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The ghost of Thomas Isidore Noël Sankara is still haunting his former friend Blaise Compaore who killed him in mysterious circumstances.For over a decade, Sankara's wife Miriam has been seeking through the courts for a DNA test on the supposed remains of her late husband. But Compaore blocked all efforts by the widow until he was ousted by the people of Burkina Faso.
Burkinabe protesters have since demanded the truth about Sankara – whose name people were afraid to speak under Compaoré’s rule. For years, Burkina Faso’s residents and Sankara’s family have demanded to know how the leader and his colleagues died and if he is, in fact, buried in the grave marked with his name.
Sankara had on August 4, 1984, challenged the name colonial France gave to his country, and changed its name from Upper Volta to Burkina Faso, meaning "the country of honorable people." Sankara, a charismatic leader, sought by word, deed, and example to mobilize the masses and launch a massive bootstrap development movement.
Sankara was a Marxist, anti-imperialist revolutionary who, in four years in power, doubled the number of children in schools, reduced infant mortality, redistributed land from feudal landlords to peasants and planted 10 million trees that still help shade Ouagadougou, the capital.
One of Africa's best and greatest leader, killed 28 years ago by his friend. was a Burkinabé military captain, Marxist revolutionary, pan-Africanist theorist, feminist, and President of Burkina Faso from 1983 to 1987.
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