Our organization
Sankara is founded by peaceful revolution strategist Erik van der Zanden, who lives in the historical city of Delft (Netherlands). He has devoted his life to fight for peace since he was 20. In the last 13 years during his many adventures in Africa and beyond he discovered that negative peace is no peace, but a prison’s peace. To gain just peace, freedom is essential.
Peaceful revolutions aim to return power back to the people without using violence. This approach is inspired by the ancient strategist Sun Tzu, who said that: “the acme of skill is to defeat the enemy without bloodshed.”
Erik van der Zanden speaks Dutch, English, Swahili (B1) and Bahasa Indonesia (A1). He holds a BA International Studies and MA African Studies from Leiden University, while he is currently pursuing his second Master at the Netherlands Defence Academy (NLDA). This is the prestigious Military Strategic Studies, where he is trained together with specialists and higher-rank officers in the art of (nonviolent) war.
Currently, Erik is working hard to ensure the start-up phase of Sankara. As the organization is derived from Thomas Sankara’s vision, the majority of the employees and leadership positions will be from Africa.
We are extremely ambitious and radically pacifist. We will not stop until we inspired the world with the idea that global peace is a possibility. All employees of Sankara will be deep pacifists willing to devote their life to the empowerment of the many people.
Our vision
Founder of Freedom House and International Center for Nonviolent Conflict (ICNC) Peter Ackermann had a dream: 1 million trained nonviolent activists. We have embraced that dream.
We believe that when we train 1 million activists and help them to develop and implement home-grown Victorious Strategies, we will turn the democratic tide.
Furthermore, we are deep believers of the Democratic Peace Theory of Kant. We fully embrace that world peace is possible, when all nations on earth become able to govern themselves.
We are deeply inspired by all religions as we believe that all religions are shards of the same broken mirror (universal truth). In the end our main goal is the unity of the human race. Some of our inspirations are Moses, Jezus, Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Nelson Mandela, Rev. James Lawson, Srdja Popovic and Erica Chenoweth.
Our message is simple yet powerful: Amor vincit Omnia. Love conquers All. Together, we will Light up the Darkness.
Our logo
Sankara
The name of our organization is based on one of the most inspirational African heroes in history: Thomas Sankara from Burkina Faso. His dream was freedom, peace and prosperity for all. We are here to pursue his revolutionary dream. It furthermore reinforces our deep expertise and focus on the African liberation movements.
Revolutions
We believe that the only way to achieve freedom, peace and prosperity is transforming the corrupt Systems of Greed for enlightened Communities of Love. We see Revolution as positive and powerful. Furthermore, we find the means to achieve our goals as important as the goal itself. We believe the Virus of Violence is the greatest problem on this earth. We are convinced that the key to all successful revolutions is love: unity, nonviolence and strategy. As we say: “Amor Vincit Omnia: Love Conquers All.”
Olive branch
We help peaceful revolutions all over the world (both national liberation as human, animal, climate rights movements) to gain consistent victories and massive momentum. The olive branch symbolizes our expertise in victory through strategy and our commitment to peace.
Butterfly
Our conviction of peace is not just pragmatic, but principled. To us, peace is a Way of Life, a spiritual Force More Powerful. The butterfly symbolizes this spiritual power. Each human was born a spiritual being, directly connected to their souls through a divine spark within. We believe that each individual has dignity, talents and the ability to spread their wings to become their true liberated self. Our goal is to liberate all from mental and physical slavery of the Systems of Greed and the Virus of Violence.
Circle
The circle and the logo colours reinforce our belief in a spiritual Force More Powerful, a cosmic battle between Light versus Darkness. We believe what we do is soul force, truth force, love force. People Power is spiritual power, celebrating that life is power, that each and every one of use has dignity to be free and happy. We believe we as humans are one with the divine powers above that want us to be free, peaceful and prosperous. We, are Warriors of Light. Our aim is to Light up the Darkness.
Partners
We are interested in becoming partners of everybody that fights for love, truth, freedom, dignity and justice. We are deeply grateful for all the giants on whose shoulders we stand: Albert Einstein Institute, Freedom House, ICNC, CANVAS, Nonviolence International, Waging Nonviolence, Rhize, Beautiful Trouble.
We will ally with any government willing to do what is right. We expect to find powerful allies within the Western democratic governments, but will at the same time fight their imperial projects in Africa, South America and Asia. We hope to end neo-colonialism once and for all, by showing the way of the peaceful revolutions. More than ever before, it is crucial that the West accepts it’s hypocrisy of beautiful words of peace and freedom, while using violence, fear and ignorance to oppress the rest of the world.
Unfortunately, in many other places such as most African countries, China, Russia, Iran and more, the repression is extreme.
We also expect to ally with many universities, as the Sankara circles will spread.
If you want to become a partner of Sankara, please send an email to erik@sankara.nl