Valère Dieudonné Somé (17 October 1950 – 30 May 2017) was a politician and scholar from

Burkina Faso Burkina Faso (, ; , ff, 𞤄𞤵𞤪𞤳𞤭𞤲𞤢 𞤊𞤢𞤧𞤮, italic=no) is a landlocked country in West Africa with an area of , bordered by Mali to the northwest, Niger to the northeast, Benin to the southeast, Togo and Ghana to the ...

. Somé was the leader of the

Union of Communist Struggles - Reconstructed Union commonly refers to: * Trade union, an organization of workers * Union (set theory), in mathematics, a fundamental operation on sets Union may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Music * Union (band), an American rock group ** ''Un ...

(ULC-R) during the 1980s.Hughes, Arnold.
Marxism's Retreat from Africa
'. London: F. Cass, 1992. p. 100 He was an Anthropo-Economist, and headed research at the INSS-CNRST.

Biography

Entering the revolutionary process of 1983 with the support from the student movement, Somé came to play an important role in the political life of the country during the rule of the Revolutionary National Council led by

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

. Somé and another ULC-R leader, Basile Guissou, largely functioned as the 'ideologues' of the revolutionary government.Bianchini, Pascal.
Ecole et politique en Afrique noire: sociologie des crises et des réformes du système d'enseignement au Sénégal et au Burkina Faso (1960–2000)
'. Paris: Karthala, 2004. pp. 106, 145 In January 1985 ULC-R won the elections in the

University of Ouagadougou Founded in 1974, the University of Ouagadougou (UO; french: Université de Ouagadougou) is in the area of Dagnöen Nord (pronounced dag-no-en noor) in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso. It was officially renamed in 2015 as l’Université Ouaga 1 Profess ...

Committee for the Defense of the Revolution. But another faction, the

Union of Burkinabè Communists Union commonly refers to: * Trade union, an organization of workers * Union (set theory), in mathematics, a fundamental operation on sets Union may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Music * Union (band), an American rock group ** ''Un ...

(UCB), controlled the university administration through the principal Clément Oumarou Ouedraogo. On 29 August 1986 Somé was named Minister of Higher Education and Research. As a result, from the ULC-R/UCB rivalry at the university, the university CDR committee was disbanded on 1 September 1986. Somé faced criticism from within his own organization after taking charge as Minister.
Quelques évènements de l’An 4 de la RDP
' On 9 September 1987 a new government was formed, without Somé. Later the same month, Sankara gave Somé the task of drafting a programme for the unification of the different revolutionary organizations. After the overthrow and assassination of Sankara in 1987, Somé went into exile in

Congo-Brazzaville The Republic of the Congo (french: République du Congo, ln, Republíki ya Kongó), also known as Congo-Brazzaville, the Congo Republic or simply either Congo or the Congo, is a country located in the western coast of Central Africa to the w ...

for a period. In 1989 Somé formed the

Party for Social Democracy The Decentralist Social Force Party ( es, Partido Descentralista Fuerza Social) also known as Social Force ( es, Fuerza Social) was a centre-left, social democratic, Peruvian political party. Founded in 1997 as the Party for Social Democracy ( e ...

(PDS) along with other former ULC-R members who had refused to merge with the

Organization for Popular Democracy - Labour Movement An organization or organisation (Commonwealth English; see spelling differences), is an entity—such as a company, an institution, or an association—comprising one or more people and having a particular purpose. The word is derived from ...

. In January 1995 PDS and other parties merged into the Party for Unified Social Democracy (PDSU), with Somé as its leader. Somé completed his doctoral thesis in 1996. On 21 May 2000, Somé's party merged into the

Sankarist Pan-African Convention The Sankarist Pan-African Convention () was a political party in Burkina Faso. CPS was formed in 2000, through the merger of the Burkinabè Socialist Bloc, Party of United Social Democracy and a fraction of the Social Forces Front. The party is ...

(CPS). Somé became general secretary of the CPS. He later founded a new party, the Convergence for Social Democracy (CDS). In October 2004 he was replaced by Djéjouma Sanon as the leader of CDS. Somé died on 30 May 2017 in France at the age of 66.

Bibliography

*Somé, Valère D.
Thomas Sankara, l'espoir assassiné
'. Paris: l'Harmattan, 1990.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Some, Valere 1950 births 2017 deaths Burkinabé pan-Africanists Burkinabé communists Convergence for Social Democracy (Burkina Faso) politicians Sankarists Union of Communist Struggles – Reconstructed politicians Torture victims