Reddit reviews We Are the Heirs of the World's Revolutions: Speeches from the Burkina Faso Revolution 1983-87, 2nd Edition

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
   
   And again
   
   
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. H[e forced civil servants to pay one month’s salary to public projects](In Ouagadougou, Sankara converted the army's provisioning store into a state-owned supermarket open to everyone (the first supermarket in the country).)
    
    
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 being to rely upon 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 renamed his country from the derogatory " Upper volta " to " Burkina Faso, The Land Of Upright Man"
    
    
21. His foreign policies were centred on anti-imperialism, with his government eschewing all foreign aid, pushing for odious debt reduction, nationalising all land and mineral wealth and averting the power and influence of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank.
    
    
22. Sankara's administration was the first African government to publicly recognize the AIDS epidemic as a major threat to Africa
    
    
23. Large-scale housing and infrastructure projects were also undertaken. Brick factories were created to help build houses in effort to end urban slums
    
    
24. In Ouagadougou, Sankara converted the army's provisioning store into a state-owned supermarket open to everyone (the first supermarket in the country)
    
    
    
    He led one of the most ambitious programs of sweeping reforms ever seen in Africa It sought to fundamentally reverse the structural social inequities inherited from the French colonial order.
    
    These inequities left a majority of marginalized, mostly rural, poor and women, at the bottom of society, often under the exploitation of a minority of bureaucrats, businessmen, military officers and traditional chiefs. Sankara focused the state’s limited resources on the marginalized majority in the countryside. When most African countries depended on imported food and external assistance for development, Sankara championed local production and the consumption of locally-made goods. He firmly believed that it was possible for the Burkinabè, with hard work and collective social mobilization, to solve their problems: chiefly scarce food and drinking water.
    In Sankara’s Burkina, no one was above farm work, or graveling roads–not even the president, government ministers or army officers. Intellectual and civic education were systematically integrated with military training and soldiers were required to work in local community development projects.
    
    According to Ernest Harsch, author of a recent biography of Sankara, Burkinabe built for the first time scores of schools, health centers, water reservoirs, and nearly 100 km of rail, with little or no external assistance. Total cereal production rose by 75% between 1983 and 1986. In 1984, his government, defying skepticism from the donor agencies, organized the vaccination of 2 million children in a little over two weeks. He also championed environmental conservation with tree-planting campaigns and greening projects.
    
    His informal style of leadership was in a league of its own. Harsch quotes a former aide describing Sankara as “an idealist, demanding, rigorous, an organizer.” This discipline and seriousness started with himself. He had been first among top leadership to voluntary declare his modest assets and hand over to the treasury cash and gifts received during trips. Harsch quotes family members as saying that Sankara told them not to expect any benefits from him because he is president. In fact, by the time of his death, his kids attended the same public school, his wife was reporting to the same civil servant job, and his parents lived in the same house.
    
    Sankara disdained formal pomp and banned any cult of his personality. He could be seen casually walking the streets, jogging or conspicuously slipping into the crowd at a public event. He was a rousing orator who spoke with uncommon candor and clarity and did not hesitate to publicly admit mistakes, chastise comrades or express moral objections to heads of powerful nations, even if it imperiled him. For example, he famously criticized French president François Mitterand during a state dinner for hosting the leader of Apartheid South Africa.
    
    
    Books by Sankara:
    
    We are the heirs of the world's revolution
    
    Women's liberation and the African freedom struggle
    
    Thomas Sankara Speaks
    
    A quote from the book - " Our country produces enough to feed us all. Alas, for lack of organization, we are forced to beg for food aid. It’s this aid that instills in our spirits the attitude of beggars. " -Thomas Sankara
    
    " The revolution and women’s liberation go together. We do not talk of women’s emancipation as an act of charity or because of a surge of human compassion. It is a basic necessity for the triumph of the revolution. Women hold up the other half of the sky. " - Thomas Sankara.
    
    Sankara is often referred to as "Africa's Che Guevara." Sankara gave a speech marking and honoring the 20th anniversary of Che Guevara's 9 October 1967 execution, one week before his own assassination on 15 October 1987

Piggybacking to link these.

Thomas Sankara's speech before the UN General Assembly Link to text

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Good books by Sankara or containing speeches/essays by him:

Women's Liberation and the African Freedom Struggle Amazon link

Thomas Sankara Speaks: The Burkina Faso Revolution 1983-1987 Amazon link

We Are Heirs of the World's Revolutions Amazon link

Essential additions to any Marxist-Leninist's library, or in general the library of any lover of freedom and humanity.

Communists are good. Exhibit A. Thomas Sankara

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
   
   And again
   
   
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. H[e forced civil servants to pay one month’s salary to public projects](In Ouagadougou, Sankara converted the army's provisioning store into a state-owned supermarket open to everyone (the first supermarket in the country).)
    
    
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 being to rely upon 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 renamed his country from the derogatory " Upper volta " to " Burkina Faso, The Land Of Upright Man"
    
    
21. His foreign policies were centred on anti-imperialism, with his government eschewing all foreign aid, pushing for odious debt reduction, nationalising all land and mineral wealth and averting the power and influence of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank.
    
    
22. Sankara's administration was the first African government to publicly recognize the AIDS epidemic as a major threat to Africa
    
    
23. Large-scale housing and infrastructure projects were also undertaken. Brick factories were created to help build houses in effort to end urban slums
    
    
24. In Ouagadougou, Sankara converted the army's provisioning store into a state-owned supermarket open to everyone (the first supermarket in the country)
    
    
    
    He led one of the most ambitious programs of sweeping reforms ever seen in Africa It sought to fundamentally reverse the structural social inequities inherited from the French colonial order.
    
    These inequities left a majority of marginalized, mostly rural, poor and women, at the bottom of society, often under the exploitation of a minority of bureaucrats, businessmen, military officers and traditional chiefs. Sankara focused the state’s limited resources on the marginalized majority in the countryside. When most African countries depended on imported food and external assistance for development, Sankara championed local production and the consumption of locally-made goods. He firmly believed that it was possible for the Burkinabè, with hard work and collective social mobilization, to solve their problems: chiefly scarce food and drinking water.
    In Sankara’s Burkina, no one was above farm work, or graveling roads–not even the president, government ministers or army officers. Intellectual and civic education were systematically integrated with military training and soldiers were required to work in local community development projects.
    
    According to Ernest Harsch, author of a recent biography of Sankara, Burkinabe built for the first time scores of schools, health centers, water reservoirs, and nearly 100 km of rail, with little or no external assistance. Total cereal production rose by 75% between 1983 and 1986. In 1984, his government, defying skepticism from the donor agencies, organized the vaccination of 2 million children in a little over two weeks. He also championed environmental conservation with tree-planting campaigns and greening projects.
    
    His informal style of leadership was in a league of its own. Harsch quotes a former aide describing Sankara as “an idealist, demanding, rigorous, an organizer.” This discipline and seriousness started with himself. He had been first among top leadership to voluntary declare his modest assets and hand over to the treasury cash and gifts received during trips. Harsch quotes family members as saying that Sankara told them not to expect any benefits from him because he is president. In fact, by the time of his death, his kids attended the same public school, his wife was reporting to the same civil servant job, and his parents lived in the same house.
    
    Sankara disdained formal pomp and banned any cult of his personality. He could be seen casually walking the streets, jogging or conspicuously slipping into the crowd at a public event. He was a rousing orator who spoke with uncommon candor and clarity and did not hesitate to publicly admit mistakes, chastise comrades or express moral objections to heads of powerful nations, even if it imperiled him. For example, he famously criticized French president François Mitterand during a state dinner for hosting the leader of Apartheid South Africa.
    
    
    Books by Sankara:
    
    We are the heirs of the world's revolution
    
    Women's liberation and the African freedom struggle
    
    Thomas Sankara Speaks
    
    A quote from the book - " Our country produces enough to feed us all. Alas, for lack of organization, we are forced to beg for food aid. It’s this aid that instills in our spirits the attitude of beggars. " -Thomas Sankara
    
    " The revolution and women’s liberation go together. We do not talk of women’s emancipation as an act of charity or because of a surge of human compassion. It is a basic necessity for the triumph of the revolution. Women hold up the other half of the sky. " - Thomas Sankara.
    
    Sankara is often referred to as "Africa's Che Guevara." Sankara gave a speech marking and honoring the 20th anniversary of Che Guevara's 9 October 1967 execution, one week before his own assassination on 15 October 1987