Sankara - Thomas Sankara Speaks

In 1983 Yamoussoukro replaced Abidjan as the capital of Cte dIvoire (Ivory Coast), although Abidjan remained the de facto capital.

In September 1980, with the support of Washington, London, Paris, and Tokyo, the Iraqi government of Saddam Hussein invaded Iran. Hussein sought control of Irans oil fields and to push back the 1979 revolution in which millions of urban and rural working people and youth had overthrown the pro-US monarchy. The Iran-Iraq war lasted eight years and resulted in hundreds of thousands of deaths.

At the Organisation of African Unitys November 1984 summit, the SADR was admitted as a full member, with the active support of the Burkinab delegation, led by Thomas Sankara. Morocco then withdrew from the OAU in protest.

Koupla is located in eastern-central Burkina Faso.

Based on a long-standing border dispute with Mali, successive governments in Upper Volta had vetoed Malis admission to the West African Monetary Union. In October 1983 Upper Voltas new revolutionary government lifted this veto and referred the dispute to the International Court of Justice.

A former French colony in Central Africa, Chad was gripped by a recurrent civil war between factions supported by France in the south and Libya in the north. Paris intervened militarily in 196872, 197779, 198384, and 1986 to the present. Libyan troops occupied the north from 1983 to 1987.

Several African governments took part in a conference in Brazzaville in the Republic of the Congo aimed at negotiating an end to the civil war in Chad and the withdrawal of French and Libyan troops.

In February 1984 the governments of Angola and South Africa signed the Lusaka Accord whereby the apartheid government said it would withdraw its invasion force from southern Angola and the Angolan government promised to restrict the activities on its territory of SWAPO (South West Africa Peoples Organisation), which was leading the independence struggle in Namibia, ruled by South Africa from 1915 to 1990. This accord was followed in March 1984 by the Nkomati Accord between Mozambique and South Africa, whereby the apartheid government said it would withdraw its support for the pro-imperialist Renamo forces in Mozambique while the Mozambican government promised to no longer allow the African National Congress of South Africa to operate from its territory.

In 1980 the racist white minority regime of Rhodesia, faced with an intensifying war of national liberation and growing international isolation, was forced to give up its effort to prevent majority rule. The country became the republic of Zimbabwe.

From November 1975 to May 1991, more than 375,000 Cuban volunteers responded to the Angolan governments appeal for solidarity to repel invasions by the South African armed forces backed by Washington and in alliance with the pro-imperialist regime in Zaire. This internationalist effort culminated in 1988 with the defeat of the racist forces at the battle of Cuito Cuanavale, leading to South Africas withdrawal from Angola and the independence of Namibia.

In May 1981 Franois Mitterrand of the Socialist Party was elected president of France.

A reference to the Russian Revolution of 1917 and the French Revolution of 1789. The Monroe Doctrine of 1823, issued by US president James Monroe, declared that the young US republic would act to prevent any interference in the Americas by the reactionary European monarchies and colonisers.