Editing Thomas Sankara (section)

==Early life==
[[File:Burkina Faso map.png|thumb|A map showing the major cities of Burkina Faso]]
Thomas Sankara was born Thomas Isidore Noël Sankara<ref name=":0">{{cite book|author-last=Harsch|author-first=Ernest|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hGDGBAAAQBAJ|title=Thomas Sankara: An African Revolutionary|date=1 November 2014|publisher=[[Ohio University Press]]|isbn=9780821445075|pages=27}}</ref> on 21 December 1949 in [[Yako, Burkina Faso|Yako]], [[French Upper Volta]], as the third of ten children to Joseph and Marguerite Sankara. His father, Joseph Sankara, a [[Gendarmerie|gendarme]],<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ouaga-ca-bouge.net/Deces-de-Joseph-sambo-pere-du.html|title=Décès de Joseph sambo père du Président Thomas Sankara – Ouagadougou au Burkina Faso|language=fr|trans-title=Death of Joseph Sambo father of President Thomas Sankara – Ouagadougou in Burkina Faso|website=ouaga-ca-bouge.net|access-date=7 May 2007|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070817134416/http://www.ouaga-ca-bouge.net/Deces-de-Joseph-sambo-pere-du.html|archive-date=17 August 2007|url-status=dead}}</ref> was of [[Silmi-mossi|Silmi–Mossi]] heritage, while his mother, Marguerite Kinda, was of direct [[Mossi people|Mossi]] descent.<ref name=dictionary>{{cite book|title=Dictionary of African Biography|publisher=[[Oxford University Press]]|volume=6|year=2012|pages=268|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=39JMAgAAQBAJ|isbn=9780195382075}}</ref> He spent his early years in [[Gaoua]], a town in the humid southwest to which his father was transferred as an auxiliary gendarme. As the son of one of the few African functionaries then employed by the colonial state, he enjoyed a relatively privileged position. The family lived in a brick house with the families of other gendarmes at the top of a hill overlooking the rest of Gaoua.<ref name=":0"/>

Sankara attended primary school at [[Bobo-Dioulasso]]. He applied himself seriously to his schoolwork and excelled in mathematics and French. He went to church often and, impressed with his energy and eagerness to learn, some of the priests encouraged Thomas to go on to [[seminary]] school once he finished primary school. Despite initially agreeing, he took the exam required for entry to the sixth grade in the secular educational system and passed. Thomas's decision to continue with his education at the nearest [[lycée]], [[Daniel Ouezzin Coulibaly|Ouezzin Coulibaly]] (named after a pre-independence [[Nationalism|nationalist]]), proved to be a turning point. He left his father's household to attend the lycée in [[Bobo-Dioulasso]], the country's commercial centre. There Sankara made close friends, including Fidèle Too, whom he later named a minister in his government; and [[Soumane Touré]], who was in a more advanced class.<ref name=":0"/>

His [[Catholic Church in Burkina Faso|Roman Catholic]] parents wanted him to become a priest, but he chose to enter the [[Burkina Faso Armed Forces|military]]. The military was popular at the time, having just ousted [[Maurice Yaméogo]], an unpopular president. Many young intellectuals viewed it as a national institution that might potentially help to discipline the inefficient and corrupt bureaucracy, counterbalance the inordinate influence of traditional chiefs, and generally help modernize the country. Acceptance into the military academy was accompanied by a scholarship; Sankara could not easily afford the costs of further education otherwise. He took the entrance exam and passed.<ref name=":0"/><ref name=britannica>{{cite encyclopedia|author-last=Ray|author-first=Carina|title=Thomas Sankara|encyclopedia=[[Encyclopædia Britannica]]|date=17 December 2023|url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Thomas-Sankara}}</ref>

He entered the military academy of [[Kadiogo Province|Kadiogo]] in [[Ouagadougou]] with the academy's first intake of 1966 at the age of 17.<ref name=":0"/> While there he witnessed [[1966 Upper Voltan coup d'état|the first military coup d'état in Upper Volta]] led by Lieutenant-Colonel [[Sangoulé Lamizana]] (3 January 1966). The trainee officers were taught by civilian professors in the social sciences. [[Adama Touré (PAI general secretary)|Adama Touré]], who taught history and geography, was the academic director at the time and known for having progressive ideas, although he did not publicly share them. He invited a few of his brightest and more political students, among them Sankara, to join informal discussions outside the classroom about [[imperialism]], [[neocolonialism]], [[socialism]] and [[communism]], the [[Russian Revolution|Soviet]] and [[Chinese Communist Revolution|Chinese revolutions]], the [[liberation movement]]s in Africa, and similar topics. This was the first time Sankara was systematically exposed to a revolutionary perspective on Upper Volta and the world. Aside from his academic and extracurricular political activities, Sankara also pursued his passion for music and played the guitar.<ref name=":0"/>

In 1970, 20-year-old Sankara went for further military studies at the military academy of [[Antsirabe]] in [[Madagascar]], from which he graduated as a junior officer in 1973. At the Antsirabe academy, the range of instruction went beyond standard military subjects, which allowed Sankara to study [[Agricultural science|agriculture]], including how to raise crop yields and better the lives of farmers. He took up these issues in his own administration and country.<ref name=":0"/> During that period, he read profusely on history and military strategy, thus acquiring the concepts and analytical tools that he would later use in his reinterpretation of Burkinabe political history.{{sfn|Martin|2012}} He was also influenced by French leftist professors in Madagascar. Their intellectual influence on him was later superceded by that of [[Samir Amin]], whose concepts of auto-centered development and delinking from the global capitalist economy influenced him deeply (they were personal friends as well). Thomas Sankara's own speeches and works show also that his analytical strengths went beyond merely applying Cuban solutions, or Amin's ideas. Beyond Marxism, he drew also from religious sources (both the Bible and the Quran were among his favourite readings). His focus on the peasantry, developed independently from both Amin and [[Mao Zedong]], was especially important and influenced many in both Burkina Faso and later other African countries.<ref> Adam Mayer: Military Marxism: Africa's Contribution to Revolutionary Theory, 1957-2023, Lexington Books, Lanham, 2025, pp. 138-146</ref>