Customs and traditions
Hospitality and courtesy are important characteristics of Burkinis. It is part of the mossi culture of the majority people that a person should not attract too much attention or arouse jealousy by showing himself or herself. This is especially true of rich people. It is polite to ask how someone’s family is doing, as the family is the given point of reference in society.
According to Abbreviationfinder, Burkina Faso is a multicultural country without major ethnic contradictions. It has given rise to jokes that often allude to ethnic origin but are not perceived as hurtful.
- Countryaah: Overview of the capital city of Burkina Faso, including information about its population, economy, geography, history and map.
Government officials and uniformed persons are approached with respect. Out in the villages, traditional chieftains still have a strong influence and Burkinis show deep respect for the elderly, and also for the dead. Burials are seen as a transition from a living human being to an ancestor.
Impatience is perceived as a sign of lack of respect. Time is considered relative, what is not done today can be done tomorrow. A proverb says that if you take the “I am in a hurry” way you will come to the “if I had known” village.
Burkinier greeted by addressing and addressing strangers with the French word for you – vous – before getting to know each other properly. Conversations are rarely direct, but are about general topics at first.
In a workplace, employees should blend in by working at the same rate as the group around them. Anyone who is very productive is stressing their surroundings.
Food and meals
Millet and sorghum belong to the base food. Tô is the most common dish for most Burkinis. It is a porridge made from millet or cornmeal and eaten lukewarm with spicy sauce cooked on different leaves and flavored with peanut butter. In the south, yam plants are common in food, but in the north where livestock management is common, milk is an important part of the diet. Meat is usually not eaten everyday, but at holidays and parties. The local beer dolo, brewed on millet, is popular and served in gourd.
In the cities, rice and pasta have replaced tô. There you can also buy coffee, fried eggs and baguettes for breakfast. The cities of Ouagadougou and Bobo-Dioulasso have plenty of French, Italian, Chinese and Lebanese restaurants.
Dress
Rural women usually wear long cotton skirts and tops. The men dress in cotton shirt and trousers. In the cities many western-influenced clothes wear. There are no strict requirements on how to dress, although women are expected to avoid very short skirts and earrings. For practical reasons, it is good to use dark cotton fabrics. All desert dust makes white or pastel colored clothing unsuitable.
The stylish clothes from the Sankara era (see Modern history) are common even today. They have also become popular abroad under the name Faso dan Fani, which is a modern form of handicraft fabrics. In the 1980s, civil servants had to dress Burkinian, and other Burkinians were then invited in campaigns to dress in fabrics made in the country.
Weekends and holidays
According to Countryaah, Independence Day, August 5 (1960) is a national holiday, as is the day of former leader Thomas Sankara’s takeover of August 4 (1983). On October 15, it is noted that Sankara was killed (1987) and December 11 is Republic Day (the Republic was proclaimed in 1959).
Religious holidays are the Christian holidays, such as Christmas, Easter and all Saints’ Day, as well as the Muslim holidays of the Prophet’s day, the month of fasting, the end of Ramadan (id al-fitr) and the sacrificial feast (id al-adha).
Communications
The transport systems are poorly developed in Burkina Faso, although major investments have been made since the turn of the millennium. The country’s thousands of villages are often far from a road, which is also rarely paved and often not passable during the rainy season from June to October.
The most important transport route is the railway that runs from the port city of Abidjan in Ivory Coast via the Burkina cities of Bobo-Dioulasso and Ouagadougou to Kaya in central Burkina Faso. Since the border with the Ivory Coast was kept closed in 2002–2003 due to the civil war there, a large part of the freight traffic has continued to cross the road to ports in Ghana, Togo and Benin. A new road from Kaya via Niger’s capital Niamey to the port of Cotonou in Benin is being built.
Ouagadougou and Bobo-Dioulasso have international airports. A new international airport is being built in Donsin, just over three miles outside the capital. It is expected to be completed by 2030. The former state airline Air Burkina has since 2001 been majority owned by the private company group Aga Khan. The company does domestic and regional flights.
2010
November
Compaore is re-elected
November 21st
In the presidential election, Compaoré gets 81 percent of the vote, against 8 percent for Hama Arba Diallo and 5 percent for Bénéwendé Stanislas Sankara. The losers accuse the regime of cheating. The turnout is 53 percent.
New gold mine inaugurated
The gold mining in the mine is expected to generate significant revenue to the state budget.
July
Border dispute between Burkina Faso and Niger reaches court
Burkina Faso and Niger ask the International Court of Justice in The Hague to resolve an old border dispute (see also April 2013).
Warning for trips to Burkina Faso
France and the United States warn travelers to visit Burkina Faso because of the risk of kidnappings carried out by groups linked to the al-Qaeda terrorist network .
March
New opposition party is founded
A new political party, the Union for Progress and Change (UPC), is formed with the ambition of pursuing a “firm, objective and constructive Republican” policy. The party, led by Zéphirin Diabré, does not want to sit in any particular place on the right-left scale (see also Political system).