Sankara and Nietzsche: Revolution and the Overman
Two visions of defiance shaped by power and renewal
On October 15, 1987, Thomas Sankara, the president of Burkina Faso, was assassinated.
On October 15, 1844, Friedrich Nietzsche, the iconoclastic German philosopher, was born.
Sankara and Nietzsche (two figures who have influenced my thinking) may seem like a contradiction to many. I am someone who is interested in the depth and substance of things, not the superficial. Therefore, what I could say is that both Sankara and Nietzsche (beyond their opposing currents) denounced the dominant rules, fought to overthrow corrupt “values,” and were both iconoclasts. Sankara advocated daring to invent the future against capitalist neocolonialism through radical revolution; Nietzsche proposed the idea of the Übermensch (Overman) as the creator of a new society in the face of modern ruins. Sankara fought against society’s fatalists and passive elements; Nietzsche opposed passive nihilism (denial of principles, loss of existential faith) by proposing an active nihilism (a society reborn and erected by a visionary Overman).
Sankara (revolution and the masses) and Nietzsche (the individual and self-surpassing) were, in their own way, nonconformists and embodied the will-to-power. I have syncretized their teachings.
Their syncretized teachings can represent a salvation for peoples, especially Africans, in the era of Kali Yuga (the globalized Iron Age of decadence).
Farafin Kissi Shabazz (born Francois Sandouno) is a Pan-Africanist theorist and geopolitical speaker.
 | A guest post by
|
Thomas Sankara is important for anti-colonialists and, I would argue, for patriots in all countries everywhere. He spoke to the United Nations about puppetism.
So far as I can tell Sankara does seem to have done a fair deal of good for his people & it is thus a pity he was killed--most especially by those who didn't care a touch for his nation or people. I salute him tho' a ghost he may be... An interesting attempt at synthesis.