Burkina Faso

Land of the noble people

The name of this inland territory means in Mossi language “land of the noble people”. Burkina Faso has little natural resources and the Sahara desert advances many kilometres every year. Nonetheless, despite its historical poverty a unique film festival “Fespaco” is celebrated every two years in Ouagadougou. The cultural identity of the Burkina beans is strong and highly productive. Each of the 60 ethnic groups has its own specific masked dances, music and rhythms. Discovering them is one of Burkina Faso’s main attractions.

Together with its rich cultural heritage, this Sahel country offers amazing landscapes around the desert area of Gorom Gorom and ancient medieval cities like Bani, with its seven adobe mosques or Tiebelé with its colourful hamlets.

1. Witness the Moro-Naba ceremony, with traditional Mossi tribal costumes and drums, which takes place outside the Moro-Naba’s Palace in Ouagadougou every Friday morning around 06:00h.
2. Traditional music and dancing cabarets in Burkina Faso’s second city: Bobo Dioulassou
3. Excursion to the painted houses of the Kassena tribal area near the border town of Tiebelé.
4. The tribal market of Gorom Gorom in the Northeastern desert region of Burkina Faso. Tuareg, Songhai and Fulani people get together on this weekly market (Thursdays).
5. Wonderful traditional architecture and fertile savannah in the Lobi and Senufo tribal areas, in Southwestern Burkina Faso. 

6. The three national parks (Kabore Tembi, ‘W’ near the Benin and Niger border, and Arli) are the most important. South of Ouagadougou, near Po, the Ranch de Nazinga is a game reserve with a large population of elephants, antelopes, monkeys, baboons and warthogs.
7. Sacred crocodiles in the village of Bazoulé, 30 kms from Ouagadougou. The local Mossi villagers feed their ancestors –in the form of crocodiles- with chicken and goats.
8. The seven magnificent adobe mosques of the ancient medieval town of Bani, on the way to Gorom Gorom.
9. For hikers and mountain lovers Burkina Faso offers the Banfora Escarpment, not far from the border of the Republic of the Ivory Coast. There are some abandoned villages on the top that can be visited.
10. Most tribal groups in Burkina Faso have sacred masks with abstract forms to honour the ancestors and define their ethnic identity. Watching one of these expressive forms of cultural pride is the best way to understand Africa’s essence.