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  • Burkina Faso: A History of Power, Protest, and Revolution by Ernest Harsch
  • Rita Keresztesi
Harsch, Ernest. 2017. BURKINA FASO: A HISTORY OF POWER, PROTEST, AND REVOLUTION. London: Zed Books. 287 pp.

Burkina Faso: A History of Power, Protest, and Revolution, by Ernest Harsch, a longtime chronicler of life and politics in Burkina Faso, responds to the coup and revolution that ended the rule of President Blaise Compaoré, who had come to power after the assassination of President Thomas Sankara, often called the Che Guevara of Africa. This book, a companion to Thomas Sankara: An African Revolutionary, Harsch's contribution to Short Histories of Africa, the educational series of the Ohio University Press (2014), is a remarkably prompt and detailed assessment of Compaoré's fall from power. As Harsch notes in the acknowledgments, the book is the result of the author's ongoing and well-established relationship with Burkina Faso, the country that he has been visiting as a journalist and then as an academic researcher since the 1980s.

The book thoroughly reviews and meticulously describes the events that led to the surprisingly fast fall and exit of Compaoré, whom many had considered a dictator, one of Africa's presidents for life. The book is divided into fifteen chapters, which cover the economic, political, social, and cultural circumstances that spurred the deterioration of public support for Compaoré, who had fashioned himself the "mediator" of West African politics. Harsch has dedicated his career to the study of Burkina Faso, which he here situates in a comparative global perspective to highlight the significance of its upheavals. The Arab Spring attracted worldwide attention as long-ruling dictators were falling from power in North Africa, but Burkina Faso's move from twenty-seven years under de facto one-party rule and the [End Page 122] ever-tightening grip on power by its leader did not. Harsch's book therefore helps fill a historical void. Harsch details in several chapters the economic stagnation and precarious poverty normalized under Compaoré's rule. His book is a balanced and factually detailed analysis of the forces and circumstances that led to Compaoré's fall from power.

The first four chapters outline the geography, ethnic makeup, and history of Burkina Faso (formerly Upper Volta), including the military overthrow of the government by Thomas Sankara on August 4, 1983, which was followed by the military takeover in 1987 by his comrade Blaise Compaoré. The book spends much time on Thomas Sankara's rule, situating his tenure in the global scope of politics, particularly his alignment with radical forces such as Libya's Muammar al-Qaddafi, Samora Machel of Mozambique, and Fidel Castro of Cuba—a stance that pitted him against the West (France and the United States specifically) and neighboring African countries. Harsch clearly holds great respect for Sankara and his achievements in economic growth and social advances. From chapter eight on, the book focuses on the military coup and the alignment of neighboring countries (such as Côte d'Ivoire) and Euro-American powers (France in particular) that eased Compaoré's rule.

Sankara's revolution came to a halt, and his charisma was replaced by a deliberately techno-bureaucratic discourse and leadership style that distanced Compaoré from the heady years of Sankara and the 1980s. Compaoré functioned through a pseudodemocratic process based on sham elections with exceptionally low turnout rates—a political reality that came to an end with his attempt to extend his rule by pushing for the amendment of article 37 of the Constitution. Protest movements kept alive after 1987 by students, trade unionists, and activists—most notably women—evolved into a massive citizens' mobilization. On the eve of the scheduled National Assembly vote, on October 30, 2014, organized through social media and text messaging and even involving communication with members of the security forces, violent protests erupted, not only in Ouagadougou, the capital city, but throughout the countryside. The next day, Comparoré fled to Côte d'Ivoire, where he still resides. The final two chapters of the book are dedicated to the present, the bumpy transition to a functioning representative democracy, a path still unfolding.

The book is a detailed analysis of the history...

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