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· Notes sur la révolution nationale et populaire: Le projet de société de Thomas Sankara
THE LEGACY OF SANKARA’S LIFE AND HIS BLUE-PRINT FOR SOCIETY.
October 14th, 1997
A Thomas, l’Afrique Reconnaissante
This year we are commemorating the 10th anniversary of the assassination of Thomas Sankara. This is an important date to commemorate, not only because Sankara was an exceptionnal martyr, but because his ideas for a blue-print for society continue to be relevant today.
Today, his assassins enjoy power with impunity, a power they monopolize through the murder of others, and a sham democracy that fools no one. Money, and other means at their disposal, has clearly succeeded in buying off some of the opposition, while muzzling and blunting others, and creating a stupor and apathy among the general population. But we know that for Africa as a whole, Thomas’s integrity and the validity of his vision of development are models that must be promoted, for they are not dead, and continue to be cherished by the vast majority of our people.
It is true that Thomas’s impatience and voluntarism can be criticized. But he had a clear idea of the hypothetical endurance of his work and the base intentions of his entourage. The animosity is not unique to this particular situation. It also characterizes the so-called new world order, that aims to thwart the people’s legitimate aspirations to take charge, to count on their own forces, and to break with the mechanisms of their domination. African regimes are more than ever condemned to squeeze into an adjustment on which their integration into the world market depends. While the world decision-makers try to paint it with a "human face", the reality is the adjustment has only one face – and it is hideous. It provides Africa with a choice between marginalization and exploitation. Thomas realized this and tried, in the little time he had, to make its dangers understood, and to provide alternatives.
He knew, and we can clearly see it today, that the destiny of African states and their leaders would be restricted to subordination to a world order that is predatory and privileges only those who perpetuate it locally. A lot of people have started to wake up. Prematurely labeled democratization, popular aspirations are for the moment limited to defying authority, and reproducing western models of democracy. But the urgency and deterioration of conditions in Africa will open Africans' eyes to the importance of national and popular democraties, to a selective de-linking from the world system, and the advent of an endogenous and lasting development, through integration and collective autonomy.
In the context of ever-growing "internationalization", this vision may seem utopian, unrealistic or romantic. But in fact, it is the temporary short-sightedness of our people, and the obstinacy of our elites in not even considering this option as a way out of this crisis, that constitute the only real brakes.
Imperialism is not itself invincible, even if it has succeeded in strengthening itself, and appears as arrogantly at ease. Civil society in Africa is becoming more active, and that augurs a radicalization proportional to the intensification of crises that are occurring at every level and are shaking the entire continent.
For these reasons, the African intelligentsia will have to work to channel this momentum which is slowly taking form in the wake of the work of Thomas Sankara and his forbears.
A luta Continua
G.R.I.L.A (Group for Research and Initiative for the Liberation of Africa)
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