About Joseph Ki-Zerbo
Joseph Ki-Zerbo (June 21, 1922 – December 4, 2006, Burkina Faso) was a Burkinabé historian, politician and writer. He is recognized as one of Africa's foremost thinkers. From 1972 to 1978 he was a professor of African History at the University of Ouagadougou. In 1983, he was forced into exile, only being able to return in 1992. Ki-Zerbo founded the Party for Democracy and Progress / Socialist Party. He was its chairman until 2005, and represented it in the Burkina Faso parliament until his death in 2006. A socialist and an advocate of African independence and unity, Ki-Zerbo was also a vocal opponent of Thomas Sankara's revolutionary government. Ki-Zerbo was active in this movement for change, and in 1957 he created a political party, the Mouvement de Liberation Nationale (MLN) (National Freedom Movement). On completion of his studies, he became a certified history and geography teacher, the first from Upper Volta.
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