Upper Volta

While in power, Sankara changed the name of his country from its colonial one, Upper Volta, to Burkina Faso, meaning the Land of Honest People.

He scrapped the country’s colonial-era name, Upper Volta, in favor of Burkina Faso, which means “land of upright men.”

He renamed the country, changing it from Upper Volta, as labeled by France, to Burkina Faso, which means “the land of upright people” in Mossi, the language of the country’s largest ethnic group.

It was under his rule that the country was renamed - from Upper Volta to Burkina Faso, meaning "Land of Upright People".

China cannot be described, as the Soviet Union was, as “Upper Volta with rockets.”