Burkina Faso
Burkina Faso is a landlocked country in West Africa. It covers an area of around 274,200 square kilometres and is surrounded by six countries: Mali to the north; the July 2018 population estimate by the United Nations was 19,751,651. Burkina Faso is a francophone country, with French as the official language of government and business. 40% of the population speaks the Mossi language. Called the Republic of Upper Volta, the country was renamed "Burkina Faso" on 4 August 1984 by then-President Thomas Sankara, its citizens are known as Burkinabé. Its capital is Ouagadougou; the Republic of Upper Volta was established on 11 December 1958 as a self-governing colony within the French Community, on 5 August 1960 it gained full independence, with Maurice Yaméogo as President. After protests by students and labour unions, Yaméogo was deposed in the 1966 coup d'état, led by Sangoulé Lamizana, who became President, his rule coincided with the Sahel drought and famine, facing problems from the country's traditionally powerful trade unions he was deposed in the 1980 coup d'état, led by Saye Zerbo.
Encountering resistance from trade unions again, Zerbo's government was overthrown in the 1982 coup d'état, led by Jean-Baptiste Ouédraogo. The leader of the leftist faction of Ouédraogo's government, Thomas Sankara, became Prime Minister but was imprisoned. Efforts to free him led to the popularly-supported 1983 coup d'état. Sankara renamed the country Burkina Faso and launched an ambitious socioeconomic programme which included a nationwide literacy campaign, land redistribution to peasants and road construction and the outlawing of female genital mutilation, forced marriages and polygamy. Sankara was overthrown and killed in the 1987 coup d'état led by Blaise Compaoré – deteriorating relations with former coloniser France and its ally the Ivory Coast were the reason given for the coup. In 1987, Blaise Compaoré became President and, after an alleged 1989 coup attempt, was elected in 1991 and 1998, elections which were boycotted by the opposition and received a low turnout, as well as in 2005.
He remained head of state until he was ousted from power by the popular youth upheaval of 31 October 2014, after which he was exiled to the Ivory Coast. Michel Kafando subsequently became the transitional President of the country. On 16 September 2015, a military coup d'état against the Kafando government was carried out by the Regiment of Presidential Security, the former presidential guard of Compaoré. On 24 September 2015, after pressure from the African Union, ECOWAS and the armed forces, the military junta agreed to step down, Michel Kafando was reinstated as Acting President. In the general election held on 29 November 2015, Roch Marc Christian Kaboré won in the first round with 53.5% of the vote and was sworn in as President on 29 December 2015. The 2018 CIA World Factbook provides this summary of the issues facing Burkina Faso. "The country experienced terrorist attacks in its capital in 2016, 2017 and 2018, continues to mobilize resources to counter terrorist threats". In 2018, several governments were warning their citizens not to travel into the northern part of the country and into several provinces in the East Region.
The CIA report states that "Burkina Faso's high population growth, recurring drought and perennial food insecurity, limited natural resources result in poor economic prospects for the majority of its citizens". The report is optimistic in some aspects concerning activities being done with assistance by the International Monetary Fund. "A new three-year IMF program, approved in 2018, will allow the government to reduce the budget deficit and preserve critical spending on social services and priority public investments". Called the Republic of Upper Volta, the country was renamed "Burkina Faso" on 4 August 1984 by then-President Thomas Sankara; the words "Burkina" and "Faso" both stem from different languages spoken in the country: "Burkina" comes from Mossi and means "upright", showing how the people are proud of their integrity, while "Faso" comes from the Dyula language and means "fatherland". The "bè" suffix added onto "Burkina" to form the demonym "Burkinabè" comes from the Fula language and means "men or women".
The CIA summarizes the etymology as "name translates as "Land of the Honest Men". The French colony of Upper Volta was named for its location on the upper courses of the Volta River; the northwestern part of present-day Burkina Faso was populated by hunter-gatherers from 14000 BC to 5000 BC. Their tools, including scrapers and arrowheads, were discovered in 1973 through archaeological excavations. Agricultural settlements were established between 3600 and 2600 BC; the Bura culture was an Iron-Age civilization centred in the southwest portion of modern-day Niger and in the southeast part of contemporary Burkina Faso. Iron industry, in smelting and forging for tools and weapons, had developed in Sub-Saharan Africa by 1200 BC. From the 3rd to the 13th centuries AD, the Iron Age Bura culture existed in the territory of present-day southeastern Burkina Faso and southwestern Niger. Various ethnic groups of present-day Burkina Faso, such as the Mossi and Dyula, arrived in successive waves between the 8th and 15th centuries.
From the 11th century, the Mossi people established several separate kingdoms. In the 1890s, during the European Scramble for Africa, the territory of Burkina Faso was invaded by France, colonial control was established following a wa
French West Africa
French West Africa was a federation of eight French colonial territories in Africa: Mauritania, French Sudan, French Guinea, Ivory Coast, Upper Volta and Niger. The capital of the federation was Dakar; the federation existed from 1895 until 1960. Until after the Second World War none of the Africans living in the colonies of France were citizens of France. Rather, they were "French subjects", lacking rights before the law, property ownership rights, rights to travel, dissent, or vote; the exception was the Four Communes of Senegal: those areas had been towns of the tiny Senegal Colony in 1848 when, at the abolition of slavery by the French Second Republic, all residents of France were granted equal political rights. Anyone able to prove they were born in these towns was French, they could vote in parliamentary elections, dominated by white and Métis residents of Senegal. The Four Communes of Senegal were entitled to elect a deputy to represent them in the French parliament in 1848–1852, 1871–1876, 1879–1940.
In 1914, the first African, Blaise Diagne, was elected as the deputy for Senegal in the French Parliament. In 1916, Diagne pushed a law through the National Assembly granting full citizenship to all residents of the so-called Four Communes. In return, he promised to help recruit millions of Africans to fight in World War I. Thereafter, all black Africans of Dakar, Gorée, Saint-Louis, Rufisque could vote to send a representative to the French National Assembly; as the French pursued their part in the scramble for Africa in the 1880s and 1890s, they conquered large inland areas, at first ruled them as either a part of the Senegal colony or as independent entities. These conquered areas were governed by French Army officers, dubbed "military territories". In the late 1890s, the French government began to rein in the territorial expansion of its "officers on the ground", transferred all the territories west of Gabon to a single governor based in Senegal, reporting directly to the Minister of Overseas Affairs.
The first governor-general of Senegal was named in 1895, in 1904, the territories he oversaw were formally named French West Africa. Gabon would become the seat of its own federation French Equatorial Africa, to border its western neighbor on the modern boundary between Niger and Chad. After the Fall of France in June 1940 and the two battles of Dakar against the Free French Forces in July and September 1940, authorities in West Africa declared allegiance to the Vichy regime, as did the colony of French Gabon in AEF. Gabon fell to Free France after the Battle of Gabon in November 1940, but West Africa remained under Vichy control until the Allied landings in North Africa in November 1942. Following World War II, the French government began a process of extending limited political rights in its colonies. In 1945 the French Provisional Government allocated ten seats to French West Africa in the new Constituent Assembly called to write a new French Constitution. Of these five would be elected by five by African subjects.
The elections brought to prominence a new generation of French-educated Africans. On 21 October 1945 six Africans were elected, the Four Communes citizens chose Lamine Guèye, Senegal/Mauritania Léopold Sédar Senghor, Ivory Coast/Upper Volta Félix Houphouët-Boigny, Dahomey/Togo Sourou-Migan Apithy, Soudan-Niger Fily Dabo Sissoko, Guinea Yacine Diallo, they were all re-elected to the 2nd Constituent Assembly on 2 June 1946. In 1946, the Loi Lamine Guèye granted some limited citizenship rights to natives of the African colonies; the French Empire was renamed the French Union on 27 October 1946, when the new constitution of the French Fourth Republic was established. In late 1946 under this new constitution, each territory was for the first time able elect local representatives, albeit on a limited franchise, to newly established General Councils; these elected bodies had only limited consultative powers. The Loi Cadre of 23 June 1956 brought universal suffrage to elections held after that date in all French African colonies.
The first elections under universal suffrage in French West Africa were the municipal elections of late 1956. On 31 March 1957, under universal suffrage, territorial Assembly elections were held in each of the eight colonies; the leaders of the winning parties were appointed to the newly instituted positions of Vice-Presidents of the respective Governing Councils — French Colonial Governors remained as Presidents. The Constitution of the French Fifth Republic of 1958 again changed the structure of the colonies from the French Union to the French Community; each territory was to become a "Protectorate", with the consultative assembly named a National Assembly. The Governor appointed by the French was renamed the "High Commissioner", made head of state of each territory; the Assembly would name an African as Head of Government with advisory powers to the Head of State. The federation ceased to exist after the September 1958 referendum to approve this French Community. All the colonies except Guinea voted to remain in the new structure.
Guineans voted overwhelmingly for independence. In 1960, a further revision of the French constitution, compelled by the failure of the French Indochina War and the tensions in Algeria, allowed members of the French Community to unilaterally change their own constitutions. Senegal and former French Sudan became the Mali Federation, while
Burkina Faso