French Upper Volta

A colony created, abolished, and recreated, largely according to how much labour its neighbours needed. Upper Volta was carved out of French West Africa in 1919 from Mossi, Gurunsi, Bobo and Lobi country, the Mossi kingdoms having been among the more durable states of the West African interior, resisting Islamic conquest for centuries and only falling to France in 1896. In 1932 Paris simply dissolved the colony, dividing it between Ivory Coast, French Sudan and Niger - the stated reason was economy, the practical effect was to make its dense population directly available as forced labour for Ivorian plantations and railway construction. Hundreds of thousands were conscripted, and the migration routes established then still run. The colony was reconstituted in 1947 after sustained lobbying by the Mossi Naba and by chiefs who wanted their territory back. Independence came on 5 August 1960 as Upper Volta, a landlocked country with poor soil, recurrent drought and its principal export still being labour to the coast. Thomas Sankara renamed it Burkina Faso, land of upright people, after taking power in 1983, combining Moore and Dioula words deliberately. Ouagadougou remains the Mossi capital and the national one. Ouagadougou is the capital and Bobo-Dioulasso the second city. The colony took its name from the three Volta rivers crossing it. The Mossi Naba still holds ceremonial authority. Sankara was assassinated in 1987. The country hosts FESPACO, Africa's largest film festival. Burkina Faso left the Economic Community of West African States in 2025 alongside Mali and Niger.

MyHistorian
A causal knowledge graph of history