Burkina Faso History
Burkina Faso: The Upper Volta’s valleys (Mouhoun, Nazinon, and Nakambe in modern-day Burkina Faso) were connected by the extensive network of trade routes that ran through the nineteenth century between the Sahel and the forest (as 180 TOGO Nazinon (Red Volta) was delineated by the explorer Heinrich Barth in 1853). The primary goods exchanged were slaves, livestock, salt, and cola nuts.
The Mossi and Gulmaba are two very homogeneous groups of people that each founded a group of roughly 20 kingdoms in the eastern portion of this region. The chiefs in a few of these kingdoms were essentially autonomous from the national authority. Conflict between these kingdoms persisted as pretenders often vied for dominance, but the more scattered pattern of settlement surely provided some security.
Islam permeated every part of the region, from the monarchs’ courts to the networks of traders who came from the Mande nation (mostly Yarse, from the Moaga’s homeland) in earlier centuries. A mosaic of peoples, the western part of the region lacked centralized institutions or hierarchies and acknowledged the power of hereditary chiefs and those holding religious positions associated with the worship of the creator deity, the land, rain, masks, and other elements.
Village communities (Bwa, Bobo, Marka, and San) and “clans” (Lobi, Birifor, and Dagara) existed, and the Wattara regiment of the Kong (present-day Côte d’Ivoire) dynasty had started to establish fledgling kingdoms around Sya (Bobo-Dioulasso) in the eighteenth century.
Their power had been significantly diminished, though, and some of their successors were now only in charge of their own settlements along the caravan routes. The Fulbe (or Peul) had started to establish a stable community to the north after migrating from the west in waves over many generations. The Gulma kingdom of Coalla was forced further southward by the Ferobe when they founded the emirate of Liptako at Dori around 1810.
Lastly, a region in the middle reaches of the Black Volta had been set aside for the cattle farming towns of Dokuy and Barani. There were holy conflicts in some places as a result of the Muslim revival in the early eighteenth century, which expanded from the Hausa territories to the Macina.
In the 1880s, another Marka, Amadou Deme (Ali Kari), from Boussé in the San country (Tougan), repeated the jihad that Mamadou Karantao, a Marka of Ouhabou, had started along the middle reaches of the Black Volta in the first half of the nineteenth century. The latter’s conflict with the French in 1894 ended in his death.
Arriving from the Dagomba nation on the left bank of the Niger, the mounted Muslim Zabermabe began invading the Gourounga country to the southwest of the Mossi kingdoms in 1860. The Nuna, Kassena, and Lyele traditions bear the permanent scars of their frequent attacks. Babato, one of their chiefs, even led a successful expedition into the Moaga nation.
Tieba Traore, King of Kenedougou (in present-day Mali), led multiple expeditions against the Toussian, Turka, Samogo, and other communities to the west and south of Bobo-Dioulasso. He was defeated at Bama in 1893 by a coalition of the Bobo, Dioula, and Tiefo, but his brother Babemba persisted in his expansionist strategy.
The change in power in the area was brought about by Samori’s entrance into what is now Côte d’Ivoire. His soldiers had a catastrophic effect along the cliff from Banfora to Toussiana, destroying Noumoudara in the process.
The 1890s marked the end of this region’s independence. After the Berlin Conference in 1885, it became a point of contention for three European powers: France, Britain, and Germany. Each of these powers sought to surpass its rivals in the Moaga country, which was renowned for its dense population and strong political structure.
In 1888, von François, a German captain, set out from Togoland with the goal of negotiating as many treaties as possible. But he had to turn around since he had arrived at the boundaries of the Mossi kingdoms. A French captain named Binger, meanwhile, lived at Oua Gadougou from June 15 to July 10, 1888, but all of his attempts to set up a “protection” contract were turned down.
With succeeding local leaders, neither Captain P. L. Monteil in 1891 nor Dr. Crozat in 1890 had any more success. Ultimately, on July 2, 1894, a man named Ferguson signed the first contract of “friendship and free trade” at Ouagadougou on behalf of the British, who wanted to protect their trading interests in the hinterland of their Gold Coast colony. The Yarse and Haousa merchants who did business with Salaga surely persuaded Wobogo, the chief, of the prudence of signing.
He agreed not to accept any protectorate or to conclude any agreement with any other foreign power without the consent of the British. At the beginning of 1895, the French enjoyed a diplomatic success in the Gulma country. Commandant Decoeur arrived there from Dahomey (Benin) and signed a treaty of “protection” with Bantchandé, a Nunbado, on January 20.
The Germans had also conducted negotiations, but with chiefs whose advisers acknowledged shortly afterward that they were dependent on Nungu. In the same year a French mission, led by Commandant Destenave, reached the Yatenga. Baogo, the Yatenga naaba, had been in power for ten years by then but had not yet succeeded in disarming his opponents.
Therefore, on May 18, 1895, he agreed to a “complete treaty” that included a French resident and escort. On November 1st of that year, this pact was renewed by his successor, the Yatenga naaba Bulli. Lieutenant Voulet was given orders to defeat the British in Ouagadougou and Sati, the Gourounsi capital, in 1896 while leading 500 soldiers.
On September 1st of that year, an attack occurred on Ouagadougou, the capital of the monarch. After a few skirmishes, the French flag was flying over the capital’s palace by late afternoon. September 7, 1896, saw the defeat of a counterattack.
After that, the French seized power in the Gourounga nation, where Babato, a Zaberma, was battling Hamaria, a Gourounga ruler, in the Sati and Leo region. He had been forced to accept his good offices by Samori, who provided himself with horses in the Moaga area. On September 19, Hamaria, who was required to pay a tribute of horses, agreed to Voulet’s “protection” treaty.
1897 was a crucial year for the French invasion of the Upper Volta. Following the signing of a contract of protection on January 20, 1897, the French designed a candidate to succeed Wobogo in Ouagadougou, and the new leader, Sigiri, was properly invested in accordance with custom.
A Franco-German pact of July 23 established French sovereignty over the Gulma nation, and on September 11, Commandant Caudrelier and Barkatou Wattara, the Koubo and Lokhosso ruler, signed a covenant of protection at Lokhosso. Zelelou Sanon, the chief of Bobo-Dioula, resisted, but on September 25, Bobo-Dioulasso was taken over, and on November 23, an army garrison was established there. In 1898, however, British interests were protected by diplomacy.
A company of 200 soldiers led by Colonel Northcott marched on Ouagadougou in June of that year to demand that the treaty signed by Ferguson be recognized. However, he was forced to retreat after learning of the June 14 Conference of Paris’s results.
The 11th parallel, north latitude, was established as the border between French and British territory. To the north, the Fulbe and Tuareg continued to oppose Captain Minvielle, the French resident at Dori. The attitude of many people in the area is reflected in the answer of one Tuareg chief to the French invasion in August 1898: “My ancestors never surrendered; I shall never surrender.”
The French aren’t doing anything incorrectly, but they’re also not doing anything correctly. Let them remain where they are if they desire peace. God owns the land, and God will choose what should happen to it. Nonetheless, this date could be considered the start of the colonial era in the future French colony of Upper Volta.
Also Read: Burkina Faso History: The Incredible History Of Africa’s Colonial Period
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