Burkina Faso takes down the street name of former French colonial monarch

According to local officials, Boulevard Charles de Gaulle has been renamed Boulevard Thomas Sankara.

The military administration of Burkina Faso has replaced Charles de Gaulle’s name with that of Thomas Sankara, a prominent Pan-Africanist and former president, on a key street in the nation’s capital, Ouagadougou.

At a ceremony on Sunday to mark the 36th anniversary of Sankara’s murder, Boulevard Charles de Gaulle was formally renamed Boulevard Thomas Sankara.

Ibrahim Traore, the transitional president of Burkina Faso, paid tribute to Thomas Sankara by laying the cornerstone for a mausoleum dedicated to him and renaming a street in his honour. “I pay tribute to a man of vision, an inexhaustible source who nourishes the inspiration of the African people, particularly those of Burkina Faso, in search of total sovereignty,” he said.

In the former French colonies of Senegal and Ivory Coast (Cote d’Ivoire), similar efforts to decolonize the streets have been attempted. Boulevards in Ivory Coast no longer honour former French presidents Valery Giscard d’Estaing and Francois Mitterrand; instead, Felix Houphouet-Boigny and other local leaders have taken their places.

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Following his election as mayor of the Ziguinchor district last year, Senegalese opposition leader Ousmane Sonko renamed an avenue “Peace Street” and removed Charles de Gaulle’s name from it. The names of other signs from French colonial times were also changed.

The International Thomas Sankara Memorial Committee vice president Daouda Traore, a retired colonel major, applauded the military government of Burkina Faso for the action.

Traore was quoted by the French station RFI as saying that Thomas Sankara is a name that “drapes this boulevard with the seal of dignity and sovereignty of our people, in keeping with our history, our spirit, and our soul marked by anti-imperialist convictions.”

The military overthrew Sankara in a coup in 1983, but he was killed on October 15, 1987, along with 12 of his friends, and is considered a key player in the revolution by his supporters. Following the coup in 1987, the former president Blaise Compaore was elected, and he was given a life sentence last year for killing Sankara.

The military leader of Burkina Faso declared on Sunday that Sankara’s legacy had influenced his “determination and commitment” to retake the nation’s territory.