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“The slave who is not able to take charge of his own revolt deserves no pity for his lot.”

Source: Address to the UN General Assembly, New York, 4 October 1984

Context From his UN speech a year after taking power; Burkina Faso's leader Ibrahim Traoré repeated the line in 2023.

Portrait of Thomas Sankara
Thomas SankaraBurkina Faso · 1949–1987
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More words from Thomas Sankara

“It's true, you cannot kill ideas. Ideas do not die.”
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“I make no claim to lay out any doctrines here. I am neither a messiah nor a prophet. I possess no truths.”
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“We encourage aid that helps us do without aid. But in general, the policy of assistance and aid has only disorganized us, enslaved us, and made us shirk our responsibilities.”
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“We should undertake to live as Africans. It is the only way to live free and to live in dignity.”
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“There is no true social revolution without the liberation of women. May my eyes never see… a society where half the people are held in silence.”
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