JONATHAN

Thom Sank Captain Thomas Isidore Noel Sankara (born December 21, 1949 in Yako died October 15, 1987 in Ouagadougou) was the leader of Burkina Faso (formerly known as Upper Volta) from 1983 to 1987. With a potent combination of personal charisma and Leninist social organization, his government undertook major initiatives to fight corruption and improve education, agriculture, and the status of women. His revolutionary program provoked strong opposition from traditional leaders and the country's numerically small but powerful middle class. Added to friction between radical and more conservative members of the ruling junta, these factors led to his downfall and assassination in a bloody "coup d'etat" on October 15, 1987.