Burkina Faso Trivia
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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
Ouagadougou, which locals shorten to Ouaga, is the seat of government and the country's main hub, home to its principal international airport and oldest university.
Q 02Under what name was Burkina Faso known until 1984?
Upper Volta
Upper Volta (Haute-Volta) was the colonial and early independence-era name, taken from the upper course of the Volta river system; the change came on 4 August 1984.
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
Thomas Sankara, often called "Africa's Che Guevara", took power at 33 in August 1983 and was shot dead in the 15 October 1987 coup; he had played guitar in the band Tout-à-Coup Jazz.
Q 05Sankara's government planted more than how many trees to fight the advance of the Sahara?
10 million
Sankara's government said it planted more than 10 million trees in about 15 months to hold back desertification; it also banned bush fires and vaccinated some 2.5 million children.
Q 06Sankara built a populist image partly by doing what with the government's luxury vehicles?
Selling them off
Selling them off: Sankara auctioned the government's fleet of Mercedes limousines and made the cheap Renault 5 the official ministerial car; he also refused to use his office's air conditioning.
Q 07Sankara's government outlawed which practices as part of its women's rights agenda?
Female genital mutilation, forced marriage and polygamy
Female genital mutilation, forced marriage and polygamy were all outlawed by Sankara's government, which also appointed women to cabinet posts; he said there was no true social revolution without the liberation of women.
Q 08Who seized power in the October 1987 coup and then ruled Burkina Faso for 27 years?
Blaise Compaoré
Blaise Compaoré, once a close friend and bandmate of the predecessor he overthrew, ruled until the 2014 uprising and was sentenced in absentia to life imprisonment in 2022 for that predecessor's murder.
Q 09What triggered the October 2014 uprising that ended Compaoré's rule?
His attempt to change the constitution to extend his term
His attempt to change the constitution to extend his term drew huge crowds; protesters burned the National Assembly on 30 October 2014 as it prepared to vote on the amendment, and Compaoré 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
World's youngest head of state at the time: Traoré was 34 when he led the country's second coup of 2022, in September; he went on to expel French troops and ally with two Sahel neighbours.
Q 11In 2023 Burkina Faso formed a mutual defence pact with which two neighbours?
Mali and Niger
Mali and Niger signed the Liptako-Gourma Charter with Burkina Faso in September 2023, creating the Alliance of Sahel States; the three junta-led countries declared a confederation in 2024 and left ECOWAS in 2025.
Q 12Which is the largest ethnic group in Burkina Faso, making up about half the population?
Mossi
Mossi people make up roughly half the population; their kingdoms of Wogodogo, Yatenga and Tenkodogo dominated the central plateau from the Middle Ages until the French conquest in the 1890s.
Q 13What was the name of the warrior princess of Mossi legend who fled on horseback and married a hunter?
Yennenga
Q 21Which French-promoted crop was long Burkina Faso's main cash export?
Cotton
Cotton was pushed by French colonial administrators and remained the top export into the 2000s; Burkina Faso ranks among Africa's largest cotton producers.
Q 22Which three rivers gave the country its pre-1984 name?
The Black, White and Red Volta
The Black, White and Red Volta (Mouhoun, Nakambé and Nazinon) cross the country on their way south to Lake Volta; the Black Volta and the Comoé are the only rivers that flow all year.
Q 23Ténakourou, Burkina Faso's highest point at about 749 m, sits on the border with which country?
Mali
Yennenga, in legend the daughter of a Dagomba king, rode away from her father's court, met the hunter Rialé, and their son Ouédraogo founded the dynasties of the central plateau.
Q 14Ouédraogo, one of the most common surnames in Burkina Faso, means what?
Male horse (stallion)
Male horse (stallion): in Mooré wed-raogo joins wedo, horse, and raogo, male; the surname honours the horse that carried the founding princess of legend 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
Mogho Naba, literally king of the world, is the title of the paramount traditional ruler, whose court is in the capital; the holder acted as mediator during the 2014-15 political transition.
Q 16Burkina Faso's flag shows a yellow star on horizontal bands of which two colours?
Red and green
Red and green: adopted on 4 August 1984 in Pan-African colours, the red band stands for the revolution, the green for hope and natural wealth, and the yellow star for its guiding light.
Q 17What colours were the three stripes of the country's flag from independence until 1984?
Black, white and red
Black, white and red horizontal stripes were the flag from independence until the 1984 revolution replaced them with Pan-African colours.
Q 18The capital hosts FESPACO, which is what?
Africa's largest film festival
Africa's largest film festival: FESPACO began as a film week in 1969, runs every odd-numbered year, and restricts its main competition to films by African and diaspora directors.
Q 19Which Burkinabé director's film Tilaï won the Grand Prix at the 1990 Cannes Film Festival?
Idrissa Ouédraogo
Idrissa Ouédraogo won the 1990 Cannes Grand Prix for Tilaï, a village tale of forbidden love; his earlier Yaaba ("Grandmother") had taken the FIPRESCI prize at Cannes in 1989.
Q 20Which commodity has been Burkina Faso's leading export since the late 2000s?
Gold
Gold overtook farm crops as the leading export in the late 2000s after industrial mines such as Essakane opened; by the 2010s it brought in well over half of export earnings.
Mali: Ténakourou rises in Kénédougou Province in Burkina Faso's far west, where the frontier with Mali runs; the rest of the country is mostly a plateau between roughly 250 and 400 m.
Q 24Which city, known locally as Sya, is Burkina Faso's second largest?
Bobo-Dioulasso
Bobo-Dioulasso, in the south-west, is the second city and old commercial capital; its mud-brick Grand Mosque is a landmark of Sudano-Sahelian architecture, and 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
Trans-Saharan gold made the settlement rich: the stone ruins, listed by UNESCO in 2009, were occupied by the Lohron or Kulango people and peaked between the 14th and 17th centuries.
Q 26Burkina Faso's national dish tô is what?
A stiff porridge of millet, sorghum or maize
A stiff porridge of millet, sorghum or maize, tô is eaten by hand with a sauce of baobab leaves, okra or peanut; the millet-flour drink zoom-koom is often called the national drink.
Q 27Poulet bicyclette, a Burkinabé speciality, is what?
Grilled free-range chicken
Grilled free-range chicken: lean village birds are grilled over charcoal and served with onions; the name is usually traced either to the skinny, athletic birds or to vendors who delivered them by bicycle.
Q 28Burkina Faso's national football team is nicknamed what?
The Stallions
The Stallions (Les Étalons) reached the 2013 Africa Cup of Nations final in South Africa, losing 1-0, and finished third at the 2017 tournament.
Q 29Hugues Fabrice Zango won Burkina Faso's first-ever Olympic medal in 2021 in which event?
Triple jump
Triple jump: Zango took bronze in Tokyo, had set a world indoor record of 18.07 m in January 2021, and became world champion in Budapest in 2023.
Q 30Which Burkinabé forward, once at Chelsea and Lyon, debuted for the national team at 15?
Bertrand Traoré
Bertrand Traoré made his senior international debut in 2011 at 15; he went on to play for Chelsea, Lyon and Aston Villa and to captain the national side.