Land and Resources

Burkina Faso is located on a plateau sloping generally to the south and situated from about 200 to 700 m (about 650 to 2300 ft) in elevation. The plateau is drained to the south by the Black Volta (Mouhoun), Red Volta (Nazinon), and White Volta (Nakanbe) rivers and to the east by small rivers connecting with the Niger; none are navigable. Most of the country is covered with grass and small trees. Animals include the elephants, hippopotamuses, buffalo, antelope, and crocodiles.

Climate

A dry, cool season in Burkina Faso extends from November through March; a hot, dry one from April through May; and a hot, wet one from June through October. Rainfall decreases from more than 1000 mm (more than 40 in) in the southwest (the most agriculturally productive part of the country) to less than 250 mm (less than 10 in) in the north and is heaviest in the summer. Average temperatures in Ouagadougou vary from 24° C (76° F) in January to 28° C (83° F) in July.

Natural Resources

Burkina Faso is known to have rich deposits of manganese and gold and also resources of copper, iron ore, cassiterite (tin ore), and phosphates. Water supply is a problem in so dry a country and offers few opportunities for irrigation. About 10 percent of the land is cultivated, and about 37 percent is pasture.

Population

Despite relatively infertile land, Burkina Faso supports a large rural population. The people belong to two major West African cultural groups, the Voltaic and the Mande. The Voltaic are the most numerous and include the Mossi, who constitute nearly half the population. Other principal ethnic groups are the Fulani, Lobi, Bobo, Sénoufo, Gourounsi, Bissa, and Gourmantche.

Population Characteristics

The population of Burkina Faso (1995 estimate) is about 10,352,000. The overall population density is about 38 persons per sq km (about 98 per sq mi). More than 80 percent of the population lives in rural areas.

Political Divisions and Principal Cities

Burkina Faso is divided into 30 provinces, which are subdivided into 250 departments. Ouagadougou has 500,000 inhabitants (1990 estimate). Other major cities are Bobo-Dioulasso, an important economic center (250,000), and Koudougou (70,000).

Language and Religion

French is the official language. Languages of the Sudanic family are spoken by about 50 percent of the population. Mande is spoken by most of the remainder. About 65 percent of the people of Burkina Faso follow traditional religions. About 25 percent are Muslim, and 10 percent are Roman Catholic.

Education

Education is free and officially compulsory for children between the ages of 7 and 13 years; however, less than one-third of all children aged 6 to 11 attended school in the early 1990s, and only 7 percent of those aged 12 to 17. About 18 percent of the adult population is literate. In the early 1990s about 504,000 pupils were annually enrolled in primary schools, and some 83,000 pupils in secondary schools. Vocational schools had some 8000 students.

A university with an enrollment of 5700 is at Ouagadougou, and government grants are available for higher education in European and African universities. A number of individuals study at Dakar, Senegal, at Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire, and overseas.

Economy

The basis of the economy of Burkina Faso is agriculture, primarily for subsistence consumption. Although economic assistance, chiefly from the European Union, has subsidized Burkina Faso since independence, the nation remains one of the world's poorest. The estimated annual budget included $495 million in revenues and $786 million in expenditures in the early 1990s.

Labor

The total labor force of Burkina Faso numbers about 4.7 million, with about 84 percent engaged in agriculture. Unemployment and underemployment are widespread, and many workers seek employment permanently or seasonally in richer nations to the south, especially Côte d'Ivoire.

Agriculture

Aridity and erosion seriously hamper agricultural development, and most farming is concentrated in southern and southwestern Burkina Faso. Leading food crops, with annual production in the early 1990s, were sorghum (1.2 million metric tons), millet (785,000), corn (310,000), pulses (120,000), peanuts (110,000), and rice (49,000). The chief cash crop is cotton, which represents 57 percent of the country's export income. The principal wealth of Burkina Faso is its livestock: 4.1 million cattle, 6.8 million goats, 5.4 million sheep, 530,000 pigs, 270,000 horses and asses, and 18 million poultry. Efforts were under way to rebuild the nation's livestock industry following severe losses due to the recurrent drought in the region known as the Sahel during the late 1960s, early 1970s, and early 1980s.

Mining and Manufacturing

Mining is of modest importance to the economy, contributing less than 1 percent of the gross national product. Mineral output in the early 1990s included manganese, phosphates, and gold (which accounts for 20 percent of export earnings). Still in its infancy, manufacturing in Burkina Faso is principally related to processing agricultural products, particularly cotton, oils and fats, and sugar, and the production of such consumer items as soap, footwear, motorcycles, and motor scooters.

Energy

The country's electricity is produced in thermal installations, most of which burn refined petroleum. In the early 1990s, these installations generated 320 million kilowatt-hours of electricity annually.

Currency and Banking

The currency of Burkina Faso is the CFA franc, issued by the Central Bank of West Africa (584.53 CFA francs equal U.S.$1; 1994). An official exchange rate of 1 French franc equal to 50 CFA francs was in force from 1948 to January, 1994, when the CFA franc was devalued by 50 percent. The country has several banks that finance economic development.

Commerce and Trade

Like many developing nations, Burkina Faso imports far more than it exports. Imports consist of food, petroleum, textiles, iron, steel, metal products, vehicles, electrical equipment, and machinery. Major exports include raw cotton, gold, and livestock products. In the early 1990s imports were valued at some $593 million annually, and exports totaled about $305 million. Major trading partners for exports include France, Côte d'Ivoire, Switzerland, China, Italy, and Taiwan; principal partners for imports are France, Côte d'Ivoire, and the United States.

Transportation and Communications

A railroad links Ouagadougou to Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire, and current development plans call for it to be extended north to rich manganese ores at Tambao and the Mali border. The country has about 13,100 km (about 8140 mi) of roads, of which little more than 10 percent are paved, although a major improvement program has been announced. Ouagadougou and Bobo-Dioulasso are served regularly by French airlines. The national airline is Air Burkina. A government-owned television service provides transmissions six days a week, seen in both Ouagadougou and Bobo-Dioulasso. Radio broadcasts are made in French and 13 African languages. The nation has one daily newspaper.

Government

The constitution of 1977 was suspended when the military seized power in November 1980. A new constitution was approved by national referendum in June 1991. An uncontested presidential election took place in December, and multiparty legislative elections the following May.

Executive

Under the 1977 constitution, executive power in the country was vested in a president who was directly elected to a five-year term. The Military Committee for National Recovery and Progress, established after the 1980 coup, was superseded in late 1982, after another coup, by the People's Salvation Council. After yet another coup, in August 1983, the National Revolutionary Council became the chief governmental authority, and its chairman became head of state. This council was abolished after a military coup in October 1987. After a transitional period, a presidential election was held in December 1991, and a 29-member cabinet was named in June 1992.

Legislature

The unicameral National Assembly was dissolved after the 1980 military coup, when all political parties were abolished. Multiparty voting was reintroduced in 1992 with the election of a 107-member National Assembly.

Judiciary

The judicial system of Burkina Faso consists of people's revolutionary tribunals under the supervision of two appeals courts, one in Ouagadougou and the other at Bobo-Dioulasso.

Health and Welfare

The government provides hospitals and rural medical services and special health services for schools. An old-age and veterans' pension system was established in 1960, and workers' insurance plans were started in 1967. Average life expectancy in the early 1990s was 48 years for women and 47 for men.

Defense

Military service is voluntary. The armed forces included about 8700 people in the early 1990s; another 45,000 people served part-time in the People's Militia.

History

The history of Burkina Faso is largely the history of the ancient Mossi Kingdom. Various Mossi states were built up about the 14th century by peoples migrating from the north of modern Ghana. They evolved a strong administrative system and a tradition of divine kingship, which enabled them to prevent their incorporation by any of the Sudanic empires. The kingdom of Songhai, however, conquered the Mossi.

By the 19th century, the Mossi states were weakened. In 1896 the French set up a protectorate over the kingdom of Ouagadougou, and in 1904 the area became part of the colony of Haut-Sénégal-Niger. In 1919 it was made into a separate constituent territory of French West Africa, only to be divided up in 1932 between the French Sudan and Côte d'Ivoire. It was reconstituted as the separate territory of Upper Volta in 1947.

Following the reforms of the French Union in 1957, Upper Volta became, in 1958, a self-governing republic and a member of the new French community. A government was formed, headed by Maurice Yaméogo, leader of the political party known as the Voltaic Democratic Union. In 1959 Upper Volta joined the council of the Entente, a loose association based on mutual political and economic interests. The Entente was composed of Côte d'Ivoire, Niger, Dahomey (now Benin), and Togo. After its independence on August 5, 1960, Upper Volta remained an associated state of the European Community (now called the European Union).

Yaméogo was elected president in 1960 and reelected in 1965; he was the sole candidate. Following the adoption by the National Assembly of austerity measures in December 1965, a crisis erupted between the government and the labor unions. At the call of the latter, General Sangoulé Lamizana, then army chief of staff, assumed power on January 3, 1966, and suspended the constitution. Shortly thereafter, the new government embarked on an austerity program of its own, which eventually succeeded in arresting the deterioration of the economy. Under the constitution of 1970, Lamizana became president for four years.

In the early 1970s the effect of a five-year drought threatened famine in Upper Volta and five other West African countries. The resulting economic dislocation brought a second dissolution of the government. Lamizana ruled as dictator until the reintroduction of parliamentary government in 1978, when he won the presidency in a democratic election. Two years later he was ousted in a bloodless military coup; two more coups followed during the next 33 months. On August 3, 1984, the first anniversary of the coup that brought Captain Thomas Sankara to power as head of the National Revolutionary Council, the official name of the country was changed to Burkina Faso, and a new national flag and anthem were decreed. In October 1987, Sankara was ousted and executed in a coup led by his chief adviser, Captain Blaise Compaoré, who ruled as head of the Popular Front. Compaoré, who survived two coup attempts in 1989, introduced limited democratic reforms during 1990, and a new constitution took effect the following year. Compaoré was reelected without opposition in December 1991, and his Organization for Popular Democracy-Labor Movement won a legislative majority in multiparty elections in May 1992.