Traditional village huts in south-east Burkina Faso.

Burkina Faso is a landlocked nation in West Africa. It is surrounded by Mali, Niger, Benin , Togo, Ghana and Côte d'Ivoire. Formerly the Republic of Upper Volta, the country was renamed on August 4, 1984 by President Thomas Sankara to mean "the land of upright people" (or "upright land") in Mossi and Dioula, the major native languages of the country.

Independence from France came in 1960. Governmental instability during the 1970s and 1980s was followed by multiparty elections in the early 1990s. Several hundred thousand farm workers migrate south every year to Côte d'Ivoire and Ghana in search of paid labour. The inhabitants of Burkina Faso are known as Burkinabè or Burkinabé.