Thomas Sankara
Thomas Sankara (1949-1987) was a Marxist military officer who led the 1983 coup in Upper Volta, renaming the country Burkina Faso ('Land of Incorruptible People'). In four years he launched mass literacy and vaccination campaigns, banned female genital mutilation, planted ten million trees against desertification, and refused IMF loans on sovereignty grounds. He was assassinated in October 1987 in a coup led by his close associate Blaise Compaoré, becoming a pan-African revolutionary icon.
- Nationality: Burkinabe
- Roles: head_of_state, revolutionary, military_leader
