Thomas Sankara Speaks

by Thomas Sankara (1987)

3/10

The content and format of this book was not my cup of tea. I was hoping to learn a lot more about historical facts of the Burkina Faso revolutionary period and Sankara’s political philosophy, but these speeches fall well short. The vast majority of the speeches are just generic revolution-mongering, which hey I sympathize with; pumping up your people about your revolution certainly has its use. But a book of pep rallies feels much less politically useful to this reader halfway across the world and 40 years after the fact.

If you’re just going by this book it would seem that Sankara did not have a very rigorous political theory at all, he was just reacting to circumstances around him every step of the way (fwiw I find that hard to believe). There’s very little concrete analysis here, it’s almost all vague and aspirational.

A lot of this is on me: I should have been more intentional about my selection of reading material on this topic. But regardless, it’s remarkable that after reading 450 pages of Sankara’s speeches I still feel this uninformed about the material history of his revolution. I don’t know what he accomplished, or what specific challenges derailed his efforts. I don’t know why he was overthrown, or by whom. I don’t know what happened after nor the ultimate fate of his revolution. I didn’t even learn anything about his legacy.

Like I really feel like I might as well have not read this book at all, because I will still need to find another book that actually educates me about this historical episode (any recommendations are welcome). That’s disappointing. Extra star given for my political sympathies.