60 free Burkina Faso trivia questions with answers — geography quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
Burkina Faso is the landlocked Sahel country that used to be called Upper Volta until a young Marxist captain renamed it the "Land of Upright People" in 1984. It hosts Africa's biggest film festival, sits on West Africa's fourth-largest gold reserves, has had more coups than most countries have had elections, and gave the continent one of its most quoted revolutionaries. This quiz covers geography (the three Voltas, Ténakourou, W National Park), history (the Mossi kingdoms and Princess Yennenga, French rule, Sankara and Compaoré, the 2014 uprising and the 2022 coups, the Alliance of Sahel States), symbols and culture (the flag, tô and dolo, FESPACO and SIAO, the Mogho Naba's Friday ceremony), and sport (the Stallions' 2013 run, Zango's triple-jump bronze). Questions run from easy to expert. Every answer was checked against Wikipedia and other reference pages before publishing.
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Q 01What is the capital and largest city of Burkina Faso?
Ouagadougou
Locals shorten it to Ouaga; it hosts FESPACO, the largest African film festival.
Q 02Under what name was Burkina Faso known until 1984?
Upper Volta
It was named for the upper courses of three rivers that cross the country.
Q 03The name Burkina Faso combines words from two languages, Mooré and Dyula. What does it mean?
Land of upright (honest) people
Burkina means "upright" in Mooré and Faso "fatherland" in Dyula; citizens are Burkinabè.
Q 04Which revolutionary leader renamed the country in 1984 and was assassinated in a 1987 coup?
Thomas Sankara
Often called "Africa's Che Guevara", he was 33 when he took power and had played guitar in a band called Tout-à-Coup Jazz.
Q 05Sankara's government planted more than how many trees to fight the advance of the Sahara?
10 million
He also vaccinated 2.5 million children and declared bush fires a crime.
Q 06Sankara built a populist image partly by doing what with the government's luxury vehicles?
Selling them off
He also refused to use his office's air conditioning and famously drove a cheap Renault 5.
Q 07Sankara's government outlawed which practices as part of its women's rights agenda?
Female genital mutilation, forced marriage and polygamy
He declared "there is no true social revolution without the liberation of women".
Q 08Who overthrew Sankara in October 1987 and then ruled Burkina Faso for 27 years?
Blaise Compaoré
A former friend and bandmate of Sankara, he fled to Ivory Coast in the 2014 uprising and was later sentenced in absentia for the murder.
Q 09What triggered the October 2014 uprising that ended Compaoré's rule?
His attempt to change the constitution to extend his term
Protesters burned the National Assembly on 30 October; he resigned the next day.
Q 10Ibrahim Traoré, who seized power in September 2022, held what distinction at age 34?
World's youngest head of state at the time
It was the country's second coup of 2022; he later expelled French troops and joined an alliance with two Sahel neighbours.
Q 11In 2023 Burkina Faso formed a mutual defence pact with which two neighbours?
Mali and Niger
The Alliance of Sahel States became a confederation in 2024, quit ECOWAS in 2025 and swapped Western troops for Russian ones.
Q 12Which is the largest ethnic group in Burkina Faso, making up about half the population?
Mossi
Their kingdoms of Wogodogo, Yatenga and Tenkodogo dominated the region from the Middle Ages until the French arrived.
Q 13What was the name of the warrior princess of Mossi legend who fled on horseback and married a hunter?
Yennenga
Her son Ouédraogo, meaning "male horse", gave his name to Burkina Faso's most common surname and FESPACO's top prize.
Q 21Which French-promoted crop was Burkina Faso's main cash export before gold?
Cotton
It still made up about 8% of exports in 2017.
Q 22Which three rivers gave the country its pre-1984 name?
The Black, White and Red Volta
Only the Black Volta (Mouhoun) and the Comoé flow all year round.
Q 23Ténakourou, Burkina Faso's highest point at about 749 m, sits on the border with which country?
Mali
From the top you can see three countries; the source of the Black Volta is nearby.
Burkina Faso's second city has a name meaning what?
Q 14Ouédraogo, one of the most common surnames in Burkina Faso, means what?
Male horse (stallion)
It honours the horse that carried the Mossi founding princess to the hunter Rialé.
Q 15The traditional Mossi ruler based in the capital, whose title means "king of the world", is called what?
Mogho Naba
A council can pass over the heir if he is unfit for war or has committed adultery; the office still carries influence.
Q 16Burkina Faso's flag shows a yellow star on horizontal bands of which two colours?
Red and green
Adopted in 1984 in Pan-African colours, the star stands for the guiding light of the revolution.
Q 17What colours were the three stripes of the country's original independence flag, for its three rivers?
Black, white and red
They stood for the country's three rivers.
Q 18The capital hosts FESPACO, which is what?
Africa's largest film festival
Founded as a film week in 1969, it is held every odd-numbered year and only accepts films by African filmmakers.
Q 19Which Burkinabé director's film Tilaï won the Grand Prix at the 1990 Cannes Film Festival?
Idrissa Ouédraogo
His earlier film Yaaba ("Grandmother") had won the FIPRESCI prize at Cannes.
Q 20Which commodity accounts for roughly 70% of Burkina Faso's export earnings?
Gold
It is Africa's fourth-largest gold producer; a farm crop was long the mainstay.
Home of the Bobo-Dioula
Its mud-brick Grand Mosque is a landmark of Sudano-Sahelian architecture; locals call the city Sya.
Q 25The fortress of Loropéni, Burkina Faso's first World Heritage Site, grew rich on which commodity?
Trans-Saharan gold
Occupied by the Lohron or Kulango people, it peaked between the 14th and 17th centuries.
Q 26Burkina Faso's national dish tô is what?
A stiff porridge of millet, sorghum or maize
It is eaten by hand with a sauce of baobab or okra leaves; the national drink is said to be zoom-kom, "grain water".
Q 27Poulet bicyclette, a Burkinabé speciality, is what?
Grilled free-range chicken
The name refers to the skinny village birds that supposedly run like cyclists.
Q 28Burkina Faso's national football team is nicknamed what?
The Stallions
Les Étalons reached the 2013 Africa Cup of Nations final, losing to Nigeria.
Q 29Hugues Fabrice Zango won Burkina Faso's first-ever Olympic medal in 2021 in which event?
Triple jump
He took bronze in Tokyo, set a world indoor record of 18.07 m the same year, and became world champion in 2023.
Q 30Which Burkinabé forward, once at Chelsea and Lyon, debuted for the national team at 15?
Bertrand Traoré
He went on to captain the Stallions and has six Africa Cup of Nations tournaments to his name.