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People
Population
Burkina Faso is an ethnically integrated, secular state. An estimated 84 percent of Burkina Faso's population (over 15 million in total) lives in rural areas. Most of Burkina's people are concentrated in the south and center of the country, sometimes exceeding 48 per square kilometer (125 per square mile).
This population density, high for Africa, causes annual migrations of hundreds of thousands of Burkinabe to Cote d'Ivoire, Ghana, Benin, Mali, Togo and Niger for seasonal agricultural work. These flows of workers are obviously affected by external events; the September 2002 coup attempt in Cote d'Ivoire and the ensuing fighting there have meant that hundreds of thousands of Burkinabe returned to Burkina Faso.
Religion
A plurality of Burkinabe (over fifty percent) are Muslim. The introduction of Islam to Burkina Faso was initially resisted by the Mossi rulers. Indeed, even among self-professed Muslims, there is also adherence to traditional African religions. Indeed, about 40 percent of the people are said to follow traditional beliefs. The Christians, both Roman Catholics and Protestants, comprise about a tenth of the population, with their largest concentration in urban areas.
Language
French is the official language, however, many indigenous languages (over 60) are typically spoken. Songhay, Senoufo, Sano, Nuni, More, Marka, Lyele, Lobi, Kasem, Karoboro, Jula, Gourma, Fulfulde, Dagara, Cerne, Bwamu, Bomu, Bobo-Madare, Bissa, and Malba-Birifor are among the main languages -- most of which belong to Niger-Congo, Atlantic-Congo, Volta-Congo, Mande and Nilo-Saharan ethno-linguistic families of languages.
Ethnicity
Burkina Faso has approximately 50 ethnic groups.
Its population of over 15 million people belongs to two major West African cultural groups, the Voltaic and the Mande. The Voltaic are far more numerous and include the Mossi, which make up almost half of the population. The Mossi claim descent from warriors who migrated to present-day Burkina Faso and established an empire that lasted more than 800 years. Predominantly farmers, the Mossi are still bound by the traditions of the Mogho Naba, who holds court in Ouagadougou.
Other ethnic groups include the Gurunsi, Senfo, Lobi, Bobo, and Fulani. In addition to the African population, about 5,000 Europeans reside in Burkina Faso.
Cultural and Ethnic Identity
The most significant ethnic divide in the country is between Mossi farmers and Fulbe herders. The root of the conflict lies in the long history of Mossi domination over its neighbors. In recent years the conflict has escalated along job activity lines. The high population density, rapidly growing population, growing pressure on natural resources, the growth of herds, and the extension of cultivated areas all contribute to the tensions between divergent culturally-based resource users. A minority of scholars has challenged this rationale, asserting that it is not really an ethnically based conflict over resource-use decisions, but rather a "modern" struggle to conceal personal wealth. The result is nonetheless the same. The rich Mossi and Fulbe societies have been clashing with increasing frequency.
Burkina Faso's most ritualized ethnic group is likely the Dagara centered in Birifu. While comprising only three percent of the total population of the country, Dagara ritualistic beliefs transcend much of Burkinabe society. At the center of these rituals are the bagr rituals. Bagr rituals form a series of private and public events that last a season or even a year. They guide social and cultural life. Fundamental to this set of beliefs is the consideration of fate.
As in Christianity, Dagara believe that fate determines what will happen in a person's life. There is a fixed fate and a changeable fate. The former is impossible to alter, but the latter allows room for ritual to guide what happens in daily life. To determine what it is that will happen, it is necessary to pay attention to the signs. Milestones act as reminders of life's purpose, but signs can be read through the divination of cowry shells, bones, and stones. These practices are critical to the weaving of the social fabric, as people are not intended to interpret these signs on their own. Rather, they interpret signs with the assistance of others as an individual's fate can be tied into the fate of the community or even the greater universe. Community decision-making therefore, is tantamount to Dagara actions.
Culture
In recent years the role of "community" in Burkina Faso has been determined to be of great significance to development. The community level commonly determines how development funds are used. Further, the community largely determines the success of credit given to groups for development activities. The greater the community involvement in a particular development activity the more likely the micro-credit load will be repaid.
Health and Welfare
Burkina Faso is one of the world's poorest countries. In the last decade, infant mortality was nearly one in every 10 or 100 deaths per 1,000 live births. But according to recent estimates, the infant mortality rate has decreased somewhat to 82.98 deaths per 1,000 live births. The life expectancy rate is averaged at 53 years of age. The fertility rate is 6.21 children born per woman and the population growth rate is 3.1 percent.
Anemia affects two out of three pregnant mothers due to the precarious nutritional status, iron and folic acid deficiencies, haemolysis due to malaria, and HIV/AIDS, which is now thought to infect 1.6 percent of the adult population.
Women are the hardest hit percentage of the population by both HIV/AIDS and poverty. The role of women in society remains somewhat tenuous in Burkina Faso. Only five percent of households have a female head of household, making land tenure, employment, education, health access and other daily concerns the venue of men.
While forced marriage, female genital mutilation, and rape are illegal, and monogamy is encouraged, polygamy is common with women often relegated to the role of property of their husband in the eyes of society. In a sign that times might be changing, women now run 19 percent of farms. Indeed, a number of studies show that men and women run farms with equal efficiency.
The risk of infectious diseases in Burkina Faso is very high. Food or waterborne diseases in this country include bacterial and protozoal diarrhea, hepatitis A, and typhoid fever; vectorborne disease include malaria and yellow fever; water contact diseases include schistosomiasis; respiratory diseases include meningococcal meningitis; animal contact diseases include rabies.
Note that 6.4 percent of GDP is spent on health expenditures in this country.
Social Conditions
Female genital mutilation, child labor, child trafficking, and social exclusion of accused sorcerers remain serious problems, although the government has taken steps in recent years to combat these phenomena. Workers and civil servants generally have the right to organize unions, engage in collective bargaining, and strike for better pay and working conditions.
Education
The literacy rate is 21.8 percent -- 29.4 percent for males and 15.2 percent for females. Clearly, there is something of a gender difference to be noted. In addition, rural living tends to go hand in hand with low rates of literacy in this country. Indeed, 92 percent of women in rural Burkina Faso are illiterate.
Not surprisingly, few Burkinabe have had formal education. Schooling is in theory free and compulsory until the age of 16, but only about 44 percent of Burkina's primary school-age children are enrolled in primary school due to actual costs of school supplies and school fees and to opportunity costs of sending a child who could earn money for the family to school. The University of Ouagadougou, founded in 1974, was the country's first institution of higher education. The Polytechnical University in Bobo-Dioulasso was opened in 1995. Note that 4.6 percent of GDP is spent on educational expenditures in this country.
Human Development
One notable indicator used to measure a country's quality of life is the Human Development Index (HDI), which is compiled annually since 1990 by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). The HDI is a composite of several indicators, which measure a country's achievements in three main areas of human development: longevity, knowledge and education, as well as economic standard of living. In a recent ranking of 169 countries, the HDI places Burkina Faso near the very bottom of its ranking, in the low human development category, at 161st place. Although the concept of human development is complicated and cannot be properly captured by values and indices, the HDI, which is calculated and updated annually, offers a wide-ranging assessment of human development in certain countries, not based solely upon traditional economic and financial indicators.
Written by Dr. Denise Youngblood Coleman, Editor in Chief, www.countrywatch.com; see Bibliography for list of research sources.
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