Hey geograpeeps,
So we're back in Africa!
And you came just at the right time
because as of the upload of this video
Burkina Faso is going through a huge transition.
And find out why in about 3, 2, 1 -
- Music -
- Its time to learn Geography... NOW!-
Hey everyody, I'm your host Barby.
So Burkina Faso is one of THOSE African countries you've probably heard of,
That has a lot of drama going on.
However, there's a whole world of underlying fascination and culture awaiting for you,
once you observe things a little closer.
That being said, let's dissect the flag.
The flag has two equally sized horizontal bands of red and green with a yellow star resting in the middle.
These colors are the Pan-African colors to symbolize the breaking away and unity of post-colonial nations in Africa.
Adpoted in 1984 the red symbolizes the revolution, even though the guy leading that revolution
would eventually get assassinated by another guy leading another revolution.
And the green represents the abundance of agricultural and natural resources,
which, I'm not trying to be offensive Burkina Faso, but that's kind of not really true, but if you say so...
And finally the yellow star represents the guiding light of the revolution.
Alright, that's pretty much it, moving on.
POLITICAL GEOGRAPHY
Okay, first of all, Burkina Faso is arguably the country with the world's most interesting sounding names.
I mean, you have places like Bouroum Bouroum, like a car
and then you have places like Gorom Gorom like a Swedish car Gorom, but I don't know...
There's a place called Rambo and Bobo Dioulasso.
A lot of these names come from tribal words and the cool thing is that Burkina Faso
is actually really good at intermixing its ethnic influences pretty well.
In fact, the name "Burkina Faso" comes from the Mooré word "burkina" meaning honorable people
and "faso" which is the Dioula word meaning fatherland.
The usage of different languages in the name symbolizes the unity between the many ethnic groups.
It would kind of be like if Canada called itself "Le pays parlemantaire fédéral nation of Canada".
"Uh, mais pas en rêve,
il neigera en enfer avant que cel arrive."
Sorry, we're getting ahead of ourselves and we haven't even shown that earth-zooming motion graphic
thing that we always show, can we do that now?
Ah great, here we go, okay.
Burkina Faso is landlocked located in West Africa surrounded by six other countries
and is divided into 13 administrative regions, each with its own governor.
The capital is, get this, the name of the capital is Ouagadougou,
I just can't... that is just... I love... it's...it sounds like a dance move.
Wuh, oh yeah, I gotta teach you guys geography or something like that.
Burkina Faso's old name actually used to be "Upper Volta" or "French Upper Volta"
when was a part of the French Empire.
Named after the three Volta rivers: the black, the red and the white Voltas,
which also would explain the former flag.
You might also ask, well if it was called Upper Volta then where was Lower Volta, was it Ghana?
To be frank, no there never really was a Lower Volta, however all three Volta rivers do kind of drain
into Lake Volta in Ghana, so I guess in an unofficial sense, Ghana is kind of like the "Lower Volta."
When it was under the French Empire, Burkina Faso was kind of utilized as like a bridge nation
and wasn't really exploited much for its natural resources.
The country was pretty much target solely for the purpose of getting direct access
from the coastal colonies to the desert holidings like Mali and Niger.
Yes people, that's how you pronounce it, Niger, not Nye-Jerr, not Nee-Jerr,
and definitely not that offensive word that I know you're all thinking about
and getting off 13-year-old Japanese schoolgirl giggly about Bob Saget, it's pronounced "Nee-Zhair".
It's kind of weird because 19 provinces in Burkina Faso have like this weird fusion contiguous territory
agreement with Mali and Niger under this thing called the Lipatko-Gourma Authority,
which basically administers the resources and power cooperations between the peoples
of the entire region of all three countries.
It's kind of like:
"We're all three different countries, but eh, let's pretend like that doesn't really matter in this one specific region.
Deal? ... Deal!"
Otherwise, Burkina Faso has quite a few noticeable places that have their own cultural flare,
typically towns will have their own contrasting architectural style based off of the tribes
that are predominantly inhabiting that area, like the thick red clay houses of Kumi,
the elaborately embellished pattern houses of Tiabele,
the spiky mud mask of Bobo-Dioulasso.
Otherwise, Ouagadougou has its own taste in modern buildings and offices,
but with a dry red clay African ambiance that gives its distinct cultural character.
Wanna know another thing that gives Burkina Faso its character?
PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY
Burkina Faso's landscape plays a huge role in how people live and engage with each other on a daily basis.
First of all, as a landlocked country Burkina Faso obviously has no access to the sea,
so instead relies on a system of rivers and lakes for irrigation.
Remember how we talked about the Sahel in the Benin video?
Well, the northern part of Burkina Faso is kind of like entirely in it.
This means that the northern region of Burkina Faso, appropriately named the Sahel region,
is the driest part in the entire country and has a desert like atmosphere.
The further south you go, the greener and wetter it gets, until you are literally in humid forest zones.
In general though, one think that you can kind of expect in Burkina Faso is a lot of red dirt.
The soil in many parts has a noticeably dusty red hue that kind of gives the entire country a rustic African appeal.
Unfortunately, as a whole Burkina Faso doesn't really have many internal natural resources,
there's no oil and many of the cash crops aren't really extensively grown.
Despite the fragile soil coinditions, about 80% of the population lives on subsistence agriculture,
in fact, despite plagues of locusts, desertification and drought,
about 3/4 of the people still live in the countryside and prefer agricultural lifestyles.
It's just the thing they do and they've been doing for centuries.
The French colonial administrator R. Delavignette wrote in 1946 that -
(reading citation)
Typically, drummers still accompany farmers in Burkina Faso to this very day.
The most common crops distributed domestically and internationally are peanuts, millet, sorghum.
However, the economy is heavily centralized around cotton and gold.
Burkinabé cotton is some of the cheapest cotton you can buy on the market right now and comes in very good quality.
Gold found in various mines scattered throughout the country respectively make up and almost equal share
of an export sector and together collectively gold and cotton alone make about 70% of all exports.
Nonetheless, Burkina Faso still has a few impressive geological tricks up its sleeve.
One of the most recognizable natural landmarks of this country would be the Sindou peaks,
near Banfora, these curiously eroded rock formations dispersed among the terrain
give a wonderful visual experience, almost on par with he Hunan province rock pillars in China.
But adjacent to the Falls is another strangely eroded rock formation with stone ledges
carved in almost ovular fashion.
Now, Burkina Faso's land may be on the brink of surviving,
but the peoples sure know how to look good in the process.
DEMOGRAPHICS
Okay, just in case you didn't get it from the beginning, the people of Burkina Faso are called Burkinabés, got it?
Good.
Burkina faso has about 17 and half million people.
The ethnic majority at about half of the entire population identify as Mossi from the Mossi tribe,
about 10% are Fulani, Lobis, Mandes and Bobos each make up about 7% of the population each
and the rest of the population is comprised of about 60 different tribes and people groups.
Faith-wise, somewhere around 60% of the country follows Malachite Sunni Islam,
heavily influenced on the doctrines of Sufism, whereas about 30% of the country identifies as Christian,
the remainder typically follows some form of Animism and traditional beliefs.
Country's official language is French, however there are 3 regional languages that exist.
Mòoré mostly spoken by the Mossi, Mandinka mostly spoken in the west by the Bobo
and Bambara mostly spoken in the north close to Mali.
Although, Fulfude - the language of the Fulani is also widely spoken,
it doesn't really encompass any specific region as they're kind of widely spread out throughout the country.
So they don't really get a regional recognition.
Now here's the thing, Burkina Faso is a pretty low income country,
most of people live off of one dollar a day
and the country heavily depends off of aid from the IMF and World Bank.
It's also one of the countries with the highest birth rates as women typically on average had about 6 children each.
Which in return has exploded the population almost fivefold in the past half century.
Now, in order to understand Burkina Faso, you have to kind of understand what has happened to it
and what is happening to it today.
In the shortest condensed way I can put this,
shortly after the French left and they gained independence in 1960, the country got a president
who was later reserved by a revolution led by Thomas Sankara, who acted on Marxist ideologies
often referred to as the "Che Guevara of Africa", Sankara was then assassinated by another guy
named Blaise Compaore, eventually he was taken over by the storming of the parliament by youth revolts,
Compaore resigned and fled the country and the ruins of parliament are now a tourist attraction.
After 2 weeks of intense negotiations with political and military leaders, the country elected retired diplomat
Michel Kafando to act as an interim president until November of 2015, when elections will determine a new leader.
So as we speak right now, Burkina Faso is in a state of legislative limbo.
In a few months, we'll find out what Burkina Faso will decide and what direction they'll head into.
As we mentioned before, there are many tribes in Burkina Faso,
however the largest one the Mossi tribe has historically been the predominant ethnic group in the region.
Mossis like other tribes found in the region, have a heavily equestrian culture
as they're sometimes referred to as the "cowboys of Africa".
Which may explain the huge profusion of horse race betting shops found in the country.
French horse races are broadcasted live and Burkinabés love betting on them.
This gave them a huge advantage over their southern neighbors
as they were even able to effectively fight off the Atlantic slave traders very well
in the early 16th century, remained intact for over 400 years until finally the kingdom was taken over
by the French at the end of the 19th century.
The cool thing is, according to Mossi tradition, the highest position in Mossi society is the emperor.
The emperor, referred to as the "Mogho Naaba" and the current one being Zomwogbo,
he's recognized as an authoritative figure and hold substantial power and influence in the country to this day.
These days rugby is actually little more popular than soccer, especially since Fulgence Ouedraogo
was drafted into Montpellier Hérault RC rugby team, he's kind of like a local hero and since then
Burkinabés have swapped kicking for tackling.
Hehe, sounds like every roommate situation I've been in.
Now let's find out who else Burkina Faso likes to kick, tackle or hug.
FRIEND ZONE
When it comes to friends, Burkina Faso is kind of like:
Nous ne sommes pas nécesairemment amis just siplement parce que nous parlons français.
That being said, Burkina Faso does kind of get along with or at least tolerate all of their immediate neighbors
and have multilateral agreements, but they aren't exactly yippi skippy about all them either.
Historically they have had kind of a lot of conflicts with almost every single one of them.
Nonetheless, it's kind of interesting because
Burkina Faso does have kind of okay relations with the EU, even though the former president Compaoré
has been heavily criticized over the decades and yet chooses to acknowledge underdog areas
like Kosovo and Taiwan, effectively cutting off ties with the People's republic of China and Serbia.
Libya is a huge ally, both Sankara and Compaoré were both close friends of Gaddafi
and eventually both countries became founding members of the community of Sahel-Saharan States,
an organization that aims to establish free trade in the area.
Interestingly enough, Algeria is actually not part of that club and it all had to do
with some kind of political dispute, yadi yadi yada.
When it comes to their best friends however, more or less they might be grudgingly saying
the Ivory Coast and Ghana.
Even though they've had some drama with the Ivory Coast during the recent civil war,
as they were accused of supporting rebel fighters, they still remain the largest trade partners
and were at one point the same country under French rule.
Ghana has established numerous ties with Burkina Faso and today they have regular high-level consultations
and cooperation commissions and they even share joint military exercies with each other
to encourage diplomacy.
In conclusion, Burkina Faso is a land written with kings, cowboys and cotton and conflict
and right now they're in a very tense moment of transition, Burkina Fa...
Aaand, that's kind of where the camera ran out of memory space.
Sorry...
Burundi is coming up next!