10,006 Abibisika (Black Gold) Points

Rank: Unranked Obibini

Question: Mr. President, many political observers said you were behind the CSP’s coming to power on Nov 7th, 1982. If this was true, why did you not assume the leadership of the CSP? Could the May 17th events also have been avoided that way?

Nana Sankara: It is really a shame that there are observers who look at political problems as if they were comic strips. There must be a zorro, there must be a star. No, the problem in upper volta is more serious than that. It was a serious error to have looked for one man, a star, whatever the cost, even as far as going to create one – that is, going so far as to say that the person behind the scenes was Captain Sankara, who was supposed to be the mastermind, and so on.
Let me tell you that Nov 7th has a complex history. There are plenty of episodes to tell about. Nov 7th gave birth to a government that was quite heterogeneous, with many components and inevitable contradictions. On Nov 7 all the efforts of my comrades and myself were aimed at preventing the coup from going ahead. Curiously we were in Ougadougou only by coincidence. And curiously, we had done everything possible to convince those who had an interest in making Nov 7 happen to abandon their project. But you understand not everyone has the same political views. For some, it’s enough to have arms and to have a few army units with you in order to take power. Others believe differently. Above all, power must be the business of a conscious people. Arms therefore constituted only a limited, occasional, and complementary solution