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Thomas Sankara, political leader of Burkina Faso in the 1980s, was born on December 21, 1949 in Yako, a northern town in the Upper Volta (today Burkina Faso) of French West Africa. He was the son of a Mossi mother and a Peul father, and personified the diversity of the Burkinabè people of the area. In his adolescence, Sankara witnessed the country’s independence from France in 1960 and the repressive and volatile nature of the regimes that ruled throughout the 1960s and 1970s.

From 1970 to 1973, Sankara attended the military academy of Antsirabe in Madagascar where he trained to be an army officer. In 1974, as a young lieutenant in the Upper Volta army, he fought in a border war with Mali and returned home a hero. Sankara then studied in France and later in Morocco, where he met Blaise Compaoré and other civilian students from Upper Volta who later organized leftist organizations in the country. While commanding the Commando Training Center in the city of Pô in 1976, Thomas Sankara grew in popularity by urging his soldiers to help civilians with their work tasks. He additionally played guitar at community gatherings with a local band, Pô Missiles.

Throughout the 1970s, Sankara increasingly adopted leftist politics. He organized the Communist Officers Group in the army and attended meetings of various leftist parties, unions, and student groups, usually in civilian clothes.

In 1981, Sankara briefly served as the Secretary of State for Information under the newly formed Military Committee for Reform and Military Progress (CMRPN). This was a group of officers who had recently seized power. In April 1982, he resigned his post and denounced the CMRPM. When another military coup placed the Council for the People’s Safety in power, Sankara was subsequently appointed prime minister in 1983 but was quickly dismissed and placed under house arrest, causing a popular uprising.

On August 4, 1983, Blaise Compaoré orchestrated the “August Revolution,” or a coup d’état against the Council for the People’s Safety. The new regime which called itself the National Council for the Revolution (CNR) made 34-year-old Thomas Sankara president. As president, Sankara sought to end corruption, promote reforestation, avert famine, support women’s rights, develop rural areas, and prioritize education and healthcare. He renamed the country ‘Burkina Faso,’ meaning, “the republic of honorable people.”

On October 15, 1987, Thomas Sankara was killed with twelve other officials in a coup d’état instigated by Blaise Compaoré, his former political ally. He was 37 at the time of his death.

THOMAS SANKARA.net sankara-bass

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[-] Frank@hexbear.net 21 points 9 months ago

I think a lot of Am*ricans just don't understand Germ theory of Disease. There are only a bare handful of people wearing masks on this flight and some of them are wearing surgical masks that are just barely better than nothing. And some of those aren't actually snug around the nose, or are being worn under the nose.

What is happening in their calcium brain tomb? What do they think the disease is, and what do they think they're accomplishing by wearing a mask that doesn't seal or cover their booger chute? I don't want to know. I don't want to know. I fear what i would find.

[-] aaaaaaadjsf@hexbear.net 17 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

Dude people still think cold air/drafts/open windows make you sick. At worst, all they do is make your immune system slightly weaker.

The germ theory of disease might as well be mystical magic to half the population.

[-] stigsbandit34z@hexbear.net 11 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

😬 I haven’t thought about the germ theory of disease since high school biology, so I’m probably one of those ‘mericans unfortunately

Although I do know germs cause disease and that’s probably what you’re saying

[-] Frank@hexbear.net 9 points 9 months ago

I guess i mean in the sense that viruses are physical objects, that respirator viruses like the rona are inhaled, that the actual virus has to enter your body and then latch on to cells and reproduce in sufficient numbers to become self sustaining abd overrun your immune system. There's this whole mechanical, biomedical process that happens, as surely and reliably as water runs down hill, but i think for a lot of people, i don't think they fully get that.

[-] thirtymilliondeadfish@hexbear.net 4 points 9 months ago

retvrn to humours

[-] Commiejones@hexbear.net 3 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

The other day I remembered how people use to call them "chin diapers" and wear them under their chin. I am kinda glad some of those people are dead but mostly I am sad because almost everyone has been reduced to that level of carelessness. "I'm vaccinated, why would I wear a mask?" "I put on my seat belt why shouldn't I drive drunk?"

[-] Frank@hexbear.net 2 points 9 months ago

I still see people wearing masks without covering their nose. I can't imagine what is happening there.

this post was submitted on 21 Dec 2023
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