Sankara U.N. Speech (1984)

Thu Oct 04, 1984

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Image: Thomas Sankara speaking at the United Nations

On this day in 1984, Pan-African socialist Thomas Sankara spoke at the United Nations, saying “I speak not only on behalf of Burkina Faso, my country which I love so much, but also on behalf of all those who suffer, wherever they may be.”

Thomas Sankara (1949 - 1987) served as President of Burkina Faso from 1983 to 1987. A Marxist-Leninist and Pan-Africanist, he was viewed by supporters as a charismatic and iconic figure of revolution, sometimes referred to as “Africa’s Che Guevara”.

On October 4th, 1984, Sankara spoke at the United Stations, expressing international solidarity with oppressed peoples all over the world. Here is a short excerpt from the speech:

"Let me say to those who are listening to me now that I speak not only on behalf of Burkina Faso, my country which I love so much, but also on behalf of all those who suffer, wherever they may be.

I speak on behalf of those millions of human beings who are in ghettos because their skin is black, or because they have a different kind of culture, those whose status is hardly higher than that of an animal.

I suffer, too, on behalf of those Indians who have been massacred, trampled on and humiliated and who, for centuries, have been confined to reservations, so that they do not have any aspirations to any rights whatsoever, so that their culture cannot become enriched through contact with other cultures, including that of the invader.

I speak out on behalf of those who are unemployed because of a structurally unjust system which has now been completely disrupted, the unemployed who have been reduced to seeing their lives as only the reflection of the lives of those who have more than themselves.

I speak on behalf of women throughout the entire world who suffer from a system of exploitation imposed on them by men".