How to explain the fact that the trial of a murder that took place thirty-four years ago still arouses so much passion and so much interest? Thomas Sankara ruled Burkina Faso for only four years, from 1983 until his death on October 15, 1987, but his name is surrounded by a powerful mythology, more like that of Che Guevara than that of Nelson Mandela. Sankara still inspires today an African youth orphaned of a federating utopia.
I had the opportunity to interview this paratrooper officer several times who ruled by example. Sankara had sold the presidency limousines and replaced them with a fleet of Renault 5s, and it was as pure as it was tough (it had its gray areas). Thirty-year-old full of a sense of humor, he knew how to show himself direct and pedagogical to mobilize the inhabitants of the Upper Volta, a town he had renamed with the noble name of Burkina Faso, the land of upright men.
His murder shocked and traumatized Africa, also because his brother-in-arms (whom Sankara sometimes simply called brother), Captain Blaise Compaoré, installed himself in his place. The latter remained clinging to power for 27 years, and his downfall was necessary to start the process that opened on 11 October (and was immediately postponed to 25 October), in Ouagadougou, in the absence of the principal. accused, Compaoré, in exile abroad.
Deteriorated relationship
Three days after Sankara’s death, I interviewed Compaoré in the presidential office in Ouagadougou for the Libération newspaper. He had received me and my colleague Stephen Smith in the middle of the night, in a city still under curfew. He was heartbroken. “I didn’t want his death,” he confessed to us. An ambiguous sentence that could be interpreted as a confession but also as a manifestation of affection.
During that night interview Compaoré, in paratrooper uniform, confessed to us that he was convinced that Sankara wanted to have him arrested and executed. I asked him if he had proof. “Sankara was a soldier. If I had prepared such a plan I would have left no traces ”. A phrase that speaks volumes about the deterioration of their relationship.
Will the trial allow us to find out more about the conditions and intentions behind that bloody event? Difficult, because in the absence of Compaoré the possible international ties will remain unanswered.
At this point, at least two questions emerge regarding the role played by the then heads of state in the Sahelian sub-region, including the Ivorian Félix Houphouët-Boigny, deeply irritated by the charismatic Captain Sankara, to that of France. Was Paris aware of what was about to happen? If so, did you authorize the murder? The answer, evidently, is not found in the declassified documents that France sent to Burkina Faso’s justice.
A year before Sankara’s death, the French president of the time, François Mitterrand, was visiting Ouagadougou. The official dinner had been marked by an extraordinary exchange between the young officer and the old head of state. In his speech, Mitterrand commented on Sankara’s anti-imperialist approach: “He is a bit of a nuisance, President Sankara. It is true! He provokes you, asks questions… With him it is not easy to sleep in peace, he does not leave you with a clear conscience ”.
Thirty-four years later, Sankara continues to disturb the sleep of many, waiting for justice to close this chapter.
(Translation by Andrea Sparacino)
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