Burkina Faso Upright Down

A leader is deposed and killed

To mark the first anniversary of the military coup that brought him to power in 1983, Captain Thomas Sankara changed the name of his landlocked West African country (pop. 7.3 million) from Upper Volta to Burkina Faso, which in the local Mossi and Dioula languages means "Land of Upright Men." The old moniker was no longer appropriate, said Sankara, because it was chosen not by Africans but by white French colonists. Last week Sankara, 37, a popular and charismatic leader who was every inch an upright man, was himself replaced. He was ousted and killed in a bloody rebellion led by...

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