Skip to main content
Work with the NEU
Viva Sankara!
NIGEL FLANAGAN remembers ‘The African Che’ 35 years on from his assassination

THIRTY-FIVE years ago this month, one of Africa’s greatest revolutionaries was murdered by former comrades. 

“The African Che,” as he was known, was shot down in a coup d’etat by soldiers who were rebelling against his socialist transformation of Burkina Faso, a landlocked and poor remnant of the French colonial empire in west Africa.

He is less well known than Che, but his legacy across Africa is immense. T-shirts with his image on will appear all over Africa on demonstrations, picket lines and protests, but of course he is much less celebrated in the West.

The 95th Anniversary Appeal
Support the Morning Star
You have reached the free limit.
Subscribe to continue reading.
Similar stories
LIBERATION: Mission Robinson literacy class in the La Vega neighbourhood of Caracas. Applying the Cuban literacy method ‘Yes, I can!’ - the state provides free textbooks and educational videos / Piv: Oriana Elicabe/orianomada/flickr/CC
Features / 13 February 2026
13 February 2026

ISAAC SANEY points to the global stakes involved in defending the Cuban revolution against imperialism and calls for resistance

Then President of Burkina Faso Paul Henri Sandaogo Damiba addresses the 77th session of the United Nations General Assembly, September 23, 2022, at the UN headquarters
Burkina Faso / 21 January 2026
21 January 2026
THE PAST INFORMS THE FUTURE: People visit the mausoleum for Burkina Faso's revolutionary leader Thomas Sankara in Ouagadougou, inaugurated last Saturday
Features / 23 May 2025
23 May 2025

PRABHAT PATNAIK details the epochal shift of political power from Western neocolonialists to the people

Burkina Faso President Ibrahim Traore arrives to the Grand Palace at the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia, on May 10, 2025
Features / 15 May 2025
15 May 2025

ROGER McKENZIE explains how Ibrahim Traore has sparked the flames of hope across Africa, while the Western powers seek to extinguish all attempts to build true sovereignty in the long-exploited continent