A Certain Amount of Madness The Life, Politics and Legacies of Thomas Sankara [Hardcover]

Thomas Sankara (1949–87) was one of the most important anti-imperialist leaders of twentieth-century Africa. His declaration that fundamental change would require “a certain amount of madness” was a driving force behind the Burkinabè Revolution that eventually led to his being elected president of Burkina Faso.
            This book examines Sankara’s political philosophies and legacies and their relevance today. Amber Murrey analyzes his synthesis of Pan-Africanism and humanist Marxist politics, as well as his approach to gender, development, ecology, and decolonization. She doesn’t shy away from detailing the limitations of the revolution he led, but nonetheless she finds potent sources of inspiration for today’s struggles in Sankara’s example.

Amber Murreyis postdoctoral fellow in sociology at The American University in Cairo, Egypt. 

Forward by Horace G. Campbell
Acknowledgements
 
Introduction
Amber Murrey
 
Part I Life and Revolution
1 Military Coup, Popular Revolution on Militarised Revolution?: Contextualising the Revolutionary Ideological Courses of Thomas Sankara and the National Council of the Revolution
De-Valera N.Y.M. Botchway and Moussa Traore
2 The Perils of Non-Alignment: Thomas Sankara and the Cold War
Brian Peterson
3 Thomas Sankara and the Elusive Revolution
Leo Zeilig
4 When Visions Collide: Thomas Sankara, Trade Unions and the Revolution in Burkina Faso, 1983-1987
Craig Phelan
5 Africa’s Sankara: On Pan-African Leadership
Amber Murrey
6 Who Killed Thomas Sankara?
Bruno Jaffré
7 ‘Incentivized’ Self-Adjustment: Reclaiming Sankara’s Revolutionary Austerity from Corporate Geographies of Neoliberal Erasure
Nicholas A. Jackson
 
Part II Political Philosol“,