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Thomas Sankara

Thomas Isidore Noël Sankara (21 December 1949 – 15 October 1987) was a Burkinabè military officer, Marxist revolutionary and Pan-Africanist who served as President of Burkina Faso from his coup in 1983 to his assassination in 1987.

After being appointed Prime Minister in 1983, disputes with the sitting government led to Sankara's eventual imprisonment. While he was under house arrest, a group of revolutionaries seized power on his behalf in a popularly-supported coup later that year.

At the age of 33, Sankara became the President of the Republic of Upper Volta and launched an unprecedented series of social, ecological, and economic reforms. In 1984, Sankara oversaw the renaming of the country to Burkina Faso ('Land of Incorruptible People'), with its people being called Burkinabé ('upright people'). His foreign policies were centred on anti-imperialism and he rejected loans and capital from organizations such as the International Monetary Fund. However he welcomed some foreign aid in an effort to boost the domestic economy, diversify the sources of assistance, and make Burkina Faso self-sufficient.

His domestic policies included famine prevention, agrarian expansion, land reform, and suspending rural poll taxes, as well as a nationwide literacy campaign and vaccination program to reduce meningitis, yellow fever and measles. Sankara's health programmes distributed millions of doses of vaccines to children across Burkina Faso. His government also focused on building schools, health centres, water reservoirs, and infrastructure projects. He combatted desertification of the Sahel by planting more than 10 million trees. Socially, his government enforced the prohibition of female genital mutilation, forced marriages and polygamy. Sankara reinforced his populist image by ordering the sale of luxury vehicles and properties owned by the government in order to reduce costs. In addition he banned what he considered the luxury of air conditioning in government offices, and homes of politicians. He established Cuban-inspired Committees for the Defence of the Revolution to serve as a new foundation of society and promote popular mobilization. His Popular Revolutionary Tribunals prosecuted public officials charged with graft, political crimes and corruption, considering such elements of the state counter-revolutionaries. This led to criticism by Amnesty International for human rights violations, including the government's practice of extrajudicial executions and arbitrary detentions of political opponents.

Sankara’s revolutionary programmes and reforms for African self-reliance made him an icon to many of Africa's poverty-stricken nations, and the president remained popular with a substantial majority of his country's citizens, as well as those outside Burkina Faso. But some of his policies alienated elements of the former ruling class, including tribal leaders — and the governments of France and its ally, the Ivory Coast.

On 15 October 1987, Sankara was assassinated by troops led by Blaise Compaoré, who assumed leadership of the country shortly thereafter. Compaoré retained power until the 2014 Burkina Faso uprising. In 2021 he was formally charged by a military tribunal for the murder of Sankara.

Early life
Thomas Sankara was born Thomas Isidore Noël Sankara on 21 December 1949 in Yako, French Upper Volta, as the third of ten children to Joseph and Marguerite Sankara. His father, Joseph Sankara, a gendarme, was of mixed Mossi–Fulani (Silmi–Moaga) heritage, while his mother, Marguerite Kinda, was of direct Mossi descent. He spent his early years in Gaoua, a town in the humid southwest to which his father was transferred as an auxiliary gendarme. As the son of one of the few African functionaries then employed by the colonial state, he enjoyed a relatively privileged position. The family lived in a brick house with the families of other gendarmes at the top of a hill overlooking the rest of Gaoua.

Sankara attended primary school at Bobo-Dioulasso. He applied himself seriously to his schoolwork and excelled in mathematics and French. He went to church often and, impressed with his energy and eagerness to learn, some of the priests encouraged Thomas to go on to seminary school once he finished primary school. Despite initially agreeing, he took the exam required for entry to the sixth grade in the secular educational system and passed. Thomas's decision to continue with his education at the nearest lycée, Ouezzin Coulibaly (named after a pre-independence nationalist), proved to be a turning point. He left his father's household to attend the lycée in Bobo-Dioulasso, the country's commercial centre. There Sankara made close friends, including Fidèle Too, whom he later named a minister in his government; and Soumane Touré, who was in a more advanced class.

His Roman Catholic parents wanted him to become a priest, but he chose to enter the military. The military was popular at the time, having just ousted Maurice Yaméogo, an unpopular president. Many young intellectuals viewed it as a national institution that might potentially help to discipline the inefficient and corrupt bureaucracy, counterbalance the inordinate influence of traditional chiefs, and generally help modernize the country. Acceptance into the military academy was accompanied by a scholarship; Sankara could not easily afford the costs of further education otherwise. He took the entrance exam and passed.

He entered the military academy of Kadiogo in Ouagadougou with the academy's first intake of 1966 at the age of 17. While there he witnessed the first military coup d'état in Upper Volta led by Lieutenant-Colonel Sangoulé Lamizana (3 January 1966). The trainee officers were taught by civilian professors in the social sciences. Adama Touré, who taught history and geography, was the academic director at the time and known for having progressive ideas, although he did not publicly share them. He invited a few of his brightest and more political students, among them Sankara, to join informal discussions outside the classroom about imperialism, neocolonialism, socialism and communism, the Soviet and Chinese revolutions, the liberation movements in Africa, and similar topics. This was the first time Sankara was systematically exposed to a revolutionary perspective on Upper Volta and the world. Aside from his academic and extracurricular political activities, Sankara also pursued his passion for music and played the guitar.

In 1970, 20-year-old Sankara went for further military studies at the military academy of Antsirabe in Madagascar, from which he graduated as a junior officer in 1973. At the Antsirabe academy, the range of instruction went beyond standard military subjects, which allowed Sankara to study agriculture, including how to raise crop yields and better the lives of farmers. He took up these issues in his own administration and country. During that period, he read profusely on history and military strategy, thus acquiring the concepts and analytical tools that he would later use in his reinterpretation of Burkinabe political history.

Military career
After basic military training in secondary school in 1966, Sankara began his military career at the age of 19. A year later he was sent to Madagascar for officer training at Antsirabe, where he witnessed popular uprisings in 1971 and 1972 against the government of Philibert Tsiranana. During this period he first read the works of Karl Marx and Vladimir Lenin, which profoundly influenced his political views for the rest of his life.

Returning to Upper Volta in 1972, he fought in a border war between Upper Volta and Mali by 1974. He earned fame for his performance in the conflict, but years later would renounce the fighting as 'useless and unjust', a reflection of his growing political consciousness. He also became a popular figure in the capital of Ouagadougou. Sankara was a decent guitarist. He played in a band named Tout-à-Coup Jazz and rode a bicycle.

In 1976 he became commander of the Commando Training Centre in Pô. In the same year he met Blaise Compaoré in Morocco. During the presidency of Colonel Saye Zerbo, a group of young officers formed a secret organization called ROC, the best-known members being Henri Zongo, Jean-Baptiste Boukary Lingani, Blaise Compaoré and Sankara.

Government posts
Sankara was appointed Minister of Information in Saye Zerbo's military government in September 1981. Sankara differentiated himself from other government officials in many ways such as biking to work everyday, instead of driving in a car. While his predecessors would censor journalists and newspapers, Sankara encouraged investigative journalism and allowed the media to print whatever it found. This led to publications of government scandals by both privately owned and state-owned newspapers. He resigned on 12 April 1982 in opposition to what he saw as the regime's anti-labour drift, declaring 'Misfortune to those who gag the people!' (Malheur à ceux qui bâillonnent le peuple!).

After another coup (7 November 1982) brought to power Major-Doctor Jean-Baptiste Ouédraogo, Sankara became Prime Minister in January 1983. But he was dismissed a few months later, on 17 May. During those four months, Sankara pushed Ouédraogo's regime for more progressive reforms. Sankara was arrested after the French President's African affairs adviser, Guy Penne, met with Col. Yorian Somé. Henri Zongo and Jean-Baptiste Boukary Lingani were also placed under arrest. The decision to arrest Sankara proved to be very unpopular with the younger officers in the military regime. His imprisonment created enough momentum for his friend Blaise Compaoré to lead another coup.

Presidency
A coup d'état organized by Blaise Compaoré made Sankara President on 4 August 1983 at the age of 33. The coup d'état was supported by Libya, which was at the time on the verge of war with France in Chad (see history of Chad).

Sankara identified as a revolutionary and was inspired by the examples of Cuba's Fidel Castro and Che Guevara, and Ghana's military leader Jerry Rawlings. As President, he promoted the 'Democratic and Popular Revolution' (Révolution démocratique et populaire, or RDP). The ideology of the Revolution was defined by Sankara as anti-imperialist in a speech on 2 October 1983, the Discours d'orientation politique (DOP), written by his close associate Valère Somé. His policy was oriented toward fighting corruption and promoting reforestation.

On 4 August 1984, the first anniversary of his accession, he renamed the country Burkina Faso, meaning 'the land of upright people' in Mooré and Dyula, the two major languages of the country. He also gave it a new flag and wrote a new national anthem (Ditanyè).

Council of the Revolution
When Sankara assumed power on August 4th, he named the leadership of the country the Council of the Revolution (CNR). This was a way for Sankara to signal that he was going to try for political and social change. The CNR composed of both civilians and soldiers, all ordinary people. But the member count was secret for security reasons and known only to Sankara and others in his inner circle.

The CNR regularly met to talk about important plans and decisions for the country. They helped give advice and direction to the government's actions. They voted on suggestions and decisions from governments officials; the decision making was collective. On some occasions, they overruled even proposals favoured personally by Sankara.

Health care and public works
Sankara's first priorities after taking office were feeding, housing and giving medical care to his people who desperately needed it. Sankara launched a mass vaccination programme in an attempt to eradicate polio, meningitis and measles. From 1983 to 1985, 2 million Burkinabé were vaccinated.

Prior to Sankara's presidency, infant mortality in Burkina Faso was about 20.8%; during his presidency it fell to 14.5%. Sankara's administration was the first African government to publicly recognize the AIDS epidemic as a major threat to Africa.

Large-scale housing and infrastructure projects were also undertaken. Brick factories were created to help build houses in an effort to end urban slums. In an attempt to fight deforestation, The People's Harvest of Forest Nurseries was created to supply 7,000 village nurseries, as well as organizing the planting of several million trees. All regions of the country were soon connected by a vast road- and rail-building programme. Over 700 km of rail was laid by Burkinabé people to facilitate manganese extraction in 'The Battle of the Rails', without any foreign aid or outside money. These programmes were an attempt to prove that African countries could be prosperous without foreign help or aid.

Sankara also launched education programmes to help combat the country's 90% illiteracy rate. These programmes saw great success. Shortly after the assassination of Sankara, wide-scale teachers' strikes, coupled with the new regime's unwillingness to negotiate, led to the creation of 'Revolutionary Teachers'. In an attempt to replace the nearly 2,500 teachers fired over a strike in 1996, anyone with a college degree was invited to teach through the revolutionary teachers' programme. Volunteers received a 10-day training course before beginning to teach.

While the specific rates of adult literacy during Sankara's reign are unknown, data shows that the literacy rate in 1991 (4 years after Sankara's rule) stood at 13.57%; a 4.74% increase since 1975.

Agriculture
In the 1980s, more than 90% of the populace were still agrarian farmers. Less than 6 percent of land that could be irrigated was receiving irrigation, while the rest relied on rain, which was highly unreliable and inadequate. Only 10% of the population had animals for plowing, whilst the rest relied on individual use of short hoes to plow. Few livestock herders had access to fodder; they had to roam the countryside in search of grazing land and watering spots. Because of this, hunger remained prevalent. In years of drought, the rural population was threatened by famines.

In Sankara's five-year plan, some 71% of projected investments for the productive sectors were allocated to agriculture, livestock, fishing, wildlife and forests. In 3 years, 25% more land was irrigated because of volunteer projects. In Sourou Valley, a dam was built within a few months almost entirely by volunteer labour. The use of fertilizers increased by 56%. Hundreds of tractors were bought and imported for large-scale cooperative projects.

Hundreds of village cereal banks were built through collective labour organised by the CDRs to help farmers store and market their crops. In the past, farmers would have no way to store surplus grains and had to sell them to local merchants, who would sell the same crops back to the same village for twice the cost.

In August 1984, all land was nationalized. Previously, local chiefs had decided who could farm. In some areas, private land ownership had begun to arise. The total cereal production rose by 75% between 1983 and 1986. In four years, UN-analysts declared Burkinian agriculture as productive enough to be "food self-sufficent".

Environment
In the 1980s, when ecological awareness was still very low, Thomas Sankara was one of the few African leaders to consider environmental protection a priority. He engaged in three major battles: against bush fires, 'which will be considered as crimes and will be punished as such'; against cattle roaming, 'which infringes on the rights of peoples because unattended animals destroy nature'; and against the chaotic cutting of firewood, 'whose profession will have to be organized and regulated'.

As part of a development program involving a large part of the population, ten million trees were planted in Burkina Faso in fifteen months during the 'revolution'. To face the advancing desert and recurrent droughts, Thomas Sankara also proposed planting wooded strips of about fifty kilometers, crossing the country from east to west. He thought of extending this vegetation belt to other countries.

Beginning in October 1984, over the space of fifteen months Sankara's government planted ten million trees in a campaign of reforestation. Sankara said "In Burkina wood is our only source of energy. We have to constantly remind every individual of his duty to maintain and regenerate nature".

People's Revolutionary Tribunals
Shortly after attaining power, Sankara constructed a system of courts known as the Popular Revolutionary Tribunal. The courts were created originally to try former government officials in a straightforward way so the average Burkinabé could participate in or oversee trials of enemies of the revolution. They placed defendants on trial for corruption, tax evasion, or counter-revolutionary activity. Sentences for former government officials were light and often suspended. The tribunals have been alleged to have been only show trials, held very openly with oversight from the public.

According to the US State Department, procedures in these trials, especially legal protections for the accused, did not conform to international standards. Defendants had to prove themselves innocent of the crimes they were charged with committing and were not allowed to be represented by counsel. The courts were initially highly admired by the Burkinabé people but were eventually labeled corrupt and oppressive. So-called 'lazy workers' were tried and sentenced to work for free, or expelled from their jobs and discriminated against. Some created their own courts to settle scores and humiliate their enemies.

Revolutionary Defence Committees
The Committees for the Defence of the Revolution (Comités de Défense de la Révolution or CDRs) were formed as mass armed organizations. The CDRs were created as a counterweight to the power of the army as well as to promote political and social revolution. The idea for the Revolutionary Defence Committees was taken from Cuban leader Fidel Castro, whose Committees for the Defence of the Revolution had been created as a form of 'revolutionary vigilance'.

Relations with the Mossi people
A point of contention regarding Sankara's rule is the way he handled the Mossi ethnic group. The Mossi are the largest ethnic group in Burkina Faso, and they adhere to a strict, traditional, hierarchical social systems. At the top of the hierarchy is the Morho Naba, the chief or king of the Mossi people. Sankara viewed this arrangement as an obstacle to national unity, and proceeded to demote the Mossi elite. The Morho Naba was not allowed to hold courts. Local village chiefs were stripped of their executive powers, which were given to the CDR.

Women's rights
Sankara had extensively worked for women's rights and declared "There is no true social revolution without the liberation of women".

Improving women's status in Burkinabé society was one of Sankara's explicit goals, and his government included a large number of women, an unprecedented policy priority in West Africa. His government banned female genital mutilation, forced marriages and polygamy, while appointing women to high governmental positions and encouraging them to work outside the home and stay in school even if pregnant. Sankara promoted contraception. He encouraged husbands to go to market and prepare meals to experience for themselves the conditions faced by women.

Sankara recognized the challenges faced by African women when he gave his famous address to mark International Women's Day on 8 March 1987 in Ouagadougou. Sankara spoke to thousands of women, saying that the Burkinabé Revolution was 'establishing new social relations', which would be 'upsetting the relations of authority between men and women and forcing each to rethink the nature of both. This task is formidable but necessary'. In addition to being the first African leader to appoint women to major cabinet positions, he recruited them actively for the military.

Agacher Strip War
Following the 1974 clashes between Burkina Faso and Mali over the disputed territory of the Agacher Strip, the Organization of African Unity had created a mediation commission to resolve the disagreement and provide for an independent, neutral demarcation of the border. Both governments had declared that they would not use armed force to end the dispute.

But by 1983 the two countries disagreed about the work of the commission. Sankara personally disliked Malian President Moussa Traoré, who had taken power by deposing Modibo Keïta's left-leaning regime. On 17 September Sankara visited Mali and met with Traoré. With Algerian mediation, the two agreed to have the border dispute settled by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) and subsequently petitioned the body to resolve the issue.

In July 1985 Burkina Faso declared the Malian secretary general of the Economic Community of West Africa, Drissa Keita, a persona non grata after he criticized Sankara's regime. In September Sankara delivered a speech in which he called for a revolution in Mali. Malian leaders were particularly sensitive to the inflammatory rhetoric, as their country was undergoing social unrest. Around the same time, Sankara and other key figures in the CNR became convinced that Traoré was harbouring opposition to the Burkinabé regime in Bamako and plotting to provoke a border war,which would be used to support a counterrevolution.

Tensions at the border began to rise on 24 November when one Burkinabé national killed another near the border in Soum Province. Malian police crossed the boundary to arrest the murderer and also detained several members of a local Committee for the Defence of the Revolution who were preparing a tribunal. Three days later Malian police entered Kounia to 'restore order'. Burkina Faso made diplomatic representations on the incidents to Mali, but was given no formal response.

At the beginning of December, Burkina Faso informed Mali and other surrounding countries that it was conducting its decennial national census from 10 to 20 December. On 14 December military personnel entered the Agacher to assist with the census. Mali accused the military authorities of pressuring Malian citizens in border villages to register with the census, a charge which Burkina Faso disputed. In an attempt to reduce tensions, ANAD (a West African treaty organization) dispatched a delegation to Bamako and Ouagadougou to mediate. President of Algeria Chadli Bendjedid contacted Sankara and Traoré to encourage a peaceful resolution. At the request of ANAD members, Burkina Faso announced the withdrawal of all military personnel from the disputed region.

Despite the declared withdrawal, a 'war of the communiques' ensued as Burkinabé and Malian authorities exchanged hostile messages. Feeling threatened by Sankara, Traoré began preparing Mali for hostilities with Burkina Faso. Three groupements were formed and planned to invade Burkina Faso and converge on the city of Bobo-Dioulasso. Once there, they would rally Burkinabé opposition forces to take Ouagadougou and overthrow Sankara.

Former Sankara aide Paul Michaud wrote that Sankara had intended to provoke Mali into conflict with the aim of mobilizing popular support for his regime. According to Michaud, "an official—and reliable—Malian source" had reported that mobilization documents dating to 19 December were found on the bodies of fallen Burkinabé soldiers during the ensuing war.

Sankara's efforts to provide evidence of his bona fides were systematically undermined. 'It is hard to believe that the Malian authorities are unaware that the rumors circulating are false,' says U.S. Ambassador Leonardo Neher. In contrast to Michaud's assertion, a Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) cable states, 'The war was born of Bamako's hope that the conflict would trigger a coup in Burkina Faso.'

At dawn on 25 December 1985, about 150 Malian Army tanks crossed the frontier and attacked several locations. Malian troops also attempted to envelop Bobo-Dioulasso in a pincer attack. The Burkina Faso Army struggled to repel the offensive in the face of superior Malian firepower and were overwhelmed on the northern front; Malian forces quickly secured the towns of Dionouga, Selba, Kouna, and Douna in the Agacher. The Burkinabé government in Ouagadougou received word of hostilities at about 13:00 and immediately issued mobilization orders. Various security measures were also imposed across the country, including nighttime blackouts.

Burkinabé forces regrouped in the Dionouga area to counter-attack. Captain Compaoré took command of this western front. Under his leadership soldiers split into small groups and employed guerrilla tactics against Malian tanks.

Immediately after hostilities began, other African leaders attempted to institute a truce. On the morning of 30 December, Burkina Faso and Mali agreed to an ANAD-brokered ceasefire. By then Mali had occupied most of the Agacher Strip. More than 100 Burkinabé and approximately 40 Malian soldiers and civilians were killed during the war. The Burkinabé towns of Ouahigouya, Djibo, and Nassambou were left badly damaged by the fighting.

At an ANAD summit in Yamoussoukro on 17 January 1987, Traoré and Sankara met and formalized an agreement to end hostilities. The ICJ later split the Agacher; Mali received the more-densely populated western portion and Burkina Faso the eastern section centred on the Béli River. Both countries indicated their satisfaction with the judgement.

Burkina Faso declared that the war was part of an 'international plot' to bring down Sankara's government. It rejected speculation that it was fought over rumoured mineral wealth in the Agacher. The country's relatively poor performance in the conflict damaged the domestic credibility of the CNR. Some Burkinabé soldiers were angered by Sankara's failure to prosecute the war more aggressively and rally a counteroffensive against Mali.

The conflict also demonstrated the country's weak international position and forced the CNR to craft a more moderate image of its policies and goals abroad. In the aftermath, the Burkinabé government made little reference to supporting revolution in other countries, and its relations with France modestly improved. At a rally held after the war, Sankara conceded that his country's military was not adequately armed and announced the commutation of sentences for numerous political prisoners.

Relations with other countries
Thomas Sankara defined his program as anti-imperialist. In this respect, France became the main target of revolutionary rhetoric. When President François Mitterrand visited Burkina Faso in November 1986, Sankara violently criticized the French for having received Pieter Botha, the Prime Minister of South Africa, which still enforced apartheid; and Jonas Savimbi, the leader of UNITA, in France, referring to both men as 'covered in blood from head to toe'. France reduced its economic aid to Burkina Faso by 80% between 1983 and 1985.

Guy Penne, President Mitterrand's advisor on African affairs, organized a media campaign in France to denigrate Thomas Sankara in collaboration with the DGSE. It provided the press with a series of documents on supposed atrocities intended to feed articles against him.

Sankara set up a program of cooperation with Cuba. After meeting with Fidel Castro, Sankara arranged to send young Burkinabés to Cuba in September 1986 to receive professional training and to participate in the country's development upon their return. These were volunteers recruited on the basis of a competition; priority was given to orphans and young people from rural and disadvantaged areas. Some 600 teenagers were flown to Cuba to complete their schooling and receive professional training to become doctors (particularly gynecologists), engineers, or agronomists.

Denouncing the support of the United States to Israel and South Africa, he called on African countries to boycott the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. At the United Nations General Assembly, he denounced the invasion of Grenada by the United States. The latter nation responded by implementing trade sanctions against Burkina Faso. Also at the UN, Sankara called for an end to the veto power granted to the great powers. In the name of the 'right of peoples to sovereignty', he supported the national demands of the Western Sahara, Palestine, the Nicaraguan Sandinistas, and the South African ANC.

While he had good relations with Ghanaian leader Jerry Rawlings and Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, Sankara was relatively isolated in West Africa. Leaders close to France, such as Houphouët-Boigny in Côte d'Ivoire and Hassan II in Morocco, were particularly hostile to him.

Criticism
The British development organization Oxfam recorded the arrest of trade union leaders in 1987. In 1984, seven individuals associated with the previous régime in Burkina Faso were accused of treason and executed after a summary trial. Non-governmental organizations and unions were harassed or placed under the authority of the Committees for the Defence of the Revolution, branches of which were established in each workplace and which functioned as 'organs of political and social control'.

Three days after Sankara had assumed power in 1983 through the popular revolution, the National Union of African Teachers of Upper Volta (SNEAHV) called Sankara and his government fascist and called upon workers to be ready to fight for their freedom. As a result, the government ordered the arrest of 4 key figures of the SNEAHV, one was released shortly after. In response, the SNEAHV called upon a national teachers' strike to protest the arrests. The government saw this as something that endangered the politically weak Upper Volta which had already faced 5 coups since its independence. Therefore the minister for National Education called upon directors of private schools "not to use the services of the strikers in their establishments". The call affected 1300-1500 teachers.

Popular Revolutionary Tribunals, set up by the government throughout the country, placed defendants on trial for corruption, tax evasion or 'counter-revolutionary' activity. Procedures in these trials, especially legal protections for the accused, did not conform to international standards. According to Christian Morrisson and Jean-Paul Azam of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, the 'climate of urgency and drastic action in which many punishments were carried out immediately against those who had the misfortune to be found guilty of unrevolutionary behaviour, bore some resemblance to what occurred in the worst days of the French Revolution, during the Reign of Terror. Although few people were killed, violence was widespread'.

Legacy
Accompanying his personal charisma, Sankara had an array of original initiatives that contributed to his popularity and brought some international media attention to his government.

Solidarity

 * He sold off the government fleet of Mercedes cars and made the Renault 5 (the cheapest car sold in Burkina Faso at that time) the official service car of the ministers.
 * He reduced the salaries of well-off public servants (including his own) and forbade the use of government chauffeurs and first class airline tickets.
 * He opposed foreign aid, saying that 'He who feeds you, controls you'.
 * He spoke in forums like the Organization of African Unity against what he described as neocolonialist penetration of Africa through Western trade and finance.
 * He called for a united front of African nations to repudiate their foreign debt. He argued that the poor and exploited did not have an obligation to repay money to the rich and exploiting.

 * In Ouagadougou, Sankara converted the army's provisioning store into a state-owned supermarket open to everyone (the first supermarket in the country).
 * He forced well-off civil servants to pay one month's salary to public projects.
 * He refused to use the air conditioning in his office on the grounds that such luxury was not available to anyone but a handful of Burkinabés.
 * As President, he lowered his salary to $450 a month and limited his possessions to a car, four bikes, three guitars, a refrigerator, and a broken freezer.

Style

 * He required public servants to wear a traditional tunic, woven from Burkinabé cotton and sewn by Burkinabé craftsmen.
 * He was known for jogging unaccompanied through Ouagadougou in his track suit and posing in his tailored military fatigues, with his mother-of-pearl pistol.
 * When asked why he did not want his portrait hung in public places, as was the norm for other African leaders, Sankara replied: "There are seven million Thomas Sankaras".
 * An accomplished guitarist, he wrote the new national anthem himself.

Africa's Che Guevara
Sankara is often referred to as "Africa's Che Guevara". Sankara gave a speech marking and honouring the 20th anniversary of Che Guevara's 9 October 1967 execution, one week before his own assassination on 15 October 1987.

International recognition
Cuba awarded Sankara with the highest honour of the state, the Order of José Martí.

Assassination
On 15 October 1987, Sankara and twelve other officials were killed in a coup d'état organized by his former colleague Blaise Compaoré. When accounting for his overthrow, Compaoré stated that Sankara jeopardized foreign relations with former colonial power France and neighbouring Ivory Coast, and accused his former comrade of plotting to assassinate opponents.

Prince Johnson, a former Liberian warlord allied to Charles Taylor and killer of the Liberian president Samuel Doe whose last hours of life were filmed, told Liberia's Truth and Reconciliation Commission that it was engineered by Charles Taylor. After the coup and although Sankara was known to be dead, some CDRs mounted an armed resistance to the army for several days.

According to Halouna Traoré, the sole survivor of Sankara's assassination, Sankara was attending a meeting with the Conseil de l'Entente. His assassins singled out Sankara and executed him. The assassins then shot at those attending the meeting, killing 12 other people. Sankara's body was riddled with bullets to the back and he was quickly buried in an unmarked grave while his widow Mariam and two children fled the nation. Compaoré immediately reversed the nationalizations, overturned nearly all of Sankara's policies, rejoined the International Monetary Fund and World Bank to bring in 'desperately needed' funds to restore the 'shattered' economy and ultimately spurned most of Sankara's legacy. Compaoré's dictatorship remained in power for 27 years until it was overthrown by popular protests in 2014.

Assassination trial
In 2017, the Burkina Faso government officially asked the French government to release military documents on the killing of Sankara after his widow accused France of masterminding his assassination.

In April 2021, 34 years after Sankara's assassination, former president Compaoré and 13 others were indicted for complicity in the murder of Sankara as well as other crimes in the coup. This development came as part of President Roch Kaboré's framework of 'national reconciliation'.

In October 2021, the trial against Compaoré and 13 others began in Ouagadougou, with Compaoré being tried in absentia. Ex-presidential security chief Hyacinthe Kafondo, was also tried in absentia. A week before the trial, Compaoré's lawyers stated that he wouldn't be attending the trial which they characterized as having defects, and also emphasized his privilege for immunity, being the former head of state. After requests made by the defence attorneys for more time to prepare their defence, the hearing was postponed until 1 March.

On 6 April 2022, Compaoré and two others were found guilty and sentenced to life in prison in absentia. Eight others were sentenced to between 3 and 20 years in prison. Three were found innocent.

Exhumation
The exhumation of what are believed to be the remains of Sankara started on African Liberation Day, 25 May 2015. Permission for an exhumation was denied during the rule of his successor, Blaise Compaoré. The exhumation would allow the family to formally identify the remains, a long-standing demand of his family and supporters.

In October 2015, one of the lawyers for Sankara's widow Mariam reported that the autopsy revealed that Sankara's body was 'riddled' with 'more than a dozen' bullets.

Legacy
Twenty years after his assassination, Sankara was commemorated on 15 October 2007 in ceremonies that took place in Burkina Faso, Mali, Senegal, Niger, Tanzania, Burundi, France, Canada and the United States.

A statue of Sankara was unveiled in 2019 at the location in Ouagadougou where he was assassinated; however due to complaints that it did not match his facial features, a new statue was unveiled a year later.

In 2023, the government of Burkina Faso formally proclaimed Sankara as a "hero of the nation".

In October 2023, on the 36th anniversary of his assassination, the government changed a main road name in Ouagadougou to honor Sankara. The road in question was the Boulevard Charles de Gaulle, now known as Boulevard Capitaine Thomas Isidore Noël Sankara.

List of works

 * Thomas Sankara Speaks: The Burkina Faso Revolution, 1983–87, Pathfinder Press: 1988. ISBN 0-87348-527-0.
 * We Are the Heirs of the World's Revolutions: Speeches from the Burkina Faso Revolution 1983–87, Pathfinder Press: 2007. ISBN 0-87348-989-6.
 * Women's Liberation and the African Freedom Struggle, Pathfinder Press: 1990. ISBN 0-87348-585-8.

Monographs

 * Who killed Sankara?, by Alfred Cudjoe, 1988, University of California, ISBN 9964-90-354-5.
 * La voce nel deserto, by Vittorio Martinelli and Sofia Massai, 2009, Zona Editrice, ISBN 978-88-6438-001-8.
 * Thomas Sankara – An African Revolutionary, by Ernest Harsch, 2014, Ohio University Press, ISBN 978-0-8214-4507-5.
 * A Certain Amount of Madness: The Life, Politics and Legacies of Thomas Sankara (Black Critique), by Amber Murrey, 2018, Pluto Press, ISBN 978-0-7453-3758-6.
 * Sankara, Compaoré et la révolution burkinabè, by Ludo Martens and Hilde Meesters, 1989, Editions Aden, ISBN 9782872620333.

Historical novel including Thomas Sankara

 * American Spy, by Lauren Wilkinson, 2019, Random House, ISBN 978-0812998955.

Web articles

 * Burkina Faso's Pure President by Bruno Jaffré.
 * Thomas Sankara Lives! by Mukoma Wa Ngugi.
 * There Are Seven Million Sankaras by Koni Benson.
 * Thomas Sankara: "I have a Dream" by Federico Bastiani.
 * Thomas Sankara: Chronicle of an Organised Tragedy by Cheriff M. Sy.
 * Thomas Sankara Former Leader of Burkina Faso by Désiré-Joseph Katihabwa.
 * Thomas Sankara 20 Years Later: A Tribute to Integrity by Demba Moussa Dembélé.
 * Remembering Thomas Sankara, Rebecca Davis, The Daily Maverick, 2013.
 * "I can hear the roar of women's silence", Sokarie Ekine, Red Pepper, 2012.
 * Thomas Sankara: A View of The Future for Africa and The Third World by Ameth Lo.
 * Thomas Sankara on the Emancipation of Women, An internationalist whose ideas live on! by Nathi Mthethwa.
 * Thomas Sankara, le Che africain by Pierre Venuat (in French).
 * Thomas Sankara e la rivoluzione interrotta by Enrico Palumbo (in Italian).

Documentaries

 * , 1987 documentary by Didier Mauro
 * , 1991 documentary by Balufu Bakupa-Kanyinda
 * Thomas Sankara: The Upright Man, 2006 documentary by Robin Shuffield
 * , 2007 documentary by Thuy-Tiên Hô and Didier Mauro
 * , 2011 documentary by Tristan Goasguen
 * , 2012 documentary by Christophe Cupelin
 * , 2017 documentary by Thuy-Tiên Hô

title: Thomas Sankara


text:
James Scott, 1st Duke of Monmouth

James Scott, 1st Duke of Monmouth, 1st Duke of Buccleuch, (9 April 1649 – 15 July 1685) was a Dutch-born English nobleman and military officer. Originally called James Crofts or James Fitzroy, he was born in Rotterdam in the Netherlands, the eldest illegitimate son of Charles II of England with his mistress Lucy Walter.

The Duke of Monmouth served in the Second Anglo-Dutch War and commanded English troops taking part in the Third Anglo-Dutch War before commanding the Anglo-Dutch brigade fighting in the Franco-Dutch War. He led the unsuccessful Monmouth Rebellion in 1685, an attempt to depose his uncle King James II and VII. After one of his officers declared Monmouth the legitimate king in the town of Taunton in Somerset, Monmouth attempted to capitalise on his Protestantism and his position as the son of Charles II, in opposition to James, who had become a Roman Catholic. The rebellion failed, and Monmouth was beheaded for treason on 15 July 1685.

Parentage and early life
Charles, Prince of Wales (later becoming King Charles II), moved to The Hague in 1648, during the Second English Civil War, where his sister Mary and his brother-in-law William II, Prince of Orange, were based. The French relatives of Charles' mother, Queen Henrietta Maria, had invited Charles to wait out the war in France with the Queen, but he opted for the Netherlands, as he believed there was more support to be gained for the cause of his father, King Charles I, in the Netherlands than in France. During the summer of 1648, the Prince of Wales became captivated by Lucy Walter, who was in The Hague for a short visit. The lovers were only eighteen, and she is often spoken of as his first mistress, though he may have begun having affairs as early as 1646. Their son James was born in Rotterdam in the Netherlands on 9 April 1649, and spent his early years in Schiedam.

Research by Hugh Noel Williams suggests that Charles had not arrived in The Hague until the middle of September 1648 – seven months before the child's birth, and that he had only met Lucy in July. It was later rumoured that in the summer of 1648 Lucy had been the mistress of Colonel Robert Sidney, a younger son of the Earl of Leicester. As Charles had no legitimate surviving children, his younger brother James, Duke of York, was next in line to the throne. When the boy grew up, those loyal to the Duke of York spread rumours about the young James' resemblance to Sidney. These voices may have been encouraged by the Duke of York himself, who wished to prevent any of the fourteen royal bastards his brother acknowledged from gaining support in the succession. In 2012, a DNA test of Monmouth's patrilineal descendant the 10th Duke of Buccleuch showed that he shared the same Y chromosome as a distant Stuart cousin; this is evidence that Charles II was indeed Monmouth's father.

James had a younger sister or half-sister, Mary Crofts, whose father may have been Lord Taaffe. Mary later married the Irishman William Sarsfield, thus becoming the sister-in-law of the Jacobite general Patrick Sarsfield.

As an illegitimate son, James was ineligible to succeed to the English or Scottish thrones, unless he could prove rumours that his parents had married secretly. He came to maintain that his parents were married and that he possessed evidence of their marriage, but he never produced it. King Charles II testified in writing to his Privy Council that he had never been married to anyone except his queen consort, Catherine of Braganza.

In March 1658, young James was kidnapped by one of the King's men, sent to Paris, and placed in the care of William Crofts, 1st Baron Crofts, whose surname he took. He briefly attended a school in Familly.

Officer and commander

On 14 February 1663, almost 14 years old, shortly after having been brought to England, James was created Duke of Monmouth, with the subsidiary titles of Earl of Doncaster and Baron Scott of Tynedale, all three in the Peerage of England, and, on 28 March 1663, he was appointed a Knight of the Garter.

On 20 April 1663, just days after his 14th birthday, the Duke of Monmouth was married to the heiress Anne Scott, 4th Countess of Buccleuch. He took his wife's surname upon marriage. The day after his marriage, the couple were made Duke and Duchess of Buccleuch, Earl and Countess of Dalkeith, and Lord and Lady Scott of Whitchester and Eskdale in the Peerage of Scotland. The Duke of Monmouth was popular, particularly for his Protestantism. The King's official heir presumptive, James, Duke of York, had openly converted to Roman Catholicism.

In 1665, at the age of 16, Monmouth served in the English fleet under his uncle, the Duke of York, in the Second Anglo-Dutch War. In June 1666, he returned to England to become captain of a troop of cavalry. On 16 September 1668 he was made colonel of the His Majesty's Own Troop of Horse Guards. He acquired Moor Park in Hertfordshire in April 1670. Following the death in 1670, without a male heir, of Josceline Percy, 11th Earl of Northumberland, the earl's estates reverted to the Crown. King Charles II awarded the estates to Monmouth. The Countess of Northumberland successfully sued for the estates to be returned to the late Earl's only daughter and sole heiress, Lady Elizabeth Percy (1667–1722).

At the outbreak of the Third Anglo-Dutch War in 1672, a brigade of 6,000 English and Scottish troops was sent to serve as part of the French army (in return for money paid to King Charles), with Monmouth as its commander. He became Lord Lieutenant of the East Riding of Yorkshire and Governor of Kingston-upon-Hull in April 1673. In the campaign of 1673 and in particular at the Siege of Maastricht that June, Monmouth gained a considerable reputation as one of Britain's finest soldiers. He was reported to be replacing Marshal Schomberg as commander of England's Zealand Expedition, but this did not happen.

In 1674, Monmouth became Chancellor of Cambridge University and Master of the Horse, and King Charles II directed that all military orders should be brought first to Monmouth for examination, thus giving him effective command of the forces; his responsibilities included the movement of troops and the suppression of riots. In March 1677, he also became Lord Lieutenant of Staffordshire.

Claim to the Crown
In 1678, Monmouth was the commander of the Anglo-Dutch brigade, now fighting for the United Provinces against the French, and he distinguished himself at the Battle of Saint-Denis in August that year during the Franco-Dutch War, further increasing his reputation. The following year, after his return to Britain, he commanded the small army raised to put down the rebellion of the Scottish Covenanters and despite being heavily outnumbered, he decisively defeated the (admittedly poorly equipped) Covenanter rebels at the Battle of Bothwell Bridge on 22 June 1679.

Rebellion
As his popularity with the masses increased, Monmouth was obliged to go into exile in the Dutch United Provinces in September 1679. Following the discovery of the so-called Rye House Plot in 1683, which aimed to assassinate both Charles II and his brother James, Monmouth, who had been encouraged by his supporters to assert his right to the throne, was identified as a conspirator. On King Charles II's death in February 1685, Monmouth led the Monmouth Rebellion, landing with three ships at Lyme Regis in Dorset in early June 1685, in an attempt to take the throne from his uncle, James II and VII. He published a "Declaration for the defence and vindication of the protestant religion and of the laws, rights and privileges of England from the invasion made upon them, and for delivering the Kingdom from the usurpation and tyranny of us by the name of James, Duke of York": King James II and VII responded to this by issuing an order for the publishers and distributors of the paper to be arrested.

Monmouth declared himself as the rightful King at various places along the route including Axminster, Chard, Ilminster and Taunton. The two armies met at the Battle of Sedgemoor on 6 July 1685, the last clear-cut pitched battle on open ground between two military forces fought on English soil: Monmouth's makeshift force could not compete with the regular army, and was soundly defeated.

Capture
Following the battle a reward of £5,000 was offered for his capture. On 8 July 1685, Monmouth was captured and arrested near Ringwood in Hampshire, by tradition "in a field of peas". The events surrounding his capture are described by George Roberts in Tait's Edinburgh Magazine.

"Upon the 7th, about five in the morning, some of the Lord Lumley's said scouts riding in the road near Holt Lodge in Dorset, 4 mi west of Ringwood in Hampshire, just at the turn of a cross way, surprised and seized two suspected persons, which, when the Lord Lumley came up, proved to be Lord Grey and Hollyday the guide. Lord Lumley now commenced a strict examination of the cottages scattered thickly over this heathy country, and called those to assist him who were acquainted with the locality. Sir William Portman was informed of the capture that had been made, and hastened to the spot, with as many of his horse and foot as he could suddenly get together. As Lord Lumley was making inquiries of the cottagers, a poor woman, Amy Farrant, directed him to a hedge, over which she had seen two men go. This hedge proved to be part of the outbounds of several enclosed fields, some overgrown with fern and brakes, and others sown with rye, peas, and oats. The assembled militia were placed around these outbounds, at short distances from each other, while horse and foot performed their assigned duty – that of beating about within."

When the Duke had left his horse at Woodyates Inn, he exchanged clothes with a shepherd, who was soon discovered by local loyalists and interrogated. Dogs were then put onto the Duke's scent. Monmouth dropped his gold snuff box, full of gold pieces, in a pea field, where it was afterwards found.

From Woodyates Inn the Duke had gone to Shag's Heath, in the middle of which was a cluster of small farms, called the "Island". Amy Farrant gave information that the fugitives were concealed within the Island. The Duke, accompanied by Busse and Brandenburgher, remained concealed all day, with soldiers surrounding the area and threatening to set fire to the woodland. Brandenburgher deserted him at 1 am, and was later captured and interrogated, and is believed to have given away the Duke's hiding place. The spot was at the north-eastern extremity of the Island, now known as Monmouth's Close, in the manor of Woodlands, the property of the Earl of Shaftesbury. At about 7 am Henry Parkin, a militia soldier and servant of Samuel Rolle, discovered the brown skirt of Monmouth's coat as he lay hidden in a ditch covered with fern and brambles under an ash tree, and called for help. The Duke was seized. Bystanders shouted out "Shoot him! shoot him!", but Sir William Portman happening to be near the spot, immediately rode up, and laid hands on him as his prisoner. Monmouth was then "in the last extremity of hunger and fatigue, with no sustenance but a few raw peas in his pocket. He could not stand, and his appearance was much changed. Since landing in England, the Duke had not had a good night's rest, or eaten one meal in quiet, being perpetually agitated with the cares that attend unfortunate ambition". He had "received no other sustenance than the brook and the field afforded".

The Duke was taken to Holt Lodge, in the parish of Wimborne, about 1 mi away, the residence of Anthony Etterick, a magistrate who asked the Duke what he would do if released, to which he answered: "that if his horse and arms were but restored to him at the same time, he needed only to ride through the army; and he defied them to take him again". The magistrate ordered him taken to London.

Attainder and execution
Following Monmouth's capture, Parliament passed an Act of Attainder, 1 Ja. 2. c. 2:

"Whereas James Duke of Monmouth has in an hostile Manner Invaded this Kingdom and is now in open Rebellion Laying War against the King contrary to the Duty of his Allegiance, Be it enacted by the Kings most Excellent Majesty by and with the Advice and Consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and Commons in this Parliament assembled and by the Authorities of the same, That the said James Duke of Monmouth Stand and be Convicted and Attainted of High-Treason and that he suffer Paines of Death and Incurr all Forfeitures as a Traitor Convicted and Attainted of High Treason."

The King took the unusual step of allowing his nephew an audience, despite having no intention of extending a pardon to him, thus breaking with a longstanding tradition that the King would give an audience only when he intended to show clemency. The prisoner unsuccessfully implored his mercy and even offered to convert to Catholicism, but to no avail. The King, disgusted by his abject behaviour, coldly told him to prepare to die, and later remarked that Monmouth "did not behave as well as I expected". Numerous pleas for mercy were addressed to the King, but he ignored them all, even that of his sister-in-law, the Dowager Queen Catherine.

Monmouth was beheaded by Jack Ketch on 15 July 1685, on Tower Hill. Shortly beforehand, Bishops Turner of Ely and Ken of Bath and Wells visited the Duke to prepare him for eternity, but withheld the Eucharist, for the condemned man refused to acknowledge that either his rebellion or his relationship with Lady Wentworth had been sinful. It is said that before laying his head on the block, Monmouth specifically bade Ketch finish him at one blow, saying he had mauled others before. Disconcerted, Ketch did indeed inflict multiple blows with his axe, the prisoner rising up reproachfully the while – a ghastly sight that shocked the witnesses, drawing forth execrations and groans. Some say a knife was at last employed to sever the head from the twitching body. Sources vary; some claim eight blows, the official Tower of London fact sheet says it took five blows, while Charles Spencer, in his book Blenheim, puts it at seven.

Monmouth was buried in the Church of St Peter ad Vincula in the Tower of London. His Dukedom was forfeited, but his subsidiary titles, Earl of Doncaster and Baron Scott of Tindale, were restored by King George II on 23 March 1743 to his grandson Francis Scott, 2nd Duke of Buccleuch (1695–1751).

Popular legends
According to legend, a portrait was painted of Monmouth after his execution: the tradition states that it was realised after the execution that there was no official portrait of the Duke, so his body was exhumed, the head stitched back on, and it was sat for its portrait to be painted. However, there are at least two formal portraits of Monmouth tentatively dated to before his death currently in the National Portrait Gallery in London, and another painting once identified with Monmouth that shows a sleeping or dead man that could have given rise to the story.

One of the many theories about the identity of the Man in the Iron Mask is that he was Monmouth: the theory is that someone else was executed in his place, and James II arranged for Monmouth to be taken to France and put in the custody of his cousin Louis XIV of France.

Henry Purcell set to music (Z. 481) a satirical poem by an unidentified author, ridiculing Monmouth and his parentage:

Arms
James Scott's first coat of arms was initially granted in 1663 at the same time he was created Duke of Monmouth: Quarterly, 1st and 4th, Ermine, on a Pile gules three Lions passant guardant or; 2nd and 3rd: Or, within a double Tressure flory counterflory gules, on an Inescutcheon azure, three Fleurs-de-Lys gold. Crest: Upon a Chapeau gules turned up ermine, a Dragon passant or gorged with a Crown having a Chain gules. Supporters: Dexter, a Unicorn argent, armed, maned and unguled or, gorged with a Crown having a Chain gules affixed thereto: Sinister, a Hart argent, attired and unguled or, gorged with a Crown having a Chain gules affixed thereto.

This version of the arms, which consisted in a creative reorganisation of the Royal Arms, drew numerous complaints as it did not include any marker to signify his illegitimacy, and rumours that Charles might attempt to legitimise James started to spread.

Four years later, after James' marriage, and with Charles' growing realisation that he would not legitimise him, a new design was granted: the Arms of King Charles II debruised by a baton sinister Argent; An inescutcheon of Scott was added on top: Or, on a Bend azure a Mullet of six points between two Crescents of the field. To show the importance of James' marriage to Anne Scott, which he had married shortly after receiving his original arms. The Crest and Supporters from his previous arms were kept.

Children
His marriage to Anne Scott, 1st Duchess of Buccleuch resulted in the birth of six children:
 * Charles Scott, Earl of Doncaster (24 August 1672 – 9 February 1673/1674)
 * James Scott, Earl of Dalkeith (23 May 1674 – 14 March 1705). He was married on 2 January 1693/1694 to Henrietta Hyde, daughter of Laurence Hyde, 1st Earl of Rochester. They were parents to Francis Scott, 2nd Duke of Buccleuch.
 * Lady Anne Scott (17 February 1675 – 13 August 1685)
 * Henry Scott, 1st Earl of Deloraine (1676 – 25 December 1730)
 * Francis Scott (died an infant; buried 8 December 1679)
 * Lady Charlotte Scott (died an infant; buried 5 September 1683)

His affair with his mistress Eleanor Needham, daughter of Sir Robert Needham of Lambeth resulted in the birth of three children:
 * James Crofts (died March 1732), major-general in the Army.
 * Henrietta Crofts (c. 1682 – 27 February 1730). She was married around 1697 to Charles Paulet, 2nd Duke of Bolton.
 * Isabel Crofts (died young)

Toward the end of his life he conducted an affair with Henrietta, Baroness Wentworth.

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: James Scott, 1st Duke of Monmouth


text:
Jan Karol Chodkiewicz

Jan Karol Chodkiewicz (Jonas Karolis Chodkevičius; c. 1561 – 24 September 1621) was a military commander of the Grand Ducal Lithuanian Army, who was from 1601 Field Hetman of Lithuania, and from 1605 Grand Hetman of Lithuania. He was one of the most prominent noblemen and military commanders of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth of his era. His coat of arms was Chodkiewicz, as was his family name.

He played a major role, often as the top commander of the military of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, in the Wallachian campaign of 1599–1601, the Polish–Swedish War of 1600–11, the Polish–Muscovite War of 1605–18, and the Polish–Ottoman War of 1620–1621. His most famous victory was the Battle of Kircholm in 1605, in which he dealt a major defeat to a Swedish army three times the size of his own. He died on the front lines during the battle of Khotyn, in the besieged Khotyn Fortress, a few days before the Ottomans gave up on the siege and agreed to negotiate.

Early life
Chodkiewicz was born around 1561 (exact date of his birth is unknown) as the son of Jan Hieronimowicz Chodkiewicz, Grand Marshal of Lithuania, castellan of Vilnius and Krystyna Zborowska, daughter of a Polish magnate family of Zborowski. From 1573 he was a student at the Vilnius Jesuit College and the Vilnius University, and from 1586 to 1589, together with his brother Aleksander, he continued his studies abroad at the University of Ingolstadt. He visited Padua before returning to the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth in 1590.

He started his military career soon after returning to the Commonwealth, raising a rota of 50 to 100 men. He gained military experience in the fight against the rebellious Cossacks during the Severyn Nalyvaiko's uprising under Field Crown Hetman Stanisław Żółkiewski. During that conflict he participated in the battle of Kaniów on 14 April 1596, and in the siege of the Cossack tabor near Lubny. In 1599, he was appointed the Elder (starost) of Samogitia.

Chodkiewicz subsequently assisted Chancellor and Great Crown Hetman Jan Zamoyski in his victorious Wallachian campaign, in which Chodkiewicz  participated in the battle of Ploiești on 15 October 1600. For that campaign, he was given that year the high office of the Field Lithuanian Hetman, the second commander-in-chief of the Grand Ducal Lithuanian Army.

War in the North
A year later, in 1601, Chodkiewicz accompanied Zamoyski north, to the Duchy of Livonia (Inflanty), where he commanded Lithuanian units on the right wing of the Commonwealth army in a victorious battle of Kokenhausen in late July that year in the war against Sweden. He oversaw the fighting in the Livonia theater after Zamoyski's return to Poland in 1602. In April 1603, he captured Dorpat (modern Tartu) and defeated the Swedish forces at the Battle of Weissenstein on 23 September 1604. His crowning achievement was the great victory near the Daugava in the Battle of Kircholm (modern Salaspils) on 27 September 1605, when, with barely 4,000 troops, mostly the Winged hussar heavy cavalry, he annihilated a Swedish army three times the size of his force. For that feat he received letters of congratulation from Pope Paul V, most of Catholic royalty, and even the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire and the Shah of Persia. Soon afterward, he was rewarded with the rank of Lithuanian Grand Hetman, in addition to a number of royal land grants and leases.

Yet this great victory was virtually fruitless, owing to the domestic dissensions; the Sejm (Commonwealth parliament) failed to agree on raising the funds needed for the war effort. Chodkiewicz was one of the magnates who remained loyal to king Sigismund III Vasa, and helped him to defeat the Zebrzydowski rebellion in 1606–1607. He commanded the Crown Army's right wing during the Battle of Guzów on 6–7 July 1607, in which the insurgents were defeated, and then quelled the unrest in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, fighting against another rebellious magnate, Janusz Radziwiłł, until Radziwiłł negotiated a settlement with the king in 1608. A fresh invasion of Livonia by the Swedes recalled him thither once more, and in 1609 he relieved Riga and recaptured Pernau. He improvised a small fleet and dealt a surprise blow to the Swedish Navy at the Battle of Salis.

Wars in the East and South
Meanwhile, the Dimitriad wars with Muscovy broke out. Instigated by King Sigismund III, the war was unpopular among Lithuanian magnates, and Chodkiewicz was no exception; in fact his displeasure was so public and significant that he lost the royal favor for a time. Eventually their differences subsided, and Chodkiewicz was sent against the Muscovites, operating first near Smolensk and Pskov. Soon, the Polish–Lithuanian forces started garnering victories, such as the capture of Smolensk, and some, like Grand Crown Hetman Żółkiewski, planned for a grand Polish–Lithuanian–Muscovite Commonwealth. Chodkiewicz was tasked by the king with an advance on Moscow. However, the Sejm neglected to pay for the maintenance of the armies once more, resulting in the mutiny of some units. Chodkiewicz fought several inconclusive battles against the Muscovites in autumn 1611 and then, after the Battle of Moscow (1612), retreated. Disappointed with the outcome, he became once again estranged from the king, and criticized the campaign at the Sejm of 1613. Over the next few years, in the period of 1613–15, Chodkiewicz defended the Commonwealth gains in the Smolensk area, and dealt with unrest in Lithuania. Not till the crown prince, Władysław arrived with tardy reinforcements did the war could assume a more offensive character once again. The army, nominally commanded by Władysław, but in practice under Chodkiewicz's experienced command, took the Dorogobuzh fortress on 11 October 1617. The siege of Mozhaysk in December of subsequent year proved unsuccessful, and this marked the end of the conflict.

The Polish-Muscovite War had no sooner been ended by the Truce of Deulino than Chodkiewicz was hastily dispatched southwards to defend the southern frontier against the Turks, who, in the opening phase of the Polish–Ottoman War, defeated Polish forces at Cecora, killing Hetman Żółkiewski. An army of 160,000 Turks and 60,000 Tatars led by Sultan Osman II in person advanced on the Polish frontier. Opposed it were the Commonwealth forces, numbering about 70,000, half of them a Cossack detachment under Cossack hetman Petro Konashevych-Sahaidachny. Chodkiewicz crossed the Dnieper in September 1621, and entrenched himself in the Khotyn Fortress, directly in the path of the Ottoman advance. During the Battle of Khotyn Chodkiewicz resisted the sultan's 200-thousand army for a whole month,. but the victory cost his life. A few days before the siege was raised and the Ottomans decided to open negotiations, the aged Grand Lithuanian Hetman, already suffering from illness since the campaign's opening, died in the fortress on 24 September 1621.

Chodkiewicz's body was transported to Kamianets-Podilskyi, where he was buried on 14 October 1621. A few years later, in the summer of 1622, his widow arranged for exhumation, and Chodkiewicz was reburied in Ostroh in June that year. In 1627 he was moved to a new chapel in Ostroh, where he reburied again. His body was evacuated from Ostroh during the Khmelnytsky Uprising in 1648, and returned there in 1654. It was reburied yet again in a new tomb in Ostroh in 1722.

Assessment and remembrance
In 1937, Polish historian Wanda Dobrowolska, wrote in her Polish Biographical Dictionary entry on Chodkiewicz that he was one of the chief members of the "Great Hetman era", renowned for his talent as a strategist and organizer. She notes that Chodkiewicz possessed an iron will, which he was able to impose on the troops under his command, and that he was an efficient commander, although more respected and feared than beloved by his troops. Dobrowolska notes that he was an energetic and explosive antithesis of the composed Żółkiewski, another great hetman of this era, whom Chodkiewicz disliked and competed with throughout his life.

Chodkiewicz was not particularly involved in the Commonwealth's politics, although his high office and wealth gave him significant influence; for the most part he used his political influence, and base of support in Lithuania, to gather support for his military plans, increase the armies' sizes, and personal gratifications. His life was dominated by warfare, if not on the front lines, then on the political scene against other Lithuanian magnates, particularly the Radziwiłł family and the Sejm politicians whom he held responsible for not passing enough taxes to support the armies he wanted.

Over his career he acquired significant wealth, and funded a number of churches and other prestigious buildings. He often worked with the Jesuits, including funding their College in Kražiai. He strongly believed his service should be rewarded with land grants, but he would simultaneously often use his own money to pay for military expenses. In his private life he is remembered as a very proud individual, and for stressing his identity as a member of the Lithuanian nobility. He was a family man, devoted to his family, but his only son, from his marriage in 1593 to Zofia Mielecka, died aged 16 in 1613, and she died in 1618. He remarried in 1620, wedding Anna Alojza Ostrogska in November 1620, shortly before departing on his final campaign. Also that year his daughter Anna married a Lithuanian magnate, Jan Stanisław Sapieha.

Some poems and other works praising him were written during his lifetime, and a religious work was dedicated to him by the Jesuit Piotr Skarga. More works on Chodkiewicz were written in the years after his death. He was one of Wacław Potocki's characters in his epic novel on the Khotyn war (Transakcja wojny chocimskiej), and he also appeared in the works of Julian Ursyn Niemcewicz and Zofia Kossak-Szczucka, usually portrayed as a patriot and military genius.

In 2021, commemorating the 400th anniversary of his death, a number of ceremonies were held in Lithuania. Firstly, a monument of Jan Karol Chodkiewicz was unveiled in a yard of the Chodkevičiai Palace in Vilnius. Also, a new Lithuanian award Jonas Karolis Chodkevičius Gold Medal for State Strengthening Activities was established, with its first laureate being Jonas Ohmanas. While commemorating the same anniversary in Kretinga, which was established by Jan Karol Chodkiewicz in 1602, a cenotaph was placed in Chodkiewicz family crypt of the Church of the Annunciation to the Blessed Virgin Mary as in his testament he demanded to be burred in Kretinga's church crypt, alongside his first wife and his sons, however his remains fate is unknown as his second wife buried him in Ukraine, but the church with his remains was demolished in the 19th century. Also, Lithuanian Armed Forces Motorized Infantry Brigade Žemaitija was renamed to Lithuanian Grand Hetman Jonas Karolis Chodkevičius Infantry Brigade Žemaitija.

title: Jan Karol Chodkiewicz