Day 29: Burkina Faso

[Tetro Kornbluth]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burkina_Faso



To the Anglophone mind perhaps the most strikingly named African country, especially after finding out that the capital is called Ouagadougou (I believe it is pronounced Ah-wog-ah-doo-goo). In colonial times it was called Upper Volta after the main river which has its source in the country. Since independence in 1960 it has followed a sort of standard pattern for the former French colonies in Africa with government run by autocrats close to France with a series of military coups breaking up periods of autocracy only to soon recreate it with occasional popular uprisings breaking out. A sort of exception to this pattern was the government of Thomas Sankara (1983-87) 'the African Che' who took a hardline anti-colonialist and Marxist pan-Africianist position towards Burkina Faso's problems (it was Sankara who renamed the country Burkina Faso meaning 'land of the honest people' in a mixture of the Mossi and Dioula languages as a type of Africanist synthesis). This led to great public health initiative but predictably an authoritarian and highly centralist regime which was eventually overthrown (and Sankara killed) with assistance from the west, especially France. The new government, that of Blaise Compaoré, enjoyed unusual stability for Burkina Faso ruling from 1987 to 2014 until he was overthrown in a popular uprising (many of whose main participants had major Sankaraist sympathies). Since then there has been great instability (including another - failed - coup recently) as Burkina Faso tries to find a new system of government. Like most of African states in the region it is a mix of various differing not altogether similar ethnic groups with a population divided between Muslims (60%) and the rest, the rest mainly being Christianity and Animists - although all faiths show a great deal of mixture and hybridity with local beliefs and practices. All this is held together by a governmental and legal system handed down from the colonizer. Yet despite this Burkina Faso, like all other West African states, continues on.

Below is an interesting map showing annual rainfall levels in Burkina Faso for each decade since 1971. As you can see it is going up - albeit imperfectly (taken from here)

[DavidB.]

It is not pronounced "ah-woh-ga-do-goo" but "wah-gah-do-goo".

[Simfan34]

Or just Wagadugu. Silly French.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

'He who feeds you, controls you.' --Thomas Sankara

[Antonio the Sixth]

'He who feeds you, controls you.' --Thomas Sankara

Ugh, beat me to it.

Seriously though, Sankara was probably one of the better African rulers of his time (not that that's saying much...).

[Simfan34]

'He who feeds you, controls you.' --Thomas Sankara

Ugh, beat me to it.

Seriously though, Sankara was probably one of the better African rulers of his time (not that that's saying much...).

Would have almost certainly ended up like Nkrumah-- that is to say, rather badly.

[Famous Mortimer]

'He who feeds you, controls you.' --Thomas Sankara

but as long as he's feedin' me, he cool.