1982 Upper Voltan coup d'état the "Burkinabé Revolution", a process in which Sankara and his new junta attempted to radically transform Upper Volta – soon renamed "Burkina Faso" – according to left-wing revolutionary principles. Sankara would himself be overthrown in 1987 by his old friend Compaoré, who remained in power until the 2014 Burkinabé uprising. 1982 Upper Voltan coup d'état The 1982 Upper Voltan coup d'état took place in the Republic of Upper Volta (today Burkina Faso) on 7 November 1982. The coup, led by the little-known Colonel Gabriel Yoryan Somé and a slew of other junior officers within the military, many of them political
Thomas Sankara and the Burkinabe Women's Liberation Movement control, Upper Volta won its independence in 1960 and changed its name to the Republic of Upper Volta. After the French military left, the leaders of the revolution created a bureaucracy that did not involve civilian control. The bureaucracy also welcomed foreign investments from France and other colonial powers, thus making the Republic of Upper Volta a neocolonial state. The people of the Republic of Upper Volta consisted of many rival ethnicities. Sixty percent of the country was made up of Gurunsi, Senufo, Lobi, Bobo, Mande, and Fulani people. Forty percent of the country were Mossi people, most of the