Thomas Sankara Speaks: The Burkina Faso Revolution, 1983-87 [Illustrated] [Hardcover]

Thomas Sankara (Author), Samantha Anderson (Translator)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 1988 | ISBN-10: 0873485270 | ISBN-13: 978-0873485272

Note that this first edition is no longer in print. The second edition is currently available.

Second edition includes a new introduction by editor Michel Prairie, foreword, maps, chronology and glossary, as well as an index. Thirty-two page photo section features many unpublished photos of the Burkina Faso revolution.

You can search for the second addition using the following ISBN 9780873489867.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"A valuable resource for all those who wish to learn from the Burkinabe experience and Sankara's pivotal role in it. It brings together some of his most illuminating speeches, many in English, for the first time... [Provides] essential background information and a good sense of Sankara's revolutionary vision." -- Race & Class

"His dream was to ensure that ordinary people benefitted from the economic advances made, however modest these might be..." -- Bulletin of Francophone Africa, Autumn 1992

"It brings together some of the most illuminating speeches, many in English, for the first time." -- African Communist, 2nd Quarter, 1989

"On the emancipation of women, I have not read anything clearer from any leader." -- Zimbabwe Herald

"a people that has decided, henceforth to assert itself and take charge of its own history..." -- Zimbabwe Herald, September 1988

"a valuable resource for all those who wish to learn from the Burkinabe experience and Sankara’s pivotal role in it." -- Race & Class, October-December, 1989

"For anyone wishing to understand the ideas that motivated Sankara and which gave flesh and blood to the revolution in Burkina Faso this book is a must." -- African Communist --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Language Notes

Text: English, French (translation)

Product Details

• Hardcover: 260 pages
• Publisher: Pathfinder Pr (June 1988)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0873485270
• ISBN-13: 978-0873485272
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 5.8 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #8,406,983 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #33 in Books > History > Africa > Burkina Faso

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A must read for any real African Revolutionary., October 9, 1996

By A Customer

This review is from: Thomas Sankara Speaks: The Burkina Faso Revolution, 1983-87 (Hardcover)

Thomas Sankara was a giant among men, One only needs to
read this book to see where Burkina Faso (indeed Africa)
could have been today, if only he had been allowed to live.

We learn about the man's vision for all aspects of life;
children, women, economy, governance and the like.

A must read for all Africans and friends of Africa.

Mukhtar Dan'Iyan

17 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Martydom is not the end, but the beginning, February 7, 2002

By 

Adeyemi Joashan (Gary, IN) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Thomas Sankara Speaks: The Burkina Faso Revolution, 1983-87 (Paperback)

This book had a tremendous impact on my personal and political ideology. It had so much impact that I named my first child Sankara! "Thomas Sankara Speaks" is a must read for all aspiring revolutionaries. Brother Sankara, exemplifies the importance of Pan-Africanism as a solution for all people of African descent. He also emphasizes the importance of international solidarity of all oppressed people. "He who loves his own people also loves other people." Thomas Sankara is one of many heroes that suffered from imperialism's bullets. Malcolm X, Martin Luther King, Jr. Patrice Lumumba, Augusto Sandino, Amilcar Cabral, Maurice Bishop and now Thomas Sankara speak from the grave, "Don't Shoot...You Can Not Kill Ideas!"

Study, Understand, Expose The Enemy!
Adeymi Joashan

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An African Fidel Castro, June 27, 2006

By 

Tony Thomas (SUNNY ISLES BEACH, FL USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Thomas Sankara Speaks: The Burkina Faso Revolution, 1983-87 (Paperback)

Sankara was a great revolutionary, not just a fighter, not just defiant, but a thinker, a man who sought to united the working masses of his country against imperialism and for progress. Reading his writings give wisdom not just to African revolutionists, but to anyone in the world who thinking about how to defend working people against the imperialist offensive, how to move his people to progress.

In this regard Sankara's writings are important because he is not a phony leftist spouting rhetoric, but a thinking leader of his people trying to educate, trying to involve and trying to give leadership to the peasants, the women, the workers, because he knew real revolutions are made not by leaders or elites, but by the masses.

In this Sankara reminds me very much of another fighting leader, a man Sankara worked with and stood shoulder to should with Fidel Castro. Imperialism and reaction may have silenced Thomas Sankara's body, but as long as these words are available, his ideas will never stop leading people in struggle in Africa and in the world. We should honor his sacrifice by studying his words!

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