The Upright Man

This morning, I watched a documentary about Thomas Sankara called Thomas Sankara: The Upright Man. Sankara was the President of Burkina Faso from 1983 to 1987. He was raised by a pious Catholic family. As a young man, he joined the military, where he rose through the ranks. In the early 80s, his best friend, Blaise Compaore, staged a coup and put Sankara in charge. After the revolution began to fail, Blaise staged another coup and had Sankara killed.
Sankara was, among other things, pro-women. He wanted to give every woman in Burkina Faso a job. During his regime, men began taking on some of the household duties. He also appointed women to top government roles. I did a little extra research, and found out that he even outlawed female circumcision. As a feminist, I couldn't help but like some of this stuff.
Although he wasn't a perfect leader, I like that he wasn't afraid to tell the truth, and fight those who were oppressing Africans. I feel like he is a great leader, the kind who I wish someone would do a biopic on. It seems like every time they cover an African leader, it's someone horrible. Sankara wasn't perfect either, but sometimes I wonder if the few biopics covering African leaders make Americans think that all African leadership is incompetent or evil.
The other thing that surprised me was how attractive I found Sankara. The pictures I found online of him don't quite do him justice. As I was watching the documentary, I was struck by what an attractive man he was. I don't usually think of political leaders as attractive (other than maybe Obama), but Sankara definitely was.