BURKINA FASO > AFRICA >  INDEX


Former Upper Volta

Provinces in Burkina Faso : Bam, Bazega, Bougouriba, Boulgou, Boulkiemde, Ganzourgou, Gnagna, Gourma, Houe, Kadiogo, Kenedougou, Komoe, Kossi, Kouritenga, Mouhoun, Namentenga, Naouri, Oubritenga, Oudalan, Passore, Poni, Sanguie, Sanmatenga, Seno, Sissili, Soum, Sourou, Tapoa, Yatenga, Zoundweogo.

Landlocked nation of western Africa, surrounded by six countries: Mali to the north, Niger to the east, Benin to the south east, Togo and Ghana to the south, and the Côte d'Ivoire to the south west.

Capital City of Burkina Fasso: Ouagadougou, referred to by locals as "Waga."


hotels, travel agencies, travel guides, transportation / traveling to burkina faso 

links


Car Rental

 Europcar 
Only new rental cars [ average age only 6 months ], All inclusive prices, 24 hours roadside assistance, 24/7 service most airports.

 Avis
World's second largest general-use car rental business, providing business and leisure customers with a wide range of services.
 Hertz

Hotels in Burkina Faso

 Hotel Iris - 600m from Ouagadougou Airport near Tagui Station

National Parks

 Arli National Park - Parc national d'Arli
Located 72 miles from Ouaga, in the Southeast country, along the border with Benin. This is Burkina's main game park with elephants, monkeys, lions, hippos, leopards, antelopes and birds. The park is open between December 15 and May 15, with hunting of certain big game until March 15. Hunting of some smaller animals is permitted during the entire period. Permits are required and may be obtained from the Forest and Wildlife Service.
 Kaboré Tembi National Park - formerly known as Pô Park
Located 65 miles South of Ouaga; in this 150,000-hectare park visitors may see monkeys, wart hogs, antelopes. Since many of the animals formerly populating the area have migrated, a trip to the Nazinga Ranch (Ranch de Nazinga), near Pô and the Ghanaian border, may provide more sightings of elephants and other wildlife. 
 W National Park - Parc national du W
Located East of Arli and shared by Benin, Burkina Faso, and Niger; this is the largest of the three parks and one of the most beautiful nature reserves in West Africa. Opened in 1954, the park was named for the meanders in the course of the Niger River which form the shape of the letter W. Visitors may see savanna fauna: buffaloes, elephants, hippos, antelopes, monkeys, and lions. The park is also a bird sanctuary, especially for aquatic birds. Like Arli, W Park is open between December 15 and May 15.

Travel Agents / Tour Operators

 Mountain Travel Sobek -
 Chemins de Sable - 2, rue de la Roquette, 75011 Paris



 Responsibletravel.com - African safaris & holidays
100's of holidays to Africa from dozens of leading specialist tour companies and accommodations who are passionate about conserving Africa's wildlife and benefiting its people.

Travel Guides Burkina Faso / Related books

 Burkina Faso: The Bradt Travel Guide - Katrina Manson, James Knight
Paperback 224 pages (August 2006); Language: English; ISBN: 1841621544 .
 The Rough Guide to West Africa - Jim Hudgens, Richard Trillo
This guide to West Africa explores all the visitable countries in West Africa, from Mauritania and the Cape Verde Islands in the west, to Niger and Cameroon in the east. The colour introductory essay highlights the regions attractions, picks out the various route and travel options and touches on some of the great range of cultural and scenic impressions that any visit will make. Each chapter covers the relevant country with attention to detail, including special attention to the practicalities of travel, thoroughly researched hotel and restaurant listings, and a carefully researched background on wildlife and the environment, culture, history, politics and music.
Paperback 1296 pages (November 27, 2003); Publisher: Rough Guides; Language: English; ISBN: 1843531186.
 Riding the Demon: On the Road in West Africa - Peter Chilson
Without railroads or domestic airlines, Niger's roads are its lifelines. For a year, Peter Chilson travelled this desert country by automobile, detouring occasionally into Nigeria, Burkina Faso and Ivory Coast, in order to tell the story of West African road culture. He criss-crossed the same roads again and again with bush taxi driver Issoufou Garba in order to learn one driver's story inside and out. He hitchhiked, riding in cotton trucks, and he also travelled with other bush taxi drivers, truckers, road engineers, an anthropologist, Niger's only licensed woman commercial driver and a customs officer. The road in Africa, says Chilson, is more than a direction or a path to take. Once you've booked passage and taken your seat, the road becomes the centre of your life. Hurtling along at 80 miles an hour in a bush taxi equipped with bald tyres, no windows and sometimes no doors, travellers realize that they've surrendered everything. Soldiers collect "taxes" at checkpoints, and black-market gasoline salesmen appear mysteriously from the roadside bush. Courageous drivers - who come across in the book as rogue folk heroes - negotiate endless checkpoints; ingenious mechanics repair cars with nothing. The road is also about blood and fear, and the ecstasy of arrival. On African roads, car wrecks are as common as mile markers, and the wreckage can stand in monument for months or years: a minibus upended against a tree, as if attempting escape; a charred truck overturned in a ditch. Chilson uses the road not to reinforce Africa's worn image of decay but to reveal how people endure political and economic chaos, poverty and disease. The road has reflected the struggle for survival in Niger since the first automobile arrived there at the turn of the century, and it remains a useful metaphor for the fight for stability and prosperity across Africa.
Hardcover 216 pages (January 1999); Publisher: University of Georgia Press; Language: English; ISBN: 0820320366.
Lonely Planet West Africa
by Anthony Ham (Author), James Bainbridge (Author)
Paperback: 904 pages; Publisher: Lonely Planet Publications; 6 edition (October 2006); Language: English; ISBN-10: 1740597710; ISBN-13: 978-1740597715

How to travel to Burkina Faso

Best time to visit: November-February

 Ouagadougou Airport [ OUA / DFFD ] - 3 km from Ouagadougou Cty

 Air Burkina
 Afriqiyah, Air Algerie, Air Ivoire, Air Senegal International, Cameroon Airlines, Ghana Airways, NAS Air ???
 Air Togo [ Togo - Burkina Fasso v.v. ]

  Airline Tickets / Bargain Flights

 Railways - Ferroviaire
Train service Abidjan-Bobo-Ouaga-Kaya.

 Buses and vans (cars) to Benin, Côte d'Ivoire, Ghana, Mali, Niger, Togo. 

 Maritime - Ports autonomes d'Abidjan (Côte d'Ivoire), de Lomé (Togo), de Cotonou (Bénin) et de Téma (Ghana)

 Map of Burkina Faso [ Uni Texas - Perry-Castañeda Library - Map Collection ]


Links 

 Travel Insurance

 Government Burkina Fasso - site offificiel du Premier Ministère du Burkina Faso

 Ouagadougou - Capital City of Burkina Fasso - Mairie de Ouagadougou
"Ouaga," to the locals, is the capital of Burkina Faso and a major cultural center, built around the central market, featuring food, fabrics and crafts. The city has large shaded avenues, modern architecture, hotels, a congressional palace, a center for international conferences, numerous municipal gardens and a forest (park) with a lake and exotic birds. Most of the central area can be visited on foot, but the city also has bicycle lanes in its wide boulevards. In the center are the Presidential Palace to the east, the Cathedral and the Mogho Naba's Palace to the south.

 Banfora
Situated in one of the most beautiful regions of Burkina Faso, Banfora is a small town in the Southwest on the Ouaga-Abidjan trainline. Unusual mushroom-shaped rocks in an escarpment overlook the town which has a market in the center, and provides a good base for excursions in the area. Banfora is an industrial city with sugar cane plantations and factory, and a flourmill.
 Bobo-Dioulasso
Bobo-Dioulasso, founded in the 14th century, has become the economic and cultural capital, and second largest city of the country. It is a favorite tourist destination with most of the comforts of Ouaga but at a more relaxed pace, and manageable on foot. Its streets are lined with fromagers, baobab, and mango trees. Every year, Bobo hosts the Semaine nationale de la Culture (National Culture Week), one of the most important arts events of the country with music, dance, masks and theater. .
La deuxième ville du pays, aux avenues bordées de manguiers, a tout du havre de paix. Véritable caverne d'Ali Baba, vous pouvez chiner tranquille. Au choix : instruments de musique, tissages, masques, objets en bois ou en bronze et vanneries.
 Dafra - lieu de culte animiste
 Dori
155 miles Northeast of Ouaga, gives a foretaste of the Saharan landscape. The area is inhabited by Tuaregs, Fulani, Bela and Songhai and is a crossroads for the region.
 Fada N'Gourma
130 miles East of Ouagadougou on the Ouaga-Niamey highway, is a quiet town, spread out, with wide shaded avenues. The market is in the center of town. Fada is conveniently located to Arli National Park, and other natural attractions.
 Koubri, South on the Nationale 5, is the site of a Benedictine monastery and market-gardening areas around the dams.
 Koudougou
60 miles West of Ouaga, is the 3rd largest town in Burkina Faso. It is known for its textile industry and "red dancers," a group of Gourounsi dancers. The town is spread out, with shady avenues, and a large market in the center.
 Loumbila, on the National 3, has market-gardening areas around a dam where visitors can take a canoe ride. 
 Manega, several miles North of Ouaga on the Pabré seminary road, is a center for African culture, established by the lawyer/poet Frédéric Pacéré Titinga. An open-air sculpture park, ethnological museum, and mausoleum dedicated to the major Mossi kings are an interesting stop.  
 Nobéré is known for its huge baobab tree which is several hundred years old.
 Ouahigouya and Vicinity
The country's 4th largest city, Ouahigouya is 115 miles Northwest of Ouaga. The town is spread out, with a new market in the center, and a lively nightlife.
 Ziniaré, North of Ouaga on the road to Laongo, is an interesting stop where the villagers make pottery, tan leather, and dye cloth in wells dug in the ground. 

 Gourounsi - Pays de
Plusieurs ethnies se sont installées dans cette région du sud. Leurs cases, ornées de motifs peints ou de totems s'articulent autour de villages protégés par une ceinture de murs. Dépaysement garanti
 Laongo
L'artiste Sidiki Ki a invité en 1989 des plasticiens du monde entier. Ils ont semé de sculptures contemporaines la brousse alentours. Un site magique.
 Lac de Tangrela - à la recherche des hippopotames
 Sahara
Le nord du pays, plus les baobabs se font rares et le sable envahissant. Cette région est encore habitée par de nombreux peuples nomades (Peuls, Touaregs...) aux traditions quasi intactes.

 Magazine - Journal du Jeudi - satirisch weekblad
 News - Fasonews - Actualité Moteur de recherche information
 News - Le Pays
 News -  Sidwaya - Quotidien, Sport en Magazine
 News - Zedcom - Journal burkinabé on line
 Radio Nationale du Burkina
 Radio - RFI (Radio France Internationale)
 University - University of Ouagadougou

Cuisine - Burkina Faso Foods / Recipes

The staple foods of Burkina Faso are millet, rice, maize (corn), nuts, and yams. Many meals are planned around rice, with some meat or one of several flavorful sauces. Peanut sauce, eggplant sauce, and fish sauce are the most common.
Yams and plantains pounded into paste can also be the base for a meal. In the northern desert areas, the Burkinabe eat dates and various curdled milk products similar to yogurt. A red fruit called tamare is popular as a thirst quencher, and gib-gib is a sweet made from the fruit's crushed seeds.

 South of the Sahara: Traditional Cooking from the Lands of West Africa 
By Elizabeth A. Jackson
Come and discover the rich and sultry blend of meats, tropical fruits, vegetables, grains, spices and oils that served as the foundation of West African life for centuries. The history of these lands is as rich as the spicy food. Learn about ancient empires and the origins of modern nations as you choose from a selection of 120 tempting dishes.
Paperback 204 pages (June 25, 1999); Publisher: Fantail

  The Best of African Cooking  
By Manjase Banda (Author), Esanjam (Producer)
Paperback: 144 pages; Publisher: Esanjam; 2 Revised edition (March 14, 2007); Language: English; ISBN-10: 0954682130; ISBN-13: 978-0954682132

History of Burkina Faso

Independence: 5 August 1960 [ from France ]

Burkina Faso was an important economic region for the Songhai Empire during the 1400's to the 1500's. Relics of the Dogon are found in the centre-north, north and north west region.
In 1896, the Mossi kingdom of Ouagadougou became a French protectorate after being defeated by French forces. In 1898, the majority of the region corresponding to Burkina Faso today was conquered. In 1904, these territories were integrated into French West Africa in the heart of the Upper-Senegal-Niger (Haut-Sénégal-Niger) colony.

 Burkina Faso's History - Wikipedia
 Songhai_Empire [ Wikipedia ]
From the early 15th to the late 16th century, the Songhai Empire was one of the largest African empires in history. This empire was centered around the city of Gao, and its base of power was on the bend of the Niger river in present-day Niger and Burkina Faso.

 National Museum
Contains traditional masks from Burkina's main ethnic groups, a large collection of traditional musical instruments, baskets, pottery, farm tools.

Music, Culture & Entertainment

 Burkino Faso Music
The Mande people of the southwest are known for balafon (xylophone) music, while the large, centrally -located Mossi and their griots retain ancient royal courts and courtly music. The Fulbe of the north use complex vocal techniques with clapping percussion...
 Musiques du Niger, Mali et Burkina
Percussions, chants et musiques instrumentales [ compilation ] by Stephen Jay

Web Portal / Search Engine / Burkina Faso Directory

 Burkinbila Website - le site officiel des étudiants et élèves du Burkina Faso
 Burkina Faso Embassy USA
 Links Burkina Fasso - Stanford University

 Yahoo Burkina Faso Directories 


 Reiswijs USA is not responsible for the content of external internet sites