Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
UNDERSTAND BURKINA FASO
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Burkina Faso Today
Burkina Faso stands out as a beacon of stability in a region rocked by insecurity. Despite
widespread riots in 2011, the country managed to steer itself back on course and held
peaceful municipal and legislative elections in December 2012. There are still rumblings
about the state of the country - Burkina ranks 181st out of 187 countries on the UN's Hu-
man Development Index - and a president who has been in power for 25 years, but Burkin-
abés mostly just want to get on with things.
The economy has been steadily growing over the past decade, averaging more than 5%
per year between 2000 and 2010. It remains overly reliant on cotton export, however, and a
recent gold rush - which has seen a huge increase in illegal mining - has increased the
country's exposure to market fluctuations. Socially, Burkina's biggest challenges are to im-
prove access to education (the child literacy rate remains under 30%) and address chronic
food insecurity.
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History
The Mossi & the French
Little is known about Burkina Faso's early history, though archaelogical finds suggest the
country was populated as far back as the Stone Age. Its modern history starts with the
Mossi peoples (now almost half of Burkina Faso's population), who moved westward from
settlements near the Niger River in the 13th century; they founded their first kingdom in
what is now Ouagadougou. Three more Mossi states were subsequently established in other
parts of the country, all paying homage to Ouagadougou, the strongest. The government of
each of the Mossi states was highly organised, with ministers, courts and a cavalry known
for its devastating attacks against the Muslim empires in Mali.
During the Scramble for Africa in the second half of the 19th century, the French ex-
ploited rivalries between the different Mossi kingdoms and established their sway over the
region. At first the former Mossi states were assimilated into the Colonie du Haut Sénégal-
