Burkina Faso

Burkina Faso
Attendees of Ouagadougou Youth Conference, 2013.
Location of Burkina Faso
National Assembly		Burkina Faso
Statistics:
Total Population
-	UN 2021	22,100,683
Bahá'í pop.
-	Bahá'í source
-	Non-Bahá'í source	3,629
History: Firsts
-	National Assembly	1977
How to contact:
-	Email	asnduburkina@hotmail.com
Official Website		https://www.bahai.org/national-communities/burkina-faso
Related media
Categories: Burkina Faso • People

Burkina Faso is a country in West Africa. It is landlocked, bordering six other countries. The official language of the country is French, but other major languages are Mossi, Fula, and Jula.

The area of modern Burkina Faso was ruled by the Mossi kingdoms from approximately the Middle Ages. These kingdoms were conquered by France in the late 1800's and the colony of Upper Volta was established in 1919. Upper Volta was dissolved in 1932, with rule of the region being divided between French Sudan and the Colony of Niger, but French Upper Volta was restored with its previous borders as a constituent of French West Africa in 1947. It was granted self-governance in 1958 as the Republic of Upper Volta and achieved full independence in 1960. In 1984 the country changed its name to Burkina Faso.

The Bahá’í Faith was introduced to the country in the 1960's and a community became established in the 1970's. From at least the 1980's on the Bahá’í community has been able to provide some service to the wider community.

History

At the opening of the Ten Year Crusade in 1953 French West Africa was considered a goal territory to be opened to the Faith as a whole, so Upper Volta itself was not a goal territory.

In 1964 the National Spiritual Assembly of West Africa was formed which was responsible for the Faith in Upper Volta, along with several other West African nations. At the launch of the Nine Year Plan in 1964 the Assembly of West Africa was assigned the goal of opening Upper Volta to the Faith, with the National Spiritual Assembly of France being assigned the goal of assisting it in doing so.

President Lamizana of Upper Volta with Rúḥíyyih Khánum.

In early 1971 Rúḥíyyih Khánum visited Upper Volta spending ten days in the capital, Ouagadougou, where she met with two young men who had pioneered to the country from Mauritius. She attended several meetings and spoke with Bahá’ís and their friends during her stay, was interviewed for a half hour on radio, and was received by the countries President, Lamizana, and Speaker of Parliament Joseph Ouedraogo. She was also received by the Emperor and Empress of the Mossi tribe.

In 1971 a National Spiritual Assembly of Ivory Coast, Mali, and Upper Volta was established. As of the establishment of this National Assembly Upper Volta had one Local Spiritual Assembly, and the National Assembly was assigned the task of establishing two more Local Spiritual Assemblies by the end of the Nine Year Plan in 1973.

By 1976 there were nine Local Spiritual Assemblies in Upper Volta. Five of these Assemblies, which were in small villages, were visited by a traveling teaching team who deepened them on Bahá’í Administration, and in 1977 the independent National Spiritual Assembly of Upper Volta was established with its seat in Ouagadougou. Enoch Olinga represented the Universal House of Justice at the first Upper Volta National Convention at which the Assembly was established. A Local Spiritual Assembly was established in Lai after the National Convention.

First National Spiritual Assembly of Upper Volta, 1977.

In July 1978 four teaching teams were formed and trained at a teaching institute to open virgin regions within Upper Volta to the Faith with a team being assigned to Po and Tibele, another to Ouakara and Tougan, another to Koupela, Fada Ngourma, and Kantchari and the last to Diebougou and Gaoua. The team assigned to Po and Tibele secured five hundred and six declarations from the Gourounssi tribal group with seven Local Spiritual Assemblies being established in 1979 and translated some prayers into the Kassena language spoken in the regions. In Ouakara and Tougan twenty five people declared.

As of 1979 Upper Volta had eighteen Local Spiritual Assemblies, had opened sixty-three localities to the Faith, had built three Bahá’í Centers, and secured four local endowments. As of 1980 there was an Auxiliary Board member from Upper Volta, Firouz Soghani. In September 1980 an inter-regional Bahá’í Conference was held in Ouagadougou with attendees from Ghana, Ivory Coast, Benin, Mali, Nigeria, Niger, and Upper Volta itself. Two public meetings were held at the close of the Conference, one of which Kiser Barnes spoke at.

In June 1982 a documentary on the Bahá’í Faith produced in France was broadcast on the Voltaic National Television network. In May 1983 Rouhaniyyih Tirandaz, a French travel teacher, visited Upper Volta for three weeks. In December 1983 Marco Kappenberger, a Swiss Bahá’í, visited Upper Volta and met with many officials and spoke at many firesides in Ouagadougou.

In March 1985 the National Spiritual Assembly of Burkina presented former Congressman Edward J. Derwinsky of the U.S. State Department with a map of Burkina with quotes from the Writings as thanks for his work on behalf of the Bahá’ís of Iran as Congressman. As of June 1985 the Burkina Faso Bahá’í community had secured a Temple site, however in order to meet the requirements of obtaining a title deed they needed to participate in the governments drought relief program and accordingly an orchard was planted on the site. In September 1985 the Universal House of Justice approved a project in Burkina Faso to provide basic education in hygiene, preventative medicine, nutrition, and pharmacy services to villages in the country, with the National Spiritual Assembly launching the program in eight villages. In December 1985 a regional teaching conference organized by Auxiliary Board member Gnampa Noufou and members of the National Spiritual Assembly was held in Sarh and followed by a ten day teaching campaign.

In February 1986 the Universal House of Justice's Peace Statement The Promise of World Peace was presented to the President of Burkina Faso indirectly through his Acting Director General. In August 1986 Bahá’ís participated in a tree planting near Ouagadougou at which three hundred trees were planted. By 1987 the National Spiritual Assembly of Burkina Faso was incorporated. In 1988 Bahá’ís of Poura, a mining city southwest of Ouagadougou, secured permission to broadcast programs on the Faith on local radio. Also in 1988 Bahá’ís from across the Zecco region collaborated to undertake a teaching project to Nibrogo having been motivated by the Universal House of Justice's Ridvan message. A Local Spiritual Assembly of Nibrogo was established on the groups third trip to the village.

In 1990 the National Spiritual Assembly secured permission for the Higher School of Law at Ouagadougou University to hold courses relating to the Faith. In 1990 and 1991 fifteen localities in Burkina Faso were opened to the Faith. In 1996 Bahá’í representatives participated in a seminar held by the Provincial Direction for Basic Education in Dada, describing Bahá’í efforts to improve literacy in the country. In 1997 a women's gathering was held in Fada Gourma at which a project to provide literacy education for women in the Sahel region was discussed. By 1999 there was a regional women's committee for Sahel which hosted a conference in Parakou in August 1999 which received radio and television coverage.

In 1999 the U.S. Department of the State estimated that the Bahá’í community of Burkina Faso consisted of a few thousand members.

In December 2003 Bahá’ís from Burkina Faso traveled to Dakar, Senegal, to participate in the 50th Anniversary of the opening of French West Africa to the Faith. In August 2013 a Youth Conference was held in Ouagadougou with approximately one thousand attendees. Workshops on youth and their place in the community were held at the conference.

See also

• All articles about Burkina Faso
• National Spiritual Assembly of Burkina Faso