Who Was Thomas Sankara?

This is a free preview of the episode "Alliance of Sahel States Pt. 4: The Life, Politics and Legacies of Thomas Sankara w/ Amber Murrey." You can listen to the full episode by subscribing to our Patreon here: https://www.patreon.com/upstreampodcast

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In this episode, Part 4 of our series on the Alliance of Sahel States, Amber Murrey joins us for a conversation on Thomas Sankara. In this conversation, we discuss Sankara's early life and how his experience with French colonialism shaped his politics and philosophies. We talk about how those philosophies were implemented into policy after a 1983 coup d'etat that put him into the presidency. We explore his fight against French imperialism and for sovereignty of the Burkinabé population. We discuss his assassination, who was responsible, and why it's more important than ever for us to share about his work and uplift his legacy here in the West.

Amber Murrey is Associate Professor in Human Geography, Fellow and Tutor at Mansfield College, and Director of Undergraduate Studies for Geography & the Environment at the University of Oxford. taught at universities in Ethiopia, Egypt, Cameroon, the US. Amber is also the editor of 'A Certain Amount of Madness': The Life, Politics and Legacies of Thomas Sankara and Associate Editor of The African Geographical Review.

Further resources:

• A Certain Amount of Madness The Life, Politics and Legacies of Thomas Sankara
• Thomas Sankara An African Revolutionary, Ernest Harsch
• The International Campaign of Justice for Sankara
• Who Killed Thomas Sankara? by Bruno Jaffré
• Interview with Aziz Fall on the assassination of Thomas Sankara, by Koni Benson and Mukoma Wa Ngugi
• Thomas Sankara: A Revolutionary in Cold War Africa, by Brian J. Peterson

Related episodes:

• Our onging series on the Alliance of Sahel States
• A History of the CIA, Coups, and Assassinations w/ Vijay Prashad

Artwork: Sanyika

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