Burkina Faso Independence: The Incredible Journey to Independence

Burkina Faso Independence

Burkina Faso Independence: Burkina Faso got its freedom from France on August 5, 1960. Since then, it has had a short-lived democratically elected government and a series of military coups. Maurice Yaméogo, the country’s first president and leader of the Rassemblement démocratique africain (African Democratic Assembly), promised big economic gains for the new country when it became independent. However, he quickly realized that he could not keep making these claims. 

Protests spread throughout the country as a result of the faltering economy and election rigging. The army took control of the country in January 1966. President General Sangoulé Lamizana ruled for 15 years, gradually limiting the power of the people. Trade union unrest sparked a bloodless coup in November 1980. A group of army officers removed Colonel Saye Zerbo as president in November 1982 after he ruled for two years on charges of corruption.

When the officers took over, they named Major Jean-Baptiste Ouedraogo president and Captain Thomas Sankara prime minister. The new government quickly became divided, though, and in May 1983, Ouedraogo ordered the arrest of Sankara. Sankara was well-liked by both civilians and army personnel, which was bad for the president because it kept the fractured coalition government of radicals and conservatives together.

When people tried to get rid of him, there were riots among students, workers, and police officers. A military coup removed Ouedraogo from power, taking into account Burkina Faso’s recent past. Now that Sankara was in charge, the unhappy officers who put him there took over the country and made Sankara president of the Conseil national de la révolution (CNR). 

A strange mix of left-wing civilians and army officers made up the council. Sankara was only able to keep it together with strong support from the allies who got rid of Ouedraogo, such as Captain Blaise Compaoré, Captain Henri Zongo, and Major Jean-Baptiste Boukary Lingani.
Sankara became more well-known after telling all politicians, including himself, that the public should be able to see information about their personal bank accounts. In 1984, he had Upper Volta’s name changed to Burkina Faso, which means “land of righteous people.” He did this to give the people of the country a feeling of national pride and maybe even duty. 

Through vaccine programs, public housing, and women’s rights, Sankara’s government also made a lot of progress in public health. Different parts of the CNR had different policy ideas and were growing increasingly hostile towards each other, leading to Sankara’s murder in October 1987. The killers were Compaoré supporters, and Compaoré quickly gave himself the presidency. Because Sankara was so famous and the takeover was so violent, the international community quickly condemned it, and people all over India were unhappy with it. 

To strengthen his situation, Compaoré got rid of the CNR and set up the new Front populaire (FP). He tightened his control over the country even more by arresting Zongo and Lingani, two people he used to be friends with. He accused them of plotting to overthrow the government, swiftly tried them, and executed them the same evening. Following this, the government underwent a reorganization, with Compaoré assuming leadership of both the defense and security offices.

The people wrote and passed a new constitution in June 1991. According to the new constitution, the country would be a multiparty democracy, and any government that came to power through a coup would not be legitimate. Upon the formation of the Fourth Republic government in June 1991, Compaoré attempted to demonstrate a softer approach. For the first time, the minister of defense was a civilian, and some members of the opposition groups were in government.

In December 1991, there were presidential elections, but the opposition groups didn’t show up because Compaoré was still trying to be friendly. Compaoré didn’t have any opponents, and he won with only 25% of the vote. The following year, opposition groups only won 23 of the 107 places they were able to get in the National Assembly. This was mostly because they weren’t working together as a group. After five years, the opposition didn’t do much better; the ruling party took 101 of the 111 seats that were up for grabs. 

In 1998, Compaoré was re-elected president with a more reasonable lead than he had had eight years before. 56% of people who were eligible to vote did, and the incumbent got 87% of the votes cast. In December 1998, authorities found Norbert Zongo, a well-known independent journalist and newspaper editor, and three of his coworkers dead. Members of the presidential guard reportedly killed them.

After these deaths, there were protests and strikes across the country, and a group of opposition and human rights groups, called the Collectif d’organisations démocratiques de masse et de partis politiques, called for an open and thorough probe. The government, taken aback by the intensity of the protests, ultimately opted to allow the courts to handle Zongo’s case and compensate the families of the deceased men.

Not until 2001 did anyone, including some people who were already in jail for other murders, face charges for the death of Zongo. In 2000, the parliament made more changes to the law that had to do with the president’s job. There was a minimum age of 35 to run for office, and candidates could only serve two terms. They also reduced term lengths from seven to five years, and only individuals were eligible to run for office.

But because these changes weren’t going to happen until after the 2002 elections, Compaoré, who turned in his army rank, could run for office again in 2005 and 2010. In the elections in May 2002, the opposition was better organized, and the Congress pour la democratie et le progrès (CDP) (which took over from the FP after 1996) lost a lot of seats. The party only won 57 of the 111 seats in the National Assembly, or 0.5 percentage points less than 50% of the votes cast.

The government reshuffled in June, replacing opposition members with CDP officials in the new 31-member cabinet. Compaoré has been in power since 1987, but he has never had the backing of the people like Sankara did. There are also rumors of planned coups that help him keep security pretty strict. The most recent plan led to the arrest of 16 people in October 2003. Among them was Norbert Tiendrebeogo, head of the Social Forces Front and a well-known opposition leader who used to support Sankara.

Also Read: Burkina Faso History: The Incredible History Of Africa’s Colonial Period