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Burkina Faso: West Africa
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Burkina Faso is a poor, landlocked, sub-Saharan country of over 13 million inhabitants. It is bound by Benin, Togo, Ghana, and Côte d’Ivoire in the south, by Mali in the north and in the west, and by Niger in the east. Burkina Faso has limited natural resources and rainfall, an economy that is strongly dependent on cotton exports, and a vulnerability to natural disasters and regional instability. Burkina Faso has nonetheless achieved real gross domestic product (GDP) growth rates of over 5 percent per year since 1994. Real per capita income has increased 20 percent since 1994. Per capita income was US$400 in 2005 compared to US$590 for low income countries and US$750 for Sub-Saharan African.
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Burkina Faso is a landlocked nation in West Africa. It is surrounded by six countries: Mali to the north, Niger to the east, Benin to the south east, Togo and Ghana to the south, and Côte d'Ivoire to the south west. Formerly the Republic of Upper Volta, it was renamed on August 4, 1984 by President Thomas Sankara to mean "the land of upright people" (or "upright land") in Mossi and Dioula, the major native languages of the country. Independence from France came in 1960. Governmental instability during the 1970s and 1980s was followed by multiparty elections in the early 1990s. Several hundred thousand farm workers migrate south every year to Côte d'Ivoire and Ghana in search of paid labour.
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Burkina Faso has over 60 ethnic groups, each with its own social and cultural distinction, but all emphatically Burkinabé. The major groups include the Bobo who live around the city of Bobo Dioulassa, the Fulani, the Lobi, and the Sénufo, but the most significant and dominant group are the Mossi. The Mossi are descendants of a royal empire and the emperor, or Moro-Naba, possesses tremendous social cachet and influence. Some Mossi descendants are Muslims but Burkina Faso is notable for the fact that it is one of the few West African countries that is not predominantly Muslim. Almost half the population still follow traditional animist beliefs.
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Burkina Faso, in western Africa, has had recent droughts and desertification, which has severely affected their agricultural activities, population distribution, and economy. Some of the country’s environmental issues stem from overgrazing, soil degradation, and deforestation.
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In 1997 Burkina Faso became eligible for debt relief under the original HIPC Initiative. It reached its completion point under the original HIPC Initiative and eligibility under the enhanced HIPC Initiative in June 2000 (World Bank Board) and July 2000 (IMF Board). In 2006 Burkina ... qualified for the multilateral debt reduction initiative leading to cancellation of outstanding debts to the World Bank, IMF and African Development Bank.
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Burkina Faso has led the way in the renaissance of African art and culture. The FESPACO Film Festival, occuring every two years, had a humble beginning in 1969 but has since grown to become a chic West African version of Hollywood's independent cine scene, without the pouting next-biggest-thing, air kissing executives, and frenzied bidding wars. A different cultural festival, occurring in the non-FESPACO years, covers other artistic pursuits - music, dancing and theatre. As an adjunct to this, Burkina Faso hosts the continent's largest craft market.
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West Africa