Revolution and confrontational state-building in Africa: Case of Thomas Sankara’s revolution in Burkina Faso (1983–1987)

This article re-examines Thomas Sankara’s revolution in Burkina Faso (1983–1987) to explain why postcolonial revolutions in Africa, though morally compelling, rarely generate enduring institutions. Using process-tracing of speeches, policy documents, and secondary sources, it analyses the mechanisms that transformed a project of emancipation into political isolation and collapse. The study identifies two interlocking dynamics – ideological ambiguity and confrontational state-building – that shaped both the rise and the demise of the Sankarist regime. It argues that revolutionary governments in Africa operate within structural constraints that reward moral purity but penalise institutional compromise. Comparison with Ghana under Rawlings and Uganda under Museveni shows that revolutions endure when moral authority is translated into hybrid institutions able to negotiate legitimacy across social and cultural cleavages. By conceptualising African revolutions as state-building experiments under constraint, the article bridges debates on revolutionary politics, postcolonial governance, and indigenous legitimacy, offering a new theoretical lens for understanding the fragility of moral authority in African state formation.