Burkina Faso has named a ceremonial street in Ouagadougou after Ghana’s former President Jerry John Rawlings, who died in November 2020.
The ceremony happened over the weekend and coincided with the inauguration of a memorial park to honour Burkina Faso’s former leader, Thomas Sankara.
“President Flt. Lt. Jerry John Rawlings, my father, was a huge supporter of the foundation, and he was a very close friend of Thomas Sankara. It means a lot to be here and it means a lot that the whole of Africa was more or less here to support this momentous occasion,” said Kimathi Rawlings, the son of JJ Rawlings, in an interview with state broadcaster, GTV.
Sankara’s Legacy and the Burkina-Culture Mausoleum Inauguration
The government of Burkina Faso says the Sankara mausoleum is aimed at perpetuating the memory of its “national hero.”
“The Burkinabe government inaugurated, on Saturday, the mausoleum of the father of the Democratic and Popular Revolution of August 1983, at the Council of the Entente, the emblematic site of his assassination on October 15, 1987, along with twelve of his companions in misfortune, in order to perpetuate their memory and the heroic struggle waged for freedom and sovereignty,” the country’s news agency wrote on Saturday.
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It also quoted a speech read on behalf of Burkina Faso’s now “popular military” ruler, Ibrahim Traore, as saying: “This mausoleum is also a testament to a persecuted but ever-living integrity. It is the indelible seal of recognition of a people in struggle, the materialization of a living memory whose resilience in the face of the wear and tear of time is unshakeable,” added Jean Emmanuel Ouédraogo.”
Ghanaian public officials were among several VIPs invited for the ceremony. Ghana’s Defence Minister, Dr. Omane Boamah, wrote on his Facebook on Sunday morning, indicating the list of Ghana’s attendees.
Find Omane Boamah’s Facebook post here – https://www.facebook.com/EKOBoamah