Mossi

Mossi are a people who live in central Burkina Faso. There are approximately 3.5 million and they speak the More language. History: The Mossi states were created about 1500 A.D., when bands of horsemen rode north from what is now northern Ghana into the basin of the Volta River and conquered several less powerful peoples, including Dogon, Lela, Nuna, and Kurumba. These were integrated into a new society call Mossi, with the invaders as chiefs and the conquered as commoners. The emperor of the Mossi is the Moro Naba, who lives in the capital, Ouagadougou. In the centuries between 1500 and 1900 the Mossi were a major political and military force in the bend of the Niger River and were effective in resisting the movements of Muslim Fulani armies across the Sudan area of west Africa. In 1897 the first French military explorers arrived in the area and staked French colonial claims. During the sixty years of French colonial rule the Mossi population was exploited as a source of human labor for French plantations in Côte d'Ivoire. In 1960 Burkina Faso gained its independence from the French. The first elected president Ouezzin Coulibaly was succeeded by Maurice Yameogo, a Mossi. In 1967 a coup-d'état put in place a military government that has ruled with infrequent change ever since. \nExternal Link:

• Mossi people of Burkina Faso

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