Burkina Faso

Mossi horsemen founded kingdoms on the central plateau from about the 15th century — Ouagadougou, Yatenga, Tenkodogo — with a structured court under the Mogho Naba. They resisted absorption by Mali and Songhai; the Mogho Naba's Friday ceremony in Ouagadougou still re-enacts a royal legend. Gurunsi, Bobo, Lobi and Senufo peoples in the south and west lived in smaller, decentralised societies.

France conquered the region in the late 1890s and created Upper Volta in 1919, dissolved it between 1932 and 1947 to supply labour to Côte d'Ivoire and Mali, then restored it. Independence came in 1960, followed by a series of military governments.

In 1983 Captain Thomas Sankara took power, renamed the country Burkina Faso, launched vaccination and literacy drives, banned female genital cutting and forced marriage, and denounced foreign debt. He was killed in 1987 in a coup that brought his comrade Blaise Compaoré to power for 27 years; a trial convicted Compaoré in absentia in 2022.

A popular uprising drove Compaoré out in 2014. From 2015 jihadist groups from Mali spread into the north and east, and attacks hit Ouagadougou's hotels and cafés. Two coups in 2022 brought Captain Ibrahim Traoré to power; the transition was extended to 2029 and Burkina left ECOWAS with Mali and Niger in January 2025.

The Mossi make up about half the population; Fula herders, Gurunsi, Bobo, Senufo, Lobi, Gourmantché and Dioula traders share the rest. Joking relationships (rakiire) between groups — Mossi and Samo, for example — let people tease each other freely and have been credited with keeping ethnic peace.

Burkina has long been a model of religious coexistence: Muslims, Catholics, Protestants and followers of traditional religion often share one family. Masks carved and danced by the Bwa, Bobo and Nuna appear at funerals and harvest festivals. The insurgency has targeted Fula communities with suspicion and churches and mosques with attacks, straining that balance.

Burkina lies on a plateau of 250–350 m, drained by the three Volta rivers (Black, White and Red) flowing south to Ghana. The north is Sahel steppe with dunes; the south-west is greener, with the Banfora cliffs, the Karfiguéla falls and the Sindou peaks.

The rains run roughly June to September; the dry season brings the Harmattan and temperatures near 40 °C in March–April. The W-Arly-Pendjari park complex in the east, shared with Niger and Benin, is on the UNESCO list but has become a base for armed groups.

FESPACO, the Pan-African Film and Television Festival of Ouagadougou, has been held in odd-numbered years since 1969 and awards the Étalon de Yennenga, Africa's top film prize. Directors Idrissa Ouédraogo and Gaston Kaboré made Burkinabè cinema known abroad. The SIAO crafts fair brings artisans from across the continent.

Bronze casting by the lost-wax method, Faso Dan Fani hand-woven cotton (promoted as national dress since Sankara) and the painted houses of Tiébélé in Gurunsi country are signature crafts. Food is tô, a stiff millet or maize porridge with okra or sorrel sauce, riz gras, grilled chicken (poulet bicyclette), and dolo, a millet beer brewed by women.