Republic of Upper Volta in the context of "Thomas Sankara"

The 1984 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXIII Olympiad and commonly known as Los Angeles 1984) were an international multi-sport event held from July 28 to August 12, 1984, in Los Angeles, California, United States. It marked the second time that Los Angeles had hosted the Games, the first being in 1932. This was the first of two consecutive Olympic Games to be held in North America, with Calgary, Alberta, Canada, hosting the 1988 Winter Olympics. California was the home state of the incumbent U.S. president Ronald Reagan, who officially opened the Games. These were the first Summer Olympic Games under the IOC presidency of Juan Antonio Samaranch.

The 1984 Games were boycotted by fourteen Eastern Bloc countries, including the Soviet Union and East Germany, in response to the American-led boycott of the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow, Soviet Union, in protest of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan; Romania was the only Soviet-aligned state that opted to attend the Games. Albania, Iran, Libya and Upper Volta also chose to boycott the Games, but for unrelated reasons.

Burkina Faso is a landlocked country in West Africa, bordered by Mali to the northwest, Niger to the northeast, Benin to the southeast, Togo and Ghana to the south, and Ivory Coast to the southwest. It covers an area of 274,223 km (105,878 sq mi). In 2024, the country had an estimated population of approximately 23,286,000. Called the Republic of Upper Volta from 1958 to 1984, it was renamed Burkina Faso by president Thomas Sankara. Its citizens are known as Burkinabes, and its capital and largest city is Ouagadougou.

The largest ethnic group in Burkina Faso is the Mossi people, who settled the area in the 11th and 13th centuries. They established kingdoms such as Ouagadougou, Tenkodogo, and Yatenga. In 1896, it was colonized by the French as part of French West Africa; in 1958, Upper Volta became a self-governing colony within the French Community. In 1960, it gained full independence with Maurice Yaméogo as president. Since it gained its independence, the country has been subject to instability, droughts, famines, and corruption. There have also been various coups, in 1966, 1980, 1982, 1983, 1987, and twice in 2022 (January and September). There were also unsuccessful coup attempts in 1989, 2015, and 2023.

The Sahel region of Africa has long experienced a series of historic droughts, dating back to at least the 17th century. The Sahel region is a climate zone sandwiched between the Sudanian Savanna to the south and the Sahara desert to the north, across West and Central Africa. While the frequency of drought in the region is thought to have increased from the end of the 19th century, three long droughts have had dramatic environmental and societal effects upon the Sahel nations. Famine followed severe droughts in the 1910s, the 1940s, and the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s, although a partial recovery occurred from 1975-80. The most recent drought occurred in 2012.

While at least one particularly severe drought has been confirmed each century since the 17th century, the frequency and severity of recent Sahelian droughts stands out. Famine and dislocation on a massive scale—from 1968 to 1974 and again in the early and mid-1980s—was blamed on two spikes in the severity of the 1960-1980s drought period. From the late 1960s to early 1980s famine killed 100,000 people, left 750,000 dependent on food aid, and affected most of the Sahel's 50 million people. The economies, agriculture, livestock and human populations of much of Mauritania, Mali, Chad, Niger and Burkina Faso (known as Upper Volta during the time of the drought) were severely impacted. As disruptive as the droughts of the late 20th century were, evidence of past droughts recorded in Ghanaian lake sediments suggest that multi-decadal megadroughts were common in West Africa over the past 3,000 years and that several droughts lasted far longer and were far more severe.

The president of Burkina Faso (French: Président du Burkina Faso) is the head of state of Burkina Faso as well as the commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces of Burkina Faso. It is the highest office in Burkina Faso and has significant executive power, including appointing the prime minister and other government officials. The president also has the power to dissolve parliament and issue decrees.

The office was first established in August 1960 as president of Upper Volta (French: Président du Haute-Volta) after the country gained independence from France. Maurice Yaméogo was the first holder of that office. On 4 August 1984, the day before the 24th anniversary of independence, Thomas Sankara, who was the president from exactly one year earlier, became the president of Burkina Faso after the country changed its name the same day.

Maurice Nawalagmba Yaméogo (31 December 1921 – 15 September 1993) was the first President of the Republic of Upper Volta, now called Burkina Faso. He proclaimed the independence of the country on August 5, 1960 and also tried (but failed) to create a union between Ivory Coast and Upper Volta. On January 3, 1966, he left the presidency due to a nationwide strike.

The 1966 Upper Voltan coup d'état was an event which took place on 3 January 1966 in the Republic of Upper Volta (today Burkina Faso), when following large-scale popular unrest, the military intervened against the government. This forced President Maurice Yaméogo to resign, and was replaced Lieutenant Colonel Sangoulé Lamizana. Lamizana would go on to rule until 1980, when yet another military coup d'état overthrew him. The 1966 coup would prove to be the first in a long line of Upper Voltan and later Burkinabé coups, which marked the beginning of half a century of military rule.

The 1980 Upper Voltan coup d'état took place on 25 November 1980 in the Republic of Upper Volta (today Burkina Faso). Following a long period of drought, famine, popular unrest and labour strikes, Colonel Saye Zerbo overthrew President Sangoulé Lamizana, another military leader. Zerbo himself would be overthrown only two years later.

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 Colonel Gabriel Somé Yorian and a slew of other junior officers within the military, many of them political radicals, overthrew the regime of Colonel Saye Zerbo. Zerbo had previously taken power just under two years prior to his own downfall.