Mali, where they won. From that war Thomas emerged as a hero thanks to an exceptional performance. In 1976 he was appointed commander of the military training center in a place called Po. It is here that he meets the comrades who will accompany him in his rise and where figures such as Blaise Compaoré, Henri Zongo and Jean-Baptiste Boukary together with Sankara became known as the “ Communist Officers Group". In the PresidencyBefore Thomas Sankara was a president, there came one before him in 1983, his name was Jean-Baptiste Ouédraogo, he also came to power through a coup and appointed Sankara prime minister and after some accusations from Sankara who had met with the son of The French president was demoted and placed under house arrest. Not long after, in the same year, another coup was implemented by one of the members of the communist officers' group Blaise Comaoré to remove Ouédraogo and on August 4, 1983 elected his former friend and comrade Thomas Sankara as the new leader. At the age of 33 Thomas Sankara startedhis career as the new President of Upper Volta which at the time still had its colonial name. The idea of self-sufficiency He was a revolutionary who tended to fall towards Marxist views or ideologies, a president of the people usually defined as a pro-people revolutionary and he too was a pan-Africanist. He took inspiration from the likes of Cuban President Fidel Castro and Che Guevara. In 1984, on August 4, he changed the name of the country to Burkina Faso as it was one of his revolutionary ideas, as he believed that the idea of revolution was the archenemy of imperialist ideologies. This was also intended to be a sign of rebirth, of breaking away from Western customs. Sankara believed that his country suffered greatly from a dependency syndrome and he wanted to eradicate it, as he stated in his state: “Our country produces enough to feed all of us. Unfortunately, due to lack of organisation, we are forced to ask for food aid. It is this aid that instills the attitude of beggars in our spirits” was a good way to demonstrate that African countries can sustain themselves without the help of external organizations. Sankara's incredible notoriety is to some extent an impression of Africans' frustration with degenerate leaders, who are not equipped to meet the basic needs of their fellow countrymen, and who are the puppets of Western capital and foundations such as Universal Money Related Reserve (IMF) and large organizations such as the World Bank, the goal was to try to demonstrate that a state can be completely sovereign over global economic and political matters. To prove this he had to implement the changes himself, but his country's economic structure flourished as he excelled in food security, within four years he had stored food that would sustain his country for years. His other concern was to be confirmed in the significant genuineness of his commitment to serve his people and dedication to the cause of the liberation of all African individuals. since it is expected that for every positive reaction there must be a negative one, the (IMF) did not approve of Sankara's way and they made him an outsider in his own continent and became enemies of all African capitalist presidents and economic mafia. This had a drastic impact on his rise to power as well. Sankara took away most of the land from the local chiefs and nobles who had influenced the country in the name of equality and divided it among the peasants, in doing so he created what some call his demise as these men tried in every way to dethrone him from his presidential post. This caused Burkina Faso to slowly move towards its great transformation as resistance grew against it. Social and Environmental Impacts Thomas Sankara was a great environmentalist, many might go so far as to say he was way ahead of his time, he cared about the issues that many leaders were coming to address him now. He was the first president of Burkina Faso to fight for women's rights by condemning the multinationalization of female genitalia. He created a non-discriminatory social structure and on October 2, 1983 in one of his speeches he said: "we cannot transform society by maintaining domination and discrimination against women who constitute over half of the population" - Thomas Sankara. The way Sankara used his ideologies may resemble liberalism a bit as he followed the concept of acceptance of individualism, freedom, liberation and constitutionalism to which he was willing to sacrifice patriarchy and freedom of one to stabilize the community. This has influenced a lot of women to be interested in educating themselves and having the,.
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