My second granddaughter is named Kara Jo – the second name after the Labour MP Jo Cox who was murdered and the first name after the African revolutionary who was assassinated. I confess that I had not previously heard of Sankara.<\/p>\n
However, as it happens, there is currently a play in London called simply “Sankara” and earlier this week I went along to a performance. The venue was a small, fringe theatre called “The Cockpit”. There is no stage but four flights of seats around a floor-level square where the actors perform.<\/p>\n
The play has been written and directed by Ricky Dujany and the largely black cast is headed by Ike Chuks as the eponymous soldier\/politician. It is a fascinating story although the play itself is quite heavy-going politically.<\/p>\n
Thomas Sankara came to power in a coup in 1983 in the former French West African colony of Upper Volta which he renamed Burkina Faso which means “land of upright man”. He pioneered a raft of radical economic and social reforms but became increasingly dictatorial and was himself overthrown in a coup of 1987.<\/p>\n
You can learn more about the play here<\/a>.<\/p>\n