El 5 d'agost de 1960 va assolir la plena independència de França. Abans d'aconseguir l'autonomia, havia estat l'Alt Volta francès i part de la Unió Francesa. La República de l’Alt Volta (francès: République de Haute-Volta), país ara anomenat Burkina Faso, fou un país de l'Àfrica occidental sense litoral creat l'11 de desembre de 1958 com una colònia autònoma dins de la Comunitat francesa.Sankara has since cemented ties with Algeria and neighboring Ghana. The disappointment with Libya, which at one point was slated to displace France as Upper Volta's primary financial benefactor, has obliged Sankara to mend his relations with Paris, the former colonial power, and search for regional counterweights to Libyan influence. The "surprise visit" to the Upper Volta capital of Ougadougou by Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi is said to have led to the arrest of Sankara, then prime minister, by Ouedraogo in May 1983.īut since Sankara's return to power, a number of signs point to his own cooling of relations with Qaddafi as numerous Libyan aid promises have gone unfulfilled, and the Libyans were seen to be meddling in the region's politics. One of the major issues that caused the split of the previous government was Sankara's warm ties with Libya. These developments have obliged Sankara to temper his rhetorical attacks on capitalism, which are known to irritate the president of the Ivory Coast, Felix Houphouet-Boigny. However, a deep recession and a growing resentment of foreigners here have threatened a vital source of revenue for Upper Volta. It is often said that the country's most important export is migrant workers, with 50,000 to 100,000 laborers a year leaving the country in search of farm or domestic jobs in Ivory Coast, which is relatively rich although conservative. Upper Volta, one of the world's poorest countries, is landlocked, mostly arid and lacks infrastructure and abundant mineral resources. Sankara has not identified any of the "imperialist" countries that he has said he believes are planning to destabilize his government.Ī diplomat here who is familiar with politics in neighboring Upper Volta said that the country's forthcoming change of name, flag and national anthem, as well as Sankara's recent tour of a number of socialist countries in Africa and Europe, are "political diversions, meant to demonstrate that his progressive orientation has not changed."ĭespite his revolutionary rhetoric, Sankara's policies have been somewhat moderated by the sheer weight of this country's difficulties. This most recent political crisis was overshadowed by the announcement that the government had foiled a coup plot, allegedly supported by a neighboring country and by a Western power. Strident demands for more radical policies recently split the new government, causing an internal crisis in which some members of the Communist Patriotic League for Development were arrested. Since taking power, Sankara's leftist politics, based on self-reliance at home and "progressive nonalignment" abroad, have collided with a number of sobering realities, which have led him to adopt increasingly pragmatic policies. Sankara had served for a time as prime minister in that government before his radical politics provoked a split that led to his arrest. 4, 1983, in the third coup in Upper Volta in three years. Sankara's government, called the National Council for the Revolution, overthrew the relatively moderate government of Jean- Baptiste Ouedraogo on Aug. On Saturday, the West African nation of Upper Volta will change its name to Bourkina Fasso, which means "country of incorruptible men," as part of the celebration of the first anniversary of the radical government of 36-year-old President Thomas Sankara.
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