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Burkina Faso (African Studies)

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  1. Introduction
  2. Burkina Faso is a landlocked country between the Sahel and Sudanic belts of West Africa. It has a population of about 18 million. Although low-income, it made significant contributions to art and culture, notably by hosting the Pan-African Film and Television Festival (Festival panafricain du cinéma et de la télévision de Ouagadougou, or FESPACO) for several decades. Smallholder cereal farms and transhuman pastoralism in the north characterize the economy. High population densities have also led to large number of migrants to neighboring Gold Coast and Côte d’Ivoire. Today, Burkina Faso is an exporter of cotton, gold, and the traditional shea and livestock. From its foundation as a French colony, the country has displayed a dualism. The central and eastern parts of the country are culturally more homogenous, with a political heritage of chiefdoms, which are linked in hierarchical clusters described as kingdoms. Three political centers dominated the central plain, drained by the Nazinon and Nakambe Rivers (formerly Red and White Volta): Tenkodogo, Ouagadougou, and Ouahigouya, forming together a massive Moose (Mossi) cultural bloc. Moore is the native tongue of half the population. The eastern part of Burkina Faso had an analogous hierarchical political structure of separate origin. In contrast, the western third (the real plateau of Burkina) and the southern fringe of the country include a large number of overlapping sociolinguistic groups. In the 19th century, a political mix of village confederations, strongmen, and merchant/warrior networks were in evidence. The languages of the country belong mostly to either the Voltaic family (which includes Moore) or the Mande family. One of the Mande languages, Jula (also spelled Dioula), became the lingua franca of modernity in western Burkina Faso, due to the administrative preferences of the colonial period, such army recruitment, and conversions to Islam. The northern, Sahelian zone, home to the Fulbe, Tuareg, and Songhay (Songhai) can be considered a third ethnolinguistic and ecological zone. The French conducted conquest wars in 1896 and 1897, and after military “pacification” in 1904, they incorporated the territory in the large colony of Upper Senegal and Niger (Fr. Haut-Sénégal et Niger). In 1919, seven districts (cercles) were detached—partly because of uprisings during World War I, the most significant of which was the Volta-Bani War in the western Volta districts—to create Upper Volta (Fr. Haute-Volta), with a capital in Ouagadougou. It was suppressed in 1933, its territory divided between Côte d’Ivoire, French Sudan (now Mali), and Niger. Upper Volta was reconstituted on September 4, 1947 (minus the Say district bordering the Niger River, which at the end of 1926 had been annexed to the recently created colony of Niger). The country became independent in 1960 as a parliamentary republic. A notable episode in its political history is the populist revolutionary government (1983–1987) of Thomas Sankara. President Blaise Compaoré, who took power in 1987, announced his resignation on October 31, 2014, in the midst of popular protests, and fled the country. A transition government has been put in place, promising elections in November 2015.
  3. General Overviews
  4. The World Factbook, published by the Central Intelligence Agency, contains updated information on the people, economy, geography, communications, transportation, military, transnational issues, government organization, and current cabinet posts. Lansdorf 2014 provides information on contemporary political affairs. Like these two resources, the Africa Yearbook is a multicountry resource, but unlike them it is limited to Africa, and it has a helpful section on Burkina Faso. Labourdette 2007 and Manson and Knight 2006 are tourist guides.
  5. Africa Yearbook.
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  7. This annual publication covers major domestic political developments, foreign policy, and socioeconomic trends in sub-Sahara Africa. The Yearbook contains articles on all sub-Saharan states, focusing on major cross-border developments and subregional organizations, as well as one article on continental developments and one on European-African relations. Available in an online edition.
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  9. Central Intelligence Agency. “Burkino Faso.” In The World Factbook. Washington, DC: Central Intelligence Agency.
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  11. The World Factbook provides information on the history, people, government, economy, geography, communications, transportation, military, and transnational issues for 267 world entities. The Reference tab includes maps of the major world regions, as well as Flags of the World, a Physical Map of the World, a Political Map of the World, a World Oceans map, and a Standard Time Zones of the World map.
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  13. Labourdette, Jean-Paul. Le Petit Futé Burkina Faso, 2007–2008. 3d ed. Paris: Nouvelles Éditions de l’Université, 2007.
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  15. Illustrated guidebook for tourists. After a general introduction on culture and history, it provides cultural information and practical guidance by geographic region.
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  17. Lansdorf, Tom, ed. “Burkina Faso.” In Political Handbook of the World 2014. Thousand Oaks, CA: CQ, 2014.
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  19. One-volume source for political information, including facts and analysis on each country’s governmental and political makeup. It is periodically updated to include coverage of current events, issues, crises, and political controversies, but this edition reflects the situation before the changes following the flight of President Blaise Compaoré from the country.
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  21. Manson, Katrina, and James Knight. Burkina Faso: The Bradt Travel Guide. Chalfont St. Peter, UK: Bradt Travel Guides, 2006.
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  23. Illustrated guidebook with maps, providing cultural, landscape, and practical information region by region. The comments incorporate quotes from the research literature, albeit without references.
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  25. Bibliographies
  26. Izard 1967 is exhaustive for the early period it covers. For the later period, Schrijver 2006 is thematic, whereas Niang 2012 focuses on the Moose. See also Reference Works.
  27. Izard, Françoise. Bibliographie générale de la Haute-Volta, 1956–1965. In collaboration with Philippe Bonnefond, and Michèle d’ Huart. Paris: Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, 1967.
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  29. This mimeographed but well-produced 300-page volume is available in many libraries in Europe and a few university libraries in the United States.
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  31. Niang, Amy. “Aspects of Mossi History: A Bibliography.” Electronic Journal of Africana Bibliography 13 (2012): 1–51.
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  33. A general bibliography of Moose topics, not limited to history, despite its title. A useful source but the references are unusually sloppy.
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  35. Schrijver, Paul. “Burkina Faso.” In Bibliography on Islam in Contemporary Sub-Saharan Africa. By Paul Schrijver, 32–36. Leiden, The Netherlands: African Studies Center, 2006.
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  37. The Burkina Faso section lists some sixty entries, a fraction of them University of Ouagadougou graduation theses, which constitute a significant humanities and social sciences research resource in the country, though the resources are generally not available outside of the capital.
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  39. Reference Works
  40. Ménager, et al. 2005 is a standard atlas. Rupley, et al. 2013 is a reference work in the form of a dictionary, but it has many additional useful features, such as a chronology of the country and four appendixes, including a general bibliography.
  41. Ménager, Marie-Thérèse, Aude Meunier-NIkiema, and Danielle Ben Yahmed. Atlas du Burkina Faso. Paris: Les Éditions Jeune Afrique, 2005.
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  43. A set of physical and human geography maps on natural and human resources, current at the time of publication.
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  45. Rupley, Lawrence, Lamissa Bangali, and Boureima Diamitani. Historical Dictionary of Burkina Faso. 3d ed. Lanham, MD: Scarecrow, 2013.
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  47. The main text of this book is an alphabetically organized list of entries, which are proper names or concepts. A chronology of the country precedes the main text. Four appendices, revised for this third edition, follow and provide updated administrative and demographic information. The entries on precolonial history and ethnography are dated and uninformed by recent scholarship, but the book is useful, especially for the modern period.
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  49. Journals
  50. Disciplinary academic journals, especially in France, and major Africanist journals in Europe and the United States occasionally publish articles on Burkina Faso. Their authors are often foreign anthropologists or human geographers. The journals of the French applied research institution IRD (formerly ORSTOM) have published many research articles over the years concerning Burkina Faso (especially Autrepart since 1997, and Cahiers ORSTOM série sciences humaines before then). Another periodical in which articles appear frequently is Politique Africaine. In Burkina Faso, Science et Technique is the general title of four distinct periodicals (séries); the one referenced below is reserved for the humanities and social sciences. Les Cahiers du CERLESHS is published irregularly since 1985. The Journal Officiel du Burkina Faso is the government gazette in which official decrees and legistlation are published, and Journal Officiel de la Haute Volta was its colonial version.
  51. Autrepart.
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  53. Interdisciplinary social science journal published by the French Institute of Development Research (IRD) since 1997, with the aim of disseminating knowledge on the contemporary dynamics and trasnformations of the societies in the Global South. This is a free access journal, and electronic version of the artciles in the recent issues and abstracts of the earlier issues are available online.
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  55. Cahiers ORSTOM série sciences humaines.
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  57. This academic journal, among several published by the large applied research institute of France covering the Global South (ORSTOM), was dedicated to human and social sciences. It started in 1963, and over the span of thirty-four years it published important, sometimes monograph-length contributions, including many on Burkina Faso and neighboring West African countries. Human geography predominates. After 1986 the name was changed to Cahiers des Sciences Humaines.
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  59. Journal Officiel de la Haute Volta.
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  61. Government gazette for the short-lived first colony period, published first between 1919 and 1932 in Bamako by the government printing press.
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  63. Journal Officiel du Burkina Faso.
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  65. Weekly government gazette that promulgates laws, regulations, and public notices.
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  67. Les Cahiers du CERLESHS (Centre d’Etudes et de Recherche en Lettres, Sciences Humaines et Sociales).
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  69. Interdisciplinary journal published by the University of Ouagadougou; it is a venue for articles written not only by Burkinabe academics, but also researchers from other institutions of higher learning in Francophone Africa.
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  71. Politique Africaine.
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  73. Academic journal established in 1981 and published for the Association des Chercheurs de Politique Africaine in France. It publishes articles and book reviews on current issues in African politics, privileging sub-Saharan African countries.
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  75. Science et Technique, série Lettres, Sciences Sociales et Humaines.
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  77. Interdisciplinary journal published by the Centre de la Recherche Scientifique et Technologique (CNRST) in Ouagadougou.
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  79. Guides to Colonial Archives concerning Burkina Faso
  80. In the Centre National des Archives du Burkina Faso in Ouagadougou, the earliest classified materials date from the 1950s. It is not clear whether earlier documents have been preserved. A small collection of earlier colonial papers can be consulted at the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique et Technologique (CNRST) in Ouagadougou, organized in folders carrying the names of the cercles (districts). The headquarters of the former cercles (haut commissariats) may have stacked, not classified, colonial local-level administrative papers not available elsewhere. Those in Bobo-Dioulasso were moved to a new building in the 1990s, and classified with the help of local intellectuals to form the Archives du Haut-Commissariat de la Province du Houët, but this rearranged collection also contains only documents starting in 1945. Earlier colonial documents (including the official diary, Livre-Journal, of the administrator) existed in this collection and had been consulted by researchers before the reorganization, but their present whereabouts is unknown. Because of interruptions in Burkina Faso’s colonial history, its major archival collections are dispersed among France, Senegal, Mali, and Côte d’Ivoire. In France, civilian colonial administration documents are housed in the Archives Nationales Section Outre-Mer in Aix-en-Provence. Microfilm copies exist in Paris, at the Centre d’Accueil et de Recherche des Archives Nationales. Of two military archival funds open to the public, the larger one is in the Service Historique de l’Armée de Terre located in the Château de Vincennes near Paris, and the other in the Centre d’Histoire et d’Etude des Territoires d’Outre-Mer located in the Musée des Troupes de Marine, Fréjus. The National Archives of Senegal (ANS) include the correspondence and reports that were sent by lieutenant governors to the governor general in Dakar. Microfilm copies of this Dakar collection are deposited in France, in Aix-en-Provence and in Paris. The National Archives of Côte d’Ivoire (ANCI) and the National Archives of Mali (ANM) include cercle (district) level documents of the periods when the Burkina territory was attached to Abidjan or Bamako. The Archives of the Society of Missionaries of Africa (White Fathers) in Rome, Italy, contain materials of missionary origin starting nearly with the colonial period, including photographs. Some of these can also be consulted at the mission headquarters in Ouagadougou and Bobo-Dioulasso. International Council on Archives 1971 is the most general archival guide, and should therefore be consulted first. Cisse 1988 and Cordell 1980 are only of local availability for those who carry out research in Côte d’Ivoire archives; Mbaye 1990 provides a guide to the main colonial archives of French West Africa in Dakar, and Nikiema 1973 focuses on the documents found there concerning Burkina Faso. Niakhaté 1977 provides a guide to the Archives of Mali. Westfall 1992 is a general overview of sources on French colonial Africa that greatly improves access to the information on political, economic, social, and cultural conditions in them. Porges 1988 is a more general guide on African studies.
  81. Cisse, Ibrahim. Répertoire des Archives du Burkina Faso (ex Haute Volta) en dépôt aux Archives nationals de Côte d’Ivoire, 1988.
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  83. Mimeographed list of the access codes to the material in the National Archives of Côte d’Ivoire concerning the districts of Burkina Faso that were attached to Côte d’Ivoire between 1934 and 1947. Manuscript available at ANCI.
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  85. Cordell, Dennis D. Documents sur la Haute Volta disponibles aux Archives Nationales de la Côte d’Ivoire (Abidjan). Ouagadougou: INSD, Ministère du Plan, 1980.
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  87. An overview of the documents concerning Burkina Faso in Côte d’Ivoire archives prepared earlier by an American researcher and published in Burkina Faso.
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  89. International Council on Archives. Guide to the Sources of the History of Africa. 3 vols. Zug, Switzerland: Interdocumentary, 1971.
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  91. Published under the auspices of UNESCO, this is the major guide to the classified archival collections concerning colonial Africa.
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  93. Mbaye, Saliou. Guide des archives de l’AOF. Dakar: Archives du Sénégal, 1990.
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  95. A general guide to the general archives of French West Africa in Dakar.
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  97. Niakhaté, Moussa. Répertoire des Archives Nationales du Mali—Koulouba. Etudes maliennes 23. Bamako: Institut des Sciences Humaines, 1977.
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  99. A guide to the National Archives of Mali.
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  101. Nikiema, Jules. Répertoire des archives concernant la Haute Volta dans les fonds de l’AOF aux Archives de Sénégal. Ouagadougou: Ministère des Finances et du Commerce, Services des Archives, 1973.
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  103. A guide to the material concerning the districts of Burkina Faso in the general archives of French West Africa in Dakar.
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  105. Porges, L. Sources d’informations sur l’Afrique francophone et Madagascar: Institutions, répertoires, bibliographies. Paris: Ministère de la Coopération, 1988.
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  107. A key research and reference guide to the institutions, and a bibliography of bibliographies concerning French West Africa.
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  109. Westfall, Gloria. French Colonial Archives: A Guide to Official Sources. London: Hans Zell, 1992.
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  111. Surveys basic reference tools on French tropical African colonies—overviews, research guides, and bibliographies; archival sources in France and Africa; official documents published in metropolitan France; the great colonial societies and their publications; and a bibliography of official works published in the several colonies, as well as an index. It is no mere listing of resources but contains informative commentary and annotations that allow the researcher not only to located material, but also to make informed decisions as to content.
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  113. Oral History Archives
  114. Archiv: Westafrikanische Siedlungsgeschichte includes 700+ interviews on settlement history and political history that a team of German researchers conducted between 1997 and 2002 in 210 Dagara, Pwo, Sisala, Birifor, Dyan, Lobi, and Bobo settlements, two-thirds of them lying in Burkina Faso and the rest in northern Ghana.
  115. Archiv: Westafrikanische Siedlungsgeschichte. Mainz, Germany: Institut für Ethnologie und Afrikastudien, Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz.
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  117. Hard copy archived in the Goethe University, Frankfurt/Main library; French and English translations held in other places. Introduction can be found online.
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  119. Archaeology
  120. Archaeological work in Burkina Faso mostly concerns historical periods. Research on the Paleolithic and Mesolithic that could allow comparisons with findings in neighboring countries is rare. Dupré and Guillaud 1986 and Marchal 1997 are works by geographers and an anthropologist who write about surface archeological findings they have made. Mauny 1957 is by a medieval historian and provides an overview of arhaeological work that is still useful. Magnavita, et al. 2009 includes several contributions by archaeologists working in Burkina Faso. Millogo and Koté 2000 provides an overview of professional archaeological work and makes for a good starting point. Somé and Simporé 2014 is a collection on ancient ruins that are both a national landmark and an academic mystery in the country. See also the works cited under Metallurgy of Iron and Gold.
  121. Dupré, Georges, and Dominique Guillaud. “Archéologie et tradition orale: Contribution à l’histoire des espaces du pays d’Aribinda, Province de Soum.” Cahiers des Sciences Humaines 22.1 (1986): 5–48.
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  123. An anthropologist and a geographer offer hypotheses concerning occupation history and the social evolution of a Sahelian zone, on the basis of hundreds of rock engravings found in the region, oral histories, and observations, such as the distribution of Acacia albida trees. It includes an illustrated account of the engravings presented. Reprinted in Autrepart 4 (1997): 105–148, 1997.
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  125. Magnavita, Sonja, Lassina Koté, Peter Breunig, and Oumarou A. Ide, eds. Crossroads/Carrefour Sahel: Cultural and Technological Developments in First Millennium BC/AD West Africa. Journal of African Archaeology Monograph 2. Frankfurt: Africa Magna Verlag, 2009.
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  127. The proceedings of an international conference held in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, in March 2008, with participants from eleven countries and three continents, and including several contributions on Burkina Faso.
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  129. Marchal, Jean-Yves. “Vestiges d’occupation ancienne au Yatenga (Haute-Volta): Une reconnaissance du pays kibga.” Autrepart 4 (1997): 65–104.
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  131. Repertory of archaeological remains indicating ancient village sites in the central Yatenga region, and reflections on the lifestyle of the ancient popualtion that left them. Interpreting this information in light of oral traditions, Marchal conlcudes that it may be a Kibga (or Dogon) population that ceased to exist here at the end of the 15th century after a continuous presence of several centuries.
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  133. Mauny, Raymond. “Etat actuel de nos connaissances sur la préhisotire et l’archéologie de la Haute Volta.” Notes Africaines (1957): 16–25.
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  135. An early synthesis by a pioneering researcher.
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  137. Millogo, Antoine, and Lassina Koté. “Archéologie du Burkina Faso.” In L’archéologie en Afrique de l’Ouest, Sahara et Sahel. Edited by Robert Vernet, 7–70. Saint-Maur, France: Éditions Sépia, 2000.
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  139. Overview of archaeological research in Burkina Faso. The same publisher produced, simultaneously a summary version, with added illustrations and a general introduction on archaeology, but minus the bibliography, as a separate small book for use by college students: Éléments d’archéologie ouest-africaine, I, Burkina Faso.
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  141. Somé, Magloire, and Lassina Simporé, eds. Lieux de mémoires, patrimoine et histoire en Afrique de l’Ouest: Aux origines des Ruines de Loropéni, Burkina Faso. Paris: Editions des Archives Contemporaines, 2014.
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  143. Fifteen essays on the mysterious and imposing ruins in southwest Burkina Faso, on the population history that can throw light on their origin, and on the current process of patrimonialization, including some comparative material: the military uses of caves in southwest Burkina Faso, and two other cases from Togo and Benin.
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  145. History
  146. Research on Burkina Faso history displays discontinuity between, on the one hand, the history of the colonial period and decolonization, and, on the other, earlier history, which is generally ethnohistory based on oral accounts and often performed by anthropologists. Burkina Faso also appears, but marginally, in the larger regional historical syntheses based on Arabic historical manuscripts, such as Mali and Songhay, or the 19th-century jihad political movements.
  147. Late 19th-Century Explorers
  148. Barth 1857–1858 is a five-volume work by Heinrich Barth, who was both the first European explorer to reach the Sahelian part of Burkina Faso and the most scholarly precolonial explorer of the interior of West Africa. He was a German academic, but the British Foreign Office funded his principal travel, a five-year journey from Tripoli to Timbuktu and back. His trip through what is now Sahelian Burkina Faso is described on pages 190–218 of Volume 3, including geographic, historical, political, ethnographic, and economic information from the mid-19th century. Diawara, et al. 2006 provides supportive information. Sebald 1972 gives rare information on Gottlob Adolf Krause, a scholarly explorer of Africa and a pioneer of African language studies, who started in 1886 on the coast of Dahomey and passed through Salaga to reach Moose country; he became the first European to enter Ouagadougou, where he stayed several weeks and was befriended by the Moro Naaba, before continuing on to the Sahel. Binger 1892 is an account by an officer of the French Marine Corps who became, following Krause, the second European to enter Ouagadougou, albeit as a treaty-seeker not a language scholar. The largest portion of this 900-page travel account describes travels in the west, south, and central parts of Burkina Faso. Monteil 1894 is by the next French officer to go through what is now Burkina Faso. Merlet 1995 is a useful reprinting of some 19th-century European texts concerning Burkina Faso.
  149. Barth, Heinrich. “Travels and Discoveries in North and Central Africa.” In Being a Journal of an Expedition Undertaken under the Auspices of H.B.M.’s Government in the Years 1849–1855. 5 vols. London: Longman, Brown, Green, Longmans, & Roberts, 1857–1858.
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  151. Published almost simultaneously with the German version: Reisen und Entdeckungen in Nord- und Central-Afrika in den Jahren 1849 bis 1855 (5 vols; Gotha: Justus Perthes, 1857–1858). An abridged English edition in three volumes was published shortly afterwards in New York, and in 1859 the German publisher issued, under the same title as the original, a shorter two-volume edition in German. None of these versions are identical, and each contains incidental new details added by Barth. The German short version was the basis for a French translation published in four volumes in 1860–1861 (Paris: A Bohné), which is still the only version available in French.
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  153. Binger, Louis Gustave. Du Niger au Golfe de Guinée par le pays de Kong et le Mossi, 1887–1889. 2 vols. Paris: Hachette, 1892.
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  155. Binger was curious about political and economic matters, and because he communicated in Bamana he could access local perspectives. At that time, geographic expeditions had given way to political missions for treaty making, in anticipation of military occupation. Nonetheless, this travel book is a crucial source for late-19th-century conditions on the eve of colonial occupation. Facsimile reprinting in reduced format and as a single volume: Paris: Musée de l’Homme, 1980.
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  157. Diawara, Mamadou, Paulo Fernando de Mooreas Farias, and Gerd Spittler, eds. Heinrich Barth et l’Afrique. Cologne: Rüdiger Köppe Verlag, 2006.
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  159. A set of informative essays by European and African researchers on the historical circumstances of Barth’s travel, his biography, and the influence of his account, that also provides access to earlier scholarly literature on Barth.
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  161. Merlet, Annie, ed. Textes anciens sur le Burkina (1853–1897). Découvertes du Burkina series. Paris: Sépia, 1995.
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  163. Portions of the travel accounts of Heinrich Barth and Louis-Parfait Monteil concerning today’s Burkina Faso, and two conference texts from 1897, by Captain Paul Voulet and Lieutenant Julien Chanoine, the French officers of the colonial troops who conquered much of what became Upper Volta. Includes the maps and engravings of the original publications, while the editor supplies contemporary annotation and bibliography.
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  165. Monteil, Louis-Parfait. De Saint-Louis à Tripoli par le lac Tchad, voyage au travers du Soudan et du Sahara, pendant les années 1890–1891–1892. Paris: Alcan, 1894.
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  167. The second important account by a French officer who, following Binger, visited what is now Burkina Faso at the end of the 19th century. Monteil entered the territory from the southwest, following in Binger’s footsteps; as he approached the northeast, he almost retraced the steps of Heinrich Barth 38 years before him, but in the opposite direction.
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  169. Sebald, Peter. Malam Musa—Gottlob Adolf Krause: 1850–1938; Forscher-Wissenschaftler-Humanist: Leben und Lebenswerk eines antikolonial gesinnten Afrika-Wissenschaftlers unter den Bedingungen des Kolonialismus. Berlin: Akademie-Verlag, 1972.
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  171. Krause made pioneering language studies, but financial difficulties impeded the publication of his travel account and his scientific works (his opposition to the German colonial project did not favor official patronage). Some of his field reports were serialized in the newspaper Kreuzzeitung. Sebald offers an account of his travels, scholarly work, and conflicts with colonial authorities. A shorter account was published in English: Markov, W. and P. Sebald, “Gottlob Adolf Krause,” Journal of the Historical Society of Nigeria 2.4 (1963): 536–544.
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  173. Precolonial History
  174. The major studies concern the Moose kingdoms, where Izard’s life work stands out, but Pageard is an important forerunner. Levtzion is central for the west and for Islamic history. Studies not included here and conducted by anthropologists are listed in the section Settlement History and Land Rights. Izard 1985 and Izard 2003 are by the most important researcher working on precolonial history starting from an anthropological basis. Some of Izard’s revisions of the earlier stereotyped legendary dynastic chronology were anticiapted in Pageard 1965, which is equally of interest. Levtzion 1968 is the most important book on the western part of Burkina Faso. Irwin 1981 is a methodologically sophisticated exercise on the Sahelian region. Derive 1978 is an unusual oral history and a source of great value to researchers of the western part of Burkina Faso. Héritier 1975 and Dupré 1999 are works by important anthropologists that provide significant specialized contributions to historical topics. Şaul 1998 is an interpretive essay recasting the state/stateless contrast in western Burkina Faso by focusing on the Watara.
  175. Derive, M. J., ed. Table ronde sur les origines de Kong. Transcriptions by Moussa Bamba and Abdoulaye Diallo. Annales de l’Université d’Abidjan, série J, traditions orales 1. Abidjan: Université Nationale de Côte d’Ivoire, 1978.
  176. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  177. This unique historical record is a 500-page volume of the proceedings of a meeting of local scholars trained in the Islamic tradition, held in the northern Ivorian city of Kong in 1975, presented in Jula transcription and French translation. It concerns 18th- to 20th-century history, and includes debates and disagreements among these experts.
  178. Find this resource:
  179. Dupré, Georges. “Hama Tafa: Un grand homme dans l’histoire de l’Aribinda, Burkina Faso, 1870–1900.” Paideuma 45 (1999): 181–207.
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  181. A sociohistorical analysis of a 19th-century big man in the Sahelian zone, reconstructed from oral accounts gathered in the course of an agrarian and ecological study.
  182. Find this resource:
  183. Héritier, Françoise. “Des cauris et des hommes: Production d’esclaves et accumulation de cauris chez les Samo (Haute-Volta).” In L’esclavage en Afrique précoloniale. Edited by Claude Meillassoux, 477–507. Paris: Maspero, 1975.
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  185. A pioneering study by an anthropologist on trade, monetized exchange, and slavery, based on oral-historical evidence and ethnographic insights.
  186. Find this resource:
  187. Irwin, Joseph Paul. Liptako Speaks: History from the Oral Tradition in Africa. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1981.
  188. DOI: 10.1515/9781400855513Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  189. A major study of this Sahelian polity, important for its methodological discussion in the use of oral history.
  190. Find this resource:
  191. Izard, Michel. Gens du pouvoir, gens de la terre: Les institutions politiques de l’ancien royaume du Yatenga. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1985.
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  193. An important volume by Izard, presenting a synthesis of his life-long research on Moose political organization. An effort to reconstruct the polity as it functioned right before the colonial conquest, on the basis of oral accounts by court officials and many others, in addition to ethnographic investigation, including an extensive area survey.
  194. Find this resource:
  195. Izard, Michel. Moogo: L’émergence d’un espace étatique ouest-africain ai XVIe siècle. Paris: Karthala, 2003.
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  197. The second book of Izard’s, presenting a final syntheses of the historical Moose political organization, and including references to his prior publications. Arguably the most important work on Moose historical political organization.
  198. Find this resource:
  199. Levtzion, Nehema. Muslims and Chiefs in West Africa: A Study of Islam in the Middle Volta Basin in the Pre-colonial Period. Oxford: Clarendon, 1968.
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  201. This important historical analysis focuses on Islamic history, with an underlying thesis on the relationship between political office and religion in various parts of the Volta basin. It includes a chapter on the Moose kingdom of Ouagadougou; other chapters provide information on the southern and western parts of Burkina.
  202. Find this resource:
  203. Pageard, Robert. “Une enquête historique en pays mossi.” Journal de la Société des Africanistes 35.1 (1965): 11–66.
  204. DOI: 10.3406/jafr.1965.1390Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  205. The results of a large-scale survey on Moose royal traditions carried out in Ziniare, Gaongo, Koubri, Kombissiri, Sapone, Tanghin, Dassouri, Niou, and Yako, compared to earlier studies, presenting a new critical understanding of the origin of Moose kingdoms, their mutual relations, and their chronology, paving the way to Michel Izard’s more recent analyses and formulations.
  206. Find this resource:
  207. Şaul, Mahir. “The War Houses of the Watara in West Africa.” International Journal of African Historical Studies 3.3 (1998): 537–570.
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  209. A reevaluation of Jula political formations and western Burkina’s precolonial political history. An earlier French version published in Madiéga and Nao 2003 (cited under Colonial Period).
  210. Find this resource:
  211. Metallurgy of Iron and Gold
  212. The history of metalworking has had an unusual flourishing for Burkina Faso. The major references for iron working in the Moose area are Kiéthéga 1993, and Kiéthéga 1996. Coulibaly 1997 extends this work to the Bwa region in the west. Kiéthéga 1983 is a pioneering work on gold production in western Burkina Faso. Werthmann 2006, Werthmann 2007, and Werthmann 2009 present an ethnography and a critical evaluation of earlier writings on precolonial gold production and trade in the region west of the Mouhoun River.
  213. Coulibaly, Elisée. Savoir, Savoir-faire des anciens métallurgistes: Recherches interdisciplinaires sur les procédés en sidérurgie directe dans le Bwamu; Une contribution à l’histoire des techniques en Afrique. PhD diss., Université de Paris I, 1997.
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  215. A work of historical archaeology based largely on oral history and the study of recent ruins of smelting furnaces.
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  217. Kiéthéga, Jean-Baptiste. L’or de la Volta Noire: Archéologie et histoire de l’exploitation traditionnelle. Paris: Khartala, 1983.
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  219. A much-quoted study on historical gold production in the Poura region east of the Mouhoun River, based mostly on oral accounts.
  220. Find this resource:
  221. Kiéthéga, Jean-Baptiste. “Le cycle de l’or au Burkina Faso.” In Découvertes du Burkina: Annales des conférences organisées par le Centre Culturel Français Georges Méliès de Ouagadougou, 1991–1992. Vol. 2. Edited by Annie Merlet, 97–126. Paris: Éditions Sépia, 1993.
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  223. Updated account of precolonial gold production in Poura, a site lying east of the Mouhoun River.
  224. Find this resource:
  225. Kiéthéga, Jean-Baptiste. La métallurgie lourde du fer au Burkina Faso. 2 vols. PhD diss., Université de Paris I, 1996.
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  227. A major work on iron smelting technology, in the archeological style that was continued by Kiéthéga’s students, based on oral history and the examination of surface remains, and focusing on the recent past.
  228. Find this resource:
  229. Werthmann, Katja. “Gold Diggers, Earth Priests, and District Heads: Land Rights and Gold Mining in South-Western Burkina Faso.” In Land Rights and the Politics of Belonging in West Africa. Edited by Richard Kuba and Carola Lentz, 119–136. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill, 2006.
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  231. An account of gold production in the Dagara area west of the Mouhoun River by small, independent migrant workers and relations with local farmers, based on extensive fieldwork.
  232. Find this resource:
  233. Werthmann, Katja. “Gold Mining and Jula Influence in Precolonial Southern Burkina Faso.” Journal of African History 48 (2007): 395–414.
  234. DOI: 10.1017/S002185370700326XSave Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  235. A major correction and reevaluation of issues related to historical gold production on the banks of the Mouhoun River.
  236. Find this resource:
  237. Werthmann, Katja. Bitteres Gold: Bergbau, Land und Geld in Burkina Faso. Köln, Germany: Rüdiger Köppe Verlag, 2009.
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  239. A more extensive study of gold production in Dagara area, including historical considerations, description of work organization, economic realities, recent changes, and the ethos vis-à-vis consumption and money.
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  241. Colonial Conquest
  242. The late-19th-century French conquest period is well covered, first by colonial historians (e.g., Gatelet 1901), and more recently in Kambou-Ferrand 1993, which has become the standard account of the colonial conquest of the territory that became Upper Volta/Burkina Faso. Person 1975 presents a different angle. This greatest of all modern historical studies on French West Africa offers a sympathetic biography of the eponymous military leader who was the most formidable adversary of French colonial expansion during the last two decades of the 19th century. Uncommon in the work of historians, it places at the center personal accounts and reminiscences of surviving African protagonists in Samori’s entourage, coordinated with French official records and other secondary oral and written sources. Madiéga 1981 is a listing of all the treaties, and the events that led to them, fixing the current boundaries of Burkina. Domergue 1977 is a work on the rebellious southwest corner inhabited by Lobi and other Voltaic speaking peoples. Duperray 1984 is a major regional monograph based on archival sources as well ethnography. Ki Zerbo 1983 is a small but unusual book in that it is a biography by the celebrated Burkinabe historian.
  243. Domergue, Danielle. “L’échec d’une conquête: Le pays lobi (1900–1926).” Bulletin de l’Institut Fondamental d’Afrique Noire, série B, 39.3 (1977): 532–553.
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  245. Account of colonial government action to suppress resistance in southwestern Burkina Faso and its failure during the first three decades of the 20th century.
  246. Find this resource:
  247. Duperray, Anne Marie. Les Gourounsi de Haute-Volta: Conquête et colonisation, 1886–1933. Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag, 1984.
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  249. Detailed historic account based on archival sources, but also largely on ethnography and oral history, of the south-central part of Burkina Faso.
  250. Find this resource:
  251. Gatelet, August Louis Charles. Histoire de la conquête du Soudan (1878–1899). Paris: Berger-Levrault, 1901.
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  253. The military history of the French conquest, written according to the reports of the army by one of its officers. It includes the campaigns that resulted in the occupation of what is now Burkina Faso.
  254. Find this resource:
  255. Kambou-Ferrand, Jeanne-Marie. Peuples voltaïqes et conquête coloniale, 1885–1914. Paris: L’Harmattan, 1993.
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  257. The description takes each region in turn, starting with the treaty-making efforts of the French, British, and Germans during the 1890s, giving an account of the military campaigns of the final years of that decade, including local resistances and reactions. Based on the military records preserved in the French national archives, with occasional insight from local oral tradition. Commentary and interpretation clearly empathizes with the colonized.
  258. Find this resource:
  259. Ki Zerbo, Joseph. Alfred Diban: Premier chrétien de Haute Volta. Paris: CERF, 1983.
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  261. A brief but remarkable account by the historian Ki Zerbo of his father’s life, who as a teenager was captured by local bandits and sold as a house slave, only to escape and take refuge in a Roman Catholic mission, during the years when the French colonial conquest was unfolding.
  262. Find this resource:
  263. Madiéga, Y. Georges. “Esquisse de la conquête et de la formation territoriale de la colonie de Haute-Volta.” Bulletin de l’Institut fondamental d’Afrique noire, Série B, Sciences humaines, série B, 43.3–4 (July–October 1981): 217–277.
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  265. Study of the military engagements resulting in French occupation and the late-19th- and early-20th-century treaties signed between the colonial powers of France, Great Britain, and Germany, which fixed the borders of the political entity that became Burkina Faso.
  266. Find this resource:
  267. Person, Yves. Samori. Une révolution dyula. Vol. 3. Dakar: IFAN, 1975.
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  269. An event history privileging human agency within its ethnographic and socioeconomic setting. The third, 1,000-page volume concerns the last period of Samori’s political career set in northern Côte d’Ivoire, including southwestern Burkina Faso, up until colonial French occupation. A broad canvas as well as a trove of encyclopedic and biographic information. A companion set of forty-four foldout maps was published posthumously in a 15’’x15’’ case as Cartes historiques de l’Afrique manding (Fin du 19e siècle): Samori, une révolution dyula (Paris: Centre de Recherche Africaines, 1990).
  270. Find this resource:
  271. Colonial Period
  272. Massa and Madiéga 1995 is a massive collection, of consistently high quality, and indispensable. Madiéga and Nao 2003 is a 2,200-page collection in two volumes presenting the one hundred papers delivered at the First International Conference on the History of Burkina Faso, organized by the University of Ouagadougou in December 1996. Fourchard 2001 offers an urban social history based on property records. Marchal 1980 is by a geographer who presented a colonial history of a district he came to know thoroughly. Şaul and Royer 2001 analyzes and describes an armed movement during World War 1, which was the largest opposition the French faced in their West African empire, the main reason for forming the colony of Upper Volta once World War I was over, and an influence shaping early French colonial government elsewhere in Africa. Breusers 1999 is a case study from the Moose region.
  273. Breusers, Mark. “The Making of History in Colonial Haute Volta: Border Conflicts between Two Moose Chieftaincies, 1900–1940.” Journal of African History 40.3 (1999): 447–467.
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  275. A case study from the Kaya region where Moose chiefs and earth priests struggle for control over land, and through them kin groups and other actors respond to the circumstances created by colonial rule; stresses the continuity with precolonial patterns.
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  277. Fourchard, Laurent. De la ville coloniale à la cour africaine: Espaces, pouvoirs et sociétés a Ouagadougou et à Bobo-Dioulasso (Haute-Volta) fin XIXe siècle-1960. Paris: L’Harmattan, 2001.
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  279. A work on urbanism and social history, tracing the colonial development of Ouagadougou and Bobo-Dioulasso in the 20th century, using unconventional sources such as urban land registers and commercial listings.
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  281. Madiéga, Yénouyaga Georges, and Oumarou Nao, eds. Burkina Faso: Cent ans d’histoire, 1895–1995: Actes du premier colloque international sur l’histoire du Burkina, Ouagadougou, 12–17 décembre 1996. 2 vols. Paris: Karthala, 2003.
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  283. The papers in this collection cover diverse topics, some uncommon, including some important contributions, but as no selection was made, the quality is uneven. Originally published in Ouagaodougou (Presses Universitaires de Ouagadougou, 1999), with a more widely diffused second printing made in Paris, which is the edition cited here.
  284. Find this resource:
  285. Marchal, Jean-Yves. Chroniques d’un Cercle de l’A.O.F.: Receuil d’archives du poste de Ouahigouya (Haute Volta), 1908–1941. Paris: 1980.
  286. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  287. The impact of colonial policies in the Sahel, narrated through colonial documents of the cercle administration.
  288. Find this resource:
  289. Massa, Gabriel, and Y. Georges Madiéga, eds. La Haute-Volta coloniale: Témoignages, recherches, regards. Paris: Karthala, 1995.
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  291. An important collection of more than fifty chapters, starting with an overview and a chronological table by Y. G. Madiéga. Chapters grouped under these headings: Administration and Justice; Religions and Colonial Power; Economic, Social and Cultural Transformations; Modern Political Life and the Move toward Independence; Portraits; Discussions. The bibliography includes a listing of master’s and doctoral theses written in Burkina Faso and France.
  292. Find this resource:
  293. Şaul, Mahir, and Patrick Royer. West African Challenge to Empire: Culture and History in the Volta-Bani Anticolonial War. Athens, OH: Ohio University Press, 2001.
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  295. Study of the massive armed movement against the colonial government in western Burkina Faso in 1915 and 1916. A general analysis of the early colonial period and of the precolonial heritage, and an assessment of the effect of World War I mobilization; and an interpretive evaluation of the popular sources of the opposition movement and its organization. Several chapters present the confrontation in chronological order on the basis of colonial archives and oral tradition.
  296. Find this resource:
  297. Decolonization and Independence Period
  298. Benoist 1979 is a major account of the preparation for independence in West Africa following World War II, trying to answer why and how it took the form of the currrent nation-states. Madiéga 1992 covers similar ground within the narrower confines of Burkina Faso, focusing on political parties rather than colonial strategies. Balima 1996 is a major work with a somewhat misleading title; its most valuable part is the second, which was published in 1970 as a shorter book entitled La Genèse de la Haute Volta, and which has valuable glimpses of insider knowledge from the late 1950s on, although the text rarely strays too far from the received opinion.
  299. Balima, Salfo-Albert. Légendes et histoire des peuples du Burkina Faso. Paris: J.A. Conseil, 1996.
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  301. Major work in three parts: (1) precolonial past and ethnography, compiled from other scholarly works; (2) a history based on personal experience, starting in the 1950s and continuing with post-independence, including the Sankara years, including biographies of about a hundred leading political actors; and (3) a 270-page section reproducing archival documents and press clippings, some hard to locate but communicated to the author by officials and personal friends.
  302. Find this resource:
  303. Benoist, Joseph Roger de. La balkanisation de l’Afrique occidentale francaise. Foreword by Léopold Sédar Senghor. Paris: Nouvelles Éditions Africaines, 1979.
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  305. History of the breakup of the colonial West African federation and the emergence of territorial units leading to separate nation-states in the years following World War II. Contains details of the political parties and the main African and French actors, and includes an analysis of the reconstitution of the Colony of Upper Volta in 1947, and of 1950s politics in Côte d’Ivoire and Mali.
  306. Find this resource:
  307. Madiéga, Y. Georges. “Les partis politiques et la question des fédérations en Haute-Volta/Burkina Faso.” In L’Afrique noire française: L’heure des indépendances. Edited by Charles-Robert Ageron and Marc Michel, 383–398. Paris: Éditions CNRS, 1992.
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  309. Examines decolonization period politics and political parties.
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  311. Economic History
  312. Studies have been made about particular aspects of the country’s economy, but there is no general overview for the country specifically. Suret-Canale 1977 is a major synthesis concerning all of the French African colonial empire, with much that concerns colonial Upper Volta. Gervais 1994 and Schwartz 1993 are on the promotion of cotton as a cash crop early in the colonial period, and both the authors have written other works on the topic. Dupré and Guillaud 1988 presents a study based on geographers’ and anthropologists’ tools for social history. Şaul 1986 is a study of colonial social and commercial history based on ethnographic techniques. Şaul 2004 is a study of a little known but significant aspect of colonial monetary history.
  313. Dupré, Georges, and Dominique Guillaud. “L’agriculture de l’Aribinda de 1875 à 1983: Les dimensions d’un changement.” Cahiers Sciences Humaines 26.3 (1988): 51–71.
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  315. Study of the long-term change to the Sahelian farming system, based on grain production during the past century, undertaken in light of the production crisis of 1983.
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  317. Gervais, Raymond. “La politique cotonnière de la France dans le Mossi colonial (Haute-Volta) (1919–1940).” Revue française d’histoire d’outre-mer 81.1 (1994): 27–54.
  318. DOI: 10.3406/outre.1994.3175Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  319. Study of colonial policy regarding cotton production.
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  321. Şaul, Mahir. “Development of the Grain Market and Merchants in Burkina Faso.” Journal of Modern African Studies 24.1 (1986): 127–153.
  322. DOI: 10.1017/S0022278X00006777Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  323. The development of trade, based on personal histories of traders based in Bobo-Dioulasso.
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  325. Şaul, Mahir. “Money in Colonial Transition: Cowries and Francs in West Africa.” American Anthropologist 106.1 (2004): 71–84.
  326. DOI: 10.1525/aa.2004.106.1.71Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  327. A study of the persistence of the monetary use of cowry shells during the colonial period in western Burkina Faso, first with the connivance of the administration, and later in defiance of it. Explores the economic and political reasons behind it, including an evaluation of the nature of the colonial economy.
  328. Find this resource:
  329. Schwartz, Alfred. “Brève histoire de la culture du coton au Burkina Faso.” In Découvertes du Burkina: Annales des conférences organisées par le Centre Culturel Français Georges Méliès de Ouagadougou, 1991–1992. Vol 1. Edited by Annie Merlet, 207–237. Paris: Éditions Sépia, 1993.
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  331. Synthetic essay by the researcher who made the most sustained study of cotton production.
  332. Find this resource:
  333. Suret-Canale, Jean. Afrique noire: L’ère coloniale, 1900–1945. Paris: Editions Sociale, 1977.
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  335. General account of both West and Central African French colonial federations, covering politics, economics, education, and health, both in institutional terms and with sociological analysis. It was pioneering in its time and remains indispensable for its unmatched erudition.
  336. Find this resource:
  337. Memoirs
  338. Conombo 1989 and Conombo 2003 were authored by a politician who, in the 1950s, when the French colonial empire was reorganized preparing for independence, held important positions in the postwar metropolitan government in Paris as an African representative. After independence, he became a leading member of the political elite of Upper Volta, holding the positions of member and vice president of the National Assembly, mayor of Ouagadougou, and finally prime minister (1978–1980). Lamizana 1999 was written by the head of government of Upper Volta between 1966 and 1980. Both memoirs are thin, following a model of vignette readings, rather than engaging deeply with issues or revealing self-reckoning, but they are among the rare such works published by important figures of decolonization and early independence.
  339. Conombo, Joseph Issouffou. Souvenir de guerre d’un “Tirailleur Sénégalais.” Paris: L’Harmattan, 1989.
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  341. This slim volume includes the childhood of the author in the Yatenga region and his memoirs from his time as a soldier in the French colonial army in the expeditionary force sent to fight the rebellion in Indochina.
  342. Find this resource:
  343. Conombo, Joseph Issouffou. Acteur de mon temps: Un Voltaïque dans le XXè siècle. Edited by Monique Chajmowiez. Paris: France, 2003.
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  345. This book deals with the later part of the author’s life and the politics of decolonization and early independence.
  346. Find this resource:
  347. Lamizana, Sangoulé. Mémoires. Preface by M. Adama Fofana and Bongnessan Arsène Yé. 2 vols. Paris: Jaguar conseil, 1999.
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  349. Memoirs of the second president of Upper Volta who ruled the country from January 1966 until the bloodless military coup of November 1980. Volume 1, Sous les drapeaux, starts with an account of his childhood in the Samo region of Tougan and covers the years he spent as a staff officer in the French colonial army, including service in Morocco and Algeria during World War II and Indochina and Algeria in the 1950s. Volume 2, Sur la brèche trente années durant, covers his years as head of state.
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  351. Geography
  352. Physical geography studies are few. Other ecological studies are listed in the Rural Economy section below. Human geography, of which there is a rich French tradition marking research in Burkina Faso, is covered under Society and Culture.
  353. Physical Geography
  354. Hottin and Ouédraogo 1976 is a geological map. Kessler and Geerling 1994 provides an atlas with information on ecological matters.
  355. Hottin, G., and O. F. Ouédraogo. Carte géologique de la République de la Haute Volta. Paris: ORSTOM, 1976.
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  357. Presents a map at 1:1,000,000, accompanied by a Notice explicative.
  358. Find this resource:
  359. Kessler, J. J., and C. Geerling. Profil environmental du Burkina Faso. Wageningen, The Netherlands: Université Agronomique, Département de l’Aménagement de la Nature, 1994.
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  361. Information concerning the natural and human environment, natural resources and their use, and ecological conditions, presented with a series of maps and color photographs.
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  363. Ecology
  364. Most work done by French geographers has a strong ecological orientation. Marchal 1983b is the work of most general interest—a detailed study based on the painstaking analysis of the 12,000 aerial photos covering Burkina Faso that were taken between 1952 and 1956 to offer a technically more solid and useful replacement for what was roughly presented as the ecological zones of Burkina Faso. Benoit 1977 presents a similar project with the more limited scope of pastoralist lifestyles. Benoit 1979 is a detailed study of one case. Marchal 1983a is a monumental study of Moose farm production in the Sahel region, and the precarious situation of farms during the early 1980s. Petit 2000 is a study of tree fodder’s significance in pastoralist strategies. Şaul, et al. 2003 presents a synthetic account of farm production since colonial times, complementing it with literature review insights gained from four production sites in western Burkina Faso.
  365. Benoit, M. Introduction à la Géographie des Aires Pastorales Soudaniennes de Haute-Volta. Paris: ORSTOM, 1977.
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  367. Study based on cartography to delimit the number and types of animal husbandry production zones in Burkina, on the basis of physical and human characteristics, such as ethnicity, lifestyle, access to pasture land, and rainy season practices. The methodology is complex and the target audience includes those interested in regional studies as well as planners.
  368. Find this resource:
  369. Benoit, Michel. Le chemin des Peul de Boobola: Contribution à l’écologie du pastoralisme en Afrique des savanes. Paris: ORSTOM, 1979.
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  371. Ecological and human geographical study of agropastoral activities of the Fulbe of the Barani region and their migration to the south.
  372. Find this resource:
  373. Marchal, Jean-Yves. Yatenga, nord Haute Volta: La dynamique d’un espace rural soudano-sahélien. Paris: ORSTOM, 1983a.
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  375. Good example of French human geography tradition at work on production systems. Under pressure of growing population density and the splitting up of production units, the dual intensive and extensive cultivation practice was abandoned in order to expand the surface area, which is now farmed all extensively and continuously. Grazing areas for pastoralists have become smaller, and crisis years of grain shortfall arrive with increasing frequency. Thirty-five maps accompany the text.
  376. Find this resource:
  377. Marchal, Monique. Les paysages agraires de Haute-Volta. Paris: ORSTOM, 1983b.
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  379. Careful account of landscape units, described as a highly diverse mosaic, to replace the blunt, impressionistic categories that may still be offered as the ecological zones of Burkina Faso. The author consolidates her lansdscape portraits into sixteen grand types covering the entire country. Features of the physical environment imprint some of these, whereas others result largely from past human practice. A major synthesis.
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  381. Petit, Sandrine. Environnement, conduite des troupeaux et usage de l’arbre chez les agropasteurs de l’ouest burkinabe. 2 vols. PhD diss., Université d’Orléans, 2000.
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  383. Explores the pastoral economy of the Fulbe and the use of tree fodder and other plants in the southwest, and the Sudanic grasslands to which the Fulbe have gradually expanded since the 1980s out of their historical habitat in the Sahel.
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  385. Şaul, Mahir, Jean-Marie Ouadba, and Ouétian Bognounou. “The Wild Vegetation Cover of Western Burkina Faso: Colonial Policy and Post-Colonial Development.” In African Savannas: Global Narratives and Local Knowledge of Environmental Change. Edited by Thomas J. Bassett and Donald Crummey, 121–160. Oxford: James Curry, 2003.
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  387. Looks at agricultural expansion from colonial times to the present, as well as increasing commercialization, and the impact on the spontaneous tree cover in Western Burkina Faso.
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  389. Society and Culture
  390. Most social science research in Burkina Faso has been carried out by anthropologists. The listing here starts with the earliest colonial texts (Early Colonial Period Ethnographies), and then groups the works according to their thematic emphasis.
  391. Early Colonial Period Ethnographies
  392. Tauxier 1912, Tauxier 1917, Tauxier 1924, and Tauxier 1933 are notable because of their early date of composition and the author’s prolific writing. As the first ethnographer of the Moose in the central plain and in the Sahel, and of other populations to the south and west of Burkina Faso, Tauxier’s works establish a historic baseline. They describe family life, agriculture, crafts, ritual practices, and elements of social organization in a straightforward empirical manner and with accurate detail, under the influence of Frédéric Le Play’s sociology. Most of this work is descriptive and unpretentious but reliable. The first three books are partly translated into English in the “Mossi” file of the Human Relations Area Files. Mangin 1916 is written by another early ethnographer of the Moose; he was a priest and not an administrator. Chéron 1916 and Chéron 1924 are written by yet another early ethnographer, of administrator origin, of the Moose central plain, although elsewhere he also pioneered the ethnography of Bobo-Dioualsso, where he worked as the first civilian administrator. The author of Labouret 1931 had a most accomplished scholarly career, as he became successor to Maurice Delafosse as director of the Colonial Professional School in Paris. His five-hundred-page monograph introduced the peoples of the zone where the borders of Burkina Faso, Ghana, and Côte d’Ivoire meet, and the lingering habit of talking about them as “branch.” From a modern perspective, the weakest point shared by all these works is their near total neglect of social organization and structure, replaced by an encyclopedic approach to material culture, economic production, religious festivals, and life-cycle ceremonies. Robert Pageard was a jurist and does not belong in the group of colonial administrator-ethnographers—because of the late date of his work, Pageard 1969, and his specifically legal interest—but he shares aspects of the ethos. Note, however, that Dim Delobsom is a remarkable indigenous intellectual and writer. After contributing several articles in the 1920s to colonial academic journals, he became the first indigenous African book author in colonial French West Africa. The significance of his work goes beyond the ethnographic record he provides. See Dim Delobsom 1932 and Dim Delobsom 1934.
  393. Chéron, Georges. “Les Bobo-fing.” In Annuaire et Mémoires du Comité d’Etudes Historiques et Scientifiques de l’Afrique Occidentale Française, 215–261. Gorée: Imprimerie du Gouvernement Général, 1916.
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  395. A monograph by an administrator of the Bobo-Dioulasso district, starting with a brief history and then providing an unpretentious but detailed description of material culture and life-cycle ceremonies. Important for its early date.
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  397. Chéron, Gerorges. “Contribution a L’histoire du Mossi: Traditions relatives au cercle de Kaya.” Bulletin du Comité d’Etudes Historiques et Scientifiques de l’Afrique Occidentale Française 7.4 (1924): 635–691.
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  399. A study of oral traditions related to the Kaya district, with the aim of contributing to the precolonial history of the Moose political organization.
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  401. Chéron, Georges. “La Cour Du Bassouma Naba.” Bulletin du Comite d’Etudes Historiques et Scientifiques de l’Afrique Occidentale Française 8.2 (1925): 204–312.
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  403. Another substantial contributions by administrator Chéron, this time focusing on Moose political history and organization of a particular chiefdom.
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  405. Dim Delobsom, Antoine Augustin. L’empire du Mogho-Naba: Coutumes des mossi de la Haute Volta. Preface by Robert Randau. Paris: Domat-Montchréstien, 1932.
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  407. Historic reconstruction of the operation of the Moose kingdom of Ouagadougou. The preface is by Robert Arnaud, the acting governor of Upper Volta in 1927, who wrote under the pseudonym Robert Randau. The Human Relations Area Files includes in its “Mossi” file an English translation of 16 of the 20 chapters of this book.
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  409. Dim Delobsom, Antoine Augustin. Les secrets des sorciers noirs. Paris: Librairie Emile Noury, 1934.
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  411. This second book by Dim Delobsom is a study of medicine and ritual. Both books are written in a lively and intelligent style, with a friendly mix of personal anecdotes and serious reflections. See also Michael Kevane’s “Dim Delobsom: French Colonialism and Local Response in Upper Volta,” African Studies Quarterly 8.4 (2006).
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  413. Labouret, Henri. Les tribus du rameau Lobi. Paris: Institut d’Ethnologie, 1931.
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  415. Labouret started as military officer in this zone in 1912, then became civilian administrator of Diebougou and Gaoua, acquiring proficiency in several local languages and collecting ethnographic information and oral literature. After 1924 he became a leading Africanist in France. The book, organized in thematic chapters, is strong on material culture and as a catalogue of customs, but it is weak on social organization. Profusely illustrated with line drawings in the text and dozens of photographs in thirty-one plates placed at the end.
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  417. Mangin, P. Eugène. Les Mossi: Essai sur les us et coutumes du peuple Mossi au Soudan Occidental. Vienna: Mechitharisten Buchdruckerei, 1916.
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  419. One of the pioneering ethnographies of the abundant literature on the Moose, by a Roman Catholic missionary who spent many years in Koupela. Generalizing and judgmental, but offers an unassuming description of daily practices, observations on family and community life, farming, a list of proverbs in Moore transcription with translation, animal stories in translation, and a number of photographs. First published in the journal Anthropos.
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  421. Pageard, Robert. Le droit privé des Mossi Tradition et évolution. 2 vols. Paris: Laboratoire d’Anthropologie Sociale, Collège de France, 1969.
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  423. Not strictly colonial research, but belonging in this group by its orientation, this 488-page work by a French jurist who served as chief justice during the first four years of independence in Ouagadougou is an exploration of customary Moose legal principles and their evolution during the colonial period. The author notes local and class variation and is methodologically alert in his use of the sources.
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  425. Tauxier, Louis. Le noir du Soudan: Le pays mossi et gourounsi. Paris: Émile Larose, 1912.
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  427. Tauxier’s first book deals with the Moose and the Voltaic-speaking (or Gur-speaking) populations to their west and south. Having served as administrator in Leo, Tauxier was the first to describe the Nuna, Kasena, and Sisala, who were hitherto grouped under the umbrella term Gurunsi. The early date of Tauxier’s sources makes his findings a significant historical source for the 19th-century past, especially in the southern fringe.
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  429. Tauxier, Louis. Le noir du Yatenga. Paris: Émile Larose, 1917.
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  431. Based on Ouahigouya, this work focuses on the Moose of the Sahelian zone and follows a plan similar to Tauxier 1912.
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  433. Tauxier, Louis. Nouvelles notes sur le Mossi et le Gourounsi. Paris: Émile Larose, 1924.
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  435. Despite this name, this is an independent contribution on the Moose of the central plain and the southern and western populations of Burkina Faso. Occasional historical notes are valuable because of the early date of their recording.
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  437. Tauxier, Louis. “Les Goin et Turuka, residence de Banfora, cercle de Bobo-Dioulasso: Etudes ethnographiques suivi d’un double vocabulaire.” Journal de la Société des Africanistes 3.1 (1933): 77–128.
  438. DOI: 10.3406/jafr.1933.1546Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  439. These small Voltaic-language groups were first described by Tauxier, and there have not been good ethnographic publications on them since then, except for Father Jean Hebert’s studies, which mostly remain in manuscript form.
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  441. Ethnographies Focusing on Farm Life
  442. The distinguishing feature of the studies in this list is their particular attention to farm production within a general analysis of social organization. Capron 1973 is a classic study celebrated for its wide range and original analyses, but the main strength lies in the detailed data and analysis of farm groups in Bwa villages. Breusers 1999 is a modern ethnography that includes much discussion of responses to development programs and international migration. Hammond 1966 was one of the first (and still rare) ethnographies from Burkina Faso that reached US college classrooms.
  443. Breusers, Mark. On the Move: Mobility, Land Use and Livelihood Practices on the Central Plateau in Burkina Faso. Münster, Germany: LIT Verlag, 1999.
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  445. An ethnography from the Kaya region exploring the interplay of geographic mobility and land use with flexible and shifting or merging land rights, including agricultural extension, colonization, and transnational migration. It includes a discussion of relations between Moose farmers and Fulbe pastoralists, and a critical assessment of development programs.
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  447. Capron, Jean. Communautés villageoise bwa: Mali, Haute Volta. Paris: Institut d’Ethnologie, 1973.
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  449. Examines community and farm household production in two Bwa villages. This rich monograph was celebrated in its time for its contribution to economic anthropology, but it is also significant for its discussion of worldview, cultural conceptions, and ritual life, including masquerades.
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  451. Hammond, Peter B. Yatenga: Technology in the Culture of a West African Kingdom. New York: Free Press, 1966.
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  453. A study famous in its time, focusing on the stable farming and production techniques that underlie the social organization of the Yatenga region.
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  455. Political Organization
  456. Skinner 1964 provides the best known account of Moose political organization as a timeless edifice, but it can be profitably compared to Michel Izard’s description of what is presented more explicitly as precolonial organization. Duval 1985 anticipated some themes that became very popular recently. Schweeger-Hefel and Staude 1972 is a major study that is often mentioned but very poorly known by specialists of Burkina Faso.
  457. Duval, Maurice. Un totalitarism sans Etat: Essai d’anthropologie politique à partir d’un village Burkinabe. Paris: L’Harmattan, 1985.
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  459. Political anthropology based on fieldwork in a Nuna “Gurunsi” village in central Burkina Faso, not far from Koudougou, focusing on the ties of subordination both within and between communities, and including some discussion of secrecy and its methodological implications for fieldwork.
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  461. Schweeger-Hefel, Annemarie, and Wilhelm Staude. Die Kurumba von Lurum: Mongoraphie einese Volkes aus Obervolta. Vienna: Verlag A. Schendl, 1972.
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  463. The basic social organizational study of a small group in northern Burkina Faso that speaks a Voltaic language (a.k.a. Fulse) and possesses a complex ritual kingship with some executive power, historically displaced by the more hierarchically organized Moose, but who may have built their political edifices on Kurumba principles.
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  465. Skinner, Elliott P. The Mossi of the Upper Volta: The Political Development of a Sudanese People. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1964.
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  467. Standard and best-known ethnography from Burkina Faso on the political and administrative organization of Moose kingdoms, based on archival documents and the ethnography of a chiefdom south of Ouagaodougou. Skinner, an eminent African American academic, also served as ambassador to Upper Volta under the Kennedy administration. The French translation of this book is relatively well diffused and known in Burkina Faso.
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  469. Kinship and Social Organization
  470. This is the paradigmatic domain of sociocultural anthropology, and Burkina Faso is well represented, with a first-class corpus created under the inspiration of French theoretical literature, mostly in dialogue with Claude Levi-Strauss’s ideas. Héritier 1981 has had the largest echo in the English-speaking literature. Guignard 1984 is totally ethnographically anchored, but also shows strong, albeit critical, theoretical interest in Levi-Strauss’s theories. Dacher 1992 presents a fine-grained anthropology informed by discussions on women’s positions, followed by an essay on disease and therapeutic practices. Kibora 2001 is a study of one of the groups under the umbrella “Gurunsi” and deals with marriage alliances as well as settlement history. Lallemand 1977 offers an open-ended ethnography with an eye for potential areas of interpersonal conflict. Père 1988 is a learned, classic ethnography of more than nine hundred pages, based on the author’s doctoral dissertation. Pfluger 1988 is on social relations between constituent groups of society rather than kinship per se. Rouville 1987 provides an entry to the rich earlier literature on the Lobi, who have remained marginal and a special topic of interest for specialists of Burkina Faso.
  471. Dacher, Michèle. Prix des épouses, valeur des soeurs suivi de Les représentations de la maladie: Deux études sur la société Goin. With contributions by Suzanne Lallemand. Paris: L’Harmattan, 1992.
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  473. The first essay of this book is a study of kinship, marriage transactions, spouses’ mutual obligations, and the gender division of labor, with an underlying interest in the status of women. The second essay is on the categories of health and disease, the magical etiology of disease, and an ethnography of care and treatment of patients.
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  475. Guignard, Erik. Faits et modèles de parenté chez les Toureg Udalen de Haute Volta. Paris: L’Harmattan, 1984.
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  477. A theoretically stimulated empirical study of matrilineal and patrilineal descent, focusing on marriage patterns and ideals, and their consequences and implications, in a Tuareg group in the Gorom-Gorom-Markoy northern border region of Burkina Faso. Critically engages Levi-Strauss’s notion of generalized exchange, as it also provides a thorough ethnographic record of genealogies and case studies.
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  479. Héritier, Françoise. L’Exercise de la parenté. Paris: Gallimard, Le Seuil, 1981.
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  481. An ethnography of kinship and marriage among the Samo (San) populations of northwest Burkina. Famous for the analysis, following Claude Levi-Strauss’s notion of “semi-complex” kinship structures, that prohibiting marriage with the members of parents’ and grandparents’ groups results in multiple alliances, without recourse to prescriptive marriage rules. It inspired later West African research and generated a discussion in the wider anthropological kinship literature.
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  483. Kibora, Ludovic O. Du dehors au dedans: L’alliance chez les Kasena (Burkina Faso). Paris: Publications de l’Université de Paris 7, 2001.
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  485. An ethnography of social organization, settlement history, political order, and historic relations with Moose political hierarchies among the Voltaic-speaking Kasena near the border with Ghana.
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  487. Lallemand, Suzanne. Une famille mossi. Paris: Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, 1977.
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  489. Description and analysis of a large compound of about thirty people in the Yatenga region. Chapters on agricultural economy, premarital sex, marriage, child rearing, and different sorts of interpersonal relations. The author highlights areas of tension and conflict.
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  491. Père, Madelaine. Les Lobi: Tradition et changement. 2 vols. Laval, France: Siloë, 1988.
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  493. It starts with the turbulent settlement history and waves of emigration. The rest is mostly on social organization, worldview, and rituals. It ends with recent changes and the current situation. Written by a French author who spent a lifetime in Burkina Faso, including decades running a health clinic in Gaoua, where she also created a museum. She also made many later contributions to the history and ethnography of the region.
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  495. Pfluger, Walter. Ronga: Ein Beispiel politischer Organisation als System der Komplementarität. Stuttgart: F. Steiner Wiesbaden, 1988.
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  497. An analysis of the major yearly traditional festivals among the Moose, interpreted as a means of communication between the constituent groups of society and a symbolic expression of the principle of complementarity.
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  499. Rouville, Cécile de. Organisation sociale des Lobi: Burkina Faso-Côte d’Ivoire. Paris: L’Harmattan, 1987.
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  501. Remarkable ethnography building on the rich earlier literature, with chapters on domestic groups, kinship terminology and behavior, the village community, matrilineal and patrilineal descent groups, and quantified information on marriage choices, material exchanges, and strategies, all marked by the presence of free and slaves branches within local matriclans.
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  503. Life Writing
  504. The higly original studies of this section are all one of a kind and unusual in the anthropological literature. Dacher 2005 provides a group biography, while Fiéloux 1993 is a rearranged autobiography of a man the author knew personally, created on the basis of oral recordings. Sanon 1985, in contrast, is an autobiography authored by an educated man of humble village origin, focusing on traditional initiation as alternative education.
  505. Dacher, Michèle. Cent ans au village: Chronique familiale gouin (Burkina Faso). Paris: Karthala, 2005.
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  507. The history of the family, including second- and third-generation descendants, of a colonial strongman, based on interviews conducted over a period of twenty years. Explores kinship strategies such as marriage with a slave wife in a regime of matrilineal clans and heritage rule, the constant presence of the invisible in the daily life of the family, familiarity with dead ancestors, the role of ancestor shrines in merging different filiation lines, land rights, and many other topics informed by the anthropological literature.
  508. Find this resource:
  509. Fiéloux, Michèle. Biwanté: Récit autobiographique d’un Lobi du Burkina Faso. Paris: Karthala, 1993.
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  511. Biography of a thirty-three-year-old Lobi man brought up in a traditional household as the son of a powerful father and trained as a mechanic in high school. Based on voice recordings made in 1980 in Gaoua.
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  513. Sanon, Gaston. La scuola e il mi vilaggio. Gorizia, Italy: Centro Volontari Cooperazione allo Sviluppo, 1985.
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  515. Autobiographic ethnography of initiation ceremonies as educational institution, by a man who was born among the endogamous blacksmiths of the Bobo-speaking village of Kokorowe. He became a Roman Catholic priest, studying in the Nasso and Koumi seminaries and then serving in the Tunuma mission, all places in the Bobo cultural orbit, before going abroad to pursue a degree in philosophy and ethnology in Strasbourg, France.
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  517. Anthropology of Health
  518. The anthropology of disease was a fad among French anthropologists because of the funding that became available for it in the 1980s, along with the growing interest that international organizations developed in traditional medicine. Many anthropologists who had started with more general theoretical interests conducted special research on this topic or recast their earler observations in terms of new questions on health and therapeutic practices. The results are often informative beyond the narrowly applied anthropological focus implied. Bonnet 1988 is a classic work on the ethnography of health and healing in the Moose area. Fainzang 1986 focuses equally on divination. Desclaux and Taverne 2000 includes multiple contibutions by a handful of authors undertaken under the stimulus of HIV prevention and treatment. Roth 2013 belongs in an different group altogether, focusing on the issues facing senior people with low income, and is an extension of the author’s urban anthropology.
  519. Bonnet, Doris. Corps biologique, corps social: Procréation et maladies de l’enfant en pays mossi, Burkina Faso. Paris: ORSTOM, 1988.
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  521. A medical anthropological study of pregnancy, childbirth, and children’s diseases.
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  523. Desclaux, Alice, and Bernard Taverne. Allaitement et HIV en Afrique de l’Ouest: De l’anthropologie à la santé publique. Paris: Karthala, 2000.
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  525. Eight chapters in this book, which are written or cowritten by Chiara Alfieri (4), Bernard Taverne (5), M. Querre, and D. Coulibaly-Traoré, A. Desclaux, and O. Ky-Zerbo, concern Burkina Faso and deal with nursing, ethnopsychology, perceptions of disease transmission, and HIV-positive women in urban centers.
  526. Find this resource:
  527. Fainzang, Sylvie. “L’intérieur des choses” Maladie, divination et reproduction sociale chez les Bisa du Burkina. Paris: L’Harmattan, 1986.
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  529. Ethnography exemplifying the “anthropology of disease” trend among the Bisa speaking the Lebir dialect in the villages of the Nakamba (White Volta) River. Starts with a chapter on conceptual categories of the world and of the human person. The second chapter deals with disease contamination, etiology, and therapy, the third with divination.
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  531. Roth, Claudia. “Les personnes âgées pauvres en milieu urbain burkinabè (Bobo-Dioulasso): Contraintes et capacités d’action.” In Les indigents et les politiques de santé en Afrique: Expériences et enjeux conceptuels. Edited by Valéry Ridde and Jean-Pierre Jacob, 85–104. Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium: Academia, 2013.
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  533. An article on the breakdown of intergenerational care obligations in the modern city, the situation of impoverished seniors who may be in poor health, the limits to family and community solidarity, and gender issues. Research carried out in Bobo-Dioulasso.
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  535. Settlement History and Land Rights
  536. “Settlement history” refers to the waves of historical migration, in terms of which layers of population in a location conceive their past and justify their rights to the land. There is a considerable literature based on collecting such oral histories and analyzing them either in terms of local microhistory or in terms of the politics of the present and responses to agricultural intensification and political negotiation. Most of these studies were conducted in western Burkina Faso, and many span Burkina Faso and northern Ghana. Kuba, et al. 2001 and Kuba, et al. 2003 are two collections that give an entry to this literature. Hagberg and Tengan 2000 is another collection presenting essays on settlement history and farming rights in the border region of the west.
  537. Hagberg, Sten, and Alexis B. Tengan, eds. Bonds and Boundaries in Northern Ghana and Southern Burkina Faso. Uppsala, Sweden: Uppsala University, Department of Cultural Anthropology and Ethnology, 2000.
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  539. Ten essays on the Dagara and neighboring populations living on either side of the Burkina-Ghana border and dealing with settlement history, social organization, and farming history, household organization, Christian conversion, naming, conflicts with Fulbe pastoralists, and agricultural extension.
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  541. Kuba, Richard, Carola Lentz, and Claude N. Somda, eds. Histoire du peuplement et relations interethniques au Burkina Faso. Paris: Karthala, 2003.
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  543. Includes fourteen important contributions by anthropologists and historians on interethnic relations and the historical construction of ethnic identities. Sisala, Dagara, Phuo, Bisa, Moose of Maane, Fulbe of the south, Tuareg, Kasena, Winye, and gold prospectors around Dano are some of the subjects.
  544. Find this resource:
  545. Kuba, Richard, Carola Lentz, and Katja Werthmann, eds. Les Dagara et leurs voisins: Histoire du peuplement et relations interethniques au sud-ouest du Burkina Faso. Frankfurt: Berichte des Sonderforschungsbereichs 268, 2001.
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  547. Research articles deriving from a project carried out between 1997 and 2002 at the University of Frankfurt, Germany.
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  549. Other Miscellaneous Anthropological Studies
  550. These studies are hard to classify, either because of methodological innovation or thematic novelty. Fiéloux, et al. 1993 is unusual for its combination of visual anthropology and a reevaluation of colonial anthropology. Lallemand 1970 and Lallemand 1975 focus on specific practices in different populations. Riesman 1977 is about a Fulbe group, highlighting the anthropologist’s personal reflections while at the same time being empirically oriented. Laurant 1998 is about a grassroots development organization, focusing largely on local ways of reasoning. Dafinger 2004 is on the connections between the social order and the organization of space. Roth 2008 is an example of urban anthropology and focuses on the change in mutual obligations between generations. Hahn and Kibora 2008 is a pioneering article on the immediate rise in mobile phone use in the country, ahead of the Western world, a development similar to what happened elsewhere in Africa, providing instructive and also entertaining reading. Schneider 1990 is a voluminous ethnography documenting with precision and finesse the material culture of Lobi populations in southwestern Burkina Faso, including technical aspects, style, symbolism, division of tasks, and use.
  551. Dafinger, Andreas. Anthropologie des Raumes: Untersuchungen zur Beziehung Räumlicher und Sozialer Ordnung im Süden Burkina Fasos. Cologne: Rüdiger Köppe Verlag, 2004.
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  553. An ethnography in the Bisa-speaking zone in south-central Burkina Faso, based on spatial analysis, and an ingenious use of maps and graphs, to explore the relationship between space and social order.
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  555. Fiéloux, Michelle, Jacques Lombard, and Jeanne-Marie Kambou-Ferrand, eds. Images d’Afrique et sciences sociales: Les pays lobi, birifor et dagara (Burkina Faso, Côte-d’Ivoire et Ghana); Actes du colloque de Ouagadougou, 10–15 décembre. Paris: Ed. Karthala, 1993.
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  557. Extraordinary volume presenting results of an Ouagadougou meeting where more than fifty researchers, both Francophone and Anglophone, presented work on the cluster of ethnic groups in the border area of Burkina Faso, Ghana, and Côte d’Ivoire, privileging photography and its relationship to the social sciences. Illustrated with rare early colonial era pictures, more recent photographs, and line drawings. Serves also as a Who’s Who for the researchers of this ethnographic region.
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  559. Hahn, Hans Peter, and Ludovic Kibora. “The Domestication of the Mobile Phone: Oral Society and New ICT in Burkina Faso.” Journal of Modern African Studies 46.1 (2008): 87–109.
  560. DOI: 10.1017/S0022278X07003084Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  561. Celebrated article on the very early and rapid spread of cell phones in Burkina Faso, despite low average incomes, revealing not only communicative needs that had remained hitherto unrecognized and unmet, but, as the article stresses, also bringing changes as the new technology manifested itself as material objects that are personally possessed.
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  563. Lallemand, Suzanne. “Les noms personnels traditionnels chez les Goin de Haute-Volta.” Journal de la Société des Africanistes 40.2 (1970): 103–136.
  564. DOI: 10.3406/jafr.1970.1677Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  565. Naming practices in a village of the Comoe Province resisting Islam and Christianity, including multiple naming, different kinds of names that a person is given, and gender differences in name use. Provides a long theoretical discussion of an aspect of certain names as messages intended for a third party, which may be a supernatural or human agent, for which the carrier of the name becomes a support.
  566. Find this resource:
  567. Lallemand, Suzanne. “‘Tête en loques’: Insulte et pédagogie chez les mossi.” Cahiers d’Études Africaines 15.60 (1975): 649–667.
  568. DOI: 10.3406/cea.1975.3365Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  569. A study of the insults exchanged between children and between adult women and children among the Moose, the characteristics of this kind of discourse, its contexts, purposes, and latent meanings.
  570. Find this resource:
  571. Laurant, Pierre-Joseph. Une association de dévéloppement en pays mossi: Le don come ruse. Paris: Karthala, 1998.
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  573. A study of a rural development association called Wênd-Yam, including extensive commentary on the categories and vocabulary of thought of the Moose.
  574. Find this resource:
  575. Riesman, Paul. Freedom in Fulani Social Life: An Introspective Ethnography. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1977.
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  577. A captivating, reflexive ethnography on the concept of self and its qualities among the Fulbe of Djelgoji. The author was American, but this is the translation of a book published first in French in 1974, based on a thesis written in Paris. Second printing in 1998.
  578. Find this resource:
  579. Roth, Claudia. “‘Shameful!’ The Inverted Intergenerational Contract in Bobo-Dioulasso.” In Generations in Africa: Connections and Conflicts. Edited by Erdmute Alber, Sjaak van der Geest, and Susan R. White, 47–69. Berlin: Lit Verlag, 2008.
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  581. Examines the breakdown of the conventional obligation for the young to care for the elderly, as many grown-ups remain dependent on their elders in the city. One of several publications by the author, who conducted research in the Koko neighborhood, among the young and the old, men and women.
  582. Find this resource:
  583. Schneider, Klaus. Handwerk und Materialisierte Kutlur der Lobi in Burkina Faso. Stuttgart: F. Steiner, 1990.
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  585. After an introduction on social organization and religion, the text is divided into crafts by women (about 130 pages on pottery) and men (blacksmithing of farm tools and ornamental or decorative objects, casting of copper alloys, building, basket making, wood carving, musical instruments, weapons, rope making, clothing, and ornamentation). A final section describes utilitarian and ritual use of calabashes, which is not gender specific. It is all illustrated with superb line drawings and photographic plates (5 maps, 278 drawings, and 121 photographs).
  586. Find this resource:
  587. Cities
  588. A number of studies focus on large and small cities in Burkina Faso. Skinner 1974 is a pioneering study on the growth of Ouagadougou in the years following independence. Fauré and Labazée 2002 presents the results of a large multidisciplinary project designed to record and compare the main characteristics of two medium-size cities, Bobo-Dioulasso in western Burkina Faso and Korhogo in northern Côte d’Ivoire. Werthmann and Sanogo 2013 brings together chapters on Bobo-Dioulasso from anthropological and historical perspectives. Roth 2014 is also on Bobo-Dioulasso, focusing on intrafamily obligations and change in their conception in recent times. The other studies deal with smaller cities. Hilgers 2009 offers a major anthropological study of Koudougou, the third-largest city historically. Ouedraogo 1989 recounts the foundation and growth of the sugar plant town Banfora. Werthmann 2004 brings together chapters on the provincial city of Diebougou in the southwest. Mazzocchetti 2009 is different in that it is based on research in the capital, Ouagoudougou, but focuses on college students, an original topic for anthropology in Burkina Faso and Africa.
  589. Fauré, Yves-Alain, and Pascal Labazée, eds. Socio-économie des villes africaines: Bobo et Korhogo dans le défis de la décentralisation. Paris: IRD Karthala, 2002.
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  591. Large volume by a multidisciplinary team that gathered qualitative and quantitative data in two cities to explore the causes of growth and stagnation, at a time when decentralization programs were inaugurated. Equal focus on institutions and patterns, on the one hand, and actors’ point of view, on the other. The first part (300 pages) includes chapters on historical development, the major commercial enterprises, manufactures, education and health services, the informal sector, major business and transportation entities, and central government and municipality investments.
  592. Find this resource:
  593. Hilgers, Mathieu. Une ethnographie à l’échelle de la ville: Urbanité, histoire et reconnaissance à Koudougou (Burkina Faso). Paris: Karthala, 2009.
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  595. An ethnography of the third-largest city of Burkina Faso, from its roots in precolonial and colonial times to the present, examining zoning and urbanization, the emergence of an urban identity, discursive struggles over its character, and political movements under the Compaoré regime.
  596. Find this resource:
  597. Mazzocchetti, Jacinthe. Être étudiant à Ouagadougou: Itinéraires, imaginaire et précarité. Paris, Karthala, 2009.
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  599. Ethnographic study of university students in Ouagadougou, examining life in an institution that can offer little support, struggling under financial duress, intergenerational debts, political mobilization, participation in antigovernment protests, religious life, and sexual experiences.
  600. Find this resource:
  601. Ouedraogo, Jean-Bernard. Formation de la classe ouvrière en Afrique noire: L’exemple du Burkina Faso. Paris: L’Harmattan, 1989.
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  603. A sociological study of the establishment of the sugarcane plantation and sugar plant in the Berega valley near Banfora in the 1960s, including a detailed chronicle of the workers’ union and spontaneous activities to defend the workers’ interests.
  604. Find this resource:
  605. Roth, Claudia. “The Strength of Badenya Ties: Sibling and Social Security in Old Age—The Case of Urban Burkina Faso.” American Ethnologist 41.3 (2014): 547–563.
  606. DOI: 10.1111/amet.12094Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  607. In Bobo-Dioulaso, ties between siblings of the same mother play a decisive role in social security, compensating for the failure of an eldest son to fulfil his economic duties. But they are overburdened and of uncertain future. Based on interviews conducted between 2007 and 2010 with two generations of households.
  608. Find this resource:
  609. Skinner, Elliott P. African Urban Life: The Transformation of Ouagadougou. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1974.
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  611. Pioneering study of Ouagadougou as it was transformed from being a distant provincial center to the headquarters of a new colony before becoming capital of an independent state.
  612. Find this resource:
  613. Werthmann, Katja, ed. Diébougou, une petite ville du Burkina Faso. Institut für Ethnologie und Afrikastudien Working Paper 45b. Mainz: Institut für Ethnologie und Afrikastudien, Johannes Gutenberg-Universität, 2004.
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  615. Eight contributors presenting, in separate chapters, the history, recent urban zoning, some dominant distinctive ethnocultural groups, and elections, resulting from a multiyear joint research project.
  616. Find this resource:
  617. Werthmann, Katja, and Mamdou Lamine Sanogo, eds. La Ville de Bobo-dioulasso au Burkina Faso: Urbanité et appertenances en Afrique de l’Ouest. Paris: Karthala, 2013.
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  619. An important collection on the city and its surrounding area, including thirteen chapters dealing with topics ranging from the precolonial past to the present, Islam, the economy, politics, language, and culture.
  620. Find this resource:
  621. Ethnic Relations
  622. Many of the studies in this section concern relations between Fulbe pastoralists and sedentary farming populations in different parts of the country. Hagberg 1998 presents a classic study on conflictual relations from the southwest, where Fulbe pastoralists have been moving with their herds over the past forty or so years. Ouédraogo 1997 is a study of the same area and the same set of problems. Oberhofer 2006 has a similar setting in the southwest, but a different local group’s reactions to the Fulbe. Martinelli 1995 looks at the Sahelian north and ethnic relations between two farming populations and the pastoralist Fulbe. Dafinger 2013 deals with the southern part of the central plain.
  623. Dafinger, Andreas. The Economics of Ethnic Conflict: The Case of Burkina Faso. Woodbridge, UK: James Currey, 2013.
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  625. Richly detailed anthropological study of ethnic conflicts among Fulbe pastoralists and Bisa farmers in the context of state and development agency involvement, and of media representation in Boulgou Province; rural economic and administrative policies in Burkina Faso; and a reassessment of current models of conflict.
  626. Find this resource:
  627. Hagberg, Stan. Between Peace and Justice: Dispute Settlement between Karaboro Agriculturalists and Fulbe Agro-pastoralists in Burkina Faso. Uppsala, Sweden: Acta Universitatis Upsaliensis, 1998.
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  629. A study of violent conflicts that erupted between Karaboro farmers and Fulbe pastoralists in 1986 and again in 1995 in Comoe Province in western Burkina Faso, as villagers extend the farmed area and herders move in increasing the number of grazing animals. It includes reflections on the role of state representatives and the newly formed Benkadi Association, in which the farmers took part.
  630. Find this resource:
  631. Martinelli, Bruno. “Trames d’appartenances et chaînes d’identité: Entre Dogons et Moose dans le Yatange et la plaine du Séno (Burkina Faso et Mali).” Cahiers de Science Humaines 31.2 (1995): 365–405.
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  633. An exploration of ascription and self-ascription of ethnic identity and language use in two adjacent zones along the northern Mali–Burkina Faso border.
  634. Find this resource:
  635. Oberhofer, Michaela. Fremde Nachbarn: Ethnizität im bäuerlichen Alltag in Burkina Faso. Cologne: Rüdiger Köppe, 2006.
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  637. Ethnic identity, negotiation, and change in a Dyan community in southwestern Burkina Faso.
  638. Find this resource:
  639. Ouédraogo, Jean-Baptiste. Violence et communauté en Afrique noire: La région Comoé entre règles de concurrence et logique de destruction (Burkina Faso). Paris: L’Harmattan, 1997.
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  641. A study of conflict between Fulbe agro-pastoralists and Karaboro farmers in the 1980s.
  642. Find this resource:
  643. Women and Gender
  644. The study of women and gender followed the growth of academic interest in gender issues in the humanities and in development studies. Kinda 1998 is a sociological study conducted on a national scale. Puget 1999 is an anthropological qualitative case study based on careful ethnography in a Sahelian location. Roth 1996 is an urban ethnography highlighting gender relations. Somé 2013 is a sophisticated study of a cotton-growing rural area in the southwest, highlighting intra-household negotiations in a cultural and social matrix.
  645. Kinda, Fatoumata. La pauvreté des femmes au Burkina Faso. Ouagadougou: Ministère de l’Economie et des finances du Burkina Faso, Direction de l’Orientation Economique et de la Prospective, 1998.
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  647. Study of low-income urban women by a sociologist from the University of Ouagadougou.
  648. Find this resource:
  649. Puget, Françoise. Femmes peules du Burkina Faso: Stratégies féminines et développement rural. Paris: L’Harmattan, 1999.
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  651. Study of women’s attitudes toward development projects, conducted in the Sahelian region, near Dori. It focuses on the lives, resources, constraints and strategies of Fulbe women, producing a nuanced description and analysis that reflects the critical anthropology of development inspired by Jean-Pierre Olivier de Sardan.
  652. Find this resource:
  653. Roth, Claudia. La séparation des sexes chez les Zara au Burkina Faso. Paris: L’Harmattan, 1996.
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  655. An urban anthropology among the Bobo-speaking sector of the population of Bobo-Dioulasso that call themselves Zara, focusing on gender roles.
  656. Find this resource:
  657. Somé, Batamaka. “‘Hot Money’: Gender and the Politics of Negotiation and Control over Income in West African Smallholder Households.” Africa 83.2 (2013): 251–269.
  658. DOI: 10.1017/S000197201300003XSave Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  659. Ritual impurity and strategies in the control of income between men and women and junior members in a Dagara village in the cotton-growing zone of the southwest.
  660. Find this resource:
  661. Economy
  662. The studies included here were produced by economists who use microeconomic reasoning and advanced statistical techniques, but most of them deal with broad social issues also tackled by other social scientists with other methods. Akresh 2009 is one of several studies by the author on the widespread practice of child fostering between families. Akresh, et al. 2012 explores a factor motivating parents to invest in their own children’s schooling. Akresh, et al. 2013 presents, in turn, the findings of an experimental research design. Grimm 2011 is a study of household income and schooling. Gräb and Grimm 2011 identifies external factors explaining income differences between communities. Haddad and Reardon 1993 look at gender bias within households. Kazianga 2006 finds differences in financial self-preservation strategies between low-income and middle-income households, with policy implications favoring public aid. Kazianga, et al. 2013 is an assessment of recently introduced “girl-friendly” school programs.
  663. Akresh, Richard. “Flexibility of Household Structure: Child Fostering Decisions in Burkina Faso.” Journal of Human Resources 44.4 (2009): 976–997.
  664. DOI: 10.1353/jhr.2009.0011Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  665. Looks at household decisions to place children in child fostering. Sudden negative income shocks, gender imbalances among their own children, being far away from primary schools, or being connected to more educated people may all motivate a family to place a child with a better-endowed family.
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  667. Akresh, Richard, Emilie Bagby, Damien de Walque, and Harounan Kazianga. “Child Ability and Household Human Capital Investment Decisions in Burkina Faso.” Economic Development and Cultural Change 61.1 (2012): 157–186.
  668. DOI: 10.1086/666953Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  669. Does a child’s ability influence parents to invest in the child’s human capital? The authors find that it does, and that having higher-ability siblings lowers a child’s chances.
  670. Find this resource:
  671. Akresh, Richard, Damien de Walque, and Harounan Kazianga. Cash Transfers and Child Schooling: Evidence from a Randomized Evaluation of the Role of Conditionality.” World Bank Policy Research Working Paper 6340. Geneva, Switzerland: World Bank, 2013.
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  673. The result of a two-year experiment in rural Burkina Faso to estimate the impact of conditional or unconditional cash transfers on education. When it comes to boys, older children, or higher-ability children, both kinds of income increase school enrollment; but for girls, younger children, or lower-ability children, only conditional transfers improve school enrollment.
  674. Find this resource:
  675. Gräb, J., and M. Grimm. “Inequality in Burkina Faso—To What Extent Do Household, Community and Regional Factors Matter?” Journal of the Royal Statistical Society: Series A (Statistics in Society) 174.3 (2011): 759–784.
  676. DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-985X.2010.00686.xSave Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  677. Looks at multilevel modelling to identify sources of income inequality between households. The authors find that inequality is related to disparities in community endowment, pointing to infrastructure development and the targeting of specific village communities as possible remedial policies.
  678. Find this resource:
  679. Grimm, M. “Does Household Income Matter for Children’s Schooling? Evidence for Rural Sub-Saharan Africa.” Economics of Education Review 30.4 (2011): 740–754.
  680. DOI: 10.1016/j.econedurev.2011.03.002Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  681. Examines income elasticity of school enrollment. The study finds a large effect of income shocks, such as draught, on families’ ability to keep children in school.
  682. Find this resource:
  683. Grimm, M., and I. Günther. “Growth and Poverty in Burkina Faso: A Reassessment of the Paradox.” Journal of African Economies 16.1 (2007): 70–101.
  684. DOI: 10.1093/jae/ejk018Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  685. A study of the “Burkina Paradox,” which means that there is increasing poverty despite sustained macroeconomic growth and constant inequality. The authors find that this is not true, and that poverty significantly decreased between 1994 and 2003. But between 1994 and 1998, poverty did increase because of severe drought and the devaluation of the CFA franc.
  686. Find this resource:
  687. Haddad, L., and T. Reardon. “Gender Bias in the Allocation of Resources within Households in Burkina Faso: A Disaggregated Outlay Equivalent Analysis.” Journal of Development Studies 29.2 (1993): 260–276.
  688. DOI: 10.1080/00220389308422273Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  689. A study of whether boys are favored over girls in household resource allocation. Differentiating between rural and urban, agroecological zones, and income classes, it confirms earlier conclusions that Burkina data, unlike that from other world areas, does not indicate such discrimination.
  690. Find this resource:
  691. Kazianga, Harounan. “Motives for Household Private Transfers in Burkina Faso.” Journal of Development Economics 79.1 (2006): 73–117.
  692. DOI: 10.1016/j.jdeveco.2005.06.001Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  693. A multifaceted econometric approach to examine the motives of household transfers in Burkina Faso. Finds that risk sharing is not central to transfers, and that middle-income families engage in altruistic transfers, but low-income households do not. The policy implication is that public transfers targeting poor households may be effective.
  694. Find this resource:
  695. Kazianga, Harounan, Dan Levy, Leigh Linden, and Matt Sloan. “The Effects of ‘Girl-Friendly’ Schools: Evidence from the BRIGHT School Construction Program in Burkina Faso.” American Economic Journal: Applied Economics 5.3 (2013): 41–62.
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  697. Assessment of a “girl-friendly” special school program in rural areas. It finds that the program significantly increases both attendance and test scores for all village children, compared to providing only a traditional school. When differentiated by gender, however, the program increases the enrollment of girls over the increase for boys, but the girls’ test scores do not gain over the gains made by boys.
  698. Find this resource:
  699. Rural Economy
  700. The following studies deal more specifically with agrarian studies and were produced by economists, agricultural economists, geographers, and anthropologists. In the 1980s there was a thriving literature on these topics, stimulated by the many international agencies and bilateral aid organizations working in the country, to which Matlon 1994 provides a window. Brasselle, et al. 2002 is an economic study questioning the assumed benefits of privatized land tenure. Breusers 2001 explores the consequences of customary land tenure for mobility as a coping strategy. Fafchamps 1993 is a statistical study trying to account for the low level of farm production. Fafchamps, et al. 1998 provides a careful evaluation of the role of livestock among farm families. Gray and Dowd-Uribe 2013 presents results of a survey showing growing differentiation. Udry 1996 is on factors accounting for differences in the farm plots of men and women in the same household. Kevane and Gray 1999 is one of the many publications based on a survey in a cotton-producing village in western Burkina, this one focusing on comparing men and women farmers. Henry and Dos Santos 2013 is a comparison exploring the relationship between rainfall variation and child mortality. Reyna 1983 is one of the early studies focusing on class differentiation by including traders and local government officials in the local picture of farm life.
  701. Brasselle, Anne-Sophie, Frédéric Gaspart, and Jean-Philippe Platteau. “Land Tenure Security and Investment Incentives: Puzzling Evidence from Burkina Faso.” Journal of Development Economics 67.2 (2002): 373–418.
  702. DOI: 10.1016/S0304-3878(01)00190-0Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  703. Econometric study on whether there is a systematic influence of private land tenure security on higher investment in farming, concluding that there is not. Argues that stable conventional land rights provide sufficient incentive for small-scale farm investment.
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  705. Breusers, Mark. “Searching for Livelihood Security: Land and Mobility in Burkina Faso.” Journal of Development Studies 37.4 (2001): 49–80.
  706. DOI: 10.1080/00220380412331322041Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  707. Geographic mobility of farmers and fields helps livelihood in north-central Burkina Faso. It is made possible by customary land use arrangements, and in turn keeps these arrangments flexible and allows the merging and mixing of rights. This analysis is isused to argue against implementing Western-type land tenure, even in incremental steps.
  708. Find this resource:
  709. Fafchamps, Marcel. “Sequential Labor Decisions Under Uncertainty: An Estimable Household Model of West African Farmers.” Econometrica 61.5 (1993): 1173–1197.
  710. DOI: 10.2307/2951497Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  711. Argues that low levels of agricultural labor effort commonly observed in the survey area are a consequence of the low productivity of labor in rainfed agriculture, and of farmers’ awareness that, in the absence of a labor market, overly ambitious production plans lead to seasonal labor shortages, based on an anlysis using a stochastic control model for labor decisions.
  712. Find this resource:
  713. Fafchamps, Marcel, Christopher Udry, and Katherine Czukas. “Drought and Saving in West Africa: Are Livestock a Buffer Stock?” Journal of Development Economics 55.2 (1998): 273–305.
  714. DOI: 10.1016/S0304-3878(98)00037-6Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  715. A study based on household survey data on how farm families deal with the sudden shock of failed income. Finds that, contrary to the common assumption, they do not sell goats and sheep or cattle in such situations—if survey data are accurate. It may be that they reduce consumption, move, or split the household, and they may have recourse to credit.
  716. Find this resource:
  717. Gray, Leslie, and Brian Dowd-Uribe. “A Political Ecology of Socio-Economic Differentiation: Debt, Inputs and Liberalization Reforms in Southwestern Burkina Faso.” Journal of Peasant Studies 40.4 (2013): 683–702.
  718. DOI: 10.1080/03066150.2013.824425Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  719. A survey among cotton-producing smallholders in western Burkina Faso. Wealthier farmers use more fertilizer and manure, and also remain debt-free when cotton prices drop and input prices rise. They also benefit from the restructuring of cotton cooperatives. The divide is growing.
  720. Find this resource:
  721. Henry, Sabine J. F., and Stéphanie Dos Santos. “Rainfall Variations and Child Mortality in the Sahel: Results from a Comparative Event History Analysis in Burkina Faso and Mali.” Population and Environment 34.4 (2013): 431–459.
  722. DOI: 10.1007/s11111-012-0174-4Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  723. A comparative event history analysis aimed at understanding how rainfall variations may influence child mortality in two neighbouring countries, Burkina Faso and Mali.
  724. Find this resource:
  725. Kevane, Michael, and Leslie Gray. “A Woman’s Field is Made at Night: Gendered Land Rights and Norms in Burkina Faso.” Feminist Economics 5.3 (1999): 1–26.
  726. DOI: 10.1080/135457099337789Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  727. Women face different pressures and constraints that men farmers who are partners in the same household. But the prevailing practices and their evolution need to be understood in a more nuanced way. Certain kinds of rights for women are strengthened rather than undermined with increasing scarcity among the Bwa and Moose villagers of the studied village of western Burkina Faso.
  728. Find this resource:
  729. Matlon, Peter. “Indigenous Land Use Systems and Investment in Soil Fertility in Burkina Faso.” In Searching for Land Tenure Security in Africa. Edited by John W. Bruce and Shem E. Migot-Adholla, 41–70. Dubuque, IA: Kendall Hunt, 1994.
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  731. Empirically rich and complex analysis of land holding and use practices in three communities in Djibo, Yako, and Boromo, made at the end of the high agrarian development studies period, using the full resources of the many surveys conducted at that time. Concludes that despite growing land scarcity and the disappearance of customary fallow land, land was equitably distributed among households, and farmers did not fear insecurity, although this did not lead them to make much investment.
  732. Find this resource:
  733. Reyna, Stephen P. “Dual Class Formation and Agrarian Underdevelopment: an Analysis of Production Relations in Upper Volta.” Canadian Journal of African Studies 17.2 (1983): 211–234.
  734. DOI: 10.2307/484214Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  735. Examines the influence of international donors upon land control in Burkina Faso and Côte d’Ivoire, including land appropriation by multidonor-financed organizations such as AVV. Government officials and rich traders can also obtain large tracks of land for cereal farming and, increasingly, mango orchards. The use of wage labor remains low, but production units are becoming smaller with the weakening of kinship groups. An argument is made for more attention to class analysis.
  736. Find this resource:
  737. Udry, Christopher. “Gender, Agricultural Production, and the Theory of the Household.” Journal of Political Economy 104.5 (1996): 1010–1046.
  738. DOI: 10.1086/262050Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  739. Farm plots controlled by women are farmed less intensively than similar plots controlled by men in the same household. About 6 percent of output is lost because of inefficient factor allocation within the household. The article explores the reasons why yields are not equalized between spouses.
  740. Find this resource:
  741. Agriculture
  742. The studies included here are more specifically on farm production, most of it produced by geographers. Guillaud 1993 is a classic study of a farming system in the Sahel, based on cereal cultivation and livestock raising. Guillaud 2000 is an enlightening study on the politico-cultural factors in the use of the short-handled hoe versus a more recently introduced weeding tool that is used while standing. Kohler 1971 is a classic study of the very early phase of cotton production in western Burkina Faso. Tersiguel 1995 is on the same area and the same issues twenty years on, when incomes had risen and farm mechanization made an appearance. Gray 2005 is a study in the same setting, focusing on the links between increasing investments in the farms and rural differentiation. McMillan 1995 describes a major multi-donor farmer resettlement project of the late 1970s.
  743. Gray, Leslie C. “What Kind of Intensification? Agricultural Practice, Soil Fertility and Socioeconomic Differentiation in Rural Burkina Faso.” Geographical Journal 171.1 (2005): 70–82.
  744. DOI: 10.1111/j.1475-4959.2005.00150.xSave Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  745. Examines the effect of wealth differences on farming practices and soil fertility in three Bwa villages marked by agricultural expansion, with increasing maize and export cotton production.
  746. Find this resource:
  747. Guillaud, Dominique. L’ombre du mil: Un système agro-pastoral sahélien en Aribinda (province de Soum, Burkina Faso). Paris: ORSTOM, 1993.
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  749. The history and current functioning of a cereal based agro-pastoral system of production in Aribinda, in the Sahel region. Illustrated with many maps, drawings, and color photographs.
  750. Find this resource:
  751. Guillaud, Dominique. “Outils, choix et sens: La houe et l’iler en Aribinda (Burkina Faso).” In Outils aratoires en Afrique: Innovations, normes et traces. Edited by C. Seignobos, Y. Marzouk, and F. Sagaud, 95–125. Paris: Karthala, 2000.
  752. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  753. Looks at the political, social, and technical factors that affected the transition from using the short-handled hoe to using the new tool called the iler in grain cultivation in the Sahel.
  754. Find this resource:
  755. Kohler, Jean-Marie. Activités agricoles et changements sociaux dans l’Ouest mossi. Paris: ORSTOM, 1971.
  756. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  757. Detailed study of family-farm cereal production and changes brought about by commodification and the growing importance of cotton.
  758. Find this resource:
  759. McMillan, Della E. Sahel Visions: Planned Settlement and River Blindness Control in Burkina Faso. Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 1995.
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  761. An ambitious farmer resettlement project undertaken during the 1970s and 1980s with multilateral funding (Aménagement de Vallées des Volta [AVV]), following on the success of a broad regional river blindness eradication program in previously unhealthy valleys, and largely oriented to stimulating cotton growing at a time when this crop did not have the prominence it has since acquired. Written by an anthropologist.
  762. Find this resource:
  763. Tersiguel, P. Le pari du tracteur: La modernisation de l’agriculture cotonnière au Burkina Faso. Paris: ORSTOM, 1995.
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  765. Examines the growth of cotton production for the market and increasing tractor use on the Bwa areas of western Burkina Faso, based on field research in Boho-Kari and its environs.
  766. Find this resource:
  767. Trade, Informal Economy
  768. Burkina Faso has been the setting for the emergence of an original literature on traders at all levels, and Pascal Labazée is a pioneer in this area (see Labazée 1988). Dijk 1986 is a general description of the informal sector in the capital city. Thorsen 2013 focuses on a different sector of the population: more vulnerable migrant youth.
  769. Dijk, Meine Peter van. Burkina Faso, le secteur informel à Ouagadougou. Paris: L’Harmattan, 1986.
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  771. Broad sector description and analysis; the first title in a series including different countries in Africa.
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  773. Labazée, Pascal. Entreprises et entrepreneurs du Burkina Faso: Vers une lecture anthropologique de l’entreprise africaine. Paris: Karthala, 1988.
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  775. Innovative anthropological study of powerful businessmen and of their relations with the major politicians and the higher ranks of state bureaucracy. Includes an analysis of the reaction of the business class to the revolutionary government of Thomas Sankara before his assassination in October 1987.
  776. Find this resource:
  777. Thorsen, Dorte. “Weaving In and Out of Employment and Self-Employment: Young Rural Migrants in the Informal Economies of Ouagadougou and Abidjan.” International Development Planning Review 35.2 (2013): 203–218.
  778. DOI: 10.3828/idpr.2013.13Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  779. A study of the social mobility in the informal urban economy of Bisa young men who enjoy a large degree of economic autonomy and combine strings of employment, strands of entrepreneurship, and continued migration.
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  781. Migration
  782. Studies of migration can be divided into those that deal with migration from rural areas to the cities and the internal migration of Fulani pastoralists from Sahelian zones to areas of higher rainfall in the southern latitudes of the country, on the one hand, and the migration of Burkina people to other countries, on the other. Early in the colonial period, international migrations concerned mostly the neighboring coastal areas, the Gold Coast (Ghana) and later Côte d’Ivoire, movements that are an important part of its historical identity, but in more recent times they have extended to locations abroad, in Europe and in other continents.
  783. Internal Migration
  784. Ancey 1983 presents two studies published separately earlier, one on money in Moose households, and the second on internal migration and Moose farm households, both based of intensive surveys carried out between 1972 and 1974. Beauchemin and Schoumaker 2005 examines the relationship between rural development programs and internal migration. Henry, et al. 2003 is a study of the reasons for migration between districts. A major theme of Burkina Faso history is the internal migration of mostly prosperous farmers from the high-density zones such as the central plains to the relatively empty areas that have greater agricultural potential in the east, west and southwest, which started in the 1950s but grew in amplitude with commercial agriculture beginning in the 1970s. Kohler 1972 is an example of this excellent literature produced by French geographers. A subsidiary theme is the migration of Fulbe herders from their homeland in the Sahel to areas of greater rainfall and pasture potential in the west and southwest. Hampshire 2002 is an example (see also Ecology).
  785. Ancey, Gérard. Monnaie et structure d’exploitation en pays mossi, Haute-Volta. Paris: ORSTOM, 1983.
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  787. An immense volume of data on demography, income, consumption, time allocation, and land rights, colleced by ingenious methods and questionnaires of different types, and combined with more intensive interview techniques. Presents the pioneering conclusion that Moose extended families, which can be seen as farm producion units, include multiple decision nuclei; and that money held mostly by junior men cannot be invested in agirulture for lack of social power and other necessary resources.
  788. Find this resource:
  789. Beauchemin, Cris, and Bruno Schoumaker. “Migration to Cities in Burkina Faso: Does the Level of Development in Sending Areas Matter?” World Development 33.7 (2005): 1129–1152.
  790. DOI: 10.1016/j.worlddev.2005.04.007Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  791. A study that shows that, contrary to policy expectations, most components of rural development either have no effect on migration or tend to encourage migration to cities.
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  793. Diallo, Youssouf. Nomades des espaces interstitiel: Pastoralism, identité, migrations (Burkina Faso-Côte d’Ivoire). Cologne: Rüdiger Köppe Verlag, 2008.
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  795. A political anthropological study of Fulbe pastoralists originating in the Barani region in western Burkina, and expanding with their herds gradually to the south, as far as southern Mali and Côte d’Ivoire. Focuses on the diversity of situations and institutions regulating their relations with farming villages.
  796. Find this resource:
  797. Hampshire, Kate. “Fulani on the Move: Seasonal Economic Migration in the Sahel as a Social Process.” Journal of Development Studies 38.5 (2002): 15–36.
  798. DOI: 10.1080/00220380412331322491Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  799. Seasonal rural-to-urban economic migration of the Fulani of Oudalan and Séno Provinces in northern Burkina Faso. In reaction to the literature linking migration to misery only, the author explores issues of identity and social networks to explain who migrates and why. Based on a survey of forty villages and follow-up qualitative research in 1996.
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  801. Henry, Sabine, Paul Boyle, and Eric F. Lambin. “Modeling Inter-provincial Migration in Burkina Faso, West Africa: the Role of Socio-demographic and Environmental Factors.” Applied Geography 23.2–3 (2003): 115–136.
  802. DOI: 10.1016/j.apgeog.2002.08.001Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  803. This study on the cause of inter-provincial migrations focuses on environmental factors in ecologically marginal regions. It uses statistical methods for modeling migration data to assess the relative importance of socio-demographic and biophysical variables, and the cumulative aspect of the influence of environmental conditions on migration. It finds that migrations are influenced by high literacy and economic activity rates at the origin and destination.
  804. Find this resource:
  805. Kohler, Jean-Marie. Les migrations des Mossi de l’ouest. Paris: ORSTOM, 1972.
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  807. A classic study of the colonization of western Burkina Faso, which had a sparser population, by Moose farmers from more crowded areas in the central plain of the country during the 1950s and the 1960s.
  808. Find this resource:
  809. International Migrations
  810. Cordell, et al. 1996 is a general study of historical migrations to coastal areas. Legal aspects are covered in Pacéré 2004. Schildkrout 1978 is a well-known ethnographic study of Moose diaspora in southern Ghana. Zongo 2003 updates this topic by providing the first study of return migration from Côte d’Ivoire after the political troubles of 2002. Bjarnesen 2013 is a more recent study of return migration from Côte d’Ivoire. Zongo 2010 is a collection that includes chapters on foreign nationals on Burkinabe soil. More recent works on international migration include Hashim and Thorsen 2011, focusing on teenagers as autonomous agents, and Mazzocchetti 2014, on the migration aspirations of university students.
  811. Bjarnesen, Jesper. Diaspora at Home? Wartime Mobilities in the Burkina Faso-Côte d’Ivoire Transnational Space. Acta Universitatis Upsaliensis: Uppsala Studies in Cultural Anthropology 53. Uppsala: Uppsala Universitet, 2013.
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  813. Examines the everyday practices and narratives of labor migrants in Bobo-Dioulasso forced to return from Côte d’Ivoire between 1999 and 2007, with a particular emphasis on young adults who were born and raised in Côte d’Ivoire. The analysis questions the appropriateness of the term “return” in this context, and suggests that the senses of home are multiple and rely on the ability to pursue processes of emplacement in everyday life, rather than on abstract notions of belonging such as citizenship or ethnicity.
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  815. Cordell, Dennis D., Joel W. Gregory, and Victor Piché. Hoe and Wage. A Social History of a Circular Migration System in West Africa. Boulder: Westview, 1996.
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  817. A reexamination of a 1974–1975 data set of migration histories of 93,397 persons in Burkina Faso, including a detailed examination of historical migration from Upper Volta territories to what is now Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire. A primary source.
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  819. Hashim, Iman, and Dorte Thorsen. Child Migration in Africa. London: Zed Books, 2011.
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  821. A study on migration patterns of teenagers, offering a literature review and challenging sedentarist assumptions, with ethnographic examples drawn from the authors’ fieldwork in the Bisa-speaking region in Central Burkina and Bawku districts, Ghana, and destinations in Ghana, Burkina Faso, and Côte d’Ivoire.
  822. Find this resource:
  823. Mazzocchetti, Jacinthe. “Le diplôme-visa”: Entre mythe et mobilité; Imaginaire et migrations des étudiants et diplômés burkinabè.” Cahiers d’Etudes Africaines 213–214 (2014): 49–80.
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  825. The link between higher education, a civil servant job, employment security, and high income continues to have a hold on students and their families, but high unemployment rates make it unrealistic. Increasingly, students treat their education as preparation for international migration, as identity, and in terms of the human capital they acquire.
  826. Find this resource:
  827. Pacéré, Titinga. F. Burkina Faso: Migration et Droits des Travailleurs (1897–2003). Paris: Karthala, 2004.
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  829. A historic overview of migration in Burkina Faso; the statutes passed and the bilateral, regional, and international agreements that Burkina Faso signed with other countries concerning migration, and the regulations that follow from them. A study of international migrant experience, with a focus on mass expulsions, which happened in some countries. Includes recommendations for the future. The book is written for researchers and students, but also for human rights advocates.
  830. Find this resource:
  831. Schildkrout, Enid. People of the Zongo: The Transformation of Ethnic Identity in Ghana. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1978.
  832. DOI: 10.1017/CBO9780511557620Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  833. Classic study of Moose migrants in Kumasi, Ghana, who live in multiethnic “strangers’ quarters.” By the time of the study, more than a quarter had been born in Ghana, and the study focuses on maintaining ethnic identity and the way people conceptualize and utilize symbols of cultural distinctiveness.
  834. Find this resource:
  835. Thorsen, Dorte. “From Shackles to Links in the Chain: Theorising Adolescent Boys’ Relocation in Burkina Faso.” Forum for Development Studies 36.2 (2009): 301–327.
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  837. A study on adolescent boys’ migration from rural areas to Ouagadougou and Abidjan, to understand how their capacity to tap into networks of kin and peers influences their decisions. Based on observation and interviews with 120 young migrants from the Bisa region.
  838. Find this resource:
  839. Zongo, Mahamoudou. “La diaspora burkinabè en Côte d’Ivoire: Trajectoire historique, recomposition des dynamiques migratoires et rapport avec le pays d’origine.” Revue Africaine de Sociologie 7.2 (2003): 58–72.
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  841. The flux of Burkina citizens residing in Côte d’Ivoire back to their homeland, following rebellion and political turbulence in that country in 2002. The Burkinabe have had little success in integrating into Côte d’Ivoire. Rights to which they would be entitled, especially for Burkinabe children born in Côte d’Ivoire, have not been claimed. As large waves of Burkinabe continue to seek repatriation, questions concerning their ability to eventually reintegrate their country of origin also emerge.
  842. Find this resource:
  843. Zongo, Mahamoudou, ed. Les enjeux autour de la diaspora burkinabè. Burkinabè à l’étranger, étrangers au Burkina Faso.” Paris: L’Harmattan, 2010.
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  845. Ten chapters, mostly on Burkinabe in Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana, but including one on the Chinese and Indian communities of Burkina Faso and another on trans-Saharan migrants in Agadez, Niger, illustrating the diversity of their situations, reinvestment of savings, and socioeconomic and identity-related issues faced by those who return to the homeland.
  846. Find this resource:
  847. Land Rights, Earth Shrines, and Modern Law
  848. The topics of access to farmland, the customary arrangements that prevailed in most rural areas until recently, and their rapid transformation under the impact of legislation and growing farm sizes, resulting in increasing land scarcity, have generated a large literature. Boutillier 1964 is a book-length discussion of the situation during the colonial period in the Sahelian Moose areas. Paré 2001 is a survey of the range of land rights in different cotton-growing areas. The chapters in Kuba and Lentz 2006 are part of a wider literature on the stratification of land rights in the southwest following waves of migration and settlement in precolonial times and the intersection of ritual and politics. Jacob 2007 offers a sensitive ethnographic analysis of processes of negotiation of land rights in rural setting.
  849. Boutillier, J. L. Les structures foncières en Haute-Volta. Etudes Voltaïques, Mémoire 5. Ouagadougou: IFAN-ORSTOM, 1964.
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  851. Extensive study of landholding practices and norms in the Yatenga region during colonial times, and their evolution at a time when the current forces of commodification had not yet fully impinged upon the rural economy. The study emphasizes land conflicts and variant norms. A pioneering work in the study of landholding practices in Burkina Faso.
  852. Find this resource:
  853. Jacob, Jean-Pierre. Terres privées, terres communes: Gouvernement de la nature et des hommes en pays winye (Burkina Faso). Paris: IRD Editions, 2007.
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  855. Subtle study of landholding practices and institutions among the Winye, who are speakers of the Ko language near Boromo. The author, who is anthropologist, takes the story from the 19th century, through the colonial period, to the postcolonial era, the years of the Sankara revolution, and the most recent return migrants evicted from Côte d’Ivoire during the political troubles of the 1990s.
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  857. Kuba, Richard, and Carola Lentz, eds. Land Rights and the Politics of Belonging in West Africa. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill, 2006.
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  859. Important collection of case studies from Burkina Faso, Ghana, and Côte d’Ivoire, exploring the sources and the ambiguity, negotiability, and political embeddedness of customary land rights. Contributions focus on the spiritual and ritual importance of land and how this can be converted to political power and economic prerogatives, as well as on pluralistic precolonial legal arrangements leading at times to simpler formulations still holding sway during the colonial period. The Burkina Faso chapters concern the southwest.
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  861. Paré, Lacinan. Negotiating Rights. Access to Land in the Cotton Zone, Burkina Faso. London: International Institute for Environment and Development, 2001.
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  863. Survey of access to farming right in the cotton-producing zone, focusing on a sample of villages in the Banwa and Comoe Provinces. Old, established export cotton growing areas where national migrants settled in the 1960s and new areas that took it up since the 1980s display an array of institutions from first settlement claims and loans, to rental and sales, wealthy urban dwellers seeking farmland for commercial growing, and people increasingly trying to substantiate claims by drawing up paper contracts.
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  865. Political Life
  866. The studies included in this section concern popular political participation of the turbulent kind that was characteristic after the Sankara regime was overthrown in 1987 by Compaoré, who in one form or another remained head of state until October 2014, when popular protests forced him out of the country. The exception here, Otayek, et al. 1996, is a collection of essays focusing on urban and rural administrative processes during the Sankara years and the early years following his fall. Hilgers 2008 is on zoning in Koudougou, its unfavorable outcome for the vulnerable groups, and the reasons for acquiescence. Harsch 2009 is on the early phase of the protest movements. Traoré 2012 and Hilgers and Loada 2013 present analyses of the wave of protests that swept the country after the 2011 elections. Hagberg 2006 is an analysis of the new-style hunters’ associations as they materialized in a western district.
  867. Hagberg, Sten. “‘It Was Satan That Took the People’: The Making of Public Authority in Burkina Faso.” Development and Change 37.4 (2006): 779–797.
  868. DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-7660.2006.00501.xSave Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  869. As part of the network of neo-hunter associations called Benkadi, which emerged in the mid-1990s in the Leraba Province, this article traces the story of one controversial powerful actor who created one such local vigilante self-defense association in the Tiefora district. It explores the sources of his illegal authority, built by drawing in part upon state institutions and tacit support by civil servants, politicians, and private businessmen.
  870. Find this resource:
  871. Harsch, Ernest. “Urban Protests in Burkina Faso.” African Affairs 108.431 (2009): 263–288.
  872. DOI: 10.1093/afraf/adp018Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  873. Article on the more than two hundred demonstrations, marches, sit-ins, strikes, riots, and other forms of protest over local issues in thirty-one of Burkina Faso’s urban municipalities, from 1995 to 2007, highlighting the grievances that were articulated. It finds that both local government reactions and the protests themselves were influenced by the national political context.
  874. Find this resource:
  875. Hilgers, Mathieu. “Politiques urbaines, contestation et décentralisation: Lotissement et représentations sociales au Burkina Faso.” Autrepart 47 (2008): 209–222.
  876. DOI: 10.3917/autr.047.0209Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  877. This article analyzes urban zoning and development in the Koudougou, which has greatly accelerated since 1998, and its impact on the politically most vulnerable groups, and explores why it has led to so little organized collective protest.
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  879. Hilgers, Mathieu, and Augustin Loada. “Tensions et protestations dans un régime semi-autoritaire: Croissance des révoltes populaires et maintien du pouvoir au Burkina Faso.” Politique africaine 131 (2013): 187–208.
  880. DOI: 10.3917/polaf.131.0187Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  881. An analysis of political society in Burkina Faso, the massive protests in the country after B. Compaoré’s reelection to the presidency for the fourth time, in 2011, and the social and political causes of the staying power of his regime.
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  883. Otayek, René, Filiga Michel Sawadogo, and Jean-Pierre Guingané, eds. Le Burkina entre revolution et democracie (1983–1993): Ordre politique et changement social en Afrique subsaharienne. Paris: Karthala, 1996.
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  885. An important collection of twenty essays, about half written by Burkinabe authors, selected from among those presented in a 1993 colloquium in Bordeaux, France. They concern urban, rural, cultural, and administrative processes, local reactions, and political developments during the Sankara years and in the subsequent period.
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  887. Traoré, A. E. ed. Burkina Faso: Les opportunités d’un nouveau contrat social: Facteurs et réalités de la crise. Paris: L’Harmattan, 2012.
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  889. Essays interpreting the 2011 riots in Burkina Faso and the government’s response to them.
  890. Find this resource:
  891. Protests Related to the Journalist Norbert Zongo’s Assassination
  892. The assassination of the writer and journalist Norbert Zongo sparked the first strong cycle of antigovernment protests, and this subsection lists some of the studies concerning it. The selection samples a vast literature on the topic, including news items and analyses in the popular press, as well as numerous academic pieces and interpretations. Harsch 1999 and Ouedraogo 1999 were the first descriptions. Loada 1999 offers an interpretation by a prominent local analyst. Hagberg 2002 provides a descriptive analysis in a broader context.
  893. Hagberg, Sten. “‘Enough is Enough’: an Ethnographic Account of the Struggle against Impunity in Burkina Faso.” Journal of Modern African Studies 40.2 (2002): 217–246.
  894. DOI: 10.1017/S0022278X02003890Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  895. Analysis of the protests sparked by the outrage at the impunity of the government after the assassination of Norbert Zongo.
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  897. Harsch, E. “Trop c’est trop ! Civil Insurgence in Burkina Faso, 1998–1999.” Review of African Political Economy 26 (1999): 395–406.
  898. DOI: 10.1080/03056249908704402Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  899. One of the early reports of the popular reaction to the assassination.
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  901. Loada, A. “Réflexions sur la société civile en Afrique: Le Burkina de l’après-Zongo.” Politique africaine 76 (1999): 136–151.
  902. DOI: 10.3917/polaf.076.0136Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  903. An important academic commentator of the Burkina political scene takes stock of the political unrest that was triggered by the assassination of Norbert Zongo.
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  905. Ouedraogo, J. “Burkina Faso: Autour de l’affaire Zongo.” Politique africaine 74 (June 1999): 163–171.
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  907. Article on the Compaoré regime as it was revealed by the handling of the protests.
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  909. Thomas Sankara and the 1983–1987 Revolution
  910. The short period of the Sankara regime put its mark on the history of Burkina Faso and its perception in the world, although the majority of Burkinabe citizens today are too young to have experienced it. The following sources focus on Sankara himself, rather than the political movement that followed his death. The Thomas Sankara Website offers a variety of useful resources. Andriamirado 1989 is a publication that has been widely diffused by the Jeune Afrique publishing house, and although avowing sympathy for the murdered president, it is representative of the coverage by the established press. Jaffré 1989 is another account of the revolutionary years, and Jaffré 2007 is the standard biography of Sankara. Otayek 1993 offers an interesting analysis of the Sankara regime’s little-known relations with young reformist Muslim intellectuals. Sankara 1988 is a collection of Sankara’s speeches in English translation.
  911. Andriamirado, Sennen. Il s’appelait Sankara: Chronique d’une morte violente. Paris: JeunaAfrique, 1989.
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  913. Account of the last year of the Sankara revolution, the splits among the ruling group, and the assassination of Thomas Sankara and its aftermath, by a journalist who personally knew Sankara, Blaise Compaore, and the other leaders of the revolution. Andriamirado tries to maintain neutrality, but as in many publication of that period, the concern not to offend the succeeding Compaoré regime shows through.
  914. Find this resource:
  915. Jaffré, Bruno. Burkina Faso. Les années Sankara, de la révolution à la rectification. Paris: L’Harmattan, 1989.
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  917. A French journalist who met Sankara before he became president and a frequent visitor and observer of the revolution undertakes an assessment of the four years of the Sankara revolution, based on personal observation and interviews with leaders and rural and urban folks. He analyzes the forces that led to the plot resulting in Sankara’s assassination, and the government that immediately followed. The book includes a chronology of events and some texts of revolutionary statements.
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  919. Jaffré, Bruno. Biographie de Thomas Sankara: La patrie ou la mort. . . 2d ed. Paris: L’Harmattan, 2007.
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  921. The principal biography of Sankara, based on a wide range of documents and recollections by people who knew him since his childhood, and including his student years abroad. This second enlarged edition includes an analysis of his years of leadership during the revolution, and of his political philosophy as revealed in texts and interviews, and finally an examination of the evidence for foreign involvement in the plot that led to his assassination.
  922. Find this resource:
  923. Otayek, René. “Une relecture islamique du projet révolutionnaire de Thomas Sankara.” In Religion et modernité politique en Afrique noire: Dieu pour tous et chacun pour soi. Edited by Jean-François Bayart, 101–127. Paris: Karthala, 1993.
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  925. An interesting analysis of the attitude of the university-educated and more puritanical Islamic intelligentsia of Burkina Faso to the Sankara regime, and its response to the regime’s opening to them for promoting change and development, partly conforming to the aspect of the revolution as the reaction of the young generations to patriarchal control structures.
  926. Find this resource:
  927. Sankara, Thomas. Thomas Sankara Speaks: The Burkina Faso Revolution, 1983–87. Translated by Samantha Anderson. New York: Pathfinder, 1988.
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  929. The main collection of Sankara’s speeches and addresses. It includes thirty-two photographic plates and a chronology of Sankara’s life. The French originals of these speeches have been published separately by the same publisher in a parallel edition: Thomas Sankara Parle (2d edition, 2007).
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  931. Thomas Sankara Website.
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  933. A website dedicated to the memory of Sankara, bringing together elements of his biography, various texts and resources about his presidency, and documents issued by his political followers.
  934. Find this resource:
  935. Religion
  936. The study of religion in Burkina Faso is split between anthropological works, which generally focus on older practices and conceptions; the literature created by Catholic intellectuals on church history; and the work on Islam which is normally carried out by academics, although many of them are of Islamic background. The references provided here reflect this diversity.
  937. Indigenous
  938. Cartry 1976 provides a long ethnographic description and analysis of sacrifice in eastern Burkina Faso. Le Moal 1981 and Le Moal 1984 are on sacrifice among Bobo speakers in the villages lying north of the Mouhoun River. Le Moal 1989 is about funeral customs in the same group. Le Moal 1980 is a book-length ethnography of the same communities, focusing on the masquerades in a tradition that follows Marcel Griaule. Dacher 1987 is on the nature of spirit shrines in the Banfora region in the west. Royer 1999 is on the spread of an important regional anti-witchcraft movement in the west during the late colonial period. Royer 2002 is about the use of spiritual protection in modern sports. Şaul 2006 is also about the modern context, in this case exploring its links to inherited conceptions and predispositions.
  939. Cartry, Michel. “Le statut de l’animal dans le système sacrificiel des Gourmantché (Haute-Volta).” Systèmes de pensée en Afrique noire 2 (1976): 141–175.
  940. DOI: 10.4000/span.330Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  941. Long essay in three-parts on the ethnography and the interpretation of sacrifice among the Gourmantche of eastern Burkina Faso. Continued in Systèmes de pensée en Afrique noire 3 (1978): 17–58; and Systèmes de pensée en Afrique noire 5 (1981): 195–216
  942. Find this resource:
  943. Dacher, Michèle. “‘Dans le malheur on ne peut pas être seul avec Dieu’: De l’origine et de la nature des tinni goin (Burkina Faso).” Systèmes de pensée en Afrique noire 8 (1987): 69–110.
  944. DOI: 10.4000/span.1019Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  945. Major analysis of religious conceptions among the Goin of southwest Burkina Faso.
  946. Find this resource:
  947. Le Moal, Guy. Les Bobo: Nature et fonction des masques. Paris: ORSTOM, 1980.
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  949. Celebrated and dense ethnography of Bobo-speaking villages that lie in the land north of the Mouhoun (Black Volta) River, focusing on ritual life and masquerades, but also with an important introductory section on social organization. Well illustrated with black-and-white photographs and line drawings, and attentive to techniques and material culture, following in the footsteps of Marcel Griaule, making it popular among African arts specialists and fans.
  950. Find this resource:
  951. Le Moal, Guy. “Introduction à une étude du sacrifice chez les Bobo de Haute Volta.” Systèmes de pensée en Afrique noire 5 (1981): 99–127.
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  953. The first article by the author on sacrifice among traditionalist Bobo-speaking villagers north of the Mouhoun River.
  954. Find this resource:
  955. Le Moal, Guy. “Code sacrificiel et catégories de pensée chez les Bobo de Haute-Volta.” Systèmes de pensée en Afrique noire 6 (1984): 9–66.
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  957. Detailed analysis of the types of ritual sacrifice, of the phases, of the animals chosen as victims, and of the plants handled or offered during these rites among the Bobo speakers north of the Mouhoun (Black Volta) River.
  958. Find this resource:
  959. Le Moal, Guy. “Les voies de la rupture: Veuves et orphelins face aux tâches du deuil dans le rituel funéraire bobo (Burkina Faso).” Systèmes de pensée en Afrique noire 9 (1989): 11–30.
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  961. A descriptive analysis of funeral customs and meanings organized around the theme of bereavement and mourning after the death of a head of lineage. Continued in Systèmes de pensée en Afrique noire 11 (1991): 15–55
  962. Find this resource:
  963. Royer, Patrick. “Le Massa et l’eau de Moussa: Cultes régionaux, ‘traditions’ locales et sorcellerie en Afrique de l’Ouest.” Cahiers d’Etudes Africaines 39.154 (1999): 337–366.
  964. DOI: 10.3406/cea.1999.1314Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  965. Study of a regional anti-witchcraft movement that swept northern Côte d’Ivoire and western Burkina Faso in the early 1950s, based on research in a Sambla village west of Bobo-Dioulasso and the colonial archives, with an interpretation on continuities in ritual life and new departures in the context of the pre-independence social upheaval and Islamic conversion.
  966. Find this resource:
  967. Royer, Patrick. “The Spirit of Competition. Wak in Burkina Faso.” Africa 72.3 (2002): 464–483.
  968. DOI: 10.3366/afr.2002.72.3.464Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  969. Examines modern developments in urban areas, the widespread use of the occult in sports competitions, perceptions of individual talent, achievement, and the supernatural.
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  971. Şaul, Mahir. “Le fanga comme savoir et destinée: Signification sociale de la réussite personnelle au Soudan occidental.” L’Homme 179 (2006): 63–90.
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  973. An essay on conceptions that guide agents’ understanding and behavior in modern economic contexts, and their connections with the shared spiritual heritage of this portion of the savanna.
  974. Find this resource:
  975. Islam
  976. Audouin and Deniel 1978 is a study still used as a baseline by most researchers. Traoré 2004 is on the Jula Muslims of western Burkina Faso. Kuanda 1998 is on the factions that emerged among Muslim Moose of the Sahel and the central plain in the first decade after independence. Traoré 2005 covers the same period, and looks at the links between the splits and the decolonization process in the west of the country. Otayek 1984 and Otayek 1993 deal with these conflicts within Muslim communities in more recent times. Werthmann 2012 offers a historical panorama of an important Muslim group associated with Darsalami near Bobo-Dioulasso.
  977. Audouin, Jean, and Raymond Deniel. L’Islam en Haute Volta à l’époque coloniale. Paris: L’Harmattan, 1978.
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  979. Brief but pioneering and still useful study of the development of the Islamic religion, with information on formal associations and brotherhood divisions. Focuses on Ouagadougou and the Moose areas of the country.
  980. Find this resource:
  981. Kuanda, Assimi. “Les conflits au sein de la communauté musulmane du Burkina.” In Islam et islamismes au sud du Sahara. Edited by Ousmane Kane and Jean-Louis Triaud, 83–100. Paris: Karthala, 1998.
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  983. Examines the splits among Muslims of Ouagadougo and Yatenga after the introduction in the late 1950s of more puritanical versions of the religion inspired by contact with centers of Islam outside of the African continent. An institutional history of the many organizations set up by different Muslim groups.
  984. Find this resource:
  985. Otayek, René. “La crise de la communauté musulmane de Haute-Volta: l’islam voltaïque entre réformisme et tradition, autonomie et subordination.” Cahiers d’études africaines 95 (1984): 299–320.
  986. DOI: 10.3406/cea.1984.2205Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  987. Traces the development of salafi-type reformist puritanism and the conflicts it generated among the Muslims of Burkina Faso, who were mostly of a traditional cast.
  988. Find this resource:
  989. Otayek, René. “L’affirmation élitaire des arabisants au Burkina Faso: Enjeux et contradictions.” In Le radicalisme islamique au sud du Sahara: Da’wa, arabisation et critique de l’Occident. Edited by René Otayek, 229–252. Paris: Karthala, 1993.
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  991. Looks at the Muslims of the younger generation, who attained higher education in Islamic universities in Arab countries, and their efforts to mark themselves off from the older generation of Islamic leaders.
  992. Find this resource:
  993. Traoré, Bakari. “Espaces, identité religieuse et répresentations mentales: Le cas des Jula du Kong-Kènè.” Islam et sociétés au sud du Sahara 17–18 (2004): 67–80.
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  995. An examination of the conception of Islam among the Jula of the western part of Burkina Faso by its leading scholar.
  996. Find this resource:
  997. Traoré, Bakary. “Islam et politique à Bobo-Dioulasso de 1940 à 2002.” In L’islam politique au sud du Sahara: Identités, discours et enjeux. Edited by Muriel Gomez-Perez, 417–447. Paris: Karthala, 2005.
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  999. Covers the debates over decolonization politics, the participation of Muslims in various political movements, starting with the movement led by Houphouët-Boigny after World War II all the way to the post-Sankara years, all focused on the city of Bobo-Dioulasso.
  1000. Find this resource:
  1001. Werthmann, Katja. “Transformations d’une élite musulmane en Afrique de l’Ouest.” Cahiers d’Études Africaines 208.4 (2012): 845–876.
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  1003. Foundation accounts of Darsalami, a town created by Jula-speaking Muslim clerics from Bobo-Dioulasso in the 19th century, in the context of 19th-century revivalist movements, and the ethnicization process that occurred in the 20th century, during the colonial period.
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  1005. Roman Catholicism
  1006. The works included in this section are by members of the Catholic Church, or by intellectuals educated in its schools and emotionally attached to it. Prost 1971 is the general history of the church in the interior of French West Africa for the first period when it was still a White Father missionary enterprise. Baudu 1957 is a church history for Burkina Faso, written early on during its evolution. Somé 2004 is the same story brought up to date and told more comprehensively, but limited to the districts of western Burkina Faso. Benoist 1987 is an academic thesis stressing the confrontation between the church and the secular colonial administration during colonial times. Marie de l’Assomption 1963 is by a sister who conducted research on Burkina Faso women who chose the religious vocation. Paternot 1951 is a thin volume on the conversion movement of the Dagara, which had long-term consequences in southwest Burkina Faso and northern Ghana. Sondo 1998? is the religiously inflected biography of the man who was the most important single force in its establishment. Sanon 1977 is a reflexive account by an important figure of the church.
  1007. Baudu, Paul. Vieil empire, jeune église: Monseigneur Johanny Thévenoud. Ouagadougou: Imprimerie de la Savane, 1957.
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  1009. A history of the establishment of the Roman Catholic Church in Burkina Faso in the beginning of the 20th century, and of its powerful first bishop.
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  1011. Benoist, Joseph Roger de. Eglise et pouvoir colonial au Soudan Français: Les relations entre les administrateurs et les missionaires catholiques dans la Boucle du Niger, de 1885 à 1945. Foreword by Catherine Coquery-Vidrovitch. Paris: Karthala, 1987.
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  1013. The history of Roman Catholic missions, placing emphasis on their frequent role as adversaries of the colonial government in what is now Mali and Burkina Faso, where the Society of White Fathers operated.
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  1015. Marie de l’Assomption, Soeur (Marie Le Roy Ladurie). “Études sur les vocations religieuses au pays Mossi.” Cahiers d’Études Africaines 4.14 (1963): 275–316.
  1016. DOI: 10.3406/cea.1963.3720Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1017. A study of Moose young women who chose to become Roman Catholic Sisters.
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  1019. Paternot, Marcel. Lumière sur la Volta. Lyons: La Plus Grande France, 1951.
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  1021. Details the establishment of a Roman Catholic mission in Dagara-speaking areas near the Mouhoun River in southwest Upper Volta, and its extension across the river in the Gold Coast. This is one of the most significant conversion movements in Africa, told by one of its principal early actors.
  1022. Find this resource:
  1023. Prost, André. Les missions des Pères Blancs en Afrique occidentales avant 1939. Paris: White Fathers Mission Provincial Center, 1971.
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  1025. Mimeographed but well-produced 178-page history of the beginnings of the White Fathers missions in what became Mali and Burkina Faso, up to the time when the indigenous clergy became involved.
  1026. Find this resource:
  1027. Sanon, Anselme Titianma. Tierce Eglise, ma mère, ou la conversion d’une communauté païenne au Christ. Bobo-Dioulasso: Imprimerie de la Savane, 1977.
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  1029. A theology thesis reflecting on convergences and divergences between indigenous Bobo religiosity and the Roman Catholic Church, and touching on the meaning of conversion, by the former archbishop of Bobo-Dioulasso. It includes a great deal of first-person ethnography.
  1030. Find this resource:
  1031. Somé, Magloire. La christianisation de l’ouest-volta: Action missionnaire et réactions africaines, 1927–1960. Paris: L’Harmattan, 2004.
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  1033. The history of the Roman Catholic Church in western Burkina Faso, including early conflicts with the colonial administration, the 1934 village uprisings in Bwa regions, the organization of the local church, and relations with the 1950s African intellectuals working for independence. Academic study based on mission documents.
  1034. Find this resource:
  1035. Sondo, Soeur Rose-Marie. Monseigneur Joanny Thévenoud: Père fondateur des Soeurs de l’Immaculée conception de Ouagadougou. Ouagadougou: Imprimerie du Faso, 1998?.
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  1037. Biography of the founder of the Roman Catholic Church in Moose country at the start of the colonial period. Narrowly hagiographic account, but includes references to mission archives documents and photographs, and reflects the spirit and concerns of mission circles.
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  1039. Protestant Christianity
  1040. The study of Protestant evangelical Christianity is the work of outsiders and sociocultural observation, rather than church history. Otayek 1999 is a collection of chapters on the growth of evangelical Christianity in Ouagadougou. Yaméogo 1985 tells the history of the early period of the most important Pentecostal church in central Burkina Faso. Laurent 2003, unlike the rest, is an ethnographic study of Pentecostal congregations in contemporary rural setting.
  1041. Laurent, Pierre-Joseph. Les pentecôtistes du Burkina Faso: Marriage pouvoir et guérison. Paris: Karthala, 2003.
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  1043. Anthropological study based on fieldwork of rural Assemblies of God congregations in Oubritenga province, especially focusing on villages near Ziniare. Fine-grained analyses of marriage, exchange and solidarity, conversion, spiritual life, and healing.
  1044. Find this resource:
  1045. Otayek, René, ed. Dieu dans la cité: Dynamiques religieuses en milieu urbain ouagalais. Bordeaux: Centre d’Études d’Afrique Noire, 1999.
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  1047. Essays on evangelical Christian missions in Ouagaodugou and their relation to urban politics and decentralization.
  1048. Find this resource:
  1049. Yaméogo, K. Essaie sur l’implantation du mouvement protestant au Burkina Faso: Évolution et impact des Assemblees de Dieu à Ouagadougou de 1921 à 1971. Ouagadougou: Université de Ouagadougou, 1985.
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  1051. History of the principal Pentecostal Church in Burkina Faso, established by US missionaries.
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  1053. Language
  1054. Research on the languages of Burkina Faso started early in the colonial period. The Moore language, which is spoken by half the population and is politically significant, is the best studied, but there are many and remarkable studies of tiny minority languages as well. Grouped here are general or comparative linguistic works, and grammars and dictionaries, in two separate sections.
  1055. General or Comparative Works and Language Policy
  1056. Delafosse 1911 is of historical significance and included here because of the importance of the term “Voltaic” for the country’s history and self-identification. Manessy 1979 is a comparative work on Voltaic historical linguistics. Batiana 1998 is a sociolinguistic study of popular French in the capital. Somé 2003 presents a study on official language policy in Burkina Faso. Nikièma and Kaboré-Paré 2010 is a detailed report on the limited use of national languages in primary education in Burkina Faso, where nine national languages have been used in some experimental elementary schools for bilingual instruction in French and a national language. Showalter 2001 is a fieldwork-based study, aiming to develop empirical bases for determining language boundaries for the practical purpose of literacy development, and at the same time a sociolinguistic study of language attitudes in a dynamic multilingual and plurilingual environment. Kedrebeogo, et al. 1988 is a linguistic map synthesizing a large amount of information.
  1057. Batiana, André. “La dynamique du français populaire à Ouagadougou (Burkina Faso).” In Francophonies africaines. Edited by A. Batiana and Gisèle Prignitz, 21–33. Rouen, France: University of Rouen Publications, 1998.
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  1059. Study of the creolized popular French of the capital city, in a collection that also includes other chapters on the use of French and of national languages as identity markers.
  1060. Find this resource:
  1061. Delafosse, Maurice. “Les langues voltaïques (boucle du Niger).” Bulletin et Mémoires de la Société Linguistique de Paris 16 (1911): 386–395.
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  1063. Article of historic significance, which identified and defined for the first time the Voltaic family of languages and proposed the rubric.
  1064. Find this resource:
  1065. Kedrebeogo, G., Z. Yago, and T. Hien. Carte sociolinguistique du Burkina. Ouagadougou: Institut Géographique du Burkina (IGB), 1988.
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  1067. A large-scale map of the languages of Burkina Faso, based on inquiries at the district level, although the redundancies or discrepancies in language names coming from past practice are not totally avoided.
  1068. Find this resource:
  1069. Manessy, Gabriel. Contribution à la classification généalogique des langues voltaïques: Le group Proto-Central. Paris: SELAF, 1979.
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  1071. Comparison of most languages known as “Gur” or “Voltaic,” which are spoken in Burkina Faso, eastern Mali, and northern parts of Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Togo, and Benin. After establishing the original sound system on the basis of correspondences, the noun class system, and the system of verbs, a new internal classification of the family is offered with a tripartite division, and conjectures are formulated about the geographic location of the speakers of the Proto-Central variety.
  1072. Find this resource:
  1073. Nikièma, Norbert, and Afsata Kaboré-Paré. Cas du Burkina Faso. Report to Les Langues de Scolarisation dans l’Enseignement Fondamental en Afrique Subsaharienne Francophone (LASCOLAF), June 2010.
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  1075. A one-hundred-page report on the langue policy of Burkina, providing an account of bilingual primary education experiments in the country, curriculum resources for national language education, assessment of the efficacy of this instruction, evaluation of the competencies of the teachers, and recommendations for improvement.
  1076. Find this resource:
  1077. Showalter, Stuart. The Same but Different: Language Use and Attitudes in Four Communities of Burkina Faso. SIL Publications in Sociolinguistics 5. Dallas, TX: SIL International, 2001.
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  1079. Examines language attitudes and bilingualism in four rural speech communities in western Burkina Faso. Adapting the matched-guise testing method, it explores attitudes toward language variation, develops numerical measures of linguistic variability and bilingual achievement, and looks at community attitudes toward shared ethnic identity, social contact, linguistic awareness, personal character, and social status.
  1080. Find this resource:
  1081. Somé, Maxime Z. Politique éducative et politique linguistique en Afrique: Enseignement du français et valorisation des langues “nationales,” le cas du Burkina Faso. Paris: L’Harmattan, 2003.
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  1083. A study of the choice of French as an official and school language, arguing for the integration of selected major national languages in the curriculum, without abandoning French, which can continue to serve for national integration and international opening.
  1084. Find this resource:
  1085. Dictionaries and Grammars
  1086. The major figure in this section is Father André Prost, who, starting in the 1940s and continuing for about thirty years, dedicated himself to the task of documenting African languages, in Burkina Faso and elsewhere in West Africa. He produced works of both practical utility for the native speakers and the foreign language learners, and for the international community of researchers, who had no access to many of these languages for study. Prost started as a gifted missionary language enthusiast and ended as a specialist, having trained himself in the process in academic linguistics and become a member of a transnational scholarly fraternity. His first substantial work was a dictionary and grammar of the Bisa language, Prost 1950, which is based on the dialect of Garango, where he served as the founding Father Superior of the mission between 1932 and 1942. As he made strides in theoretical grasp, his interest turned to technical phonology, grammar matters, and comparative issues in languages of the Mande and Voltaic families, in which he became an expert. At the same time, he continued producing dictionaries. His method of work was to relocate himself in the mission center of the location of a language, start by examining the word lists, grammatical notes, and biblical/liturgical translations made by the earlier European missionaries, and then set to work with a native tutor to produce his own analysis by correcting and incorporating the earlier material. Le Bris and Prost 1981 is based on the speech of Tounouma in Bobo-Dioulasso, which was chosen as standard by the mission in the city. Later he extended this work with Prost 1983. Prost 1971 is on a less commonly spoken Mande language. Prost 1964, which is based on fieldwork conducted in 1956 and represents a step up in the level of linguistic expertise, offers analyses on a cluster of little-known languages around Banfora in the west, many belonging to the Voltaic family. Chantoux, et al. 1968 is also on a widely spoken Voltaic language, whereas Prost 1956 and Bidaud and Prost 1982 are on the Burkina varieties of well-known languages that are neither Mande nor Voltaic. Alexandre 1953, also the product of accumulated missionary linguistic work, stands out for its rich content. The phonemic analysis of the Moore language advanced greatly in the hands of modern linguists, most of whom are native speakers, and the orthography of Moore today differs greatly from the one in this book, but Father Alexandre’s dictionary is still celebrated as the best and as a repository of Moose language and wisdom. Jean Cremer, in contrast, was a civilian member of the colonial administration, academically trained as a linguist, and he produced pioneering work of high quality, but which was left in manuscript form at the time of his untimely death in the field. Cremer 1923–1924, comprising two volumes, was published posthumously by the then senior African language expert in Paris, Delafosse; the two other volumes of this series edited by Labouret are included in the Folklore section. Somé 2013 is a modern academic work on an important Voltaic language of the southwest that is linguistically very close to Moore, but for sociopolitical reasons always very clearly delineated in contrast to it, under a separate rubric.
  1087. Alexandre, Gustave. La langue möré. 2 vols. Mémoires 34. Dakar: Institut Français d’Afrique Noire, 1953.
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  1089. Quarto volumes totaling more than nine hundred pages offer a grammar overview and the most comprehensive dictionary of the Moore language, considered still the best. The orthography differs for the current national standard, but frequently includes ethnographic and encyclopedic information in the entries. Reissued in 1970 by Swets and Zeitlinger in Amsterdam.
  1090. Find this resource:
  1091. Bidaud, Lucien, and André Prost. Manuel de langue peule: Dialecte du Liptako (Dori, Haute Volta). Paris: Publications Orientalistes de France, 1982.
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  1093. This was prepared as a language teaching tool for the variety of Fulfulde spoken in the Sahel region of Burkina.
  1094. Find this resource:
  1095. Chantoux, Alphonse, Alexandre Gontier, and André Prost. Grammaire gourmantché. Dakar: IFAN, 1968.
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  1097. A substantive grammar of the Gourmantché language, which predominates in the eastern third of Burkina.
  1098. Find this resource:
  1099. Cremer, Jean. Matériaux d’ethnographie et de linguistique soudanaise. 2 vols. Introduction by Maurice Delafosse. Paris: Geuthner, 1923–1924.
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  1101. Important linguistic work by a colonial author who spent six years in Kouri (then the cercle capital, now a simple village in Kossi province), as a physician. Reissued in 1972 by Maisonneuve et Larose. Volume 1, Dictionnaire français-peul (dialectes de la Haute Volta); Volume 2, Grammaire de langue Kasséna ou Kassené, parlée au pays des gourounsi. Volumes 3 and 4 of this series present narrative material and are cited under Folklore.
  1102. Find this resource:
  1103. Le Bris, Pierre, and André Prost. Dictionnaire bobo-français: Précédé d’une introduction grammaticale, et suivi d’un lexique français-bobo. Paris: SELAF, 1981.
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  1105. Grammar and dictionary of the Bobo dialect of Sia (Bobo-Dioulasso), as spoken by the farmer families of the Tounouma neighborhood. This is the speech that is the basis for most written material prepared in the Bobo language.
  1106. Find this resource:
  1107. Prost, André. La langue bisa: Grammaire et dictionnaire. Ouagadougou: Centre IFAN, 1950.
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  1109. The first substantial linguistic work of the author, which is based on the Garango dialect of this important language, the easternmost member of the Mande family. Reissued in 1968 by Gregg Press in Farnborough Hants, England.
  1110. Find this resource:
  1111. Prost, André. La langue sonay et ses dialectes. Dakar: IFAN, 1956.
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  1113. This is a general description of the Nilo-Saharan Songhay/Zarma language represented by many pocket speech communities in Burkina.
  1114. Find this resource:
  1115. Prost, André. Contribution à l’étude des langues voltaïques. Dakar: IFAN, 1964.
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  1117. Grammatical sketches and lengthy comparative vocabularies of eight languages spoken in the area of Banfora, with their common names: Gouin, Turka, the Miniyanka, Senar, and Tengrela dialects of Senufo, Toussian, and Siamou or Sémou (which is a Kru language).
  1118. Find this resource:
  1119. Prost, André. Éléments de sembla; Phonologie, grammaire, lexique (Haute Volta: groupe mandé). Lyon, France: Afrique et langage, 1971.
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  1121. Work on a little known language of the Mande family, known more commonly under the rubric Samogo.
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  1123. Prost, André. Essai de description grammaticale du dialecte bobo de Tansila, Haute Volte. Paris: INALCO, 1983.
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  1125. The Bobo language as spoken north of the Mouhoun River, which lexically and grammatically is very close to the one spoken in the south, as described in Le Bris and Prost 1981. They are, however, mutually very hard to understand.
  1126. Find this resource:
  1127. Somé, Maxime Z. Grammaire structurelle du dagara. Paris: L’Harmattan, 2013.
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  1129. A syntactic and grammatical description, including verbal conjugation and conversation guides and a hefty lexical list of Dagara, which is spoken by about a million people in southwest Burkina Faso and northern Ghana. Addressed to teachers and native or foreign learners, and written with the aim of supporting efforts to increase literacy in notional languages.
  1130. Find this resource:
  1131. Folklore
  1132. Works on folk literature are numerous, and mostly focus on the Moose, but few of these present the texts in the languages in which they were created and recorded. The works included in this section maintain higher academic standards. Kawada 1985 is the work of a historian, and is the collection part of his study of the dynastic traditions of Moose kingdoms. Cremer 1924 and Cremer 1927 are by Jean Cremer, who was mostly interested in language study. Tiendrebeogo 1963 is the work of a popularizing traditionalist. Canu 1969 is an academic work with careful linguistic presentation. Pasquier 1975 is a commentary on one of Canu’s tales. Giray 1996 is a carefully recorded and translated collection of tales in Jula from Bobo-Dioulasso. Bonnet 1982 presents a corpus of Moose proverbs. Kaboré 1993 is on nursery rhymes among the Moose. Sanou 1993 is a valuable presentation of some initiation texts from Bobo-Dioulasso.
  1133. Bonnet, Doris. Le Proverbe chez les Mossis du Yatenga, Haute Volta. Paris: Selaf, 1982.
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  1135. A corpus of 130 proverbs given in Moore transcription with interlinear and regular French translation, each followed by a vocabulary and a discussion of the images conjured by the proverb, and often also one or two hypothetical scenes illustrating how the proverb could be used, which were provided to the author by her mentors. Includes a general introduction and a conclusion exploring the role of proverbs in communication.
  1136. Find this resource:
  1137. Canu, Gaston. Contes mossi actuels: Etude ethno-linguistique. Dakar, 1969.
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  1139. Extended phonological analysis of the Moore language, through a corpus of twenty-five animal tales, given in transcription, with interlinear and normal French translations and an ethnographic analysis of their content.
  1140. Find this resource:
  1141. Cremer, Jean. Les Bobo (La vie sociale). Matériaux d’ethnographie et de linguistique soudanaises 3. Preface and an introductory chapter by Henri Labouret. Paris: Paul Geuthner, 1924.
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  1143. Edited posthumously by Henri Labouret, and presenting a collation of texts written down from native tutors on social life in general. Cremer intended to write an analysis of the Bwa language, a term that was introduced in its current ethnographic sense in Labouret’s preface to this volume, but was anticipated by G. Binger. The original had transcriptions with interlinear and plain language French translations, but difficulties in reconstructing the author’s handwritten notes and cost considerations induced Labouret to include only the French translations.
  1144. Find this resource:
  1145. Cremer, Jean. Les Bobo (La mentalité mystique). Matériaux d’ethnographie et de linguistique soudanaises 4. Paris: Paul Geuthner, 1927.
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  1147. Edited posthumously by Henri Labouret, and presenting a collation of texts. The ones selected for this volume concern aspects of religious life. Volumes 1 and 2 of this series are cited as Cremer 1923–1924 under Dictionaries and Grammars.
  1148. Find this resource:
  1149. Giray, Eren. Nsiirin! Nsiirin!: Jula Folktales from West Africa. East Lansing: Michigan University Press, 1996.
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  1151. Includes seventeen folktales narrated by residents of various backgrounds in Bobo-Dioulasso in Jula, illustrating the emergence of a city culture and documenting the presence in the city of two divergent dialectal forms of the language marking ethnic boundaries. An interpretive introduction describes the setting, and the tales are provided with some annotation. The book presents, on facing pages, a transcription of the tales from tape recordings and an English translation of the text.
  1152. Find this resource:
  1153. Kaboré, Oger. Les oiseaux s’ébattent, Chansons enfantines au Burkina Faso. Paris: L’Harmattan, 1993.
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  1155. Academic study of nursery rhymes from the Koupela region, selected from a larger corpus gathered in 1982 for a doctoral dissertation. Includes two introductory chapters on the ethno-historic presentation of the people and their verbal arts. The bulk of the text is transcription of recordings, mostly captured in the spontaneous context of performance, with linguistic and cultural analysis.
  1156. Find this resource:
  1157. Kawada, Junzo. Textes historiques oraux des Mossi méridionaux. Tokyo: Institut de Recherche sur les langues et les cultures d’Asie et d’Afrique, 1985.
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  1159. Genealogy and verbal emblems of the historical chiefs of the independent Moose kingdom of Tenkodogo, gathered on two occasions in 1974 and 1975, when they were delivered in drum language with accompanying verbal recitation. Presented with lexical notes and historic commentary by the researcher, who made a great contribution in opening up dynastic studies on Moose kingdoms of the southwestern region, which is given a central place in the coordinated Moose political traditions.
  1160. Find this resource:
  1161. Pasquier, Abel. “Interprétation symbolique d’un conte mossi.” Cahiers d’études africaines 15.4 (1975): 669–698.
  1162. DOI: 10.3406/cea.1975.3366Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1163. An interpretation of an animal trickster tale (the elephant and the rooster) taken from Canu 1969, by reference to Moose ethnography and history.
  1164. Find this resource:
  1165. Sanou, Alain. “‘Les récits intiatiques bobo.” In Découvertes du Burkina: Annales des conférences organisées par le Centre Culturel Français Georges Méliès de Ouagadougou, 1991–1992. Vol 2. Edited by Annie Merlet, 215–240. Association Découvertes du Burkina. Paris: Éditions Sépia, 1993.
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  1167. A study of selected Bobo initiation texts from Sia (Bobo-Dioulasso), given in transcription, with extensive cultural commentary and French translation, by an author who has done very fine language-grounded ethnographic work.
  1168. Find this resource:
  1169. Tiendrebeogo, Y. Contes Du Larhallé, Suivis d’un recueil de proverbes et devises du pays mossi. Rédigés et présentés par Robert Pageard. Ouagadougou: Tiendrébéogo, 1963.
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  1171. The author was a traditionalist of great renown and had his own radio program in the 1970s. The folktales in the first part are written down in French, while the proverbs and verbal emblems in the second part are given in Moore transcription, with French translation and commentary.
  1172. Find this resource:
  1173. Literature
  1174. The literary scene in Burkina Faso became more animated with the institution of state-run yearly competitions for modern works of fiction and drama in the context of the National Culture Week that was initiated by Thomas Sankara. Nazi Boni is not only a pioneer, but with his single historical novel (Boni 1962) he became the best recognized novelist from Burkina Faso. Arozarena 1973 and Millogo 2002 are interpretive essays on Boni’s novel. Titinga Frederic Pacéré is the best-known contemporary poet; Pacéré 1976 and Pacéré 1994 are collections of his works. Sanou Dao 2003 is by a contemporary short story writer. Sanou 2000 presents an overview of the field of literary creation in Burkina Faso. Special Issue: Litèrature du Burkina Faso also provides a general overview of Burkinabe literature.
  1175. Arozarena, Pierre. De la tradition orale bwa: Études des sources de “Crépuscules des temps anciens” du voltaïque N. Boni. Ouagadougou: Centre de Documentation et de Perfectionnement Pédagogique de Haute Volta, 1973.
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  1177. An essay on Boni’s historical novel, exploring its stylistic sources in Bwa oral tradition.
  1178. Find this resource:
  1179. Boni, Nazi. Crépuscule ds temps anciens: Chronique du bwamu. Paris: Présence Africaine, 1962.
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  1181. The best-known work of Burkinabe literature, by an author who was, in the 1950s, a principal political actor of the decolonization period. The novel is set mostly during the 1915–1916 anticolonial war in Bwa-speaking villages, and is based upon characters and episodes as conveyed by the oral tradition, supplemented by some research in French colonial archives (see Şaul and Royer 2001, cited under Colonial Period). Gripping in its language and imagery, it is important for its literary qualities as well as for being a record of the historical events it describes.
  1182. Find this resource:
  1183. Millogo, Louis. Nazi Boni, premier écrivain du Burkina Faso: La langue bwamu dans “Crépuscule des temps anciens.” Limoges, France: Presses Universitaires de Limoges, 2002.
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  1185. An interpretive essay on Boni as the first important author of Burkina Faso, and on the use of Bwa language quotes in his well-known book, which was written in French.
  1186. Find this resource:
  1187. Pacéré, Titinga Frederic. Ça tire sous le Sahel. Paris: P.J. Oswald, 1976.
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  1189. A collection of poems by the best-known poet of Burkina.
  1190. Find this resource:
  1191. Pacéré, Titinga Frederic. Saglego, ou le poème du tam-tam sur le Sahel. Ouagadougou: Fomdation Pacéré, 1994.
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  1193. Poetry texts in the Moore language and in French; both versions created by the author.
  1194. Find this resource:
  1195. Sanou, Salaka. La littérature burkinabé: L’histoire, les hommes, les oeuvres. Limoges, France: Presses Universitaires de Limoges, 2000.
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  1197. After an introduction by Jean-Marie Grassin placing the literature of Burkina Faso in African and world context, the author’s introductions explains the historical emergence of poetry and prose writing in Burkina Faso. The principal text offers short author biographies and bibliographies in alphabetical order. At the end, tables list the prizes received by Burkinabe authors, and there is also a bibliography of literary criticism in Burkina Faso.
  1198. Find this resource:
  1199. Sanou Dao, Bernadette. La femme de diable et autres histoires suivies de “L’écrivain que je suis.” Ouagadougou: Découvertes du Burkina, 2003.
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  1201. Collection of short stories by an author who has been crowned several times with literary prizes at a national level for her poetry as well her fiction, and who also held important political positions, including (briefly) minister of culture under Thomas Sankara and another cabinet post under B. Compaoré.
  1202. Find this resource:
  1203. Special Issue: Litèrature du Burkina Faso. Notre Librairie 101 (1990).
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  1205. This special issue of this journal Notre Librairie is dedicated to an overview of the literature of Burkina Faso.
  1206. Find this resource:
  1207. Cinema, FESPACO
  1208. Cinema is a matter of national identity and pride in Burkina Faso, as well as a sector of artistic creativity. Since the 1970s, the biennial film festival of Ouagaodougou, FESPACO, has provided a platform for all African cinema. Hoefert de Turégano 2004 is a major reflection on the conditions of sub-Saharan cinema production, carried out as an extended discussion of the example of Burkina Faso. Ilbudo 1988 has the character of a catalogue listing. Bachy 1983 is a country introduction in a series that has separate volumes on different countries. Jørholt 2007 is an updated country overview. Şaul 2007 is an essay on G. Kaboré’s films. Şaul 2010 is a study of the West African art film tradition, valorizing Burkina Faso’s role in it.
  1209. Bachy, Victor. La Haute Volta et le cinéma. 2d ed. Brussels: OCIC, 1983.
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  1211. Study of the beginnings of filmmaking n Burkina Faso by the well-known Belgian critic, in a series of similar volumes on other African countries. Dated, but of historical interest.
  1212. Find this resource:
  1213. Hoefert de Turégano, Teresa. African Cinema and Europe: Close Up on Burkina Faso. Florence, Italy: European Press Academic Publishing, 2004.
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  1215. Interpretive study of the structures and practices of filmmaking in Burkina, well informed by African filmmaking in general and European funding for African cinema. Dense analysis and academic prose, but one of the most original studies of sub-Saharan African cinema in general.
  1216. Find this resource:
  1217. Ilbudo, Patrick G. Le FESPACO, 1969–1989: Les cinéastes africains et leurs oeuvres. Ouagadougou: Éditions La Mante, 1988.
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  1219. After an essay on the image of the black person in Western representation, the second section of the book offers a history of the FESPACO Ouagaoduogu film festival in the context of the development of black African cinema, The third section is a dictionary of African filmmakers.
  1220. Find this resource:
  1221. Jørholt, Eva. “Burkina Faso.” In The Cinema of Small Nations. Edited by Mette Hjort and Duncan J. Petrie, 198–212. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2007.
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  1223. An interpretive overview of film production, major directors, and films.
  1224. Find this resource:
  1225. Şaul, Mahir. “History as Cultural Redemption in Gaston Kaboré’s Precolonial Era Films.” In Black and White in Colour: African History on Screen. Edited by Vivian Bickford-Smith and Richard Mendelsohn, 11–27; 324–326. Athens, OH: Ohio University Press, 2007.
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  1227. A study of nostalgia for the precolonial past in the style and content of Kaboré’s films, and the social and artistic trends it heralded and influenced.
  1228. Find this resource:
  1229. Şaul, Mahir. “Art, Politics, and Commerce in Francophone African Cinema.” In Viewing African Cinema in the Twenty-First Century: Art Films and the Nollywood Video Revolution. Edited by Mahir Şaul and Ralph A. Austen, 133–159. Athens, OH: Ohio University Press, 2010.
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  1231. Examines film viewing and censorship in late colonial Ouagadougou, origins of the FESPACO film festival, government film policy, and the Pan-African Federation of Filmmakers (FEPACI), headquartered in Burkina Faso, as part of an essay on the place of politics and entertainment in classical West African filmmaking.
  1232. Find this resource:
  1233. The Arts
  1234. The conventional focus has been on woodcarvings, either statues produced for ritual purposes or the headpieces of masquerade figures, for which some ethnic groups in Burkina are famous among collectors. There are also a few noteworthy publications on architecture. Little has been published on nontraditional arts, such as canvas painting and sculpture produced by modern artists or the tourist-art craftsmen. Ago 1979 and Fiedermutz-Laun 1983 are on traditional architecture. Etienne-Nugue 1982 covers handicrafts. Triande 1969 is an early publication on Burkina masking art and sculpture. Roy 1987 and Roy 2007 are the best-known books on the masking tradition and sculpture of groups in Burkina Faso. Skougstad 1978 focuses on sculpture. Van Ham and van Dijk 1980 is another major illustrated work on sculpture. Gagliardi 2013 is on a modern masked dance. Soma 1988 presents the musical instruments of the southwest. Cuomo 2014 is on rap music in Burkina Faso.
  1235. Ago, Fabrizio. “Architetture Voltaiche.” Rivista trimestriale di studi e documentazione dell’Instituto italiano per l’Africa e l’Oriente 34.4 (1979): 341–372.
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  1237. Types of vernacular architecture in the country, presented by region and ethnicity, including a Bobo village, and Sudanic mosques in the vicinity of Bobo-Dioulasso, Moose, Lobi, and Gurmanche. Stresses the links between social organization and architectural forms.
  1238. Find this resource:
  1239. Cuomo, Anna. “Rap et blackness au Burkina Faso. Les enjeux autour de l’accès à une reconnaissance artistique.” Politique africaine 136.4 (2014): 41–60.
  1240. DOI: 10.3917/polaf.136.0041Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1241. An article on the implantation of hip hop in Ouagadougou and the growing concern with authenticity and transnational black culture.
  1242. Find this resource:
  1243. Etienne-Nugue, Jocelyne. Artisanat traditionnel en Afrique noire, Haute-Volta. Dakar: Institut Culturel Africain, 1982.
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  1245. A book on handicrafts and decorative arts (pottery, textiles), which is part of a series covering different West African countries. Well illustrated, with pictures of production techniques, black and white and in color, including sixteen pages of photographic plates.
  1246. Find this resource:
  1247. Fiedermutz-Laun, Annemarie. “Architekturforschuung in Obervolta und ihre ethnologische Ausage.” Paideuma 29 (1983): 141–220.
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  1249. Comparative study of vernacular architecture among the Gurunsi, Moose, Bisa, Lela, Kasena, Bwa, Marka, and Samo; covers internal and external elements of the buildings, layout of the compound, and construction. Illustrated with a large number of technical line drawings and photographs.
  1250. Find this resource:
  1251. Gagliardi, Susan Elizabeth. “Masquerades as the Public Face: Art of Contemporary Hunters’ Association in Western Burkina Faso.” African Arts 46.4 (2013): 46–59.
  1252. DOI: 10.1162/AFAR_a_00107Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1253. A new masquerade form developed by the vigilante societies that modeled themselves on traditional hunter societies (see Hagberg 2006, cited under Political Life), which spread during the turbulent 1990s to western Burkina Faso from their starting point in northern Côte d’Ivoire. Illustrated with photographs, mostly from the Leraba province.
  1254. Find this resource:
  1255. Roy, Christopher D. Art of the Upper Volta Rivers. Meudon: Chaffin, 1987.
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  1257. The classic book on Moose, Gurunsi (Nuna), and Bwa mask head carvings, based on the authors PhD thesis, with text in English and French translation (by F. Chaffin) printed as two columns side by side in every page. Black-and-white and color photo illustrations. The White, Red, and Black Volta Rivers, which gave the country its former name, are now called Nakambe, Nazinon, and Mouhoun, respectively.
  1258. Find this resource:
  1259. Roy, Christopher D. Land of the Flying Masks: Art and Culture in Burkina Faso: The Thomas G.B. Wheelock Collection. Munich; London: Prestel, 2007.
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  1261. Presented as the largest private assemblage of works of Burkina Faso art in the world, the Wheelock collection includes mask headpieces, costumes and ornaments, statues, instruments and pieces of jewelry as well as everyday items such as spoons, pots, baskets, stools and chairs.
  1262. Find this resource:
  1263. Skougstad, Norman. Traditional Sculpture from Upper Volta: An Exhibition of Objects from New York Museums and Private Collections. New York: African American Institute, 1978.
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  1265. Catalogue of an exhibition at the African American Institute in 1978–1979 that was put together from New York Museum and private collections. Includes Moose, Kurumba, Bobo, Bwa, Gurunsi, Samo, and Lobi sculptures, household objects and furnishings, bronzes, and wind instruments. With thirty-nine black-and-white photo illustrations.
  1266. Find this resource:
  1267. Soma, Etienne Yarmon. “Les instruments de musique du pays cerma (ou goin), sud-ouest du Burkina Faso.” Anthropos 83.4–6 (1988): 469–483.
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  1269. Inventory of principal musical instruments of the Goin or Cerma of southwestern Burkina Faso, including those that were common fifty years ago but now rarely heard. The author describes how the instruments are played, the associated myths of origin, the main rituals in which they play a role, and transcriptions and translations of the songs they accompany.
  1270. Find this resource:
  1271. Triande, Toumani. Masques et sculptures voltaiques. Ouagadougou: Musée National, 1969.
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  1273. This thirty-six-page book was prepared for the First Pan-African Culture Festival in Algiers and is illustrated with black-and-white pictures.
  1274. Find this resource:
  1275. van Ham, Laurent, and Robert van Dijk. Africa: Art and Culture from the Upper Volta. Rotterdam: Ralph Schuurman Productions, 1980.
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  1277. Hardcover book with forty-five full-color plates on traditional sculpture, with text in Dutch and English. The commentary on the artwork is somewhat old-fashioned.
  1278. Find this resource:
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