This annual publication covers major domestic political developments, foreign policy, and socioeconomic trends in sub-Sahara Africa. Labourdette 2007 and Manson and Knight 2006 are tourist guides. Like these two resources, the Africa Yearbook is a multicountry resource, but unlike them it is limited to Africa, and it has a helpful section on Burkina Faso. Lansdorf 2014 provides information on contemporary political affairs. The World Factbook, published by the Central Intelligence Agency, contains updated information on the people, economy, geography, communications, transportation, military, transnational issues, government organization, and current cabinet posts. A transition government has been put in place, promising elections in November 2015. President Blaise Compaoré, who took power in 1987, announced his resignation on October 31, 2014, in the midst of popular protests, and fled the country. A notable episode in its political history is the populist revolutionary government (1983–1987) of Thomas Sankara. The country became independent in 1960 as a parliamentary republic. Upper Volta was reconstituted on Septem(minus the Say district bordering the Niger River, which at the end of 1926 had been annexed to the recently created colony of Niger). It was suppressed in 1933, its territory divided between Côte d’Ivoire, French Sudan (now Mali), and Niger. Haute-Volta), with a capital in Ouagadougou. ![]() In 1919, seven districts ( cercles) were detached-partly because of uprisings during World War I, the most significant of which was the Volta-Bani War in the western Volta districts-to create Upper Volta (Fr. The French conducted conquest wars in 18, and after military “pacification” in 1904, they incorporated the territory in the large colony of Upper Senegal and Niger (Fr. The northern, Sahelian zone, home to the Fulbe, Tuareg, and Songhay (Songhai) can be considered a third ethnolinguistic and ecological zone. One of the Mande languages, Jula (also spelled Dioula), became the lingua franca of modernity in western Burkina Faso, due to the administrative preferences of the colonial period, such army recruitment, and conversions to Islam. The languages of the country belong mostly to either the Voltaic family (which includes Moore) or the Mande family. In the 19th century, a political mix of village confederations, strongmen, and merchant/warrior networks were in evidence. ![]() In contrast, the western third (the real plateau of Burkina) and the southern fringe of the country include a large number of overlapping sociolinguistic groups. The eastern part of Burkina Faso had an analogous hierarchical political structure of separate origin. Moore is the native tongue of half the population. Three political centers dominated the central plain, drained by the Nazinon and Nakambe Rivers (formerly Red and White Volta): Tenkodogo, Ouagadougou, and Ouahigouya, forming together a massive Moose (Mossi) cultural bloc. The central and eastern parts of the country are culturally more homogenous, with a political heritage of chiefdoms, which are linked in hierarchical clusters described as kingdoms. From its foundation as a French colony, the country has displayed a dualism. Today, Burkina Faso is an exporter of cotton, gold, and the traditional shea and livestock. High population densities have also led to large number of migrants to neighboring Gold Coast and Côte d’Ivoire. Smallholder cereal farms and transhuman pastoralism in the north characterize the economy. ![]() Although low-income, it made significant contributions to art and culture, notably by hosting the Pan-African Film and Television Festival (Festival panafricain du cinéma et de la télévision de Ouagadougou, or FESPACO) for several decades.
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