Ouahigouya & the Sahel North

The north was divided between three worlds. In the west, the Mossi kingdom of Yatenga, one of the great Mossi states, took shape from around the 14th century; Naba Kango founded Ouahigouya as its capital in the 18th century. In the east, the Sahel belonged to herders: Fulani pastoralists, Tuareg and their former dependants, the Bella, and Songhai farmers along the edge of the old Songhai world. In the early 19th century the Fulani founded the emirate of Liptako at Dori, part of the wave of Islamic states that swept the Sahel.

Along the Mouhoun, the Bwa, Marka, Samo and other peoples lived in independent villages. After the French conquest of the 1890s, forced labour and conscription for the First World War led to the Volta-Bani war of 1915–17, one of the largest anti-colonial wars in Africa, which began near Dédougou and drew in the Bwa, Marka, Samo and many other peoples before it was suppressed. Thomas Sankara was born in 1949 in Yako, in the Nord region.

After independence the north suffered the great Sahel droughts of the 1970s and 1980s, which killed herds and pushed people south. Since around 2015 the region has been the centre of the insurgency: armed groups first took root in the Sahel province of Soum, then spread across the north. The army, its civilian auxiliaries and the armed groups have all been accused of abuses, and more than two million people across the country have been displaced.

The north is diverse. In Yatenga, Mossi culture, the Mooré language and the authority of the naba of Ouahigouya remain strong. In the Sahel, Fulfulde is the main language; the Fulani, Tuareg, Bella and Songhai are mostly Muslim, and life has been organised around herds, wells and the seasonal movement of animals. The Boucle du Mouhoun is home to the Bwa, Marka, Samo and Dafing, with strong mask traditions and a large Christian community.

Masks are the pride of the Mouhoun country. The Bwa carve tall wooden plank masks and make masks of leaves and fibre worn at funerals and initiation, and Dédougou hosts FESTIMA, a biennial festival that brings masked dancers from across the country and from neighbouring states.

In the Sahel, hospitality is expressed through green tea, poured in several rounds, and through the sharing of milk. Jewellery and leatherwork made by Tuareg craftsmen were long sold at markets such as Gorom-Gorom. The farmers of Yatenga are known for reviving the zaï method of planting in small pits filled with manure to restore barren land; Yacouba Sawadogo of Gourga, near Ouahigouya, became internationally known for it.

Ouahigouya, with around 125,000 people, is the largest city of the north and a market town on the road to Mali. Dédougou is the capital of the Boucle du Mouhoun, Dori of the Sahel region, and Yako, Titao, Gourcy, Nouna and Tougan are other regional towns.

Farming dominates in Yatenga and along the Mouhoun, where millet, sorghum, cotton, sesame and cowpeas are grown; the Boucle du Mouhoun is one of the country's main cereal and cotton areas. The Sahel lives from livestock — cattle, sheep, goats and camels — sold at big weekly markets to buyers from the south and from neighbouring countries. Gold mining, both industrial and artisanal, grew fast in the north in the 2010s and has been a frequent target of attacks.

The conflict has reshaped daily life more here than anywhere else. Many schools and clinics have closed, large numbers of people have fled to Ouahigouya, Kaya, Dori and Ouagadougou, and some towns have depended on air drops and convoys for food. Where it continues, daily life follows the market day, the mosque and the herds.

Millet is the base of northern cooking. It is turned into tô, a stiff porridge eaten with sauces of okra, baobab leaves or dried fish, and into dégué, a mix of millet grains and sour milk or yoghurt, often sweetened. Fulani herders live largely on milk: fresh, curdled or churned into butter, and sold in calabashes at markets.

Meat is more important in the Sahel than elsewhere. Mutton and goat are grilled over charcoal, and kilishi, thin strips of dried, spiced meat, keeps well in the heat. At the Muslim festival of Tabaski, sheep are slaughtered in every family able to afford one. Along the Mouhoun, fish from the river and its lakes are grilled, fried or smoked.

In Yatenga and the Mouhoun country, dolo, millet beer brewed by women, is drunk in courtyard bars, while in the Muslim Sahel the drinks are green tea, milk and zoom-koom, a millet-flour drink flavoured with tamarind or ginger. Dates and baobab fruit are sold in the markets.

Ouahigouya, the old capital of Yatenga, has the palace of its naba, a large market and, nearby, the farmland around Gourga where zaï pits and stone lines were used to restore the soil. Yako, south-east towards Ouagadougou, is visited for its connection with Thomas Sankara.

In the Sahel region, Dori, the old capital of Liptako, was the gateway to the far north. Gorom-Gorom's market, one of the best-known in the Sahel, drew Fulani, Tuareg, Bella and Songhai traders with camels, cattle, grain, pottery and jewellery. The Oursi dunes and pond, north-west of Gorom-Gorom, attract migrant birds and herders in the dry season.

To the south-west, the Mouhoun river bends around the Boucle du Mouhoun region, flowing through farmland and wooded savanna; Deux Balés National Park, just west of the river, has long been home to elephants. Dédougou's mask festival is the region's major cultural event. The whole region is affected by the conflict, and none of these places can be visited safely at present.