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AFP
Ouagadougou
Thirty years ago, the leader of Burkina Faso's revolution, Thomas Sankara, was cut down in a hail of bullets -- a bloody end to a turbulent yet charismatic life that today has gained cult status in Africa.
The young army captain who took power in the deeply poor nation in 1983 has been nicknamed"Africa's Che Guevara," a monicker that reflects his anti-imperialist convictions almost as much as the way he died.
"Kill Sankara and thousands of Sankaras shall be born," he is said to have declared in 1987. Just a few months later he would be assassinated as he headed to a government meeting.
Born on December 21, 1949, at Yako in the dusty north of what was then Upper Volta, the future officer was 12 when his homeland attained independence from France.
Once in power after an August 1983 coup, Sankara would rebaptise the country Burkina Faso, or"land of upright men", and introduce progressist policies that distanced his regime from other former colonies in what France regarded as its backyard in Africa.
His first taste of military action came during a conflict with neighbouring Mali in 1974-75. But he was already nursing ideas that, along with popularity, brought a shadowy side to his rule.
After a successful coup in November 1980, the new head of state, Colonel Saye Zerbo, appointed Sankara junior minister of information. But his radical outlook led him to quit the government a year and a half later.
By the next coup in January 1983, Sankara was back in favour and became prime minister, but a power struggle erupted within military ranks.
Initially arrested in May 1983, Sankara made his comeback in August, following a coup led by his close friend Captain Blaise Compaore and associates who put him in charge of the country.
