The name Burkina Faso, which means Land of Incorruptible People, was adopted in 1984. The national cloth made up of woven strips of cotton or silk was called faso dan fani (this will be the subject for another post).Įnjoy this video, and travel to Burkina Faso, the land of the upright people. A former French colony, it gained independence as Upper Volta in 1960. The flag looks like the old flag of Germany, used in the First World War, which was changed in 1918. This flag was adopted when independence from France was given in 1960. Sankara was then addressed as the PF or the President of the Faso. Flag Ratio: 2:3 The flag of Upper Volta is a horizontal tricolour of black, white and red which derive from the three main rivers: The Black Volta, White Volta and the Red Volta. Thus, Thomas used three of the main languages in his country to choose a name that was truly representative of the country and its people. The people of the country are known as the Burkinabé, where the suffix ‘bé’ comes from the Foufouldé language spoken by the Peulh people (a tribe found in many countries across West Africa), and means ‘men or women’. Thus the Burkina Faso is ‘ the land of upright people‘ or ‘ the land of honest people‘. Burkinafrom Mòoré means ‘ men of integrity‘, while Fasoin Diouala means ‘ fatherland‘. He chose two names after two main languages of the country: the Moore (or Mossi language) and the Dioula. Well, on 4 August 1984, Thomas Sankara, with his usual charisma and revolutionary spirit, decided to change the country’s name to Burkina Faso. No wonder the name needed to change, as it had no real meaning! Thomas Sankara a Ouagadougou The Volta river also flew into Ghana, which was never known as the ‘Lower Volta’. Since the river had three tributaries: the Black Volta, the white Volta, and the red Volta, Upper Volta’s flag also had those three colors. Flag of Upper Volta Burkina Faso was initially named Upper Volta and had adopted a tricolor flag representing the 3 major tributaries of the Volta River that flows through it. Thus Upper Volta was named for the region above the Volta river flowing in the area the people of that country/area where thus known as the ‘Voltaics’ ( Voltaiques in French). The geographic location of what is today Burkina Faso occupies the Upper part of the Volta River which contains three parts: the Black Volta, Red Volta, and White Volta hence the reason for the 3 stripes. Originally, Haute Volta or Upper Volta, was just given by the European colonizer, the French, more as an indicator or geographic pointer, and had no real attachment to the people of that region themselves. Burkina and then Faso? or even simply two names in its history: Upper Volta and then Burkina Faso? Well, the country named Upper Volta was given a new name in 1984 by then President Thomas Sankara, who chose the name Burkina Faso. Each region is administered by a governor.Have you ever wondered about the name of the country Burkina Faso? Why would a country have two names, i.e. These regions encompass 45 provinces and 301 departments. Being a presidential republic, Burkina Faso comprises a total of 13 administrative regions. standard time followed in Burkina Faso is UTC +00 hours. The calling code is +226 and the UTC i.e. BF and its three letters Burkina Faso code is BFA and in digits it is 854. Burkina Faso comprises of two letters Burkina Faso code i.e. The official language of Burkina Faso is French and the currency is CFA Franc. flag in their schoolyard independence ceremony and raised the new flag of Upper Volta. The country has population density of 64/km2 (165.8/sq mi) (137th).īurkina Faso is a francophone country has presidential republic formation. Upper Volta's status was largely cemented as a subordinate labor. It covers an area of around 274,200 square kilometres (105,900 sq mi) and Niger to the east Ivory Coast to the southwest Benin to the southeast Mali to the north Togo and Ghana to the south, with approximately 1.92 crores inhabitants. Lying in the West Africa continent Burkina Faso is a landlocked with six countries. Burkina Faso Country Information, Currency, Codes, Time Zone
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