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00:00:00the dot and to the eye were
00:00:03controlled from Paris and at
00:00:07that time Thomas Sankara and Blace
00:00:10Campaure who was then his comrad in
00:00:13arms represented
00:00:16a crop of young people who believed that the
00:00:20resources
00:00:21of their country ought to be utilized for the benefit
00:00:24of the people. The first thing they did was to change the
00:00:28manner in which government was to be run and
00:00:32there are number of pillars which informed the
00:00:35administration of Thomas Ankara number
00:00:39one that we must
00:00:41in deal with imperialism, we must
00:00:45ensure that the imperialist no longer control our
00:00:48of affairs, number two, that we must restore
00:00:52our dignity and our culture, number
00:00:56three, that we must ensure our mineral
00:01:00and our resources are used for the benefit
00:01:03of the people, that we must feed
00:01:06ourselves, that we must liberate
00:01:09ourselves from the debts which have been imposed on us
00:01:13and that we must do
00:01:15in this from a pan-african perspective, and that we
00:01:19must do this from a standpoint of dignity.
00:01:22therefore, one
00:01:23of the things that they did was to change the name
00:01:28in of the country from upper volta to burkinafaso. which
00:01:31in means the land
00:01:32of the upright men or the land
00:01:35of the upright people, that was
00:01:39unprecedented, unprecedented
00:01:42in a country where street names still
00:01:45bore the names of French generals and
00:01:49French characters, to change the name
00:01:51of the country was affront to the imperial power,
00:01:55throughout his life as a president, Thomas Sankara
00:01:59always had: the chance of snowball in hell, his
00:02:02life was always under threat and he knew it,
00:02:06and immediately, in order to debank the
00:02:10imperialist, he said we must change our governance system,
00:02:14what must we do in that regard? we eliminate the
00:02:17of political party, because the political parties were the conduits
00:02:21via which the imperialist were controlling the agenda
00:02:24of their country, so political parties were
00:02:27eliminated, once they were eliminated
00:02:31power was organized on the basis of
00:02:35military defense committees, and this commities
00:02:38were designed in such manner that they
00:02:42cascaded from the capital in
00:02:45Wagaadugu, from places like Bobo di Alaso,
00:02:49way up to the villages and of course the military
00:02:53heads had quite some power because Thomas Sankara took the
00:02:57view that discipline was an...
00:03:00essential ingredient of ensuring that things were
00:03:04done properly. once that had been done, he also said
00:03:08that politicians must not be apart from the
00:03:11people and they must not leave in luxury. he reduced
00:03:15the salaries of military officers who are now serving in
00:03:19these offices and said that people must use
00:03:23only such cars as are necessary. luxury
00:03:27was eliminated, his famous statement, is, it is
00:03:31either champagne for the few or
00:03:34water for all, and I think that remains an
00:03:38iconic statement that we must create an environment
00:03:42where the
00:03:43na majority
00:03:43of the people are living
00:03:46in a dignified manner. The other thing that it did
00:03:49was to begin to deal with the
00:03:51of question of self-sufficiency, and
00:03:54agriculture, sugam, tomatoes and other
00:03:58things, people are involved. informing with a view
00:04:02to ensuring that they were self-sufficient and they may not
00:04:06have been between the five 1900 and
00:04:101983 and
00:04:11of
00:04:12of 1987, but it is documented that work was done
00:04:16in a massive manner and that food
00:04:20sufficiency was almost realized
00:04:23during the revolution of thomas andkara, so
00:04:27there was agrarian revolution.
00:04:30addition and tied to the agrarian revolution was the
00:04:33environment, the desertification which threatens and continues to
00:04:37threaten burkinafaso and countries in the sahil, he
00:04:41said there must be massive tree planting, and those
00:04:45who have heard the advantage of visiting burkinafaso will see the
00:04:49attempt that were made to ensure that trees were
00:04:52planted and that rivers to the few
00:04:55of them were therefore not depleted, so the
00:04:58agrarian with the
00:05:01in environmental revolution is one
00:05:03of the things that stands out during this particular
00:05:06period of 1983 to
00:05:091987. The other. thing that they did was
00:05:13in the area of education, because they realized and they
00:05:17took the view that in order to move the country to the next
00:05:21level, then levels of illiteracy had to be
00:05:24improved and arrangements were made to ensure
00:05:27that public education, particularly at the
00:05:31primary level or the lower level was
00:05:35publicly financed. in Africa we are found of talking
00:05:38about something called free education, there is nothing like that.
00:05:42"all education is publicly financed and this
00:05:46is what is said must be done and the levels
00:05:50of literacy rose a
00:05:54very dramatic manner in burkinafaso during this
00:05:58short period. the other revolution was in the area of
00:06:02health, particularly primary health. this is
00:06:06area that is in the tropical environment and very
00:06:09many problems exist." and still do
00:06:13exist, particularly in terms of primary health, in
00:06:17terms of vaccination, in terms of access to medical
00:06:21facilities, and efforts were made to ensure that
00:06:25the health sector was reformed a dramatic
00:06:28way. The other sector was in the area of
00:06:32infrastructure. Of course, he was operating
00:06:36at
00:06:36the time when the French were now revolting against him a
00:06:40sense and therefore are not supporting him. but he said with our little resources
00:06:44and what it is that we are realizing from the sale
00:06:48of our minerals, we must work
00:06:52on infrastructure and efforts are being made and
00:06:56were made during that period to ensure that
00:06:59infrastructure was indeed given
00:07:03its pride of place. there was also reform in
00:07:07mainstreaming women, women were not involved and he took
00:07:10the view that human... Rights only make sense if it
00:07:14is gender neutral and deliberate efforts were
00:07:18made to ensure that women were involved in all
00:07:22processes and therefore were involved and
00:07:26engaged in the process of development the
00:07:30country. In terms of diplomacy, Thomas
00:07:34Sankara took the view that diplomacy must be
00:07:38anchored on pan Africanism, that meant
00:07:42that we must have friends who are panafricanis and
00:07:45panafricanism were understood to mean that
00:07:49all activities must be afrocentric, that you
00:07:53only have such friends as are useful to
00:07:56you, and he took the view that the western world was
00:08:00hostile to burkinafaso, hostile to
00:08:03Africans, and that it was wise to begin to
00:08:06gravitate toward countries such as Cuba, China
00:08:10and the Soviet Union. at that time and he took
00:08:14the view that they - their approach was not to
00:08:18dominate, but to collaborate and to
00:08:21cooperate, but Thomas
00:08:24Sankara did something which he
00:08:28will be remembered for in his attempt to fight
00:08:32the imperialist. on the 27th
00:08:35day of September
00:08:371987 on the
00:08:40floor of the
00:08:44auditorium in Adis sabab by Ethiopia, he said,
00:08:47in order to free ourselves from the chains of
00:08:51imperialism, we must stop borrowing money from the
00:08:55international monetary fund and the World Bank, he
00:08:58suggested, let a committee be formed, which committee
00:09:02will now say we are no longer going to borrow from them, we are no
00:09:06longer going to pay them, and he said, if I do
00:09:09it alone as Bukinafaso, as toma,
00:09:13isidore, noel, sankara, I will not leave
00:09:17to see it, and he did not leave to see it, and whenever I watch the
00:09:21footage when he was making that statement, I could see the
00:09:24faces the leaders looking at this young man who is
00:09:28breathing fire and brimstone, and when he made
00:09:31that statement, he said
00:09:34that there was need to take deliberate steps to ensure that
00:09:37debts were not paid, because as long as we were
00:09:41tied to the international monetary fund and tied to the
00:09:45world bank and WTO and all these bretton Woods
00:09:49institution and tied as it were with
00:09:53these western institutions which were parasitic,
00:09:57then Bukinafaso would not grow. It is
00:10:00those approaches, those revolutionary things that
00:10:04Toma Isidore did in Burkinafaso than
00:10:08that then turned.
00:10:12against him a manner of speaking,
00:10:14France was not
00:10:17resting, they were working,
00:10:21and in fact it is now on record. that Tomas
00:10:25sankara was warned that there
00:10:28was a plot to kill him and that the
00:10:31person who was leading the plot was none
00:10:35other than his best friend, so he
00:10:38thought blace kampaure, and this is what he
00:10:41said, if it is blace campaure who is planning to kill
00:10:45me, i have no defense against him, and we know that blace
00:10:49kampaure led the push that then
00:10:52killed Tomas isid.
00:10:55sankara and we know that the revolution
00:10:59that was created and that happened between
00:11:011983 and 1987
00:11:05was then interrupted because you now
00:11:09had the restoration as you would
00:11:13say the ancient regime which was
00:11:16beholden to the french, but the beauty of it
00:11:19is that the revolution of Thoma Isidore
00:11:23Sankara is is alive, the new
00:11:26administration of Ibrahim Traore
00:11:30is beginning to re-energize that
00:11:34revolution, the rhetoric is right, the action is
00:11:37right, and it can simply be said, Thomas
00:11:41Sankara is dead, but the Thomas Sankara
00:11:44Revolution is alive and well.
00:12:10starting the US-Israel war in Iran was easy, ending this war
00:12:14seems almost impossible. America's overwhelming military
00:12:18power has proven to be indecisive as Iran holds
00:12:21significant high cards. Eventually the global.
00:13:43I am Pierro Lumumba here at the Maruba
00:13:46Dam in Machacos County in the Republic of
00:13:50Kenya in the continent of Africa. We continue
00:13:53our sea. is on the continent of
00:13:57Africa and today we focus
00:14:00a subject that has preoccupied historian for a
00:14:04long time, the Herrero
00:14:08mamassaka, historians are
00:14:11unanimous in describing this massacre as the
00:14:15first massacre the 20th century, and in order
00:14:19to contextualize this massaca, I
00:14:23always look at the state. that was made by
00:14:26Otmark in
00:14:281862 when he was addressing the Prussian
00:14:32Parliament when he said that the issues the
00:14:36day will not be solved by long speeches and
00:14:40general consensus but by iron and blood. It is after that
00:14:43speech that he convened the infamous
00:14:47Berlin conference held in Berlin between the
00:14:51year 1884 and 188.
00:14:55five and the European powers then divided
00:14:59the continent of Africa into spheres of influence.
00:15:03Germany of course acquired several territories in Eastern
00:15:07Africa, in Western Africa and in what
00:15:10then became known as the
00:15:13southwestern Africa, which we now
00:15:16know as Namibia. When they entered into that
00:15:20space, it was in the spirit that reigned in Europe
00:15:24at that time. of acquiring territory for
00:15:27purposes of agriculture and exploitation of other
00:15:30resources and the primary
00:15:34inhabitants of that area in included
00:15:38majorly the Herrera ethnic group and the
00:15:42nama, of course the koisan were also there, but
00:15:46this particular massaca that we now know
00:15:49as the Herrera took place between the year
00:15:531904 and 1908. The
00:15:57things that happened in