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.
Megathreads and spaces to hang out:
- ❤️ Come listen to music and Watch movies with your fellow Hexbears nerd, in Cy.tube
- 💖 Come talk in the New Weekly Queer thread
- 💛 Read and talk about a current topics in the News Megathread
- ⭐️ September Movie Nominations ⭐️
reminders:
- 💚 You nerds can join specific comms to see posts about all sorts of topics
- 💙 Hexbear’s algorithm prioritizes comments over upbears
- 💜 Sorting by new you nerd
- 🌈 If you ever want to make your own megathread, you can reserve a spot here nerd
- 🐶 Join the unofficial Hexbear-adjacent Mastodon instance toots.matapacos.dog
Links To Resources (Aid and Theory):
Aid:
Theory:
the infuriating part is that I went and pulled the same metrics for the rest of my team - I'm the same as everyone else. I stg this is just HR retaliating for sick leave. my managers can't justify what they wrote in the PIP and freely admit that they possibly chose the wrong dates to look at because I'm way above everyone else on the same metrics just a couple of days after they closed the window. it's such bullshit. my manager's manager was like "I'm glad to hear you'll be here until March" as a reply to "so what, am I going to get blindsided with new metrics again in March?" such an evasive prick. I'll give another team at the company a chance to poach me and then reach out to recruiters after that, probably at the end of January.
I think playing nice until early next year is a good approach. You're describing incompetent management one way or another and a capriciousness about retaining talent that is incredibly toxic. I'm very good at what I do, I would look at your situation as a giant red flag and would be looking to move on. Bad managers don't recognize that they're not just punishing you, they're showing their entire team how they think of them and they'll lose whatever talent they have. Whatever they think a pip is, it's a real escalation in a relationship between you and the company. They may be too stupid to recognize that but even in that case, do you want to work for stupid management?
The hiring market at the end of the year is always tough, my advice is to get an offer and evaluate if you want to deal with them any more.
yeah, I'm in a field where it's not hard to find work. never takes me more than a month or two. I appreciate the advice and I'll take it to heart.