Making New People

On August 4, 1983, Captain Thomas Sankara led a coalition of radical military officers, communist activists, labor leaders, and militant students to overtake the government of the Republic of Upper Volta. Almost immediately following the coups success, the small West African countryrenamed Burkina Faso, or Land of the Dignified Peoplegained international attention as it charted a new path toward social, economic, cultural, and political development based on its peoples needs rather than external pressures and Cold War politics. James E. Genovas Making New People: Politics, Cinema, and Liberation in Burkina Faso, 19831987 recounts in detail the revolutionary governments rise and fall, demonstrating how it embodied the critical transition period in modern African history between the era of decolonization and the dawning of neoliberal capitalism. It also uncovers one of the revolutions most enduring and significant aspects: its promotion of film as a vehicle for raising the peoples consciousness, inspiring their efforts at social transformation, and articulating a new self-generated image of Africa and Africans. Foregrounding film and drawing evocative connections between Sankaras political philosophy and Frantz Fanon, Making New People provides a deeply nuanced explanation for the revolutions lasting influence throughout Africa and the world.