In Burkina Faso, the memory of Thomas Sankara becomes a state affair

An official narrative built on continuity

Few African figures are invoked as often, or as deliberately, as Thomas Sankara. In Burkina Faso, the memory of the man who led the revolution of August 1983 has long since ceased to be a purely historical matter. It now occupies a central place in the political vocabulary of the transitional authorities headed by Ibrahim Traoré. Behind the official tributes, the military ceremonies and the construction of a mausoleum, one question persists: is the present leadership gradually absorbing the figure of Sankara in order to shore up its own legitimacy?

The parallel is not merely the conjecture of observers. It is also legible in the state’s own communication. Since 2026, a military ceremony devoted to Thomas Sankara has been staged every month, an initiative the government presents as having been instituted on the instruction of Ibrahim Traoré. Official rhetoric goes further still. During a tribute held in February 2026, the president’s chief of staff declared that the ‘flame’ of Thomas Sankara is now borne by Ibrahim Traoré.

This staging of historical continuity raises a fundamental question: does Ibrahim Traoré merely wish to honour Sankara, or does he seek to present himself as the man who has taken up and pursued his struggle? The distinction is not a minor one.

Thomas Sankara belongs to the history of Burkina Faso and to the memory of millions of Africans. Yet there also exists a family memory, sustained by his widow Mariam Sankara, his children, his brothers and his sisters. On this subject, the relationship between the family and the transitional authorities has never been as consensual as the official account might lead one to believe.

February 2023, the first rupture

The most revealing precedent dates back to February 2023. After the exhumation of the remains of Thomas Sankara and his twelve companions, the government resolved to carry out their reburial on the site of the former Conseil de l’Entente, which has since become the Thomas Sankara Memorial. The symbolism was considerable: it was precisely there that Sankara and his companions were assassinated on 15 October 1987.

The Sankara family objected. On 16 February 2023, Mariam Sankara, her two sons Philippe and Auguste, and the brothers and sisters of the slain president appealed directly to Ibrahim Traoré and urged him to abandon the decision. They proposed three alternative sites: the Dagnoën cemetery, the Garden of Friendship and the Yennenga Garden.

The disagreement then became public. The family judged that the decision had been taken without genuine consensus and refused to take part in the ceremony. On 21 February, it confirmed that it would be neither present nor represented at the burial. On 23 February, the ceremony went ahead regardless. The authorities moved forward. The family kept its distance.

That sequence is essential to understanding what followed, for the Traoré regime would gradually transform Sankara’s memory into a central component of its own political narrative.

Turning a revolutionary into state heritage

Since that period, the institutional presence of Sankara has only grown denser. The mausoleum intended for Thomas Sankara and his twelve companions was erected on the memorial site. Ibrahim Traoré laid its foundation stone on 15 October 2023, and the structure was inaugurated in May 2025. The project is officially described as a means of preserving and promoting the political legacy of the father of the August 1983 revolution.

In 2026, this commemorative policy acquired a further dimension through the monthly military ceremonies. Through such initiatives, the authorities no longer simply commemorate Sankara: they organise, institutionalise and stage his memory. This is where one of the principal political stakes resides. In the official account, Ibrahim Traoré can appear as the leader who has at last rehabilitated Sankara fully, restored his memory and resumed his struggle.

Government discourse suggests as much openly. In June 2026, during a tribute at the memorial, the minister of foreign affairs asserted that Sankara’s flame is carried ‘with dignity and commitment’ by Ibrahim Traoré. Such a presentation mechanically draws the two figures together in the collective imagination: Sankara, the assassinated revolutionary; Traoré, the young captain said to be taking up the torch.

A legacy that cannot be reduced to a political instrument

It is precisely here that the family’s position becomes decisive. For those close to Thomas Sankara, his legacy cannot be narrowed to an instrument of political communication or a backdrop for the legitimisation of power. His body, his remains, the place of his burial and the memory held by his relatives carry an intimate dimension that the state cannot entirely absorb.

Since 2023, however, the authorities have taken charge of a large share of the institutional staging of that memory: the reburial, the mausoleum, the military ceremonies, the official tributes, the speeches on sovereignty and the perpetual references to the revolution.

The paradox is striking: the leadership that today claims Sankara’s political inheritance is also the one with which part of his family found itself at odds over the very manner in which his remains should be handled. This is not to assert that Ibrahim Traoré personally seeks to ‘take’ Sankara from his family. Such an intention would belong to interpretation and would require additional evidence. What the facts do show is something else: a regime progressively constructing a narrative in which Ibrahim Traoré figures as the political heir of Captain Sankara and as the man who has taken up his fight.

A revolutionary lineage with clear political uses

This construction is far from inconsequential. It enables the present leadership to situate itself within an exceptionally powerful revolutionary lineage in Burkina Faso. It also furnishes a historical reference capable of lending ideological depth to its own discourse on sovereignty, pan-Africanism and independence.

Researchers have moreover noted how frequently Traoré invokes the memory of Sankara, and how his political rhetoric echoes themes associated with the former president, notably sovereignty and the rejection of external dependency.

Who holds the right to a memory?

This is ultimately the most delicate of questions. Thomas Sankara is not only a statue, a mausoleum or a military ceremony. He is also a family history, a painful memory and a political struggle whose interpretation cannot be imposed by decree.

The transitional authorities may legitimately honour his memory. They may restore sites, hold ceremonies and preserve archives. Yet another question remains: can they, in the name of that rehabilitation, present themselves as the natural custodians of his inheritance?

The precedent of 2023 shows at the very least that the Sankara family has not always accepted the choices made by the authorities concerning that memory. Herein lies the full ambiguity of the current narrative. By repeatedly presenting himself as the one who ‘carries the torch’ of Sankara, Ibrahim Traoré risks allowing the memory of a man assassinated in 1987 to drift towards another story: that of a contemporary leadership seeking to inscribe its own name in the continuity of the revolution.

Sankara left behind a body of work and a body of thought. Traoré is building his own power today. Between the two, the memory of Thomas Sankara has become a major political issue.