http://www.pambazuka.org/images/articles/323/43669-Sankara-4.jpgMukoma Wa Ngugi celebrates the lives of Thomas Sankara and Che Guevara, and in doing so, asks us to remember all our other leaders and heroes who died at the hands of colonialism and apartheid.

In April this year, we celebrated 50 yrs of Ghana’s Independence. This October, in addition to remembering the revolutionary promise of Che Guevara executed forty years ago, we will also be remembering that twenty years ago, Thomas Sankara was assassinated – a stark reminder that we are still in the state Odinga Oginga called Not Yet Uhuru. We will be remembering that if Africa suffers today, it is because yesterday its best political minds, and its most fiery and committed sons and daughters were assassinated. All for thirty pieces of silver, for tea, coffee, oil, diamonds, gold, cobalt, uranium and African sweat.

But we should also remember the living. Aziz Fall, the co-coordinator of the International Justice Campaign for Sankara (ICJS) has been receiving anonymous death threats since December 2006. They tell him “stop or be stopped” “commit suicide or face execution” and in the last one, he was informed that his family would be targeted. His crime? Coordinating 22 lawyers dedicated to using legal means to find the truth behind Sankara’s assassination.

The ICJS helped Mariam Sankara, Thomas Sankara’s widow, take her case to the United Nations after, predictably, the legal system in Burkina Faso stalled each time she appeared in court. Finally, in March 2006, the United Nations Human Rights Committee ruled that Sankara’s family has “the right to know the circumstances of his death.” The Committee also argued that failure to correct the natural death entry on Sankara’s death certificate, refusal to investigate his death, and “the lack of official recognition of his place of burial” pointed to “inhumane treatment of Ms. Sankara and her sons” contrary to Article 7 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

Dictators and your torturers all over the world take note! Article 7 declares: “No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.” In a strange way, the death threats against Aziz further validate the UN ruling.

Victoria Mxenge, Ruth First, Steve Biko, Amilcar Cabral, Samora Machel, Chris Hani, Mhodlane, Kimathi and many others dead at the hands of colonialism and apartheid. But what makes the assassinations of Sankara, Lumumba or Maurice Bishop of Grenada all the more painful is knowing that they were betrayed by those closest to them Then, without exception, they were succeeded by less able people- to say the least. Their successors are egregiously guilty of violently pulling back their societies miles behind the starting line.

After Lumumba, Mobutu –a common thief who under the guise of a shallow nationalism - maimed, killed and stole in the Congo. In Grenada, Bernard Coard’s bloody counter-revolution allowed a predatory U.S. to invade Grenada. And in Burkina Faso, each day we see what President Blaise Compaore has done with the Sankara revolution.

Life expectancy is 47.9 years, adult literacy, 21.8 percent and Burkina Faso now has the dubious distinction of being ranked the 3rd poorest country in the world with 80 percent of its 13 million people living on less than two dollars a day. In November of 2007, Compaore will be running for presidency, again. I say give him five more years to see if he can do it – Let him get Burkina Faso the coveted first place title of poorest country in the whole world!

For a nation to heal, it must know and come to terms with the truth of its past. And it must make good with the promise of that past. In Kenya Dedan Kimathi was hanged and buried in an unmarked grave in Kamiti Prison by the British in 1957 where the post-independence government left him. Having set Kenya on neo-colonial rails and rewarded the collaborators with land, then turned their backs on Mau Mau veterans, both Kenyatta and Moi wanted what Kimathi stood for forgotten. Compaore is afraid of the truth because Sankara is a reminder of how far he has fallen from the promise of the revolution. Compaore knows we know he cannot make good on Sankara’s promise.

We have to remember our dead. But our presidents prefer gold monuments and statues. Sometimes they cultivate heroes’ acres without growing freedom. Better the monument be societies that are free and egalitarian. Instead of grand monuments, it is better we have nations that would welcome the revolutionary dead. Because truth be told, Nkrumah would not have been welcomed to Ghana’s 50 year celebrations. Kimathi would not be welcomed in today’s Kenya and Sankara would be assassinated again in today’s Burkina Faso.

What if Sankara had grown old with us? Would he have become a dictator as we have seen with many? We do not know. But we know how he lived, we know what he died for and his promise. That is what should matter.

Koni Benson, a friend and agitator, named her son Sankara because, she said, “What Thomas Sankara did, tried to do and what happened to him, should not be forgotten. Sankara is the history and the future of the continent. He dared us to invent the future.”

As we remember our dead – Let us also remember the living. We have to dare to dream again. We have to dare to remember the past. And we have to dare to act.

* Mukoma Wa Ngugi is the author of Hurling Words at Consciousness (AWP, 2006) and Conversing with Africa: Politics of Change (KPH, 2003), and editor of the forthcoming, New Kenyan Fiction (Ishmael Reed Publications, 2008). He is a political columnist for the BBC Focus on Africa Magazine where a shorter version of this essay first appeared.

* Please send comments to or comment online at www.pambazuka.org

The death of a 14-year-old girl from female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C) has sparked shock and anger in Burkina Faso, which has been seen as far ahead of other African countries in the fight against the practice. “Sorrowful and shocking" is how Aïna Ouédraogo, permanent secretary of the National Committee for the Fight against Excision (CNLPE), described the girl's death.

SNV Netherlands Development Organisation is an international advisory organisation that is dedicated to a society in which all people enjoy the freedom to pursue their own sustainable development. As a Regional Director you will lead and strengthen our regional advisory practices, effectively addressing cross-border opportunities and creating operational synergy. Closing date: September 29, 2007.

The Burkina Faso government will distribute millions of free books to primary school students and launch a pilot project to give no-fee schooling in a push to curb the number of people in the country growing up without even basic education. “This is the end of the time when reading and maths textbooks are seen as luxury items for parents,” pledged Odile Bonkoungou, minister of basic education and literacy, on 27 August, launching the free books project.

Kompienga, in eastern Burkina Faso, is the country's most verdant province -- but for how long? Research conducted over the past three years has shown that forests there have receded by 1,600 square kilometres in 15 years, while shrublands extended their reach by some 31 percent between 1984 and 2007. "We have found that the degradation of soils is significant in the Kompienga region because of human activity, notably migration (and) agriculture…" says Ardjouma Ouattara, co-ordinator of a team that studied the situation in the province from 2004 to 2007.

In Burkina Faso 80% of the population lives in rural areas. In this context, Information and Communication Technology (ICT) will contribute to development only if they are linked to the specific rural situation and solve concrete problems of the rural inhabitants. Among the initiatives undertaken by agricultural organizations to find the usefulness of ICT, the initiative of the Federation of Agricultural Professional Producers of Sissili (FEPPASI) is one of the most concrete.

Two years ago, the association Yam Pukri began to sell second-hand cellular telephones as part of its policy of disseminating ICT in Burkina Faso. Yam Pukri buys the phones in Switzerland through its partner, the NGO Terre des Hommes Suisse (Geneva branch), and resells them in Burkina Faso at very low prices (from 7,500 to 45,000 CFA francs).

Kadidiatou Korsaga, director of Burkina Faso’s department for girls’ education promotion, despairs when asked about the recent case of a 15-year-old girl kidnapped from her school classroom and dragged off for an arranged marriage with an older man.

Right activists in Burkina Faso have been raising concerns over the safety of the West African country’s young talented reggae king, Sam Samsk le Jah, who receives anonymous death threats. The revolutionary singer who anchors a music programme on Radio Ouaga FM is warned to either “stop your silly things on the radio or risk being killed.”

Hundreds of people – journalists, human rights organisations, trade unionists and others – thronged the streets of the Burkinabe capital Ouagadougou on Saturday to celebrate that country’s assassinated investigative journalist – Norbert Zongo.

The village of Guié in central Burkina Faso may not have much name recognition in the grand scheme of things. But for more than a decade, this community has been the site of an initiative that provides hope in the fight against desertification.

Health authorities in Burkina Faso have launched a mass vaccination campaign in the capital, Ouagadougou, to combat a rapidly spreading meningitis epidemic that has claimed more than 800 lives. “Ouagadougou has been hit to an extent that we did not expect,” said Jean Gabriel Wango, secretary general of the country’s health ministry.

The death toll from a meningitis epidemic in Burkina Faso rose to 324 on Friday and the United Nations says outbreaks and deaths have also been recorded in seven other West African countries this year.

As a follow-up to the “Knowledge Sharing for Development: Africa Regional Program Workshop” that was held in Cairo in February 2005, the Global Development Network (GDN) will be organizing the 3rd in its series of sub-regional workshops across Sub-Saharan Africa in cooperation with the Institute of Economic and Social Policies/Centre d’analyse des Politiques Economiques et Sociales (CAPES).

The 20th FESPACO (Pan African Film and Television Festival of Ouagadougou) takes place between 24th February and the 3rd March in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso. The name means 'Land of honest men' and was changed from Upper Volta by the late revolutionary leader Thomas Sankara.

Every two years, the desert city of Ouagadougou becomes the centre of Africa film from the continent and diaspora. The festival has grown from its inauguration in 1969 when only five countries were represented (Senegal, Burkina Faso, Cote d'Ivoire, Niger and Cameroon) to this year with films from almost every country and the diaspora being represented. Every two years, the desert city of Ouagadougou becomes home to African film from the continent and the diaspora.

In 2005 the South African film DRUM (set around the famous South African magazine Drum, the film is about the forced removals of black people from Sophia Town) took the grand prize. 2005 was also the year when two Hollywood productions were shown, Hotel Rwanda, and the much better Sometimes in April. Both dealt with the Rwandan genocide. Commenting on the 2005 film festival and the lack of availability of African films to both local and the wider global community I wrote:

'The unfortunate thing is that very few of these films will be available to a wider audience outside of the film festival circuit. African films to do not bring in millions of dollars to cinema houses around the world and Africa itself has very few cinemas where films can be viewed by a large number of people. Some of the films may be transferred into video or DVD format but even these are so expensive that only organisations could afford to buy them.

So why are African films so expensive that local African TV stations cannot afford to screen then and individuals like you and I cannot afford to buy them on DVD or videos? That’s if we can find them in the first place. The answer lies with California Newsreel. They own the distribution rights to many African films enabling them charge exorbitant prices to institutions and individuals for screenings and DVDs. Distribution takes place through their Library of African Cinema. For example check their restrictions on the cheapest option 'home videos'.

On a positive note these issues will be addressed this year as part of the thematic discussion 'African Cinema and Culture and Diversity' which will include topics such as the state of African cinema and the issue of distribution.

This year’s talk of the festival is the film Bamako by Malian filmmaker Abderrahmane Sissako. The film takes a critical look at the World Bank/IMF and their impact on grass roots communities in Africa by putting the institutions on trial with two ordinary people as witnesses.

The film tells the story of Melé—a bar singer—and her unemployed husband Chaka. Their marriage is coming apart. In the courtyard of the house they share with other families, a trial is under way with the World Bank and the IMF, accused of the woes of Africa. American actor Danny Glover, who helped fund the film, has a bit part.

I also looked at the contribution by African women to the festival, starting with Cape Verdian film maker, Claire Andrade’s film Some Kind of Funny Porto Rican? (A Cape Verdean American story) which has been selected to compete for the Paul Robeson Diaspora Prize.

SKFPR? is the largely unknown story about immigrants from the Cape Verde islands in the Fox Point neighborhood in Providence, Rhode Island, the second oldest and largest Cape Verdean community in America. The film opened theatrically in the UStates in January 2006 at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, Massachusetts, to a sold out house. The documentary continued throughout 2006 to receive critical and popular acclaim at theatres, festivals, universities and select venue screenings.

Other African women showing at the festival are Zimbabwean writer, Tsitsi Dangaremgba (Growing Stronger); Rwandan, Jacqueline Kalimunda (Homeland); Algerian, Fatma Zorha Zamoum (Short LA PELOTE DE LAINE).

With tensions rising between Niger and Burkina Faso as they accuse each other's security forces of crossing the border to rob and harass villagers, local officials in the area met recently to renew a call for a buffer zone. "The situation is very difficult as the exact location of the border has not been agreed on," the governor of the Sahel Region of Burkina Faso, Bila Dipama, told IRIN on Thursday (4 January 2007), a week after the meeting in Burkina Faso's eastern town of Fada.

With signs that people are developing diseases linked to arsenic poisoning, the government said on Thursday (28 December 2006) that it had turned off pumps to 11 deep-water wells in areas in the north of Burkina Faso where water is particular scarce, adding that it may still have to close down hundreds more wells.

Reporters Without Borders has said it was stunned by the Burkina Faso public prosecutor's refusal to reopen the investigation into the 1998 murder of journalist Norbert Zongo and three companions on the grounds that the document the organisation gave him on 20 October 2006 did not constitute new evidence as defined by article 189 of the code of criminal procedure.

Over a decade ago, the western town of Poura reveled in a boom from a government-run industrial gold mine and became known as Petit Paris. The town quickly lost that reputation after the mine closed in 1999. Now it is known for something else: the hazards of small-scale mining. A cave-in killed at least three miners and injured several others in August.

Sadio Toure didn’t have a typical summer vacation. Even though the 18-year-old was on her school break, she delighted in finding herself in a classroom setting, learning to use a computer and attempting science experiments in a laboratory for the first time. “We didn’t have any [laboratory] practice sessions in our school,” said Toure.