From Sankarism to the AES: Revolutionary Pan-Africanism and the Changing Global Order

• In Event: Revolutionary Pan-Africanism and Black Internationalism in the Twentieth and Twenty-First Centuries

Description for Program

This paper explores how the tenure of the Burkinabe Prime Minister Thomas Sankara laid the political, economic, and ideological foundation for the Alliance of Sahel States four decades later. Although Western backed forces assassinated Sankara just four years after he came to power, Sankara’s uncompromising revolutionary Pan-Africanism endured and has helped spearhead the revival of revolutionary nationalist and Pan-Africanist forces in West Africa today, particularly in Mali, Niger, and Burkina Faso. This paper also examines how the changing global landscape shaped both Sankara’s time in power and the politics of the AES during the 2020s.

Author

• Navid Farnia, Wayne State University