'As a result, they realised that there are no differences between people,' he said. During the war the African soldiers saw their so-called rulers from Europe lying in mud and filth, they saw them suffering and dying, says German journalist Karl Rössel who spent 10 years researching the topic in West Africa. 'In war we saw the white men naked and we have not forgotten that picture.'Īlbert Kuniuku is one of the few soldiers who returned

Senegalese writer and filmmaker Ousmane Sembene, himself a former colonial soldier, put it like this. That changed their awareness and later their political activity back home. Whether as prisoners of war or fighting at the front, the African soldiers came into close contact with European soldiers and with the reality of life in Europe. That was all the political explanation there was at the time,' Sy told DW. As soldiers we could prove that we were human beings. We were just told that the Germans had attacked us and considered us Africans to be apes. 'People didn't understand when they heard talk of fascism. What they were to fight for, was not explained, said Baby Sy, a veteran from Burkina Faso (then Upper Volta). 'If we men had stayed at home, we would have been taken to court and probably shot dead.' Senegalese veteran Yoro Ba remembers the day when the French came to his village. Subjects History Chief executive Territorial hierarchy Form and rules of government Traditional history External relations Ethnic stratification Status, role, and prestige Territorial hierarchy Lineages Sacred objects and places Family Marriage Community structure culture Mossi HRAF PubDate 2009 Region Africa Sub Region Western Africa Document Type Book Evaluation Ethnologist-5 Analyst John Beierle 1965-1968 Coverage Date 1481-1957 Coverage Place Burkina Faso Notes Elliott Percival Skinner Includes bibliographical references(p.Africa soldiers fought against the German Wehrmacht in the Libyan desert

For lack of available information on the 'Ninisi,' an aboriginal people living in the Upper Volta area prior to the coming of the Mossi, information on this group has been subsumed under Mossi (FA28). The last three chapters of this work present a culture history of Mossi-European relations, and the resulting changes taking place in Mossi political structure as the result of the European conquest of these people. Additional information may also be found on law and judicial procedures, economic foundations, and religion and government. Particular emphasis in this source is on the Mogho Naba (the supreme chief or emperor of the Mossi), his household, ministers, and various territorial chiefs (e.g., provincial, district and village chiefs), and the various levels of interaction between them. The field work was further supplemented by data gathered from various government documents and ethnographies on the Mossi.

The author gathered his data in the Upper Volta Republic between November 1955 and January 1957, a period during which many important political changes were taking place in this region, and most of the field work was done in the territory formerly included in the kingdom of Ouagadougou, although short visits were also made to the Yatenga, Tenkodogo, and Boussouma regions. AbstractThis document presents an intensive study of the political development of the Mossi people, a Sudanese negroid group occupying the Republic of the Upper Volta, West Africa.

Book The Mossi of the Upper Volta: the political development of a Sudanese people Stanford University Press

Upper volta was ruled