![]() The famous troops known as the “Senegalese Sharpshooters” (Tirailleurs Sénégalais) were in fact recruited all over French West Africa, and Burkinabe were especially heavily represented. Many Burkinabe, especially Mossi, served the French colonial army. Burkinabe who once worked as laborers on Ivoirien farms now have cocoa or coffee farms of their own, or work in urban trades and professions. There the Mossi are said to be the second-largest ethnic group. ![]() Burkinabe were 11% of the population of Côte d'Ivoire in the 1988 census. ![]() Since the 1960s, the original, seasonal migration has given way to longer-term settlement in these countries. For the first two-thirds of the century this migration was largely seasonal, as the agriculturally dead dry season at home in Burkina coincided with the peak demand for farm labor in the coastal countries' farms. Because little could be grown for sale in Burkina, many people worked as migrant laborers in the coffee and cocoa farms and mines of the British Gold Coast Colony and the Côte d'Ivoire. This required Burkinabe peoples, who previously had used cowry shells from the Indian Ocean as money, to grow, mine, make, or do something that French were willing to pay for, which was the intent of the tax program. In the 1960s and 1970s, three civilian governments were overthrown by the military in bloodless coups-d'état, but series of coups in the 1980s turned Upper Volta from a major recipient of Western foreign aid to a revolutionary government and back again to a country cooperating with the World Bank's “ Structural Adjustment” program to increase free-market economies.īy the early 1900s the French had imposed taxation on the new colony, taxes required to be paid in French francs. Upper Volta was recreated in order to reduce Houphouët-Boigny's territory and to reward the leading Mossi king, the Mogho Naba, for his support in turning out unpaid labor to extend the Abidjan railroad, the country's link to the outside world, from the Western city of Bobo-Dioulasso to the capital, Ouagadougou.īurkina Faso became independent in 1960, but it remains closely linked to France. The restoration of the colony was due in part to the postwar alliance of pro-independence African political leaders like Félix Houphouët-Boigny in the latter colony with the French communist party, the only French party willing to even consider such a step. The colony went bankrupt during the Great Depression, and from 1933 until 1947 Upper Volta was divided between Soudan (now Mali), Niger, and Côte d'Ivoire. However, the lack of money to support the colonial regime in Burkina Faso meant that the French had to rely upon the traditional rulers, especially the kings and chiefs of the Mossi, the largest ethnic group, to administer the colony. The French, much more than the British, intended to assimilate the peoples they ruled to French values and institutions. The French conquered it in 1896–97, just ahead of expeditions of the British from what is now Ghana and Germans from Togo. The new name, Burkina Faso, was adopted as part of the Revolution of 1983 to signify a fresh start for the country, and is a name created from words of three languages in the country to mean “country of upright or incorruptible men.” The shorter form Burkina is commonly used Burkinabe is the adjectival form of the name and is the singular and plural term for the country's citizens.īurkina Faso was one of the last parts of Africa to be conquered by Europeans. Known as Upper Volta until 1984, the former French colony has struggled against drought, isolation with respect to transportation for exports, and a general lack of money for development. 1: Dyula Mossi Tuaregs INTRODUCTIONīurkina Faso is one of the economically poorest countries in Africa, and one of the least known to Americans. RELIGION: Islam, traditional religions, Christianity LANGUAGE: French, Gur Group (Niger-Congo family of languages), Bobo-Dioulasso
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