Page 17 - Msingi Afrika Magazine Issue 12

MY AFRIKA

psychologically and politically.
One of Sankara's most revolutionary
initiatives was the introduction of the
powerfully symbolic women solidarity
day. On the Wednesday of every week,
men took over all domestic work usu-
ally done by women: cooking, washing,
cleaning and running errands in the
market, to allow men to experience the
enormous pressures women endure at
home. Such a policy also aimed to cor-
rect the patriarchal belief that regarded
household chores as inferior to office
work. In his famous address to thou-
sands of Burkinabe women on March
8, 1987, few months before his assas- Sankara, the president and musician
sination, Sankara outlined his goal for
women's emancipation in Africa, which
was to establish new social relations and nous rather than EXO-genous. In depriving Africa of one of her
unsettle the relations of authority be- other words, Sankara promoted an great revolutionary heroes. Even
tween men and women and force each inward-looking economic policy that more unfortunate is the attempt
to rethink the Nature of both. Three uncovered, unveiled and activated of subsequent African leaders to
years earlier, Sankara had changed the the creative GENE or spirit of his bury the memory of Sankara, as
West African country's name from the society. His government declined all his actions and legacy pose a di-
colonial Upper Volta to Burkina Faso, foreign aid, such as nationalizing all rect challenge to today's African
which means 'Land of Upright people'. land and mineral wealth and gave leaders.
a wide berth to neoliberal organi-
During his four-year reign as president, zations such as the International The uniqueness of Sankara's
Sankara initiated one of the most am- Monetary fund (IMF) and the World Pan Africanism and liberation
bitious and successful socio-economic Bank. struggle lies in his Feminist ori-
policies ever undertaken by any African entation. Women's liberation was
government. To set a personal example, Within three years, with no foreign at the forefront of his liberation
he slashed his salary and that of his support, an unprecedented 2.5 struggle. That his best friend cut
ministers and sold off the fleet of luxu- million children were vaccinated, his reign short through a military
ry cars he inherited from the president's and the infant mortality rate reduced coup will remain one of Africa's
convoy, opting for the Renault brand, from 280 deaths per 1000 births great tragedies, and the conspir-
which was the cheapest available in the to 145 deaths per 1000 births. Not acy of silence from the Colonial
country. Sankara limited his possessions the ideal but a vast improvement superpowers, especially France, is
to a car, four bikes, a freezer and three from previous years. In the same a sad reflection of the hypocrisy
guitars. He refused to use the air con- period, Burkina Faso was becoming and self-centeredness of western
ditioning in his office since most of his self-sufficient in food production, policies in Africa. That his poli-
fellow country people did not have ac- illiteracy levels vastly reduced and cies could not be sustained after
cess to the same. His salary was a paltry massive housing and infrastructural his death also shows that they
450 dollars per month, and he forbade projects, such as the construction of were not well-grounded in local
his portrait from being hung in public over 700 kilometers of rail through communities and not sufficiently
places. Sankara demonstrated that to be local initiatives, without foreign aid, institutionalized. Such policies, if
successful, a true revolution must have making Burkina Faso a model of they are to be sustainable, must
both subjective and objective, personal Afro-centric economic transforma- be grounded in Nature, culture
and official as well as emotional and tion in Africa. and community.
rational characters to it.
Like Steve Biko of South Africa, In fact, for the past 250 years,
His economic policy was INDE-ge- Sankara was murdered in his thirties, and most notably during the

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