October 15 marks the 20th anniversary of the assassination of Thomas Sankara, the president of Burkina Faso — 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 30 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, has been receiving anonymous death threats since December 2006. They tell him, ”stop or be stopped” and ”commit suicide or face execution”.
His crime? Coordinating 22 lawyers dedicated to using legal means to find the truth behind Sankara’s assassination.
Sankara’s widow, Mariam Sankara, has taken her case to the United Nations after, predictably, the legal system in Burkina Faso stalled each time she appeared in court. 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”, which was contrary to Article 7 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
Victoria Mxenge, Ruth First, Steve Biko, Amilcar Cabral, Samora Machel, Chris Hani, Eduardo Mondlane, Dedan Kimathi and many others died at the hands of colonialism and apartheid. But what makes the assassinations of Sankara and Lumumba all the more painful is knowing that they were betrayed by those closest to them. And their successors are egregiously guilty of violently pulling back their societies far behind the starting line.
In Burkina Faso, we see what President Blaise Compaore has done with the Sankara revolution.
Life expectancy is 47,9 years, adult literacy stands at 21,8%, and Burkina Faso now has the dubious distinction of being ranked the third-poorest country in the world, with 80% of its 13 million people living on less than $2 a day.
Next month Compaore will be running for president again.
I say give Campaore five more years to see if he can manage to place Burkina Faso in the coveted position of world’s poorest country!
Author Mukoma Wa Ngugi is a political columnist for BBC Focus on Africa magazine, where the complete version of this essay first appeared