Today I will be sharing with you 17 powerful Thomas Sankara quotes, quotes that every African, every human should know. Thomas was a Marxist, egalitarian, pan-Africanist, Burkinabé (Burkina Faso) revolutionary and first President of Burkina Faso, he ruled from 1983 to 1987. Thomas Sankara tenure was cut short by a coup which led to his death, the coup was led by his right hand man Blaise Compaoré who remained in power for 27 years (1987 to 2014).
Africa’s Che Guevara, as he was popularly called became the first president of “Upper Volta” – Modern day Burkina Faso – at the age of 33 after a successful and widely supported coup in 1983. One of the things he is popular for is renaming Upper Volta to Burkina Faso which means “Land of honest people” or “Land of Incorruptible People”. He is also popular for his Anti-imperialism views. Thomas Sankara is a true African leader worthy of emulating and being praised.
If you take a look at some of Thomas Sankara quotes, you’ll get a picture of his stance on equality, imperialism, and revolution. Thomas Sankara quotes tells of a story every African should know. He was a true leader!
Here are the 17 Thomas Sankara quotes every African should know :
1.) It took the madmen of yesterday for us to be able to act with extreme clarity today. I want to be one of those madmen. We must dare to invent the future.
– Thomas Sankara2) The slave who cannot organize his own revolt deserves no pity for his fate. He alone is responsible for his misfortune if he believes his master’s false promise of freedom. Freedom can be won only through struggle!
– Thomas Sankara3.) He who feeds you, controls you.
– Thomas Sankara4.) You cannot carry out fundamental change without a certain amount of madness.
– Thomas Sankara5.) While revolutionaries as individuals can be murdered, you cannot kill ideas.
– Thomas Sankara6.) Our country produces enough to feed us all. Alas, for lack of organization, we are forced to beg for food aid. It’s this aid that instills in our spirits the attitude of beggars.
Culled from “Thomas Sankara Speaks: the Burkina Faso Revolution: 1983”7.) Comrades, there is no true social revolution without the liberation of women. May my eyes never see and my feet never take me to a society where half the people are held in silence. I hear the roar of women’s silence. I sense the rumble of their storm and feel the fury of their revolt.
– Thomas Sankara8.) Our revolution is not a public-speaking tournament. Our revolution is not a battle of fine phrases. Our revolution is not simply for spouting slogans that are no more than signals used by manipulators trying to use them as catchwords, as codewords, as a foil for their own display. Our revolution is, and should continue to be, the collective effort of revolutionaries to transform reality, to improve the concrete situation of the masses of our country.
– Thomas Sankara9.) Imperialism is a system of exploitation that occurs not only in the brutal form of those who come with guns to conquer territory. Imperialism often occurs in more subtle forms, a loan, food aid, blackmail . We are fighting this system that allows a handful of men on Earth to rule all of humanity.
– Thomas Sankara10.) The importance of dialectical materialism lies in going beyond the inherent limits of biology, rejecting simplistic theories about our being slaves to the nature of our species, and, instead, placing facts in their social and economic context.
– Thomas Sankara11.) Humankind does not submit passively to the power of nature. It takes control over this power. This process is not an internal or subjective one. It takes place objectively in practice, once women cease to be viewed as mere sexual beings, once we look beyond their biological functions and become conscious of their weight as an active social force. What’s more, woman’s consciousness of herself is not only a product of her sexuality. It reflects her position as determined by the economic structure of society, which in turn expresses the level reached by humankind in technological development and the relations between classes.
– Thomas Sankara12.) A soldier without political education is a potential criminal.
– Thomas Sankara13.) The origins of debt go back to colonialism’s origins. We cannot repay the debt because we are not responsible for this debt. On the contrary, others owe us something that no money can pay for. That is to say, the debt of blood.
– Thomas Sankara14.) We must dare to invent the future.
– Thomas Sankara15.) Debt is a cleverly managed reconquest of Africa. It is a reconquest that turns each one of us into a financial slave.
– Thomas Sankara16.) We are not against progress, but we do not want progress that is anarchic and criminally neglects the rights of others.
– Thomas Sankara17.) The revolution and women’s liberation go together. We do not talk of women’s emancipation as an act of charity or because of a surge of human compassion. It is a basic necessity for the triumph of the revolution.
– Thomas Sankara
Thomas Sankara Quotes
Done reading some of Thomas Sankara’s quotes? What did you notice? Exactly. The stories it tells; of revolutionary, egalitarianism, anti-injustice, anti-imperialism and more. I must also note that Thomas Sankara quotes used in this article were gotten from books written by him, interviews he held and speeches he made.
