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Remembering Maurice Bishop and Thomas Sankara
By
Sokari Ekine
This week marks the
anniversary of the assassinations of two black
revolutionaries,
Maurice Bishop [of
Granada]
on 19 October 1983 and
Thomas Sankara [of
Burkina Faso] on 15 October 1987. The assassination
of Bishop effectively ended the Grenadian revolution and
the New Jewel movement, when six days after his death US
forces under Ronald Reagan invaded the island.
A communist threat
The JEWEL Movement
(The Joint Endeavour for Welfare, Education &
Liberation) originally started in 1972 as a political
movement centered on agricultural co-operatives. A year
later the New Jewel movement was created; Maurice Bishop
became prime minister in March 1979.
Bishop was
assassinated in a "palace" coup led by deputy prime
minister and childhood friend,
Bernard Coard, over ideological differences. Coard
and his wife Phyllis were sentenced to death, a decision
later softened to life imprisonment. In 2007, the Privy
Council of the UK
ruled the death sentences unconstitutional, which
has implications for the case in the first place.
What is clear is
that the New Jewel movement’s socialist ideology and its
relationship with Cuba were perceived as a "communist"
threat to the US hegemony in the Caribbean. The invasion
battle lasted for just over a week and resulted in the
death of many Grenadians and 12 Cuban civilians, who
were there to help with the construction of an airport.
According to Don Rojas, Bishop’s press secretary,
the US invasion had been planned as early as 1981 and
the coup provided the perfect excuse:
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The
coup provided a pretext for the invasion to
take place at that particular moment. In
other words, taking advantage of an
opportunity of internal destabilization as a
result of the coup and confusion within the
Grenadian society.
The
invasion, however, had been planned by the
Reagan administration as far back as 1981.
In fact, there was mock invasion, military
exercises on the
island of Viequas off the island of
Puerto Rico. Viequas happens to be similar
in topography to Grenada. This had been in
the works, so to speak, for at least two
years before October 1983. |
Grenada under the New Jewel
movement
The aim of the revolutionary movement, which
received aid both from Cuba and the Soviet Union, was to
create a modern agricultural programme based on a system
of co-operatives, people’s assemblies, free health and
education for all and low-cost housing. Workers’ and
women’s rights, as well as the struggle against racism
and Apartheid, were Bishop’s core principles.
Women’s rights were
furthered through the formation of the National Women’s
Organization, which participated in policy decisions
along with other social groups. Women were given equal
pay and paid maternity leave, and sex discrimination was
made illegal.
The Grenadian
revolution only lasted four years, but in that brief
period the New Jewel movement
transformed the country from a neo-colonialist state
to a Pan-African revolutionary state.
Thomas Sankara seized power in 1983 in a popular
Pan-African coup in what was then
Upper Volta (he changed the name of the country to
Burkina Faso, which means ‘land of honest men’).
Like Bishop, Sankara had a vision to change the way
things were, to show that there are other ways of
socioeconomic and political organization which are in
the interest of the people rather than international
corporations and Western governments.
The revolution
sought to create an anti-imperialist social democracy in
one of the world’s poorest countries.
Issues such as land rights, labour rights,
agriculture, education and women’s rights were at the
forefront of the revolution’s aims. Sankara stated:
"There is no true social revolution without the
liberation of women." It was one of his principal
priorities to ban female genital mutilation; he promoted
contraception and discouraged polygamy.
Sankara also
embarked on a massive nationalization project which no
doubt infuriated the business élite and the French
government. In 1987 Sankara was assassinated after only
four years in power, in an "imperialist" coup by his
former comrade,
Blaise Compaoré. Compaoré, who overturned most of
Sankara’s policies, remains in power today.
Who killed Thomas Sankara?
The truth of who
was behind the assassination is still illusive. It has
been suggested that
former Liberian warlord Charles Taylor may have been
involved. In a 2009 documentary, Italian film maker
Silvestro Montanaro implicated the US and the French
governments as well as Compaoré and Taylor in Sankara’s
assassination.
This brief excerpt from the documentary shows Taylor
as working for the CIA to destabilize African liberation
movements and this is what his former aide said:
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PRINCE:
Right, after I spoke, the president of
Burkina Faso faced all kinds of problems,
and I do not want to end up there again.
Besides, if you really want to know what
happened in Burkina Faso, why don’t you go
there and ask President
Blaise Compaoré. . . You are part of the
international media, you are like a doctor,
to whom the truth must be told. Therefore,
go to Burkina Faso . . . [bursts of
laughter].
NARRATOR: Then, with
the camera ostensibly off . . .
PRINCE: There was an
international plot to get rid of this man,
and if I tell you how this happened, are you
aware the secret services could kill you?
SILVESTRO: An international plot. Because
the truth would harm the current president
Blaise Compaoré. In 1987, when Sankara
was murdered, Compaoré was considered his
best friend. Immediately after Sankara’s
death, Compaoré said "I was ill."
NARRATOR: Momo and Allen recount to me
what exactly happened.
ALLEN: Gambian President
Yahya Jammeh,
Blaise Compaoré, Thomas Sankara, Domingo
Guengeré, and
Foday Sankoh, as well as the man from
Chad, whose name I can’t recall, had all
been trained in Libya and were all friends.
They are the ones who actually organized the
Burkina revolution and installed Sankara as
president. Once in power, he set about
putting in place his plans. The next thing
you know, the US had infiltrated the
liberation movements and set about
overthrowing Sankara, who was leaning too
far left. The Americans were not happy with
Sankara. He was talking of nationalizing his
country’s resources to benefit his people.
He was a socialist so he had to go. |
Burkina critics of
Sankara claim he became authoritarian, closing down
trade unions and banning strikes. But in defence of
Sankara, "you cannot carry out fundamental change
without a certain amount of madness." This is the kind
of madness African leadership is missing today.
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I would like to leave
behind me the conviction that if we maintain
a certain amount of caution and organization
we deserve victory. You cannot carry out
fundamental change without a certain amount
of madness. In this case, it comes from
nonconformity, the courage to turn your back
on the old formulas, the courage to invent
the future. It took the madmen of yesterday
for us to be able to act with extreme
clarity today. I want to be one of those
madmen. We must dare to invent the future.
Thomas Sankara, 1985 |
Sokari Ekine is a Nigerian
social justice activist and blogger. She writes an award
winning blog,
Black Looks, which she setup over four years ago,
writing on a range of topics such as LGBTI Rights in
Africa, gender issues, human rights, the Niger Delta and
Land Rights.
Source:
NewInt
posted 17 October 2010
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Maurice Bishop.mp3
Excerpt of speech
by Maurice Bishop
Maurice Bishop was
the Prime Minister of Grenada from March 1979 until
October 1983 when he was executed at Fort
Rupert. Maurice grew up in the British-controlled
Caribbean island of Grenada. Like many people in the
country, Bishop led a poverty-stricken childhood due to
a lack of industrialization and Britain's lack of
concern for the Grenadians' well-being. . . . Bishop
installed a revolutionary government that went to work
organizing workers' councils and creating a very
participatory government. He worked to develop the
island, and received aid mainly from Cuba and the Soviet
Union, and later—the Sandinistas of Nicaragua. One of
the chief efforts of Maurice was the construction of an
airplane runway in order to further tourism for the
nation. Bishop was closely influenced by the ideas of
Cuban leader Fidel
Castro and Nicaragua's Daniel Ortega. Being the only
English-speaking of this Caribbean triad, Bishop hoped
to appeal to the working-class of United
States—especially the oppressed African American
population.
While Bishop's
government and life were cut short tragically by
extremists from both ends of the political spectrum, he
remains a light of hope for socialists who see his
participatory and egalitarian regime as a perfect
example of how a workers' and peasants' government can
be arranged.—FreedomArchives
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Maurice Bishop and The New Jewel Movement, 1 /
Maurice Bishop and The New Jewel Movement, 2
Maurice Bishop and The New Jewel Movement, 3
/
Maurice Bishop and The New Jewel Movement, 4
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Maurice Bishop Speaks: The Grenada
Revolution and Its Overthrow 1979-83
Edited by Bruce Marcus and Michael Taber
Less
than 20 years ago Maurice Bishop led a
popular revolution there that lasted for
three and a half years and involved
Grenada's working people of town and
countryside in transforming their society
and lives. The Grenada Revolution's giant
strides in popular education, economic
production, slashing unemployment, and
developing national pride and
internationalism, are graphically detailed
in this outstanding book of Bishop's
speeches that were made in the course of the
revolutionary years. Bishop and the people
of Grenada wrote an imperishable chapter in
world history. |
The speeches address not just the
situation of one small island, but the entire world
faced with the crisis of capitalism that has sharpened
greatly in the past two decades. This book is also
valuable for the introductory analysis by Steve Clark of
how the revolution was overthrown from within with the
murder of Bishop and other revolutionary leaders in
October 1983, plus indispensable documents from the
Cuban government and speeches by Fidel Castro on Cuba's
role in supporting the revolution.—George
Fyson
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Maurice Bishop—(b.
Aruba, 29 May 1944; d. 19 Oct. 1983) Grenadian; Prime
Minister 1979 – 83—Born in the Dutch island of Aruba to
Grenadian parents, Bishop trained as a barrister in
London before returning to Grenada in 1970 to become
involved in radical politics. He was instrumental in
merging a number of small left-wing groups into the New
Jewel Movement (NJM) in 1973, which campaigned against
the autocratic government of Premier Eric Gairy. Gairy
repressed the NJM and other opponents and in 1974 Bishop
was jailed, two weeks after his father had been shot
dead during a demonstration. In 1976 Bishop headed a
three-party alliance and was elected to parliament,
becoming leader of the opposition.
In March 1979 the NJM staged a bloodless coup when Gairy
was abroad and proclaimed a People's Revolutionary
Government (PRG), in which Bishop was named Prime
Minister. Charismatic and popular, he became the
figurehead of the PRG, attracting considerable support
both within Grenada and from radical circles
in Europe and North America. |
 |
For all its Marxist rhetoric, the PRG
was in reality a pragmatic regime, encouraging
co-operation between private and public sectors and
attempting to diversify out of the island's dependency
on agricultural commodities. It earned the enmity of the
USA, however, through its close links with Cuba, which
assisted in the building of an international airport.—Answers
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Eric Matthew Gairy
Sir
Eric Matthew Gairy (February 18, 1920 -
August 23, 1997) was a
Grenadian primary school teacher and a
politician who led Grenada either as Premier
or as Prime Minister between 1967 and 1979.
He was born in St. Andrew's Parish, near
Grenville, Grenada.
He
founded the Grenada United Labour Party in
1950, which began as a labour union called
as the Grenada Manual, Maritime &
Intellectual Workers' Union (GMMIWU) but
later took part in elections, and served as
Chief Minister from 1954 to 1960 and
from1961 until 1962 when he was dismissed
for corruption. He served as Premier between
1967 and 1974, and became the first Prime
Minister of Grenada from 1974. He led his
country to independence from Great Britain
in 1974. . . . |
On March 13, 1979
while Gairy was at the UN, the New Jewel Movement led by
Maurice Bishop launched an armed revolution and
overthrew the government. Bishop suspended the
constitution, and the New Jewel Movement ruled the
country by decree until 1983. . . .
|
Gairy
stayed in exile in the United States until
1983, when the United States, backed by some
Caribbean allies—notably,
Dame Eugenia Charles, Prime Minister of
Dominica—invaded to topple a military
government which had overthrown and killed
Bishop.
Gairy
then returned to Grenada and campaigned in
the elections of 1984, claiming to be a
changed man. However, his party lost the
elections, and attempts by Gairy and his
party to return to power in 1990 and 1995
were also unsuccessful. He died in Grand
Anse, Grenada.—TravelGrenada
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Thomas Sankara Speaks, The Burkina Faso
Revolution 1983- 87
By
Thomas Sankara
The originality of Sankara's ideas . . .
along with his awareness of the social and
economic realities of his country, his
understanding of the international relations
of forces . . . make this collection a
highly useful tool. Expressed with passion
and clarity, his views on the necessity of a
new balance between the city and the
countryside, on the crucial importance of
the emancipation of women . . . are in
perfect keeping with the demands of the
peoples of Africa today.—Le
Monde Diplomatique
The courage and originality which made him
and Burkina Faso the inspiration they were
to so many Africans shine out of this
collection of his most important speeches.—London
Guardian |
 |
Thomas Sankara led the revolution
that took place in the West African country Burkina Faso
from 1983 to 1987. In this collection of speeches and
interviews, Sankara explains how during those years the
peasants and workers of Burkina Faso: established a
popular revolutionary government; started to fight the
hunger, illiteracy, and economic backwardness imposed by
imperialist domination; and began to combat the
oppression of women inherited from thousands of years of
class society. Their actions set an example not only for
the workers and peasants of Africa but for those of the
whole world, then and now.—Pathfinder
Press; 2nd edition
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* * *
After basic
military training in secondary school in 1966,
Sankara began his military career at the age of 19,
and a year later was sent to
Madagascar for officer training at
Antsirabe where he witnessed popular uprisings in
1971 and 1972 against the government of
Philibert Tsiranana and first read the works of
Karl Marx and
Vladimir Lenin, profoundly influencing his political
views for the rest of his life. Returning to Upper Volta
in 1972, by 1974 he fought in a border war between Upper
Volta and
Mali.
He earned notoriety
for his heroic performance in the border war with Mali,
but years later would renounce the war as "useless and
unjust", a reflection of his growing
political consciousness. He also became a popular
figure in the capital of
Ouagadougou. The fact that he was a decent guitarist
(he played in a band named "Tout-à-Coup Jazz") and rode
a motorcycle may have contributed to his charismatic
public images.
In 1976 he became commander of the
Commando Training Centre in
Pô. In the same year he met
Blaise Compaoré in
Morocco. During the presidency of Colonel
Saye Zerbo a group of young officers formed a secret
organisation "Communist Officers' Group" (Regroupement
des officiers communistes, or ROC) the best-known
members being
Henri Zongo, Jean-Baptiste Boukary Lingani, Compaoré
and Sankara.—Wikipedia
Thomas Sankara—The Upright Man Part 1 /
Thomas Sankara—The Upright Man Part 2
Thomas Sankara—The Upright Man Part 3 /
Thomas Sankara—The Upright Man Part 4
Thomas Sankara—the Upright Man
Who was
Thomas Sankara?
Thomas Sankara
[December 21, 1949 – October 15, 1987]
often referred to as “Africa’s Che Guevara” was the
president of Burkina Faso from 1983 to 1987. He
seized power in a 1983 popularly supported coup,
with the goal of eliminating corruption and the
dominance of the former French colonial power.
 |
Sankara’s
foreign policies were centered around
anti-imperialism, with his government eschewing all
foreign aid because, as he often said, “he who feeds
you, controls you.” He pushed for debt reduction
and nationalized all land and mineral wealth,
averting the power and influence of the IMF and
World Bank.
His domestic
policies were focused on preventing famine with
agrarian self-sufficiency and land reform,
prioritizing education with a nation-wide literacy
campaign, and promoting public health by vaccinating
2.5 million children. And his was the first African
government to publicly recognize the AIDS epidemic
as a major threat to Africa.
Thomas Sankara
was an extraordinary man. |
He outlawed
female genital mutilation, forced marriages, and
polygamy and was the first African leader to appoint
women to major cabinet positions and actively
recruit them for the military. A motorcyclist
himself, he formed an all-woman motorcycle personal
guard.
He encouraged
women to work outside the home and stay in school
even if pregnant.
He launched a
nation-wide public health ‘Vaccination Commando’ a
state run program that in a period of only 15 days
in early November 1984, completed the immunization
of 2.5 million children against meningitis (a world
record), yellow fever and measles. This operation
was so successful in that children in neighbouring
countries like the Ivory Coast and Mali were sent to
Burkina Faso for free immunization that helped
curtail high rates of infant and child mortality.
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. He lowered his salary, as President, to
only $450 a month and limited his possessions to a
car, four bikes, three guitars, and a refrigerator.
He planted over
ten million trees to halt the growing
desertification of the Sahel and established an
ambitious road and rail construction program to “tie
the nation together.”
He was known
for jogging unaccompanied through the capital city
in his track suit and posing in his tailored
military fatigues with his mother-of-pearl pistol.
And when asked why he didn’t want his portrait hung
in public places, as was the norm for other African
leaders, he said ”there are seven million Thomas
Sankaras.”
Sankara’s
revolutionary policies for self-reliance and
defiance against the neoliberal development
strategies imposed by the West made him an icon to
many supporters of African liberation. But his
policies alienated and antagonized the vested
interests of the small but powerful Burkinabe middle
class, the tribal leaders who he stripped of the
traditional right to forced labor and tribute
payments, and the foreign financial interests in
France and their ally Ivory Coast.
Compaore and
Sankara
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On October 15,
1987 Sankara was killed by an armed militia of
twelve officials in a coup d’état organized by
Compaore. Sankara’s body was dismembered and buried
in an unmarked grave. Compaore immediately took
power, overturning most of Sankara’s policies.
Compaore reportedly ousted Sankara because he
believed that his revolutionary policies were
jeopardizing Burkina Faso’s relationship with France
and Ivory Coast.
Sankara and Compaore were not only colleagues, they were
childhood friends. This is why ‘Bad Karma’ should be
Blaise Compaore’s middle name. He is a ruthless man
who orchestrated the brutal assassination of his
best friend. Yet he is the man routinely
designated by the international community to act as
a ’mediator’ to help resolve African conflicts… smdh— Fyeahblackhistory
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The Benefit and The Burden: Tax Reform
Why We Need It and What It Will Take
By Bruce Bartlett
The United States Tax Code has undergone no serious reform since 1986. Since then, loopholes, exemptions, credits, and deductions have distorted its clarity, increased its inequity, and frustrated our ability to govern ourselves. At its core, any tax system is in place to raise the revenue needed to pay the government’s bills. But where that revenue should come from raises crucial questions: Should our tax code be progressive, with the wealthier paying more than the poor, and if so, to what extent? Should we tax income or consumption or both? Of the various ideas proposed by economists and politicians—from tax increases to tax cuts, from a VAT to a Fair Tax—what will work and won’t? By tracing the history of our own tax system and by assessing the way other countries have solved similar problems, Bartlett explores the surprising answers to all of these questions, giving a sense of the tax code’s many benefits—and its inevitable burdens. |
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Midnight Rising: John Brown and the Raid That Sparked the Civil War
By Tony Horwitz
Plotted in secret, launched in the dark, John Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry was a pivotal moment in U.S. history. But few Americans know the true story of the men and women who launched a desperate strike at the slaveholding South. Now, Midnight Rising portrays Brown's uprising in vivid color, revealing a country on the brink of explosive conflict. Brown, the descendant of New England Puritans, saw slavery as a sin against America's founding principles. Unlike most abolitionists, he was willing to take up arms, and in 1859 he prepared for battle at a hideout in Maryland, joined by his teenage daughter, three of his sons, and a guerrilla band that included former slaves and a dashing spy. On October 17, the raiders seized Harpers Ferry, stunning the nation and prompting a counterattack led by Robert E. Lee. After Brown's capture, his defiant eloquence galvanized the North and appalled the South, which considered Brown a terrorist. The raid also helped elect Abraham Lincoln, who later began to fulfill Brown's dream with the Emancipation Proclamation, a measure he called "a John Brown raid, on a gigantic scale."
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The White Masters of the
World
From
The World and Africa, 1965
By W. E. B. Du Bois
W. E. B. Du Bois’
Arraignment and Indictment of White Civilization
(Fletcher)
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Ancient African Nations
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Negro Digest /
Black World
Browse all issues
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Enjoy!
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The Death of Emmett Till by Bob Dylan
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The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll
/
Only a Pawn in Their Game
Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson Thanks America for
Slavery /
George Jackson /
Hurricane Carter
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The Journal of Negro History issues at Project Gutenberg
The
Haitian Declaration of Independence 1804
/
January 1, 1804 -- The Founding of
Haiti
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