2. It is located south of the Sahara Desert.

3. It was formerly known as Upper Volta, and adopted its current name after it gained its independence from France August 5, 1960.

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 16.3 million.

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?)

Guimba the Tyrant is a 1995 Malian comedy drama film in the Bambara language, directed by noted Malian director Cheick Oumar Sissoko. The movie shows the rise and fall of a cruel and despotic village chief Guimba, and his son Jangine in a fictional village in the Sahel of Mali. Some of the storytelling was done through the medium of the village grist, and with the film being placed in an old setting, lends an epic touch to the movie. The exact chronological setting of the movie is difficult to ascertain, being set in an isolated village, but the commonly used weapons shown is the blunderbuss. The film depicts some magical components, including a solar eclipse brought on by magic.

The days of the dance, everybody in their compound sweep their courtyard, do the rest of their cleaning duties and put on their best traditional outfits for the ceremony. Then, in the middle of the village, people get inpatient. The masks are coming. It is THE event. The masks represent the spirits of the village which guide the life of human beings and Mother Nature. People depend on the fields to survive, the fields depend on the Spirits for their production. The Bwa masks represent the symbols relating human beings, Nature and Spirits.

All of a sudden the drums announce the dance. The Spirits arrive in the shape of wooden owls, butterflies, antelopes, buffaloes, and hyenas. The movements are fast, following the rhythm of the drums accompanied by flutes. The audience participates to the ceremony with their songs, comments and laughs. It is a form of street theatre that puts together sacred ancestral traditions and cheerful entertainment. The overwhelming heat of midday puts an end to the celebration. It is then time to rest and share the emotions of this special morning.

It covers an area of around 274,200 square kilometers.

18.65 million.

Mount Tenakourou is the highest mountain in Burkina Faso standing at the height of 2,457 feet above sea level. The mountain is in the southwestern part of the country, lying between the border of Cascades region in Burkina Faso and Sikasso area of Mali. The general rock formation in the surrounding region of the mountain is sandstone massif.

However, the land rises up in the south, where Mount Tenakourou reaches a modest 749 metres. And in the southwest, there are rolling hills and dense woodlands.

The country has a number of lakes and river basins. The largest is the Volta basin with its three rivers – the Black Volta (Mouhoun), Red Volta (Nazinon) and White Volta (Nakanbe) running through the central and western half of Burkina.

Burkina’s natural wooded grassland or ‘savannah’ is preserved in the country’s many national parks, which contain the largest number of elephants in West Africa. Lions, leopards and buffalo can also be found here, including the dwarf or red buffalo, a smaller, reddish-brown animal which looks like a fierce kind of short-legged cow.

Other large predators include the cheetah, the caracal or African lynx, the spotted hyena and the African wild dog, one of the continent’s most endangered species. At least one pack survives in the ‘W’ National Park game reserve.

Asked to name Africa’s most dangerous animal, people might guess the crocodile. The African Nile Crocodile is certainly found in the rivers, lakes and ponds throughout Burkina Faso.

But there is actually a water-dweller (shown lurking in the photo) which poses an even greater threat to humans – the hippopotamus.

Hippos are easily agitated, especially if they have young calves close by or if their route to water is blocked. With their huge bulk and fast charge – hippos can run at 45km/hour over a short distance – these heavyweights are responsible for more deaths in Africa than any other animal.

The Mossi empire was founded over the course of the 14th and 15th centuries. Ghanan cavalry soldiers overran the existing people, uniting them in a new empire. The new Mossi empire was one of the few places in northern sub-Saharan Africa to resist being overrun by Muslim people. To this day, Muslims are a minority in Burkina Faso, which has a variety of religions, both indigenous, and Christian and Muslim.

The Mossi empire, unlike other African empires, was hierarchical. The king was declared divine. A ruling nobility cherished their lineage, and ran the empire through numerous prestigious offices, including courts, ministries, and the cavalry-dominated military.

However, this strength did not last forever, and within a few centuries, the empire starting atomizing into smaller kingdoms, which were eventually conquered by the neighboring Songhai empire.

In 1966, the military led a coup that removed Yameogo. For the next two decades, political stability was a pipe dream in the Upper Volta, as coup after coup wracked the country.