AMAZING FACTS ABOUT BURKINA FASO

AMAZING FACTS ABOUT BURKINA FASO 🇧🇫

1. Capital of Burkina Faso 🇧🇫 is Ouagadougou. Written as “Wogodogo” in the Mòoré dialect, it literally means “You are welcome here at home with us”.
2. It is located south of the Sahara Desert.
3. It was formerly known as Upper Volta, and renamed by President Thomas Noel Sankara to Burkina Faso which means the Upright man.
4. The official language is French, since Burkina Faso was colonized by France. Other languages spoken include Mòoré, Gourma, Fulfulde, Dioula, Tamasheq.
5. Nationality: Burkinabe.
6. Burkina Faso 🇧🇫 has a population of more than 20 million people.
7. The Mossi is the largest ethnic group in Burkina Faso.
8. Want to speak a little Mòoré? “Yam Kibaré?” (How are you?) And your response: “Laafi Bala, La Yamba?” (I am fine and you?)
9. Gold is Burkina Faso’s main export, followed by cotton and animal products.
10. Most food in Burkina Faso 🇧🇫 comes with sauce. Staple foods are sorghum, millet, rice, maize, peanuts, potatoes, bean, yams and okra.
11. About 70% of the population relies on subsistence agriculture.
12. Popular sports in Burkina Faso 🇧🇫 are: football, handball, cycling, basketball and boxing.
13. Burkina Faso 🇧🇫 is home to 60 different ethnic groups, each with their own variety of folk music.
14. Burkina Faso 🇧🇫 is a leader in African art and culture and hosts the largest craft market in Africa.
15. The Bobo, one of the ethnic groups in Burkina Faso 🇧🇫 make large butterfly masks, painted in stripes of red, white and black which are used to invoke the deity Do in fertility ceremonies. The Mossi are known for their antelope masks. The Lobi carve wood.
16. The school week runs from Monday through Saturday. Schooling is in theory free and compulsory until the age of 16.
17. The University of Ouagadougou founded in 1974, was the country’s first institution of higher education. The Polytechnic University in Bobo-Diolasso was opened in 1995.