Gaddafi’s Role In Burkina Faso Examined.
By: Waco'S Storytime.
Tags: Gaddafi, Communism, Revolution, Afric, Sankara

Author note: This not a complete overview of Sankara’s or Gaddafi’s rise or fall, this article is strictly focued on presenting the factual relationship between Muammar Gaddafi and Thomas Sankara likewise this is also not a hit piece on Gaddafi. Everything underlined is sourced and everything with the number (1) or (2) is from books on the subject. (1) is A Certain Type Of Madness, and book (2) is Thomas Sankara: A Revolutionary in Cold War Africa.

The most photogenic leader in Africa.

When Thomas Sankara was languishing in prison over his progreessive outlook on Upper Volta’s future, his best friend and ally at the time Blaise Compaoré was working on a plan to not only free him but to also seize the country for the both of them, all this done by uniting with a foreign sponsor in Libya and therefore aligning the Burkinabe revolution with the Libyan revolutionary Muammar Gaddafi.

The plan worked without a hitch the outcome of their alliance was a bloodless coup that saw Sankara take head of the revolution and alter not only the colonial the name of Upper Volta but also it’s working conditions away from its previous French and colonial past to it’s new future as a socialist nation of Burkina Faso.

Had this been the end of Gaddafi’s involvement in the revolution then he’d been seen as a hero to most of Black Africa today, still some try to portray him as such, unfortunately for them the full extent of Gaddafi’s role in Sankara’s life has been becoming clearer and clearer, knowing what we know now from the survivors in Sankara’s inner circle including his bodyguard like Etienne Zongo (not to be confused with the traitor Henri Zongo) and corroborated by Valère Somé (1) and Mousbila Sankara both of whom also served as members of Sankara government one of which served as a ambassador to libya and therefore Gaddafi himself.

We know from them that Gaddafi was ultimately displeased with many aspects of Sankara’s foreign policy, including but not limited to Sankara’s lack of support for his war in Chad and his refusal to accept more ideological symbolism in his fledgling country(1). Although ultimately according to Mousbila Sankara, it was Thomas Sankara’s absolute refusal to partake in the criminal element that was Charles Taylor that put the Libyan leader solely on the side of Blaise Compaoré (for many years to come). This theory behind Gaddafi’s motivations are also backed by Charles Taylors longtime associates some of whom like Prince Johnson were involved heavily in the actual plot to assassinate Thomas Sankara who will tell you not only of how Gaddafi supplied them with arms and cash but also how France and America (CIA) were involved in the plot thought the giving of info and training to end one of Africa’s favorite sons.

A famous picture of Charles Taylor.

The collapse of Gaddafi’s Liberian network has revealed much of what we know today including what we know about the CIA’s plans for West Africa , Sankara was just the start, he was the person that Charles Taylor had made his bones with, and just three years after him Samuel Doe would also be dead, killed by Prince Johnson and his body paraded around and desecrated, a bloody start to Charles Taylor’s new government.

Years before all of this when Charles Taylor was still under Gaddafi he was being paid by the CIA for intelligence work, a fact the CIA freely admits now, his allies also admit that Charles Taylor spied on Gaddafi and sold his secrets to the agency whether he went rogue or not is to be debated but it doesn’t change the fact that for years the US state department was aware of the plot to kill Thomas Sankara and their money and most likely training also went towards killing Samuel Doe.

Although before he died Samuel Doe was a brutal bastard in his own right even led a bloody coup of his own, a coup that Gaddafi was the first to recognize as legitimate and back. All of this can be summed up as bad foreign policy, Gaddafi trusting Doe, Doe trusting Gaddafi, and then Gaddafi trusting Charles Taylor all of which was just bad politics that came to a head with Doe’s apparent public mistrust of Gaddafi. Just three years after Sankara, Gaddafi had ruined another relationship with a African leader with Doe denouncing him saying ‘’Qaddafi is a man who, I think, would like to lead the whole continent of Africa, which is impossible to do.” and also ‘’Qaddafi pays terrorists to carry explosives to other African countries, and of course we in Liberia are aware of Qaddafi’s threat, and we’re very cautious about that.’’ Was Samuel Doe’s rejection of Gaddafi. I tell you all of this to make clear that Gaddafi had no qualms with removing those who opposed him no matter how sovereign or whatever political red tape was wrapped around them, he just had to sure his role was never in the limelight, always passing the dirty work.

Samuel Doe before his death.

Unlike Blaise’s who after killing Sankara forbade the people of even speaking his name, Charles Taylor paraded the fact he was a killer. He let everyone know who killed Samuel Doe and his following reign of terror that was backed by US commerce and Libyan connections saw him leave even more people he refused to cover up in his bloody wake, even his running slogan to legitimize his regime “He killed my Ma, He killed my Pa, But I will still vote for him.” is gory to the extreme. It was no wonder he didn’t get away with the large amount of slaughter his forces committed and because of his lack of shame the bloodstained dirt of his actions splashed hard on Gaddafi’s legacy. Blaise however was different, he covered everything up going as far to execute his co-conspirators, forge Sankara’s death certificate and arrest and torture any members of Sankara’s government (Mousbila Sankara and more).

But not even Blaise could stop the rumors or the theories from springing up, The people had noticed and wanted answers on how their leader died and when they got that they wanted answers on why he was so brutally slain, and so Blaise gave them that too in the form of another elaborate lie about resisting arrest and when the people asked what Sankara’s crime was all of Blaise’s frustration with his previous friends goals and ambitions spilled into his reasoning in total it was a sh*t storm of angry Burkinabe people and a man digging himself deeper and deeper into a hole he’d never climb out off. The overall lapse of judgement of stringing the people along with the mystery of their leaders death cumulated in more rumors that speculated on who helped him do it, Sankara’s body was never supposed to be found, in Blaise’s mind the original idea of telling them that Sankara had died of natural causes was ruined and in turn much like Charles Taylor all of Blaise’s allies were thrown into question including France who welcomed him with open arms and then Gaddafi who after the murder of Sankara went through with his original plan of using Burkina Faso as a arming ground for Charles Taylor and other West African groups, all in view of the Burkinabe people.

All in all, Gaddafi got what he wanted, Sankara was dead and it was undebatable that after he died, He (Gaddafi) and Blaise had turned his country into an enclave for terrorists, for people like Charles Taylor, who was eventually arrested for his open war crimes and tried in Sierra Leone. His trial was very revealing and documented by the large group of people who were personally affected by his rule, some of which were more interested in the extent of Blaise’s dealings with him. They were not disappointed with the info provided. Now Gaddafi is dead by the same people who most likely gave Blaise and Taylor info on Sankara and Blaise is the one who is up soon for a much needed court date.