Burkina Faso History: The Incredible History Of Africa’s Colonial Period

Burkina Faso History

Burkina Faso History: In 1899, the Upper Volta lands became part of the first and second military territories. However, from 1904 to 1919, they were part of the massive settlement of Haut-Sénégal-Niger. They imposed taxes on rubber, cotton, and particularly on trade with the British colony of the Gold Coast (now Ghana). In return for cola nuts, the region sent livestock, shea butter, and cotton cloth to the Gold Coast, which later accepted French currency. At first, the taxes were in kind or in cowrie. 

The 1898 deal between France and Britain set up a free trade zone from the coast to Ouagadougou. In December 1915, they discovered a “Muslim conspiracy.”. This led to trials and punishments along the middle reaches of the Black Volta, where many villages had joined the uprising. In 1916, fully armed military units swept through the region. They put down the resistance in June and July of that year.

The uprising caused Haut-Sénégal and Niger to split apart after World War I. On May 20, 1919, they founded Upper Volta (Haute-Volta), a new colony. Its city, Ouagadougou, is where its government is based. To work, the French needed people to move from these heavily populated areas to the developing areas in Côte d’Ivoire and Sudan.

Hesling was the colony’s first governor and stayed in charge until 1927. Hesling initially divided the settlement into seven districts: Bobo-Dioulasso, Dédougou, Ouagadougou, Dori, Gaoua, Fada N’Gourma, and Say. However, things quickly changed. The creation of Ouahigouya, Tenkodogo, and Kaya in 1921 and 1922, respectively, reduced the size of the Ouagadougou district. In 1927, they split Dédougou into two districts to form Boromo, and relocated Say to the colony of Niger.

The colonization scheme was based on making everyone in the colony grow cotton against their will, but this didn’t work out at all. In real life, the colonial order was full of contradictions. Every year, many Voltaques moved to the Asante country to sell animals, shea butter, and soumbala (fermented néré) in order to pay their taxes.

Along these routes, some people would work for a few months in the gold mines, on the cocoa plantations, or on the building sites that started to pop up at the end of the 1800s. The people who moved also didn’t want to have to work on roads inside the colony or find work outside of it, like on the trains between Thiès and Kayes, Kayes and Bamako, or Abidjan and Bobo-Dioulasso, or in private businesses in Côte d’Ivoire, Sudan, or Senegal. 

These individuals frequently endured appalling working conditions. The Great Depression of 1930 exemplified the severity of these working conditions. The drought of 1932 exacerbated an already severe state of famine. On September 5, 1932, a decree divided the colony among its three neighbors, Côte d’Ivoire, Sudan, and Niger. The largest piece went to Côte d’Ivoire, which got Ouagadougou and Bobo-Dioulasso. Sudan received Yatenga, while Niger seized control of Gulmu and Liptako. So, the main thing that Upper Volta exported was its workers, who moved to the growing areas that bordered the land.

From 1932 on, the Office du Niger au Soudan put out calls for people to work on infrastructure projects like canals or the Markala Dam. Some people gave an answer. However, Côte d’Ivoire hired more people to work on building projects in the port of Abidjan and on cocoa, coffee, and banana farms.

In 1932, French West Africa established the Inspection du Travail (labor inspectorate) to safeguard the interests of workers. However, it mostly just helped employers in the south get easier access to workers in the north. On the other hand, the workers desired to relocate to the Gold Coast due to the higher pay and superior treatment they received there.

Strangely enough, during this time, people in what used to be Upper Volta developed a strong sense of nationalism. This prompted traditional chiefs and intellectual class members to advocate for the revival of the colony. In 1937, they were able to get Haute (Upper) Côte d’Ivoire created as a new municipal unit. The new municipal unit encompassed Ouagadougou and Bobo-Dioulasso, under the leadership of an individual from Abidjan.

The French Union began holding elections in 1945, following the decisions made at the Brazzaville Conference. At that time, Côte d’Ivoire, Sudan, and Niger still shared the Voltaque. Felix Houphouët-Boigny was chosen to represent Haute Côte d’Ivoire. He was the leader of the Rassemblement démocratique africain (RDA, or African Democratic Rally) and made the law that ended forced labor. Houphouët-Boigny was very important in rebuilding Upper Volta. 

He worked out a deal with the traditional leader, called the Moog-naaba, to send Mossi workers to the plantations of Côte d’Ivoire in exchange for his help rebuilding the settlement. However, upon its revival in 1947, he employed it against members of his own party, the RDA, who faced accusations of collaboration with the Communist Party and mistreatment by the British government. The construction of a train line from Bobo-Dioulasso to Ouagadougou, completed in 1954, significantly transformed the Upper Volta’s economy.

This opened up a new way for people to move toward the coast, and soon there were more workers going to Côte d’Ivoire than going to the Gold Coast. For the years 1950–1954 and 1954–1958, the French Four-Year Plans included objectives to improve both subsistence farming and cash crops. The Fonds d’Investissement pour le Développement Economique et Social (Investment Funds for Economic and Social Development) and the Fonds d’équipement rural et de développement économique et social (Funds for Rural Infrastructure and Economic and Social Development) largely made these plans possible.

The societies de prévoyance, which means “foresight societies,” that were already in place changed into sociétés mutuelles de production rurale, which means “mutual societies for rural production.” They had a backup fund to help them live. However, each year’s groundnut exports failed to reach the anticipated 15,000 tons. Cotton exports stayed between 3,000 and 4,000 tons, shea exports stayed between 5,000 and 10,000 tons, and sesame and sisal exports stayed below 500 tons. 

Growing rice, expanding cattle farming, and exporting goods to the Gold Coast and Côte d’Ivoire were some of the positive outcomes. The shea-processing plant near Boromo shut down in 1954, and after that, Upper Volta didn’t do much manufacturing. Poura only produced a few kilograms of gold. It was important to collect customs duties and money sent home by foreign workers because, by 1960, exports brought in 75% of tax money but only 4% of gross domestic product. 

For instance, investments accounted for 17% of spending in 1958. Only a 5 billion franc grant from the French government balanced the budget. The number of salaried workers in the private and public sectors rose to about 20,000, and labor unions formed. In 1957, the establishment of the Assemblée territoriale (Territorial Assembly) and the Conseil de gouvernement (Council of Government) marked the initial steps towards establishing democratic institutions. These were the main things that happened in the last few years before independence. 

When Ouezzin Coulibaly, who was vice president of the council (or deputy prime minister), died in 1958, Maurice Yaméogo took over as boss. In 1960, he became the first president of an independent Upper Volta.

Also Read: Battle from Colonization To Freedom Resistance, 1875–1901