20 Surprising facts about Thomas Sankara, one of the best leader Africa ever had and the president you may not know.

So often African leaders are portrayed as bad, wicked, and lacking the ability to be a great leader but in all of these one man stands out as a true nationalist and a great leader and that is Thomas Sankara of Burkina Faso. 

The Western world did not like the self-empowerment ideals he was instilling in his countrymen and the whole Africa at-large, let alone not borrowing from their financial institutions which they don't like.

Thomas Isidore Noël Sankara; 21 December 1949 – 15 October 1987) was a Burkinabé military captain, Marxist revolutionary, pan-Africanist and President of Burkina Faso from 1983-87. 

Viewed by supporters as a charismatic and iconic figure of revolution, he is commonly referred to as “Africa’s Che Guevara”

Below are some of his amazing achievements:
1. He vaccinated 2.5 million children against meningitis, yellow fever and measles in a matter of weeks.

2. He initiated a nation-wide literacy campaign, increasing the literacy rate from 13% in 1983 to 73% in 1987.

3. He planted over 10 million trees to prevent desertification.

4. He built roads and a railway to tie the nation together, without foreign aid.

5, He appointed females to high governmental positions, encouraged them to work, recruited them into the military, and granted pregnancy leave during education.

6. He outlawed female genital mutilation, forced marriages and polygamy in support of Women’s rights.

7. He sold off the government fleet of Mercedes cars and made the Renault 5 (the cheapest car sold in Burkina Faso at that time) the official service car of the ministers.

8. He reduced the salaries of all public servants, including his own, and forbade the use of government chauffeurs and 1st class airline tickets.

9. He redistributed land from the feudal landlords and gave it directly to the peasants. Wheat production rose in three years from 1700 kg per hectare to 3800 kg per hectare, making the country food self-sufficient.

10. He opposed foreign aid, saying that “he who feeds you, controls you.”

11. He spoke in forums like the Organization of African Unity against continued neo-colonialist penetration of Africa through Western trade and finance.

12. He called for a united front of African nations to repudiate their foreign debt. He argued that the poor and exploited did not have an obligation to repay money to the rich and exploiting In Ouagadougou, Sankara converted the army’s provisioning store into a state-owned supermarket open to everyone (the first supermarket in the country).

13. He forced civil servants to pay one month’s salary to public projects.

14. He refused to use the air conditioning in his office on the grounds that such luxury was not available to anyone but a handful of Burkinabes.

15. As President, he lowered his salary to $450 a month and limited his possessions to a car, four bikes, three guitars, a fridge and a broken freezer.

16. A motorcyclist himself, he formed an all-women motorcycle personal guard.

17. He required public servants to wear a traditional tunic, woven from Burkinabe cotton and sewn by Burkinabe craftsmen. (The reason is to rely on local industry and identity rather than foreign industry and identity).

18. When asked why he didn’t want his portrait hung in public places, as was the norm for other African leaders, Sankara replied: “There are seven million Thomas Sankaras.”

19. An accomplished guitarist, he wrote the new national anthem himself.

20. He achieved all that in 4 years.

Unfortunately, he was shot dead by his deputy at a meeting.