Making new people : politics, cinema, and liberation in Burkina Faso, 1983-1987

On August 4, 1983, Captain Thomas Sankara led a coalition of radical military officers, communist activists, labor leaders, and militant students to overtake the government of the Republic of Upper Volta. Almost immediately following the coup’s success, the small West African country—renamed Burkina Faso, or Land of the Dignified People—gained international attention as it charted a new path toward social, economic, cultural, and political development based on its people’s needs rather than external pressures and Cold War politics. James E. Genova’s Making New People: Politics, Cinema, and Liberation in Burkina Faso, 1983–1987 recounts in detail the revolutionary government’s rise and fall, demonstrating how it embodied the critical transition period in modern African history between the era of decolonization and the dawning of neoliberal capitalism. It also uncovers one of the revolution’s most enduring and significant aspects: its promotion of film as a vehicle for raising the people’s consciousness, inspiring their efforts at social transformation, and articulating a new self-generated image of Africa and Africans. Foregrounding film and drawing evocative connections between Sankara’s political philosophy and Frantz Fanon, Making New People provides a deeply nuanced explanation for the revolution’s lasting influence throughout Africa and the world. "This book looks at Burkina Faso's revolution (1983-1987), led by Thomas Sankara, as a window into a critical transition period in modern African history between the closing of the era of the fight for national liberation and the dawning of new forces around neoliberal capitalist globalization. It focuses on the regime's cultural politics and specifically the importance the revolutionaries attached to the cinema as a mechanism for social change"-- Provided by publisher Contents Preface Acknowledgments List of Abbreviations 1-Politics and Culturein Upper Volta 2-Dual Power and the Triumph of the Burkinabè Revolution 3-Building Revolutionary Structures and Making New People 4-Cultural Revolution,Economic Reform, and Global Engagement 5-Recalibration of the Burkinabè Revolution 6-Twilight of the Revolution and Sankara’s Murder Conclusion Notes Bibliography Index Recounts in detail the rise and fall of Burkina Faso’s revolutionary government, demonstrating how it embodied the critical transition period in modern African history between the era of decolonization and the dawning of neoliberal capitalism.