Burkina Faso, formerly Upper Volta, is landlocked and borders Côte d'Ivoire, Ghana, Togo, Benin, Mali, and Niger. While the northern drylands fringe the Sahara desert, more favorable ecological and climatic conditions prevail in the savannah and forest areas in the south. In 2004 Burkina Faso had 13.5 million inhabitants. Most people live in rural areas; only 27 percent of residents live in urban areas. Burkina Faso has around sixty ethnic and language groups; some originate from precolonial kingdoms (e.g., Mossi, Fulbe, and Gourmanche) and others from village-based communities (e.g., Bobo, Lobi, Senufo, and Lyela).

The territory came under French colonization by the end of the nineteenth century. Upper Volta was a labor reserve, and colonial economic development was not primarily focused on the colony's own potentials but on the need for plantation labor in Côte d'Ivoire. In the early twenty-first century, 2 to 3 million Burkinabe continued...