Burkina Faso
Burkina Faso: Political System
Burkina Faso is a parliamentary democracy. The unicameral parliament consists
of 111 members who are elected every five years. The head of state is directly
elected every seven years.
According to Digopaul.com,
the official name of the country is:
République Démocratique du Burkina Faso
Democratic Republic of Burkina Faso
National anthem
Une Seule Nuit (One Single Night) has been the national
anthem of Burkina Faso since 1984. The text was written by the then President of
the country, Thomas Sankara. The composer of the hymn is unknown.
| In French |
In the English translation |
| Contre la férule humiliante il ya déjà mille ans,
La rapacité venue de loin les asservir il ya cent ans.
Contre la cynique malice métamorphosée
En néocolonialisme et ses petits servants locaux
Beaucoup flanchèrent et certains résistèrent.
Mais les échecs, les succès,
la sueur, le sang
Ont fortifié notre peuple courageux
et fertilisé sa lutte héroïque.refrainEt une seule nuit a rassemblée en
elle
L'histoire de tout un peuple.
Et une seule nuit a déclenché sa marche triomphale
verse l'horizon du bonheur.
Une seule nuit a réconcilié notre peuple
Avec tous les peuples du monde,
A la conquête de la liberté et du progrès
La patrie ou la mort, nous vaincrons.Nourris à la source vive de la
révolution,
Les engagés volontaires de la liberté et de la paix
Dans l'énergie nocturne et salutaire du 4 août
N'avaient pas que les armes à la main mais aussi et surtout
La flamme au coeur pour légitimement libérer
Le Faso à jamais des fers de tous ceux qui,
Cà et là en polluaient l'âme sucrée
De l'indépendance de la souveraineté refrain
Et séant désormais en sa dignité recouvrée
L'amour et l'honneur en partage avec l'humanité
Le peuple de Burkina chante un hymne à la victoire
A la gloire du travail libérateur, émancipateur
A bas l'exploitation de l'homme par l ' homme,
hé! en avant pour le bonheur de tout homme
Par tous les hommes aujourd'hui et demain
Par tous les hommes ici et pour toujours.
refrain
Révolution populaire nôtre, sève nourricière
Maternité immortelle de progrès à visage d'homme
Foyer éternel de démocratie consensuelle
Où enfin l'identité nationale a droit de cité
Où pour toujours l'injustice perd ses quartiers
Et où des mains des bâtisseurs
Mûrissent partout les moissons des vœux patriotiques
Brillent les soleils infinis de joie.
refrain |
Against the humiliating fetter for a thousand years,
And the predatory greed that has come from afar, in
order to enslave them for a hundred years.
Against the cynical malice in the form of
neocolonialism and its little accomplices.
Many backed off, and certain others resisted.
But the disappointments, the successes, the sweat, the blood
have strengthened our courageous people
and strengthened them in their heroic struggle.refrainAnd a single night
has united
the history of an entire people.
And one night has set in motion its triumphant march
Towards the horizon of happiness.
Our people united in a single night
With all the peoples of the earth
In search of freedom and progress,
fatherland or death, we will win.Nourished by the vividly flowing spring
of the revolution,
the volunteer fighters for freedom
and peace and with the healing willpower of August 4th
only had their weapons in hand, but above all fire in their hearts to
rightly defeat the Faso to free
and forever free
from their chains all those whose souls strived for independence and
sovereignty. refrain
And from now on, living in their regained dignity,
charity and honor, united with humanity,
the people of Burkina sing a hymn to victory,
to the glory of the struggle for freedom and emancipation.
Down with the exploitation of man by man
and forward to happiness for all people,
all people today and tomorrow, all people here and forever.
refrain
Our revolution of the people, eternal source of strength
and mother of progress in the face of man,
eternal and undisputed refuge of democracy,
where national identity finally has its seat,
where injustice forever loses its place
and where everywhere from the hands of the builders of a shining one
World
ripen the harvests of all the people's wishes
and the sun shines forever with joy.
refrain |
National flag
The national flag (country flag) of Burkina Faso was officially introduced on
August 4, 1984. Based on flag descriptions by
Countryaah.com, the colors of the flag are interpreted as follows:
- Red stands for the blood that was shed on the fighters of the revolution
- Green stands for the agricultural wealth of the country
- The yellow star leads the democratic people's revolution into a bright future
Burkina Faso: Known People
Politicians and rulers
Joseph Ki-Zerbo (born 1922), historian and politician
He was honored with the Alternative Nobel Prize in 1997 for his work as a
historian and his analysis of the problems of the African continent.
Bernard Lédéa Ouédraogo (born 1930), activist and politician
To support the rural population, he founded the Naam movement (agricultural
development support on the basis of self-help) in Burkina Faso honored with the
"Africa Prize for Leadership for the Sustainable End of Hunger" and in 1990 with
the Alternative Nobel Prize.
Thomas Sankara (1949 to 1987), fifth President of Burkina Faso
The socialist-oriented politician, who was murdered in a military coup, was
known as the "Che Guevara of Africa". He gave the country the name Burkina Faso
("Land of the Righteous"), from him the new national flag and the text of the
national anthem come. During his reign he tried, among other things, to improve
the status of women in the country, for example banning the circumcision of
girls, opposing polygamy and advocating contraception.
Actors, directors
Idrissa Ouédraogo (born 1954), director
Pierre Yaméogo (born 1955), director
Gaston Kaboré (born 1951), director
Dani Kouyaté (born 1961), filmmaker
Fanta Régina Nacro (born 1962), filmmaker
Burkina Faso: animals
Mammals
Especially in the east and south-east of Burkina Faso, with luck, you can
meet large animals such as elephants, hippos, buffalo and various antelope
species in the wild.
Lions, leopards and hyenas still live in the wildlife parks. The smaller mammals
include aardvarks and the kaphase, which belongs to the rabbit family and
prefers dry and open habitats such as grasslands and semi-deserts.
Reptiles
At rivers you should definitely keep an eye on your surroundings,
as crocodiles make the banks and waters unsafe here.
Snakes (not poisonous)
Widely used is the python, which mainly by notice that he curls up in case
of danger into a ball and hence the name "Ball Python" has received.
This python is relatively small and measures around 1.5 m on average - in rare
cases 2 m.
The animal is not considered aggressive. It is also only active at night and
often looks for its prey "underground" in the burrows of rodents and other
mammals. But in contrast to most snakes, he does not flee in case of danger, but
rolls up to a kind of ball so that his head and bulwark come to rest within this
ball. This behavior has earned him the name "ball python", especially in
English. For reproduction, the animal only lays 5 to 10 eggs, which, well
hidden, incubate for about 90 days. The then hatched young have a size of
approx. 40 cm.
Birds
Frequently represented bird species are the bee-eater, racket, bunting,
starling, golden sparrow and the bluebird. Ouagadougou Park in central Burkina
Faso is definitely worth a visit if you are interested in birds.
Here you can see the spore cuckoo, the Senegal racket, the scarlet shrike and
the Lanner falcon.
insects
The most dangerous insect, the tsetse - and Simuliumfliegen in
river areas, as the first carrier of sleeping sickness and the other responsible
for river blindness. Locusts also appear in swarms at irregular intervals, which
is a major nuisance for agriculture.
Burkina Faso: plants
One of the biggest environmental problems in Burkina Faso is the encroachment
of the desert, which is favored not least by the droughts of recent years as
well as by the deforestation of trees, slash and burn and overgrazing.
Trees
Much of the landscape consists of a semi-desert and the thorn savannah with
only a very sparse tree population, which is mainly represented by baobabs,
which are also known as baobabs. This tree with its strikingly
shaped trunk and silver-gray bark belongs to the wool tree family and can live
up to 1000 years. Furthermore, it is characterized by its cucumber-shaped and
wood-skinned fruits as well as fatty seeds.
The baobab can store up to 5000 liters of water in the dry season, but then
it loses all of its leaves in order to protect itself from excessive evaporation
and thus from dying of thirst. To the south, the savannah merges into the
forest, but most of it has already been cut down. Here the wet savannah with
acacias predominates and on the coast mangrove swamps dominate the landscape.
Crops
The most important crops include cotton and peanuts, but sugar cane, sweet
potatoes and cassavas are also increasingly grown. The latter is also known as
manioc or bread root. The plant belongs to the milkweed family, grows up to 3 m
high, has a bushy habit and greenish-yellow flowers. The starchy, up to 8 cm
thick and up to 90 cm long tubers are used. All parts of the plant contain a
toxin that is destroyed by washing out and exposure to heat. This makes the
cassava palatable. A tree of particular importance is the shea tree, also known
as the shea tree.
It occurs exclusively in the sub-Sahel zone, a strip of vegetation that extends
from Mali via Burkina Faso to Ghana, Togo and Benin. The kernels of the nuts of
the 10-15 m high tree, the so-called shea nuts, are traditionally used. They are
used for the production of edible fat and especially for the production of skin
care products such as shea butter. The harvest of the precious nuts is a woman's
business and an important event that is celebrated. Another source of income is
rice and grain cultivation and tobacco cultivation.
More plants
The north of the country is known as the Sahelian area, which is dominated by
grasses, thorn bushes, shrubs and thorn trees. Further south,
the savannah dominates the landscape with thorns and succulents. The latter are
plants that have adapted to the dry climate by regressing organs such as leaves
to counteract excessive evaporation and storing water in other organs such as
the trunk.
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