PEOPLE

Approximately 80 percent of Burkinabe live in one of the thousands of rural villages scattered around the country. The country’s highest population density is found in the central region surrounding Ouagadougou, its capital. There is great disparity between its urban and rural areas concerning revenue, health, education, and general infrastructure.

The communications and technology infrastructure nationwide is weak. Radio is the country’s most popular medium. As of 2008, less than 20 percent of Burkinabe had telephone access, and less than 1 percent had Internet access. Mobile phones outnumber landlines by a 15 to 1 margin, with approximately 2.6 million mobile phone subscribers as of 2008. Mobile phone use predominating over landline use is a trend found throughout Africa, which has seen mobile phone use increase by 550% over a five-year period. Mobile market penetration in Burkina Faso, however, sits well below the overall African average.

The low number of Internet users in Burkina Faso is certainly impacted by the fact that broadband access in Burkina Faso is among the most expensive in the world, with fees reported at about $1,300 per month (Smith, 2009). Internet use in Africa as a whole lags significantly behind the rest of the world. By the end of 2010, Internet user penetration in Africa is estimated to peak at 9.6%, compared with a world average of 30%, and a developing country average of 21% (International Telecommunications Union, 2010).

Burkina Faso’s population belongs primarily to two major West African cultural groups, the Voltaic and the Mandé. The Voltaic Mossi make up close to half the overall population and show allegiance to a king, Mogho Naba (literally means “king of the world”), whose court is in Ouagadougou. The Mossi are famous for having the longest continuous royal dynasty in West Africa, dating back over 500 years.

Mandé refers to a number of related ethnic groups in West Africa. They are known as having been among the first on the continent to produce woven textiles (by a process known as strip-weaving), and as the founders of the Ghana Empire and Mali Empire. They are also said to be among the first people on the continent to produce stone settlement civilizations.

The official language of Burkina Faso is French, which is the language spoken in its schools. However, there are numerous regional languages, the most predominant of which are Mòoré and Dioula. Mòoré is in fact more widely spoken than French.

Eighty percent of the population relies on subsistence agriculture, focused simply on growing enough food to feed their families. Millet is the primary agricultural crop, aside from cotton, and is used to prepare tô, a staple food of rural Burkinabe. In urban areas, rice and pasta have replaced tô. Corn, rice, groundnuts, vegetables, and yams are cultivated in certain regions of the country. Cattle, sheep, and goats serve as the primary livestock.