Thomas Sankara, political leader of Burkina Faso in the 1980s, was born on December 21, 1949 in Yako, a northern town in the Upper Volta (today Burkina Faso) of French West Africa. He was the son of a Mossi mother and a Peul father, and personified the diversity of the Burkinabè people of the area. In his adolescence, Sankara witnessed the country’s independence from France in 1960 and the repressive and volatile nature of the regimes that ruled throughout the 1960s and 1970s.

From 1970 to 1973, Sankara attended the military academy of Antsirabe in Madagascar where he trained to be an army officer. In 1974, as a young lieutenant in the Upper Volta army, he fought in a border war with Mali and returned home a hero. Sankara then studied in France and later in Morocco, where he met Blaise Compaoré and other civilian students from Upper Volta who later organized leftist organizations in the country. While commanding the Commando Training Center in the city of Pô in 1976, Thomas Sankara grew in popularity by urging his soldiers to help civilians with their work tasks. He additionally played guitar at community gatherings with a local band, Pô Missiles.

Throughout the 1970s, Sankara increasingly adopted leftist politics. He organized the Communist Officers Group in the army and attended meetings of various leftist parties, unions, and student groups, usually in civilian clothes.

In 1981, Sankara briefly served as the Secretary of State for Information under the newly formed Military Committee for Reform and Military Progress (CMRPN). This was a group of officers who had recently seized power. In April 1982, he resigned his post and denounced the CMRPM. When another military coup placed the Council for the People’s Safety in power, Sankara was subsequently appointed prime minister in 1983 but was quickly dismissed and placed under house arrest, causing a popular uprising.

On August 4, 1983, Blaise Compaoré orchestrated the “August Revolution,” or a coup d’état against the Council for the People’s Safety. The new regime which called itself the National Council for the Revolution (CNR) made 34-year-old Thomas Sankara president. As president, Sankara sought to end corruption, promote reforestation, avert famine, support women’s rights, develop rural areas, and prioritize education and healthcare. He renamed the country ‘Burkina Faso,’ meaning, “the republic of honorable people.”

On October 15, 1987, Thomas Sankara was killed with twelve other officials in a coup d’état instigated by Blaise Compaoré, his former political ally. He was 37 at the time of his death.

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  • Dolores [love/loves]
    ·
    edit-2
    9 months ago

    fucking sick of entertaining anything about animal 'breeds' characteristics that aren't directly linked to their physical dimensions

    these pit bulls are just so aggressive!

    my brother in hoxha... you taught them to be that way

      • WoofWoof91 [comrade/them]
        ·
        edit-2
        9 months ago

        i love the adorable little land sharks

        Show

        look at his widdle face :D

        it's funny that they used to be the "hard man" dogs here, they are very well known for extreme friendliness lol

    • Gay_Wrath [fae/faer]
      ·
      9 months ago

      shocked and awed that people who call themselves "breeders" invented dog eugenics

    • Commiejones [comrade/them, he/him]
      ·
      9 months ago

      I have met some lovely pit bulls that were just the sweetest cuddly boys and girls but.....

      I breed chickens. I'm 7 generations deep in breeding and there are some aspects of personality that are influenced by the hen that hatches the chicks, some personality traits that are dependant on how they are handled by people and there are some that are purely genetic. Wyandotte roosters are fucking assholes 90% of the time regardless of handling or mothering. Australorps are 99% assholes. Barnevelder hens are way more serious about pecking order than Wyandottes. Brahma roosters are the most chill boys ever... if they have been bred properly.

      I have a few gold brahmas that came from a breeder who bred for looks not personality and they are dicks. Its a different type of aggression it is a "I want to fuck you" not "stay away from my girls" and even the girls are aggressively horny they will charge me, peck me, and then squat. This has passed on to some of their chicks despite their father being the kindest rooster ever.

      All that said a chickens brain is way more hardwired than a dog. A chicken hatches with nearly all the programming it needs to survive. Dogs need to learn from a parent and/or their human pack. There are genetic personality traits in dogs. Cattle dogs will always be high energy compared with hunting dogs or guard dogs. Due to the neural plasticity of a dogs brain the weight of biological personality traits and the weight of trained personality are more in favor of training than chickens.

      Humans however have nearly 0 instinctual programming (we cant communicate, walk, identify poisons, etc. without being taught or learning the hard way) but even still there are personality traits passed on even without parental interaction.

      Have you read anything about the Russian silver fox domestication experiments? Its pretty interesting. Also Dragons of Eden by Carl Sagan goes into some interesting stuff about hardwired instinctual brain coding vs. learned brain code.

      • Dolores [love/loves]
        ·
        9 months ago

        Russian silver fox domestication experiments

        that was an entire species, from wild. like it goes some length to demonstrate the existence of heritable behavioral traits---but i'm not denying that whole concept---im rejecting the idea dog breeds replicate that on any meaningful level.

        • Commiejones [comrade/them, he/him]
          ·
          9 months ago

          Yeah you are right that example is useless. Those experiments discount socially learned personality traits passed from parent to child which I failed to account for.

          I totally agree with your post I just find the counter point of genetic programmed personality an interesting concept. Chicken personalities just make you question preconceptions because you can teach them stuff but they also are little dinosaurs that run mostly on instinct. You hear stories about children who never met one of their parents but have some of that parent's mannerisms. It makes one wonder "how much am I me" and "how much am i just a sack of chemical electrical soup" "and how much of that chemical electrical soup was determined by which jizm got into which egg vs everything that happened afterwards."