Iron production occurred in regions near Douroula at least as far back as the 8th century BC and was widely practiced across the region by the 5th century BC.[1] Furnaces, mines, and surrounding dwellings dating from this time period are found across the country.
Recent archeological discoveries at Bura in southwest Niger and in adjacent southwest Burkina Faso have documented the existence of the iron-ageBura culture from the 3rd century to the 13th century. The Bura-Asinda system of settlements apparently covered the lower Niger River valley, including the Boura region of Burkina Faso. Further research is needed to understand the role this early civilization played in the ancient and medievalhistory of West Africa.[2]
Loropéni is an ancient stone ruin which was linked to the gold trade between the 14th and 17th centuries. It is a World Heritage Site.
From medieval times until the end of the 19th century, the central region of present-day Burkina Faso was ruled by the Mossi people, descendants of warriors of the Dagomba people of present-day Ghana, who mixed with Mandé and other local peoples in the 11th century. During this time the Mossi Kingdoms successfully defended their territory, religious beliefs and social structure against forcible attempts at conquest and conversion by their Muslim neighbors to the northwest.[3]
The French arrived and claimed the area in 1896, but Mossi resistance ended only with the capture of their capital Ouagadougou in 1901.[4] In 1919, certain provinces from Ivory Coast were united into French Upper Volta in the French West Africa federation.[3] In 1932, the new colony was split up for economic reasons; it was reconstituted in 1937 as an administrative division called the Upper Coast.[3] After World War II, the Mossi actively pressured the French for separate territorial status and on September 4, 1947, Upper Volta became a French West African territory again in its own right.[3]
A revision in the organization of French Overseas Territories began with the passage of the Basic Law (Loi Cadre) of July 23, 1956.[3] This act was followed by reorganizational measures approved by the French parliament early in 1957 that ensured a large degree of self-government for individual territories.[3] Upper Volta became an autonomous republic in the French community on December 11, 1958.[3] On July 11, 1960, France agreed to Upper Volta becoming fully independent.[3][5]
Republic of Upper Volta
The Republic of Upper Volta declared independence on 5 August 1960.[3] The first president, Maurice Yaméogo,[3] was the leader of the Voltaic Democratic Union (UDV).[6] The 1960 constitution provided for election by universal suffrage of a president and a national assembly for 5-year terms.[3] Soon after coming to power, Yaméogo banned all political parties other than the UDV. Yaméogo's government was viewed as corrupt and said to perpetuate neo-colonialism by favoring French political and economic interests which had allowed politicians to enrich themselves but not the nation's peasants or small class of urban workers.[7]
The government lasted until 1966 when[4]—after much unrest including mass demonstrations and strikes by students, labor unions, and civil servants[8]—the military intervened and deposed Yaméogo in the 1966 Upper Voltan coup d'état.[4] The coup leaders suspended the constitution, dissolved the National Assembly,[9] and placed Lieutenant Colonel Sangoulé Lamizana at the head of a government of senior army officers.[4] The army remained in power for 4 years; on June 14, 1970, the Voltans ratified a new constitution that established a 4-year transition period toward complete civilian rule.[3] Lamizana remained in power throughout the 1970s as president of military or mixed civil-military governments.[4] He faced a major crisis in the form of the Sahel drought and was sent in 1973 to the UN and the US in order to secure aid.[10] After conflict over the 1970 constitution, a new constitution was written and approved in 1977, and Lamizana was reelected by open elections in 1978.
Lamizana's government faced problems with the country's traditionally powerful trade unions,[9] and on November 25, 1980,[11] Colonel Saye Zerbo overthrew President Lamizana in a bloodless coup.[4] Colonel Zerbo established the Military Committee of Recovery for National Progress as the supreme governmental authority, thus eradicating the 1977 constitution.[12]
Colonel Zerbo also encountered resistance from trade unions and was overthrown two years later on November 7, 1982, by Major Dr. Jean-Baptiste Ouédraogo and the Council of Popular Salvation (CSP).[4][13] 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.[4] The leader of the leftists, Capt. Thomas Sankara, was appointed prime minister in January1983, but subsequently arrested.[4] Efforts to free him, directed by Capt. Blaise Compaoré, resulted in a military coup d'état on 4August 1983.[4]
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.[14]
On 2August 1984,[15] on President Sankara's initiative, the country's name was changed from Upper Volta to Burkina Faso (land of the upright/honest people).[16][17][18] The presidential decree was confirmed by the National Assembly on 4 August.
Sankara launched an ambitious socioeconomic programme for change, one of the largest ever undertaken on the African continent.[14] His foreign policies were centred on anti-imperialism, his government denying 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 (IMF) 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.[19][14]
Sankara pushed for agrarian self-sufficiency and promoted public health by vaccinating 2,500,000 children against meningitis, yellow fever, and measles.[19] His national agenda also included planting over 10,000,000 trees to halt the growing desertification of the Sahel. Sankara called on every village to build a medical dispensary and had over 350 communities build schools with their own labour.[14][20]
On Christmas Day 1985, tensions with Mali over the mineral-rich Agacher Strip erupted in a war that lasted five days and killed about 100 people. The conflict ended after mediation by President Félix Houphouët-Boigny of Ivory Coast. The conflict is known as the "Christmas war" in Burkina Faso.
Many of the strict austerity measures taken by Sankara met with growing resistance and disagreement.[4] Despite his initial popularity and personal charisma, problems began to surface in the implementation of the revolutionary ideals.
The CDRs, which were formed as popular mass organizations, deteriorated in some areas into gangs of armed thugs and clashed with several trade unions. Tensions over the repressive tactics of the government and its overall direction mounted steadily. On October 15, 1987, Sankara was assassinated in a coup which brought Captain Blaise Compaoré to power.
Blaise Compaoré
Compaoré, Captain Henri Zongo, and Major Jean-Baptiste Boukary Lengani formed the Popular Front (FP),[21] which pledged to continue and pursue the goals of the revolution and to "rectify" Sankara's "deviations" from the original aims.[4] The new government, in aims of bourgeois support, tacitly moderated many of Sankara's policies. As part of a much-discussed political "opening" process, several political organizations, three of them non-Marxist, were accepted under an umbrella political organization created in June 1989 by the FP.
Some members of the leftist Organisation pour la Démocratie Populaire/Mouvement du Travail (ODP/MT) were against the admission of non-Marxist groups in the front. On September 18, 1989, while Compaoré was returning from a two-week trip to Asia, Lengani and Zongo were accused of plotting to overthrow the Popular Front. They were arrested and summarily executed the same night. Compaoré reorganized the government, appointed several new ministers, and assumed the portfolio of Minister of Defense and Security. On December 23, 1989, a presidential security detail arrested about 30 civilians and military personnel accused of plotting a coup in collaboration with the Burkinabe external opposition.
Burkina Faso adopted a new constitution on June 2, 1991.
In 2005, Compaoré elected to his third term. In November 2010, President Compaoré was re–elected for a fourth straight term. He won 80.2% of the vote, while Hama Arba Diallo came a distant second with 8.2%.
In February 2011, the death of a schoolboy provoked an uprising in the entire country, lasting through April 2011, which was coupled with a military mutiny and with a strike of the magistrates. See 2011 Burkina Faso uprising[fr].
In June 2014 Compaoré's ruling party, the CDP, called on him to organise a referendum that would allow him to alter the constitution in order to seek re-election in 2015; otherwise he would be forced to step down due to term limits.[22]
On 30 October 2014 the National Assembly was scheduled to debate an amendment to the constitution which would have enabled Compaoré to stand for re-election as president in 2015. Opponents protested this by storming the parliament building in Ouagadougou, starting fires inside it and looting offices; billowing smoke was reported to be coming from the building by the BBC.[23] Opposition spokesman Pargui Emile Paré, of the People's Movement for Socialism / Federal Party, described the protests as "Burkina Faso’s black spring, like the Arab spring".[24]
Compaoré reacted to the events by shelving the proposed constitutional changes, dissolving the government, declaring a state of emergency and offering to work with the opposition to resolve the crisis. Later in the day, the military, under General Honore Traore, announced that it would install a transitional government "in consultation with all parties" and that the National Assembly was dissolved; he foresaw "a return to the constitutional order" within a year. He did not make clear what role, if any, he envisioned for Compaoré during the transitional period.[25][26][27] Compaoré said that he was prepared to leave office at the end of the transition.[28]
On October 31 Compaoré announced he had left the presidency and that there was a "power vacuum"; he also called for a "free and transparent" election within 90 days. Yacouba Isaac Zida then took over the reins as head of state in an interim capacity.[29]
On 17 November 2014, a civilian, Michel Kafando, was chosen to replace Zida as transitional head of state, and he was sworn in on 18 November.[30] Kafando then appointed Zida as Prime Minister of Burkina Faso on 19 November 2014.[31]
On 19 July 2015, amidst tensions between the military and Prime Minister Zida, Kafando stripped Zida of the defense portfolio and took over the portfolio himself. He also took over the security portfolio, previously held by Zida's ally Auguste Denise Barry.[32] As part of the same reshuffle, he appointed Moussa Nébié to replace himself as Minister of Foreign Affairs.[33]
The military chief of staff (the chef d'état-major des armées du Burkina Faso), Brigadier General Pingrenoma Zagré, called on members of the RSP to lay down their arms, promising in a statement that they would not be harmed if they surrendered peacefully.[36]
Kafando was believed to remain under house arrest until 21 September, when he was reported to have arrived at the residence of the French ambassador.[37] The regular army issued an ultimatum to the RSP to surrender by the morning of 22 September.[38]
Kafando was reinstalled as president at a ceremony on 23 September in the presence of ECOWAS leaders.[39]
On 25 September the RSP was disbanded by government decree. On 26 September the assets of Diendéré and others associated with the coup, as well as the assets of four political parties, including the CDP, were frozen by the state prosecutor.[40] Djibril Bassolé and Eddie Komboïgo, who were barred from standing as presidential candidates, both had their assets frozen. Bassolé was arrested on 29 September for allegedly supporting the coup.[41]
On 13 October 2015 it was announced that general elections would be held on 29 November 2015.[42] The Congress for Democracy and Progress was banned from running a presidential candidate, but was still able to participate in the parliamentary election.
The presidential election was won by Roch Marc Christian Kaboré of the People's Movement for Progress (MPP), who received 53% of the vote in the first round, negating the need for a second round. The parliamentary election was also won by MPP, which scored 34,71% of votes and won 55 seats in the National Assembly, followed by the Union of Progress and Reform (20,53%, 33 seats) and the Congress for Democracy and Progress (13,20%, 18 seats).
Kaboré was sworn in as president on 29 December 2015. On 7 January 2016 he appointed Paul Kaba Thieba as Prime Minister.[43]
2018 status
The 2018 CIAWorld Factbook provides this updated summary. "Burkina Faso is a poor, landlocked country that depends on adequate rainfall. Irregular patterns of rainfall, poor soil, and the lack of adequate communications and other infrastructure contribute to the economy’s vulnerability to external shocks. About 80% of the population is engaged in subsistence farming and cotton is the main cash crop. The country has few natural resources and a weak industrial base. Cotton and gold are Burkina Faso’s key exports ...The country has seen an upswing in gold exploration, production, and exports."
"While the end of the political crisis has allowed Burkina Faso’s economy to resume positive growth, the country’s fragile security situation could put these gains at risk. Political insecurity in neighboring Mali, unreliable energy supplies, and poor transportation links pose long-term challenges." Civil unrest continued to be problematic, according to the report. "The country experienced terrorist attacks in its capital in 2016, 2017, and 2018 and continues to mobilize resources to counter terrorist threats." (In 2018, several governments were warning their citizens not to travel into the northern part of the country and into several provinces in the East Region.)[44][45] The CIA report also states that "Burkina Faso's high population growth, recurring drought, pervasive and perennial food insecurity, and limited natural resources result in poor economic prospects for the majority of its citizens". The report is optimistic in some aspects, particularly the work being done with assistance by the International Monetary Fund. "A new three-year IMF program (2018-2020), approved in 2018, will allow the government to reduce the budget deficit and preserve critical spending on social services and priority public investments."[46]
In 2020 general election, President Roch Marc Christian Kaboré was re-elected. However, his party Mouvement du people MPP, failed to reach absolute parliamentary majority. It secured 56 seats out of a total of 127. The Congress for Democracy and Progress (CDP), the party of former President Blaise Compaoré, was distant second with 20 seats.[47]
On 24 January 2022, President Roch Kaboré was ousted in a military coup. Lieutenant Colonel Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba was the leader of Patriotic Movement for Safeguard and Restoration (MPSR), which included all sections of the army. MPSR announced that it had decided to end President Kabore's post.[48][49] On 31 January, the ruling military government appointed coup leader Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba as interim president. The African Union (AU) suspended the membership of Burkina Faso.[50]
On 30 September 2022 the second military coup took place and Damiba was ousted over his inability to deal with an Islamist insurgency. Captain Ibrahim Traoré took over as interim leader.[51] President Damiba resigned and left the country.[52] On 6 October 2022, Captain Ibrahim Traore was officially appointed as president of Burkina Faso.[53]
Burkina Faso is a landlocked country in West Africa. It covers an area of 274,223 km2 (105,878 sq mi), bordered by Mali to the northwest, Niger to the northeast, Benin to the southeast, Togo and Ghana to the south, and Ivory Coast to the southwest. As of 2021, the country had an estimated population of 23,674,480. Previously called Republic of Upper Volta (1958–1984), it was renamed Burkina Faso by President Thomas Sankara. Its citizens are known as Burkinabè, and its capital and largest city is Ouagadougou.
The Politics of Burkina Faso takes place in a framework of a semi-presidential republic, whereby the Prime Minister of Burkina Faso is the head of government, and of a multi-party system. The President of Burkina Faso is the head of state. Executive power is exercised by both the President and the Government. Legislative power is vested in both the government and parliament. The party system was dominated by the Congress for Democracy and Progress (CDP) until 2014. Burkina Faso's CDP fell victim to a series of demonstrations and riots, to alter the constitution and extend the former president's term in office - referred to as the 2014 Burkinabé uprising. The military then declared itself to be in power and the state shifted to an electoral autocracy. Burkina Faso lacks the foundation that would support a democracy, with its current transition to a military regime, but not all hope is lost. After an internal coup ousted Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba, the previous military head of state, a new transitional charter was adopted, naming Captain Ibrahim Traoré as president. Mr. Damiba's progressional failures on the state's security front “swung a majority of domestic opinion in favour of the MPSR”. Mr. Traoré pledged a major reinforcement of armed forces to strengthen frontline units and recruited over 3,000 more troops. As the violence becomes so entrenched, it is nonetheless expected that the security situation will remain dire in the medium term. “However, we expect that elections will still be held in 2024 as part of the army's plan to stabilise the security situation by boosting counter-terrorism operations.”
The Burkina Faso Armed Forces is the term used for the national military of Burkina Faso. The service branches of the armed forces include its Army, Air Force, National Gendarmerie and People's Militia. Being a landlocked country, Burkina Faso has no navy.
Blaise Compaoré is a Burkinabé-Ivorian former politician who served as the second president of Burkina Faso from 1987 to 2014. He was a close associate of the first president, Thomas Sankara, during the 1980s and in October 1987 he led a coup d'état during which Sankara was killed. Subsequently, he introduced a policy of 'rectification', overturning the leftist and Third Worldist policies pursued by Sankara. He won elections in 1991, 1998, 2005, and 2010, in what were considered unfair circumstances. His attempt to amend the constitution to extend his 27-year term caused the 2014 Burkinabé uprising. On 31 October 2014, Compaoré resigned, whereupon he fled to the Ivory Coast. In April 2022, he was found guilty by a special military tribunal of complicity in Sankara’s murder. He is also the longest-serving president of Burkina Faso.
Maurice Nawalagmba Yaméogo was the first President of the Republic of Upper Volta, now called Burkina Faso, from 1960 until 1966.
The Mossi are a Gur ethnic group native to modern Burkina Faso, primarily the Volta River basin. The Mossi are the largest ethnic group in Burkina Faso, constituting 52% of the population, or about 11.1 million people. The other 48% of Burkina Faso's population is composed of more than 60 ethnic groups, mainly the Gurunsi, Senufo, Lobi, Bobo, Bissa and Fulani. The Mossi speak the Mòoré language.
Burkina Faso elects on the national level a head of state – the president – and a legislature. The president is elected for a five-year term by the people. The National Assembly has 127 members, elected for a five-year term by proportional representation. Burkina Faso has held democratic elections since 1965. The history of elections has been slightly inconsistent, with the government dynamically changing at the hands of various coups, constitutional changes, and boycotts from various political parties. In 2015, the country experienced its first peaceful and fair election ever. Corruption plagued Burkina Faso's presidential elections for 50 years, but following a coup overthrowing Blaise Compaoré, the nation has seen more democratic and less corrupt electoral processes. Terrorism has played a substantial role in Burkina Faso's elections, with candidates running on the promise to keep the nation safe from the rise of Islamic jihadism they experienced in the 2010s. Historically, a few different parties have held power in Burkina. The Organization for Popular Democracy – Labour Movement was former president Compaoré's party affiliation, and thus they held power from 1987 to 2014. His party took power through a coup, and in 2014 also lost their control when the Regiment of Presidential Security overthrew the government.
Michel Kafando is a Burkinabé diplomat who served as the transitional President of Burkina Faso from 2014 to 2015. He served in the government as Minister of Foreign Affairs from 1982 to 1983 and was the Permanent Representative (Ambassador) of Burkina Faso to the United Nations from 1998 to 2011.
Articles related to Burkina Faso include:
General elections were held in Burkina Faso on 29 November 2015. The elections were the first national elections in the country since the 2014 Burkinabé uprising and the departure of President Blaise Compaoré, who had ruled Burkina Faso for 27 years. The party of former President Compaoré, the Congress for Democracy and Progress, was banned from presenting a presidential candidate in the presidential elections but was still able to participate in the parliamentary election.
Yacouba Isaac Zida is a Burkinabé military officer who briefly served as Burkina Faso's interim head of state in November 2014. He took power in the aftermath of the 2014 Burkinabé uprising, sidelining a more senior officer, Honoré Nabéré Traoré. A few weeks later, a civilian, Michel Kafando, was chosen to replace Zida as transitional head of state; Kafando then appointed Zida as Prime Minister on 19 November 2014.
The Regiment of Presidential Security, sometimes known as the Presidential Security Regiment, was the secret service organisation responsible for VIP security to the President of Burkina Faso, a landlocked country in West Africa. It was autonomous from the Army. Until 31 October 2014, the President was Blaise Compaoré, a military officer who came to power in a 1987 coup d'état. The elite unit was well known for its frequent involvement in the politics of Burkina Faso, acting as the iron fist of President Compaoré in his domination of the country. They were said to be widely feared by many people in the country, which in 2012 – two years prior to the end of Compaoré's government – was described by the Democracy Index as an "authoritarian regime".
The 1980 Upper Voltan coup d'état took place on 25 November 1980 in the Republic of Upper Volta. Following a long period of drought, famine, popular unrest and labour strikes, Colonel Saye Zerbo overthrew President Sangoulé Lamizana, another military leader. Zerbo himself would be overthrown only two years later.
The 1982 Upper Voltan coup d'état took place in the Republic of Upper Volta on 7 November 1982. The coup, led by the little-known Colonel Gabriel Yoryan Somé and a slew of other junior officers within the military, many of them political radicals, overthrew the regime of Colonel Saye Zerbo. Zerbo had previously taken power just under two years prior to his own downfall.
The 2015 Burkina Faso coup d'état attempt was a failed coup d'état launched on 16 September 2015 in Burkina Faso, when members of the Regiment of Presidential Security (RSP) – a controversial autonomous military unit, formed under President Blaise Compaoré – detained the country's government. Among those detained were the transitional President Michel Kafando, Prime Minister Yacouba Isaac Zida, and numerous members of the cabinet. This transitional government was formed in the wake of the 2014 Burkinabé uprising, when a popular movement overthrew the long-time president Compaoré, who himself had come to power in a 1987 coup against the left-wing leader Thomas Sankara. New general elections were planned for 11 October 2015.
Gilbert Diendéré is a Burkinabé military officer and the Chairman of the National Council for Democracy, the military junta that briefly seized power in Burkina Faso in the September 2015 coup d'état. He was a long-time aide to President Blaise Compaoré, serving as commander of the Regiment of Presidential Security (RSP) during Compaoré's rule. He was appointed as chairman of the junta on 17 September 2015. Diendéré currently serves a prison sentence for his role in the 1987 killing of Thomas Sankara and the 1990 killing of Dabo Boukary.
The National Council for Democracy, led by Chairman-General Gilbert Diendéré, was the ruling cabinet of the military junta of Burkina Faso from 17 to 23 September 2015. It took temporary control of the preceding cabinet led by Interim President Michel Kafando in the 2015 Burkinabé coup d'état.
Chérif Moumina Sy is a Mauritanian-born Burkinabé politician who served as the transitional Head of Parliament from 2014 to 2015.
Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba is a Burkinabè military officer who served as interim president of Burkina Faso from 31 January 2022 to 30 September 2022, when he was removed in a coup d'état, by his own military colleague Ibrahim Traoré. Damiba had come to power just eight months earlier, on 24 January 2022, when he removed President Roch Marc Christian Kaboré in a coup.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 "Upper Volta". Background Notes. Department of State, Bureau of Public Affairs, Office of Public Communications. 1979. This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
↑ Lansford, Tom (2015). Political Handbook of the World 2015. SAGE Publications. p.204. ISBN9781483371580.
↑ Benin, The Congo, Burkina Faso, Politics, Economics and Society, 1989, Joan Baxter and Keith Somerville, Pinter Publishers, London and New York, (Book)
↑ Manning, Patrick (1988). Francophone Sub-Saharan Africa: 1880-198. Cambridge: New York.
↑ The name is an amalgam of Moreburkina ("honest", "upright", or "incorruptible men") and Julafaso ("homeland"; literally "father's house"). The "-be" suffix in the name for the people – Burkinabe – comes from the Fula plural suffix for people, -ɓe.
1 2 Commemorating Thomas Sankara by Farid Omar, Group for Research and Initiative for the Liberation of Africa (GRILA), November 28, 2007
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