Maurice Bishop & Thomas Sankara

By Jeffery Kazembe Batts
IG: @kazbatts
In the 1980’s two young Black heads of state, just as they were getting started in changing the living conditions of their people in their countries, were brutally murdered! Both men came to New York City at the height of their power and were greeted by thousands of people, like entertainment celebrities. Unfortunately neither leader would live to be forty years old, and both were similarly betrayed by their right-hand man!

The Right Honorable Prime Minister of Grenada Maurice Bishop and the 1st President of Burkina Faso Captain Thomas Sankara were both charismatic leaders who while in power profoundly changed the quality of life in their nations. Although the two never met President Sankara did write to Prime Minister Bishop shortly before Bishop was killed. August through October 1983 was the brief overlapping time when they were both heads of state. Due to the large Caribbean and specifically Grenadian population Maurice Bishop was often in the United States, primarily Brooklyn, prior to and after assuming power. Thomas Sankara made one historic visit to Harlem that was facilitated by Elombe Brath and the Patrice Lumumba Coalition to the Harriet Tubman School on October 3rd, 1984.

Maurice Bishop and the New Jewel Movement (NJM) were part of the parliamentary process in Grenada. Maurice was the Leader of the Opposition during the mid and late1970’s. The NJM was created as a merger of the Tanzanian socialism Julius Nyerere influenced Movement for Assemblies of the People (MAP) and Joint Endeavor for Welfare, Education and Liberation (JEWEL) and the Organization for Revolutionary Education and Liberation (OREL). In 1979 while Prime Minister Eric Gairy was in New York City to speak at the United Nations, a bloodless popular revolution deposed Gairy and Maurice Bishop became Prime Minister.

Thomas Sankara was a military man who in 1976 was the Commander of the Commando Training Center in Po, Upper Volta. Around then he and a few others, including Blasé Compaore, formed a secret organization called ROC. Later Saye Zerbo’s military government appointed Thomas Minister of Information in 1981. He resigned because of disagreements with the government over labor policy. After another coup by Major-Doctor Jean-Baptiste Ouedraogo, Sankara became Prime Minister in 1983. After only four months he was dismissed because of his progressive ideas. At the urging of France, he and others young officers were arrested. This led Blaise Compaore to stage another coup that made Thomas Sankara president on August 4th, 1983.

Grenadian national hero Maurice Bishop was born in Aruba. He attended the University of London, in England, where he studied law and received a law degree in 1969. While in Europe he visited Czechoslovakia and the German Democratic Republic. Back in Grenada on November 18th, 1973, a day that became known as “Bloody Sunday” Bishop and eight others were arrested and severely beaten. Just two months later January 21st, 1974, became known as “Bloody Monday” when Prime Minister Eric Gairy’s Mongoose Gang attacked a mass demonstration and shot Maurice’s father in the back and killed him.

When Bishop became prime minister, he established a solid partnership with the revolutionary government in Cuba. His core principles were workers’ and women’s rights and fighting against racism and apartheid. Sex discrimination was outlawed while equal pay and maternity leave were implemented to benefit women. Free healthcare was implemented, and illiteracy plummeted from 35% to 5%. Voluntary mass organizations for farmers, youth, and workers were formed. To boost tourism a new national airport was planned, and construction started with the help of Cuba and others. In August 1983 Prime Minister Maurice Bishop engaged a packed audience at Hunter College in Manhattan.

Thomas Sankara, the son of a gendarme (military person), lived a relatively privileged life growing up in Gaoua, Upper Volta. As a student he excelled in math and French. He attended church and his parents wanted him to be a priest, but he chose the military instead. Progressive civilian professor Adama Toure taught history and geography officially. He included Thomas in small informal discussions where he expanded on imperialism, neo-colonialism, socialism and communism and liberation movements. In 1970 he went for military studies at Antsirabe Academy in Madagascar and graduated as a junior officer. Along the way Sankara became a guitarist. By 1972 he returned to Upper Volta, participated in a war with Mali and was celebrated for his involvement in the conflict.

When Sankara became president 1n 1983 he rejected loans and capital from the International Monetary Fund. His policies focused on land reform, famine prevention, literacy campaigns and vaccination campaigns, anti-female genial mutilation, forced marriages. He planted trees to combat the expanding desert. Schools, health centers were built with the self-sufficient use of brick factories. Over 400 miles of rail was laid while roads were built to connect the country. A year into his presidency he renamed the country to Burkina Faso, meaning the land of upright people.

Both leaders struck fear in the hearts and minds of western, established powers especially the United States and France. AU.S. State Department report expressed concern about Bishop’s ability to communicate and influence Black Americans because Grenada was a Black country, and he spoke English. France had identified Sankara as a threat to their West African economic chokehold on its former colonies and could not let his self-sufficient and Pan-African policies spread. These efforts to change the facts on the ground for the lives of African people in the Caribbean and in Africa were cut short. The extent of American influence that caused turmoil within the PRG between Maurice Bishop and Deputy Prime Minister Bernard Coard in Grenada is unclear. Trials in Burkina Faso have exposed the complicity of France more clearly in the treacherous killing of Thomas Sankara by former friend Blasé Compaore. What is certain is that from within two revolutionary and determined national leaders were killed with the complicity of their trusted second in-command, long term collaborators who had helped them to acquire national leadership authority.

Unfortunately, sometimes the enemy of justice and liberty is within the movement being built. The circumstances and nuances of these falling outs of understanding between comrades, ability of intelligence agencies to infiltrate popular movements, personal greed and envy, short sighted vision after acquiring power and lack of long term collective determination to maintain Black Power and Pan-African development and self sufficiency must be analyzed, studied then communicated to the masses of people so that these nation shattering events no longer take place. I shook hands with these both the Honorable Maurice Bishop at Hunter College in mid-town, Manhattan also with the Honorable Thomas Sankara at Harriet Tubman School in Harlem. Their presentations were life changing. We must never forget them as we continue to build Black power, globally. As Marcus Garvey said, “Up you mighty race, you can accomplish what you will.”