Socialist Burkina Faso

Socialist Burkina Faso refers to Burkina Faso from 1983 to 1987, which had a government led by Thomas Sankara. Ideologically a Marxist-Leninist society, there were fairly large programmes for social, ecological, and economic change were launched before it met a quick doom at the hands of neo-colonialism and francafrique.

Positives

• The country was renamed from Upper Volta (a name given by the French Empire) to Burkina Faso, meaning 'land of incorruptible people'. A new national flag and anthem were also given, written personally by Thomas Sankara.
• The rights and properties of tribal chiefs as land reform was enacted, giving peasants huge amounts of land and freeing them from tribute payments and forced labour.
• Land reform combined with state-sponsored irrigation programs and fertiliser provision led to the average wheat production for the Sahel region increasing by 250% from 1,700kg of wheat per hectare to 3,900kg of wheat per hectare. This not only led to food self-sufficiency, but food surplus.
• Mass vaccination programs led to 2.5 million Burkinabé being vaccinated against polio, meningitis and measles in a week.
• Brick factories were created to help build houses in effort to end urban slums.
• 7,000 tree nurseries were created that helped lead to 10 million trees being planted to help reforest the Sahel desert.
• All regions of the country were soon connected by a vast road- and rail-building program. Over 700 km (430 mi) of rail was laid by Burkinabé people to facilitate manganese extraction in "The Battle of the Rails" without any foreign aid or outside money.
• Female genital mutilation, forced marriages and polygamy were banned.
• Women were appointed to high governmental positions and encouraged to work outside the home and stay in school even if pregnant.
• Contraception was promoted by the state and husbands were encouraged husbands to go to market and prepare meals to experience for themselves the conditions faced by women.
• The government fleet of Mercedes cars were sold off and the Renault 5 (the cheapest car sold in Burkina Faso at the time) became the official service car of government minister.
• The salaries of well-off public servants (including Sankara's) and forbade the use of government chauffeurs and first class airline tickets were forbidden.
• The first supermarket in the country was opened, being converted from an old military supply store.
• Well-off civil servants were forced to pay one month's salary to public projects.

Negatives

• The system of courts known as 'Popular Revolutionary Tribunals' were corrupt and oppressive.
• The armed militias known as 'Revolutionary Defense Committees' quickly became corrupt and were used for personal gain by members, a failure so bad even Sankara acknowledged it.
• Given Sankara's taking of power through a coup and failure to properly decentralise power, he was easily vulnerable to being deposed in another coup.
• Unlike other Marxist-Leninist governments, the government failed to reduce the country's large illiteracy problem, having fired thousands of teachers after large strikes.
• The growth of life expectancy began to stagnate compared to previous years.

Sources

Thomas Sankara at Wikipedia