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Burkina Faso: the story on HearLore | HearLore
Burkina Faso
Archaeological excavations in 1973 uncovered scrapers, chisels, and arrowheads dating back to the period between 14,000 BC and 5,000 BC. These tools belonged to hunter-gatherer communities that populated the northwestern part of what is now Burkina Faso. Agricultural settlements emerged later, established between 3600 and 2600 BC. The Bura culture developed as an Iron Age civilization centered in the southwest portion of modern-day Niger and the southeast part of contemporary Burkina Faso. Iron smelting technology had spread across Sub-Saharan Africa by 1200 BC. The oldest evidence of iron smelting found within Burkina Faso dates from 800 to 700 BC. This ancient metallurgy forms part of the Ancient Ferrous Metallurgy World Heritage Site recognized today.
From the 3rd to the 13th centuries AD, the Iron Age Bura culture existed in the territory of present-day southeastern Burkina Faso and southwestern Niger. Various ethnic groups arrived in successive waves between the 8th and 15th centuries. The proto-Mossi people arrived in the far eastern part of what is today Burkina Faso sometime between the 8th and 11th centuries. They accepted Islam as their religion in the 11th century. The Samo arrived around the 15th century. The Dogon lived in Burkina Faso's north and northwest regions until sometime in the 15th or 16th centuries.
During the Middle Ages, the Mossi established several separate kingdoms including those of Tenkodogo, Yatenga, Zandoma, and Ouagadougou. Sometime between 1328 and 1338, Mossi warriors raided Timbuktu but were defeated by Sonni Ali of Songhai at the Battle of Kobi in Mali in 1483. During the early 16th century, the Songhai conducted many slave raids into what is today Burkina Faso. In the 18th century, the Gwiriko Empire was established at Bobo Dioulasso and ethnic groups such as the Dyan, Lobi, and Birifor settled along the Black Volta.
French Conquest And Independence
Starting in the early 1890s during the European Scramble for Africa, a series of European military officers made attempts to claim parts of what is today Burkina Faso. At times these colonialists and their armies fought the local peoples; at times they forged alliances with them and made treaties. The territory of Burkina Faso was invaded by France, becoming a French protectorate in 1896. The eastern and western regions, where a standoff against the forces of the powerful ruler Samori Ture complicated the situation, came under French occupation in 1897.
By 1898, the majority of the territory corresponding to Burkina Faso was nominally conquered, however, French control of many parts remained uncertain. The Franco-British Convention of the 14th of June 1898 created the country's modern borders. In the French territory, a war of conquest against local communities and political powers continued for about five years. In 1904, the largely pacified territories of the Volta basin were integrated into the Upper Senegal and Niger colony of French West Africa as part of the reorganization of the French West African colonial empire. The colony had its capital in Bamako.
The language of colonial administration and schooling became French. The public education system started from humble origins. Advanced education was provided for many years during the colonial period in Dakar. The indigenous population was highly discriminated against. For example, African children were not allowed to ride bicycles or pick fruit from trees, privileges reserved for the children of colonists. Violating these regulations could land parents in jail. Draftees from the territory participated in the European fronts of World War I in the battalions of the Senegalese Rifles.
Between 1915 and 1916, the districts in the western part of what is now Burkina Faso and the bordering eastern fringe of Mali became the stage of one of the most important armed oppositions to colonial government: the Volta-Bani War. The French government finally suppressed the movement but only after suffering defeats. It also had to organize its largest expeditionary force of its colonial history to send into the country to suppress the insurrection. Armed opposition wracked the Sahelian north when the Tuareg and allied groups of the Dori region ended their truce with the government.
French Upper Volta was established on the 1st of March 1919. The French feared a recurrence of armed uprising and had related economic considerations. To bolster its administration, the colonial government separated the present territory of Burkina Faso from Upper Senegal and Niger. The new colony was named Haute Volta for its location on the upper courses of the Volta River. François Charles Alexis Édouard Hesling became its first governor. Hesling initiated an ambitious road-making program to improve infrastructure and promoted the growth of cotton for export. The cotton policy based on coercion failed, and revenue generated by the colony stagnated.
The colony was dismantled on the 5th of September 1932, being split between the French colonies of Ivory Coast, French Sudan and Niger. Ivory Coast received the largest share, which contained most of the population as well as the cities of Ouagadougou and Bobo-Dioulasso. France reversed this change during the period of intense anti-colonial agitation that followed the end of World War II. On the 4th of September 1947, it revived the colony of Upper Volta, with its previous boundaries, as a part of the French Union.
On the 11th of December 1958, the colony achieved self-government as the Republic of Upper Volta; it joined the Franco-African Community. A revision in the organization of French Overseas Territories had begun with the passage of the Basic Law of the 23rd of July 1956. This act was followed by reorganization measures approved by the French parliament early in 1957 to ensure a large degree of self-government for individual territories. Upper Volta became an autonomous republic in the French community on the 11th of December 1958. Full independence from France was received in 1960.
When did archaeological excavations in Burkina Faso uncover tools dating back to 14,000 BC?
Archaeological excavations in Burkina Faso uncovered scrapers, chisels, and arrowheads dating between 14,000 BC and 5,000 BC during the year 1973. These tools belonged to hunter-gatherer communities that populated the northwestern part of what is now Burkina Faso.
What was the name change for Upper Volta on the 2nd of August 1984?
On the 2nd of August 1984, the country's name changed from Upper Volta to Burkina Faso, which means land of the honest men. The presidential decree confirming this change was ratified by the National Assembly on the 4th of August 1984.
Who assassinated Thomas Sankara and when did the coup occur?
Thomas Sankara and twelve other government officials were assassinated in a coup d'état organized by Blaise Compaoré on the 15th of October 1987. Compaoré took over as Burkina Faso's president following the assassination.
When did the jihadist insurgency begin in Burkina Faso and how many people died in the Solhan village attack?
A Jihadist insurgency began in Burkina Faso in August 2015. On the 4th of June 2021, gunmen killed at least 100 people in Solhan village near the Niger border according to the government of Burkina Faso.
What percentage of Burkina Faso's export earnings comes from gold production?
Gold accounts for roughly 70% of Burkina Faso's export earnings with production valued at $7.18 billion representing an estimated 16% of the country's gross domestic product in 2023.
The Republic of Upper Volta was established on the 11th of December 1958 as a self-governing colony within the French Community. The name Upper Volta related to the nation's location along the upper reaches of the Volta River. The river's three tributaries, the Black, White and Red Volta, were expressed in the three colors of the former national flag. Before attaining autonomy, it had been French Upper Volta and part of the French Union. On the 5th of August 1960, it attained full independence from France. The first president, Maurice Yaméogo, was the leader of the Voltaic Democratic Union.
Soon after coming to power, Yaméogo banned all political parties other than the UDV. The government lasted until 1966. After much unrest, including mass demonstrations and strikes by students, labor unions, and civil servants, the military intervened. Lt. Col. Sangoulé Lamizana took control at the head of a government of senior army officers. The army remained in power for four years. On the 14th of June 1976, the Voltans ratified a new constitution that established a four-year transition period toward complete civilian rule.
Lamizana remained in power throughout the 1970s as president of military or mixed civil-military governments. His rule coincided with the beginning of the Sahel drought and famine which had a devastating impact on Upper Volta and neighboring countries. After conflict over the 1976 constitution, a new constitution was written and approved in 1977. Lamizana was re-elected by open elections in 1978. Lamizana's government faced problems with the country's traditionally powerful trade unions, and on the 25th of November 1980, Col. Saye Zerbo overthrew President Lamizana in a bloodless coup.
Colonel Zerbo established the Military Committee of Recovery for National Progress as the supreme governmental authority, thus eradicating the 1977 constitution. Colonel Zerbo also encountered resistance from trade unions and was overthrown two years later by Maj. Dr. Jean-Baptiste Ouédraogo and the Council of Popular Salvation in the 1982 Upper Voltan coup d'état. The CSP continued to ban political parties and organizations, yet promised a transition to civilian rule and a new constitution.
Infighting developed between the right and left factions of the CSP. The leader of the leftists, Capt. Thomas Sankara, was appointed prime minister in January 1983, but was subsequently arrested. Efforts to free him, directed by Capt. Blaise Compaoré, resulted in a military coup d'état on the 4th of August 1983. The coup brought Sankara to power and his government began to implement a series of revolutionary programs which included mass-vaccinations, infrastructure improvements, the expansion of women's rights, encouragement of domestic agricultural consumption, and anti-desertification projects.
On the 2nd of August 1984, on Sankara's initiative, the country's name changed from Upper Volta to Burkina Faso, or land of the honest men. The presidential decree was confirmed by the National Assembly on the 4th of August 1984. Sankara's government comprised the National Council for the Revolution with Sankara as its president, and established popular Committees for the Defense of the Revolution. The Pioneers of the Revolution youth programme was also established.
Sankara launched an ambitious socioeconomic programme for change, one of the largest ever undertaken on the African continent. His foreign policies centred on anti-imperialism, with his government rejecting all foreign aid, pushing for odious debt reduction, nationalising all land and mineral wealth and averting the power and influence of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank. His domestic policies included a nationwide literacy campaign, land redistribution to peasants, railway and road construction and the outlawing of female genital mutilation, forced marriages and polygamy.
Sankara pushed for agrarian self-sufficiency and promoted public health by vaccinating 2,500,000 children against meningitis, yellow fever, and measles. His national agenda also included planting more than 10,000,000 trees to halt the growing desertification of the Sahel. Sankara called on every village to build a medical dispensary and had more than 350 communities build schools with their own labour. In the 1980s, when ecological awareness was still very low, Sankara was one of the few African leaders to consider environmental protection a priority.
As part of a development program involving a large part of the population, ten million trees were planted in Burkina Faso in fifteen months during the revolution. To face the advancing desert and recurrent droughts, Sankara also proposed the planting of wooded strips about fifty kilometers wide, crossing the country from east to west. Cereal production, close to 1.1 billion tons before 1983, was predicted to rise to 1.6 billion tons in 1987. Jean Ziegler, former UN special rapporteur for the right to food, said that the country had become food self-sufficient.
Coup And Counter-Coup
On the 15th of October 1987, Sankara and twelve other government officials were assassinated in a coup d'état organized by Blaise Compaoré, Sankara's former colleague, who took over as Burkina Faso's president. He held the position until October 2014. After the coup and although Sankara was known to be dead, some Committees for the Defense of the Revolution mounted an armed resistance to the army for several days. A majority of Burkinabè citizens hold that France's foreign ministry, the Quai d'Orsay, was behind Compaoré in organizing the coup.
There is some evidence for France's support of the coup. Compaoré gave the deterioration in relations with neighbouring countries as one of the reasons for the coup. He argued that Sankara had jeopardised foreign relations with the former colonial power and with neighbouring Ivory Coast. Following the coup, Compaoré immediately reversed the nationalizations, overturned nearly all of Sankara's policies, returned the country back into the IMF fold, and ultimately spurned most of Sankara's legacy.
Following an alleged coup-attempt in 1989, Compaoré introduced limited democratic reforms in 1990. Under the new constitution of 1991, Compaoré was re-elected without opposition in December 1991. In 1998 Compaoré won election in a landslide. In 2004, 13 people were tried for plotting a coup against President Compaoré and the coup's alleged mastermind was sentenced to life imprisonment.
In 2000, the constitution was amended to reduce the presidential term to five years and set term limits to two, preventing successive re-election. The amendment took effect during the 2005 elections. If passed beforehand, it would have prevented Compaoré from being reelected. Other presidential candidates challenged the election results. But in October 2005, the constitutional council ruled that the amendment would not apply until the end of his second term in office. This cleared the way for his candidacy in the 2005 election. On the 13th of November 2005, he was reelected in a landslide. In the 2010 presidential election, Compaoré was re-elected. Only 1.6 million Burkinabè voted, out of a total population 10 times that size.
In February 2011, the death of a schoolboy provoked the 2011 Burkinabè protests, a series of popular protests, coupled with a military mutiny and a magistrates' strike, that called for Compaoré's resignation, democratic reforms, higher wages for troops and public servants and economic freedom. As a result, governors were replaced and wages for public servants were raised. In April 2011, there was an army mutiny; the president named new chiefs of staff, and a curfew was imposed in Ouagadougou.
Compaoré's government played the role of negotiator in several West-African disputes, including the 2010, 2011 Ivorian crisis, the Inter-Togolese Dialogue of 2007, and the 2012 Malian Crisis. Starting on the 28th of October 2014 protesters began to march and demonstrate in Ouagadougou against President Compaoré, who appeared ready to amend the constitution and extend his rule. On the 30th of October protesters set fire to the parliament building and took over the national TV headquarters.
Ouagadougou International Airport closed and MPs suspended the vote on changing the constitution. Later in the day, the military dissolved all government institutions and imposed a curfew. On the 31st of October 2014, Compaoré resigned. Lt. Col. Isaac Zida said that he would lead the country during its transitional period before the planned 2015 presidential election, but there were concerns over his close ties to the former president.
In November 2014 opposition parties, civil-society groups and religious leaders adopted a plan for a transitional authority to guide Burkina Faso to elections. Under the plan Michel Kafando became the transitional president and Lt. Col. Zida became the acting Prime Minister and Defense Minister. On the 16th of September 2015, the Regiment of Presidential Security carried out a coup d'état, seizing the president and prime minister and then declaring the National Council for Democracy the new national government.
However, on the 22nd of September 2015, the coup leader, Gilbert Diendéré, apologized and promised to restore civilian government. On the 23rd of September 2015 the prime minister and interim president were restored to power. General elections took place on the 29th of November 2015. Roch Marc Christian Kaboré won the election in the first round with 53.5% of the vote, defeating businessman Zéphirin Diabré, who took 29.7%. Kaboré was sworn in as president on the 29th of December 2015.
Jihadist Insurgency
A Jihadist insurgency began in August 2015, part of the Islamist insurgency in the Sahel. Between August 2015 and October 2016, seven different posts were attacked across the country. On the 15th of January 2016, terrorists attacked the capital city of Ouagadougou, killing 30 people. Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb and Al-Mourabitoune claimed responsibility for the attack. In 2016, attacks increased after a new group Ansarul Islam, led by imam Ibrahim Malam Dicko, was founded.
Its attacks focused particularly on Soum province and it killed dozens of people in the attack on Nassoumbou on the 16th of December. Between the 27th of March and the 10th of April 2017, the governments of Mali, France, and Burkina Faso launched a joint operation named Operation Panga, which involved 1,300 soldiers from the three countries, in the Fhero Forest, near the Burkina Faso-Mali border, considered a sanctuary for Ansarul Islam. The head of Ansarul Islam, Ibrahim Malam Dicko, was killed in June 2017 and Jafar Dicko became leader.
On the 2nd of March 2018, Jama'at Nasr al-Islam wal Muslimin attacked the French embassy in Ouagadougou as well as the general staff of the Burkinabè army. Eight soldiers and eight attackers were killed, and a further 61 soldiers and 24 civilians were injured. The insurgency expanded to the east of the country, and in early October, the Armed Forces of Burkina Faso launched a major military operation in the country's East, supported by French forces.
According to Human Rights Watch, between mid-2018 to February 2019, at least 42 people were murdered by jihadists and a minimum of 116 mostly Fulani civilians were killed by military forces without trial. The attacks increased significantly in 2019. According to the ACLED, armed violence in Burkina Faso jumped by 174% in 2019, with nearly 1,300 civilians dead and 860,000 displaced. Jihadist groups also began to specifically target Christians.
On the 8th of July 2020, the United States raised concerns after a Human Rights Watch report revealed mass graves with at least 180 bodies, which were found in northern Burkina Faso where soldiers were fighting jihadists. On the 4th of June 2021, the Associated Press reported that according to the government of Burkina Faso, gunmen killed at least 100 people in Solhan village in northern Burkina Faso near the Niger border. A local market and several homes were also burned down. A government spokesman blamed jihadists.
Heni Nsaibia, senior researcher at the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project said it was the deadliest attack recorded in Burkina Faso since the beginning of the jihadist insurgency. From 4, the 5th of June 2021, unknown militants massacred more than 170 people in the villages of Solhan and Tadaryat. Jihadists killed 80 people in Gorgadji on the 20th of August. On the 14th of November, the Jama'at Nasr al-Islam wal Muslimin attacked a gendarmerie in Inata, killing 53 soldiers, the heaviest loss of life by the Burkinabe military during the insurgency, and a major morale loss in the country.
In December Islamists killed 41 people in an ambush, including the popular vigilante leader Ladji Yoro. Yoro was a central figure in the Volunteers for the Defense of the Homeland, a pro-government militia that had taken a leading role in the struggle against Islamists. In 2023, shortly after the murder of a Catholic priest by insurgents, the bishop of Dori, Laurent Dabiré, claimed in an interview with Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need that around 50% of the country was in the hands of Islamists.
Gold And Agriculture
Burkina Faso remains one of the least developed countries in the world, with an economy based primarily on subsistence farming and livestock raising. The country has an average income purchasing-power-parity per capita of $2,980 and nominal per capita of $1,110 in 2025. More than 80% of the population relies on subsistence agriculture, with only a small fraction directly involved in industry and services. A large part of the economic activity of the country is funded by international aid, despite having gold ores in abundance.
Economic overview showed signs of recovery in recent years. According to the World Bank, the economy grew by 4.9% in 2024 compared to 3.0% in 2023. Real per capita GDP growth also increased from 0.7% to 2.5% over the same period. This acceleration was attributed mainly to the performance of services and agriculture, supported by an improved security situation, favorable weather conditions, and increased government support to the agriculture sector. However, inflation increased in 2024 to 4.2% from 0.7% in 2023, driven by spikes in food prices caused by market speculation linked to a late start to the rainy season.
Despite this, the strong growth in the agriculture and services sectors in 2024 reduced the extreme poverty rate by 3 points to 23.2%, with a sharper decline in rural areas. Nevertheless, the absolute number of people living in poverty remains high, exceeding 5.5 million. The country faces significant economic challenges, including highly variable rainfall patterns, poor soils, lack of adequate communications and other infrastructure, low literacy rate, high population density with few natural resources, and fragile soil conditions.
Agriculture represents approximately 32% of Burkina Faso's gross domestic product and occupies 80% of the working population. It consists mostly of rearing livestock, especially in the south and southwest, where people grow crops of sorghum, pearl millet, maize, peanuts, rice and cotton, with surpluses to be sold. Cotton is the main cash crop.
There is mining of copper, iron, manganese, gold, cassiterite, and phosphates. These operations provide employment and generate international aid. Gold production increased 32% in 2011 at six gold mine sites, making Burkina Faso the fourth-largest gold producer in Africa, after South Africa, Mali and Ghana. Gold accounts for roughly 70% of Burkina Faso's export earnings. With production of 66.9 tons valued at $7.18 billion, gold accounted for an estimated 16% of Burkina Faso's gross domestic product in 2023.
However, since then, gold production has declined dramatically owing to growing insecurity, which has led to the closure of 7 out of the country's 17 industrial mines including Inata, Taparko, Karma, Boungou, Youga, Nétiana, Yaramoko. The junta has also nationalized five mines. Industrial gold production has subsequently dropped by 20% to 53.4 tons. Zabsone et al. show that gold extraction increases household expenditures and reduces poverty rates in producing municipalities. Nevertheless, it also increased inequality and child labor.
Languages And Faith
The total fertility rate of Burkina Faso was estimated to be 4.02 children born per woman in 2024, the 23rd highest in the world. In 2009 the U.S. Department of State's Trafficking in Persons Report reported that slavery in Burkina Faso continued to exist and that Burkinabè children were often the victims. Slavery in the Sahel states in general, is an entrenched institution with a long history that dates back to the trans-Saharan slave trade. In 2018, an estimated 82,000 people in the country were living under modern slavery according to the Global Slavery Index.
Burkina Faso's 23 million people belong to two major West African ethnic cultural groups: the Voltaic and the Mandé whose common language is Dioula. The Voltaic Mossi make up about one-half of the population. The Mossi claim descent from warriors who migrated to present-day Burkina Faso from northern Ghana around 1100 AD. They established an empire that lasted more than 800 years. Predominantly farmers, the Mossi kingdom is led by the Mogho Naba, whose court is in Ouagadougou. There are approximately 5,000 Europeans.
The Mooré language is the most spoken language in Burkina Faso, spoken by about half the population, mainly in the central region around the capital, Ouagadougou. According to the 2006 census, the languages spoken natively in Burkina Faso were Mooré by 40.5% of the population, Fula by 9.3%, Gourmanché by 6.1%, Bambara by 4.9%, Bissa by 3.2%, Bwamu by 2.1%, Dagara by 2%, San by 1.9%, Lobiri with 1.8%, Lyélé with 1.7%, Bobo and Sénoufo with 1.4% each, Nuni by 1.2%, Dafing by 1.1%, Tamasheq by 1%, Kassem by 0.7%, Gouin by 0.4%, Dogon, Songhai, and Gourounsi by 0.3% each, Ko, Koussassé, Sembla, and Siamou by 0.1% each, other national languages by 5%, other African languages by 0.2%, French an official language at the time by 1.3%, and other non-indigenous languages by 0.1%.
In the west, Mandé languages are widely spoken, the most predominant being Dyula also known as Jula or Dioula, others including Bobo, Samo, and Marka. Fula is widespread, particularly in the north. Gourmanché is spoken in the east, while Bissa is spoken in the south. The government of Burkina Faso's 2019 census reported that 63.8% of the population practiced Islam, and that the majority of this group belong to the Sunni branch. A significant number of Sunni Muslims identify with the Tijaniyah Sufi order.
The 2019 census also found that 26.3% of the population were Christians 20.1% being Roman Catholics and 6.2% members of Protestant denominations and 9.0% followed traditional indigenous beliefs such as the Dogon religion, 0.2% followed other religions, and 0.7% were non-religious. Animists are the largest religious group in the country's Sud-Ouest region, forming 48.1% of its total population.