Ernest Harsch

“Burkina Faso: A History of Power, Protest, and Revolution” by Ernest Harsch is a comprehensive history of Burkina Faso. Particular attention is paid to the revolutionary years (1983-87) under Thomas Sankara, whom the author interviewed several times, and the Burkinabe Uprising in 2014 that deposed Blaise Compaoré.

As I was expecting a deeper analysis of Burkina Faso, I was disappointed that most of the book consist of almost verbatim historical facts, and consequently reads more like a Wikipedia article. But considering the dearth of material available on Burkina Faso, perhaps I was expecting too much. Maybe the author’s biography of Thomas Sankara (which I also own) will be more of what I am looking for :)… (meer)