Meet Ibrahim Traoré, Burkina Faso’s retro revolutionary

Four decades ago a 34-year-old army captain from Burkina Faso stood before the UN General Assembly and demanded a new world order. The speech, which was watched eagerly by young people across west Africa, heralded the birth of a revolutionary icon sometimes called “Africa’s Che Guevara”. Back home Thomas Sankara, who had seized power in a coup the previous year, had embarked on a radical programme of national self-reliance. On the global stage, he sought to “anoint Burkina Faso as the Third World’s vanguard”, as America’s ambassador to the UN wrote.