Thomas Sankara remains unknown to most of the world, including many Africans and people of African descent even though he is considered by some to have been one of the most outstanding revolutionary leaders produced by modern-day Africa. Sankara was born in what was then called the Republic of Upper Volta, a self-governing colony within the French Community. Sankara, an unassuming, charismatic leader, became President of his country in a 1983 popularly supported coup at the age of 33 and “immediately launched the most ambitious program for social and economic change ever attempted on the African continent” in a manner very similar to the path taken by Fidel Castro and the Cuban revolutionaries.