Broken Dreams: Burkina's Orphans Schooled In Castro's Cuba

Thirty-five years ago, Burkina Faso's radical leader Thomas Sankara sent 600 youngsters, most of them orphans, to train in Cuba -- a scheme, he declared, that would steer the country to a new dawn

Ouagadougou, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 12th Nov, 2021 ) :Thirty-five years ago, Burkina Faso's radical leader Thomas Sankara sent 600 youngsters, most of them orphans, to train in Cuba -- a scheme, he declared, that would steer the country to a new dawn.

Within a year, Sankara's dream of immersing marginalised children in Burkina's revolution was wrecked after he was cut down by assassins.

Today, scores of those who were enrolled in his scheme have died before their time, some by suicide, and many have mental health problems.

Others live in limbo, eking out a life despite gaining qualifications in Cuba that their home country does not recognise.

Sankara came to power in 1983 at the age of 33, an idealistic army captain who wanted to eradicate poverty in his country and challenge the "imperialist" world order.

The Marxist-Leninist turned instinctively to Cuba and Fidel Castro.

"Sankara had the idea of sending a contingent of students to be trained in Cuba -- politically, ideologically and professionally," Stanislas Damiba, who was 12 at the time he made the journey, told AFP.

The group consisted of 600 children and adolescents aged 12 to 16, including 135 girls, "all from disadvantaged families and most of them orphans," said Damiba.

On their return to Burkina, said Sankara, they would be a spearhead -- a generation hardened in doctrine and trained in badly needed skills.