Interpreting African Past

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A COUNTRY STUDY OF BURKINA FASO By Waleska Santiago History 105 H: Interpreting the African Past Professor: Albert Rutayisire Old Dominion University, November 20th, 2012 Location of Burkina Faso in Africa Country Map of (your country) Table of Contents INTRODUCTION………………………………………………………………………...2 HISTORY OF Burkina Faso..…………………………………………………………..…2 Pre-Colonial History………………………………………………………………………2 Colonial History…………………………………………………………………………...2 Post-Independence History to Present…………………………………………………….2 CURRENT GOVERNMENT/LEADERSHIP…………………………………………………………3 GEOGRAPHY/CLIMATE………………………………………………………………..3 PEOPLE…………………………………………………………………………………...3 Population…………………………………………………………………………………4 Major Ethnic Groups………………………………………………………………………4…show more content…
In 1895 the French peacefully negotiated a protectorate over Yatenga; in 1896 they forcefully occupied Ouagadougou; and in 1897 they annexed Gourma and the lands of the Bobo, Lobi, and Gurunsi peoples. An Anglo-French agreement in 1898 established the boundary with the Gold Coast (now Ghana) (Liebhardt 2007, 78-106). The region of present-day Burkina Faso was administered as part of the French colony of Soudan (then called Upper Senegal-Niger and now mostly part of Mali) until 1919, when it was made a separate protectorate as Upper Volta. In 1932, it was divided among Côte d'Ivoire, Soudan, and Niger for administrative convenience. In 1947, Upper Volta was reestablished as a separate territory within the French Union, and in 1958 it became an autonomous republic within the French…show more content…
5, 1960, Upper Volta achieved full independence. The constitution of 1960 established a strong presidential government, and Maurice Yaméogo of the Voltaic Democratic Union (UDV) became the first president. New constitutions were written and approved in 1970, 1977, and again in 1991. In 1983 a man by the name of Captain Thomas Sankara, who was in charge of a military coup, came into office. Sankara cultivated ties with Libya and Ghana, adopting a policy of nonalignment with Western nations. He adopted a more liberal policy toward the opposition and increased the government's focus on economic development. In symbolic rejection of the nation's colonial past, Upper Volta became Burkina Faso in 1984; the name is a composite of local languages and is roughly translated as "the land of incorruptible men." The country's dispute with Mali over the Agache border was revived in 1985. In 1986, Sankara dissolved his cabinet and appointed civil servants to government ministries. Subsequently, he proposed the formation of a single political party. He and other officials were assassinated in 1987 and that is when the current president Capt. Blaise Compaoré seized

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