Bobo-Dioulasso

Bobo-Dioulasso is a city of about 600,000, the second biggest in Burkina Faso after Ouagadougou, the nation's capital. It is located in the southwest of the country, in the Houet province and is significant both economically (agricultural trade, textile industry) and culturally (Bobo is the center of culture and music of Burkina Faso). The name means literally, "home of the Jula-speaking Bobo," who are the dominant ethnic groups in the region of the city.

Jula, a trade language, is the lingua franca of Bobo and surrounding region of western Burkina. It is a derivative of Bamana, a dominant language of neighboring Mali. Bobo-Dioulasso is ethnically and linguistically very diverse, due to its position as an ancient crossroads of several trans-Saharan trade routes, so most Jula-speakers in the region are not actually Jula themselves.

Lying on the Houët River, Bobo was founded as Sya in the fifteenth century. The city was occupied by the French in 1897, after which it grew around the Abidjan – Ouagadougou railway.

Features of the town include the Bobo-Dioulasso Old Mosque, built in 1880, the fifteenth century Konsa house and a sacred fishpond. There is also a museum, a zoo and a pottery market.

External link

• Bobo-Dioulasso official site