Thomas Sankara - search results

André Tibiri was a central figure in the last two decades of social struggles in Burkina Faso, a charismatic leader of the student and youth movements, an honest and dedicated militant for democracy and social justice, André passed away, aged 46, on 24 May 2017. Bettina Engels celebrates an extraordinary life.

In an interview with ROAPE Explo Nani-Kofi looks at his involvement (and opposition) in the project of radical change briefly embarked on by Flight Lieutenant Jerry Rawlings in 1980s Ghana. After several years, left-wing opponents of the regime were imprisoned and at the same time the country became a test case for structural adjustment. Nani-Kofi describes his experiences.

In this wide-ranging critique of Firoze Manji's article on the failure of left movements in Africa, David Seddon writes that Manji's 'failure' implies falling short of something that could be identified as a ‘success’, which is an extraordinarily and unhelpfully binary approach to the study of class struggle, social movements and political change.

Firoze Manji writes that discontent has been growing across the continent, with spontaneous eruptions and mass uprisings that have in some cases resulted in the overthrow of regimes. In such circumstances, one would have thought that this would have been fertile grounds for the emergence of strong left working class movements across the continent. But why has this not happened?

In this report on an important workshop held at Jimma University in Ethiopia, the authors look at the opportunities for the decolonization of knowledge. This detailed reflection holds important lessons and examples for readers of roape.net, who share a commitment to radical and critical scholarship of and from the continent and who are likewise immersed in decolonizing projects in their respective spaces and institutions.

Leo Zeilig's blog looks at the events that took place in Burkina Faso during and immediately after the military coup in September last year. The defeat of the coup was the result of extraordinary protests and popular struggles; Burkina Faso's second uprising in less than a year.

In this, the third in the series on protest, elections and presidential terms, David Seddon returns again to the three countries initially considered to examine the very different trajectories followed by them over the last six months, and extend the comparison to include two others – also in Central Africa.

In his second piece on popular protest in Africa, David Seddon examines the popular reactions to elected presidents who have extended – or attempted to extend - their term of office beyond the limits defined by the Constitution, as is the case in all too many African countries.

Poursuivant notre collaboration avec Afriques en Lutte, Bruno Jaffré écrit que le Burkina a voté pour d’anciens proches de Blaise Compaoré renversé pourtant à la suite d’une puissante insurrection populaire. Cela, Jaffré écrit, peut paraitre paradoxal mais ce résultat est pourtant logique en regard de la réalité de la situation politique du pays.

Baba Aye looks at developments in Burkina Faso between the October 31, 2014 and September 17, 2015. He discusses the challenges and possibilities for the unfolding moment in the country and lessons for the working class and social movements for change across Africa.