“Imperialism Is on Your Plate:” �The Everyday Practice of Sankara’s Revolution
March 5, 2026
Thomas Sankara and the Burkina Faso Revolution
“The revolution, in our present context, is above all a mental liberation”
Interview with M. Beti, 1985
“Let us consume only what we control”: �Sankara’s Rhetoric of Food Self-Sufficiency and Justice
“We must succeed in producing more – producing more, because it is natural that he who feeds you also imposes his will…We are free. He who does not feed you can demand nothing of you. Here, however, we are being fed every day, every year, and we say, “Down with imperialism!” Well, your stomach knows what’s what…Our stomachs will make themselves heard and may well take the road to the right, the road of reaction, and of peaceful coexistence with all those who oppress us by means of the grain they dump here” (Sankara, “The CDRs’ job is to raise consciousness, act, produce,” 290)
Imperialism Is Everywhere
“Imperialism is everywhere. Through the culture that it spreads, through its misinformation, it gets us to think like it does, it gets us to submit to it, and to go along with all its maneuvers. For goodness’ sake, we must stand in imperialism’s way…It is imperialism that has armed those who are killing our brothers in South Africa. It is imperialism that assassinated the Lumumbas, the Cabrals, and the Kwame Nkrumahs. But I’m telling you and I’m promising you-because I have confidence in you…because we are part of the people-when imperialism comes here, we will bury it” (Sankara, “Who Are the People’s Enemies?”, 54-55)
Imperialism is the Arsonist of Our Forests and Savannas
“Eight million Burkinabè have painfully internalized this reality for twenty-three years. They have watched their mothers, fathers, daughters, and sons die, with hunger, famine, disease, and ignorance decimating them by the hundreds. With tears in their eyes, they have watched ponds and rivers dry up. Since 1973 they have seen the environment deteriorate, trees die, and the desert invade with giant strides…Here I am merely a humble spokesperson of a people who, having passively watched their natural environment die, refuse to watch themselves die. Since August 4, 1983, water, trees, and lives—if not survival itself—have been fundamental and sacred elements in all action taken by the National Council of the Revolution, which leads Burkina Faso” (Sankara, “Imperialism is the Arsonist of our Forests and Savannas,” 254-55)
Imperialism is the Arsonist of Our Forests and Savannas
“our struggle for the trees and forests is first and foremost a democratic and popular struggle. Because a handful of forestry engineers and experts getting themselves all worked up in a sterile and costly manner will never accomplish anything! Nor can the worked-up consciences of a multitude of forums and institutions—sincere and praiseworthy though they may be—make the Sahel green again, when we lack the funds to drill wells for drinking water a hundred meters deep, while money abounds to drill oil wells three thousand meters deep! As Karl Marx said, those who live in a palace do not think about the same things, nor in the same way, as those who live in a hut. This struggle to defend the trees and forests is above all a struggle against imperialism. Because imperialism is the arsonist setting fire to our forests and our savannas” (Sankara 1988, 259)
Burkinabe women building terrace to prevent spread of the desert, 1986.
“We have a program of reforestation, a positive act to regenerate nature. We’ve decreed that every village and town must have a grove of trees. As part of its socioeconomic system, African tradition included a form of preservation of nature called the sacred woods. A certain number of rituals, in particular initiation rituals, were carried out there. According to myth and animism, these woods supposedly possessed certain powers that protected them. As these values gave way to more modern ones, to a certain Cartesianism as well as to other forms of religion, the protection failed and the woods disappeared. The protective shield afforded by the forest was destroyed, and the spread of the desert naturally proceeded at an even more rapid pace. This is one of the reasons we have established groves. And though we haven’t succeeded in investing them with the religious content of olden times, we try to give them an equivalent sentimental value. This is why all happy events are marked by planting a tree, whether be a baptism, a marriage, or some other ceremony”(215-16)