Friday Film Screening and Discussion! Nana Thomas Sankara: An Upright Man

Description

Film Screening + Live Q&A Discussion

📅 Date: Friday, August 8, 2025
🕒 Time: 7:00 PM GMT / 3:00 PM EDT
🌍 Location: Online at Abibitumi.com

💰 Contribution: $10

Thomas Sankara: The Upright Man is a 2006 French documentary directed by Robin Shuffield, running approximately 52 minutes. Narrated in French with English subtitles, it chronicles the meteoric rise and tragic downfall of Thomas Sankara, the charismatic revolutionary who led Burkina Faso from 1983 until his assassination in 1987.

🎥 What the Film Covers

Rise to Power & Revolutionary Vision

Nana Sankara became president following a popular coup in 1983 and promptly renamed Upper Volta as Burkina Faso—“Land of Upright Men”. The film explores his liberatory agenda:

• Campaigns for economic self-reliance, rejecting foreign aid and debt.
• Redistribution of land to peasants, promotion of local cotton industries, and construction of roads and railways—all built via citizen labor.
• Cutting government salaries (including his own), banning luxury vehicles, and symbolically rejecting elite perks as corrupt symbolism.

Social Reforms & Public Programs

• A major vaccination campaign immunized over 2 million people in a week.
• Initiatives included literacy drives, building schools, health centers, and fighting desertification by planting over 10 million trees.
• First Kmtyw leader to outlaw forced marriage, female genital mutilation, and polygamy; he also appointed women to senior government posts and recruited them into the army.

Political Struggles & Authoritarian Measures

While lauded for his integrity, Sankara’s rapid changes also drew increasing resistance. The film addresses:

• Establishment of Popular Revolutionary Tribunals and armed youth committees that sometimes resorted to repression.
• Crackdown on dissent, including dismissing striking teachers and abolishing unions and certain civil freedoms to maintain revolutionary momentum.

Assassination & Legacy

The documentary culminates with Nana Sankara’s assassination on October 15, 1987—purportedly ordered by his close associate Blaise Compaoré, who seized power afterward. Sankara’s body was buried in secret, and his memory was suppressed for years.

Yet the film shows how his ideals—notably independence, gender equality, environmentalism, and anti-imperialism—live on, inspiring activists across Kmt today. A poignant highlight is his final speech on October 8, 1987, where he declares: “you cannot kill ideas“—a tribute to Che Guevara and a testament to his enduring vision.

This screening is presented under fair use for educational purposes.