On July 29, 1987, Thomas Sankara Stood Before The Organisation of African Unity in Addis Ababa And Asked The Question That No One In The Room Wanted To Answer.

On July 29, 1987, Thomas Sankara stood before the Organisation of African Unity in Addis Ababa and asked the question that no one in the room wanted to answer.

"How many heads of state are ready to head off to Paris, London, or Washington when they are called to a meeting there, but cannot come to a meeting here in Addis-Ababa, in Africa?"

He was not talking about travel schedules. He was talking about where the power sits. A continent of leaders who will board a plane to beg in Europe but cannot fill a hall in Ethiopia to plan their own future.

Then he went further. He traced the debt to its source.

"Those who lend us money are those who had colonized us before. They are the same ones who used to manage our states and economies. We had no connections with this debt. Therefore we cannot pay for it."

He called it what it was. "Debt is neo-colonialism, in which colonizers have transformed themselves into 'technical assistants.' We should rather say 'technical assassins.'"

And then the sentence that should be carved into the wall of every African finance ministry:

"Under its current form, that is imperialism controlled, debt is a cleverly managed reconquest of Africa, aiming at subjugating its growth and development through foreign rules. Thus, each one of us becomes the financial slave, which is to say a true slave."

He did the arithmetic out loud. "Debt cannot be repaid, first because if we don't repay, lenders will not die. That is for sure. But if we repay, we are going to die. That is also for sure."

He knew what it would cost him. "If Burkina Faso stands alone in refusing to pay, I will not be here for the next conference."

He was not asking for charity. He was asking for a united front. "Let's have Addis-Ababa become now the center from which a new beginning will emerge. An Addis-Ababa Club. It is our duty to create an Addis-Ababa united front against debt."

He also said the thing that made him dangerous to every government in the room: "Each time an African country buys a weapon, it is against an African country."

Three months later, on October 15, 1987, he was shot dead in a coup. The debt was not cancelled. The Addis Ababa Club was never formed. The leaders kept flying to Paris, London, and Washington.

The man who told Africa to stop borrowing money to finance its own dependency is gone. The debt is still here.