num_pages: 350
description: Thomas Sankara: A Revolutionary in Cold War Africa offers the first complete biography in English of the dynamic revolutionary leader from Burkina Faso Thomas Sankara. Coming to power in 1983 Sankara set his sights on combating social injustice poverty and corruption in his country fighting for women's rights direct forms of democracy economic sovereignty and environmental justice.Drawing on government archival sources and over a hundred interviews with Sankara's family members friends and closest revolutionary colleagues Brian J. Peterson details Sankara's political career and rise to power as well as his assassination at age 37 in 1987 in a plot led by his close friend Blaise Compaor.Thomas Sankara: A Revolutionary in Cold War Africa offers a unique critical appraisal of Sankara and explores why he generated such enthusiasm and hope in Burkina Faso and beyond why he was such a polarizing figure how his rivals seized power from him and why T-shirts sporting his image still appear on the streets today.
language: English
title: Thomas Sankara: A Revolutionary in Cold War Africa
publisher: Indiana University Press