麻豆APP

Top 10 Most Famous People from Burkina Faso

Burkina Faso is a landlocked country in West Africa that is famously known for leading in African art culture and hosting the largest craft market in Africa. Therefore, this article is going to explore more about the famous people in Burkina Faso to create a clear picture in the reader’s mind on how the famous people have contributed to the African art culture in Burkina Faso through their music, writing, guitaring, acting, film directing and even through their roles as leaders in Burkina Faso.

1 Diebedo Francis Kere

He is an award-winning architect, born on April 10^th, 1965 in Burkina Faso at a place called Gando. Francis is famously known for being the first African to win the Pritzker Architecture prize. Francis is also recognized to be the first African to design the Serpentine Pavilion which is a temporary building that is designed annually in Kensington Gardens, Hyde Park, Central London in 2017. He studied at Architecture in the University of Berlin and later he took training as a carpenter. When he was 18, he won a scholarship and went to study Woodwork at the University of Germany, while he was there, he discovered his love of Architecture and he switched from carpentry.

He has also held a professorship at the Swiss Academia di Mendrisio, Harvard Graduate School of Design, and Yale School of Architecture. He accepted the Professorship for “Architectural Design and Participation” in 2017 which was held in Germany.

2 Gabin Dabire

He was born in Bobo- Dioulasso in the African State of Burkina Faso. He is recognized as a singer, composer, guitarist and Kora player who has lived in Italy since 1975. His genre of music is broader it does not only touch the narrow confines of Burkina Faso and Africa. The masters of the traditional music of Burkina Faso made Dabire encounter his first experience in music. Dabire was also exposed to European and contemporary music when he travelled to Denmark. For the 20 years he lived in Italy he performed in different cities of Italy and he released several recordings such as “Kontome” which was released in 1987 and “Afriki Djamana” which was released in 1994

3 Gaston Kabore

The award-winning film director was born on April 23^rd, 1951 in Burkina Faso in a place called Bobo-Dioulasso. His famous for his award-winning films Wend Kuuni and Buud Yam. He studied history at the Sorbonne in 麻豆APP where he received his master’s degree. While researching how Africa is viewed abroad, he was drawn to contemporary documentary films and also it led him to study cinematography in 1974. He decided to go to ESEC film school to understand more about the Cinema world.

Gaston later returned to his home country to be the director of the Centre National du Cinema. His film Wend Kuuni was only the second feature film produced in Burkina Faso in 1997 he won the first prize at the 15^th Pan African Film and Television Festival of Ouagadougou with the film Buud Yam.

4 Fanta Regina Nacro

Regina was born on September 4^th, 1962 in Burkina Faso in a place called Tenkodogo. She is well known for being the first woman in Burkina Faso to direct a feature film and the founding member of the Guilde Africaine des Realisateurs et Producteurs. She explores themes of African Cinema and solves issues surrounding diseases such as Aids as well as educating the girl child.   

She grew up intending to be a midwife but later it changed when she started storytelling around Burkina Faso and her desire for filmmaking started growing. A neighbour later informed her about the film school Institut d’Education Cinematographique de Ouagadougou in Burkina Faso which she joined and earned her first degree in audiovisual science and techniques.

5 Joseph Ki-Zerbo

Joseph was a Burkinabe historian, politician and writer, born on June 21^st, 1992 in Burkina Faso in a place called Toma. He is well known for being one of Africa’s foremost thinkers. He began his political activism and work in human rights in Burkina Faso which led him to be a member of UNESCO’s Executive Council. He became a professor of African History at the University of Ouagadougou from 1972 to 1978 where he also published a lot of books such as the History of Black Africa which became a reference book in African history. He founded the Party for Democracy and progress and was its chairman until 2005. He represented the organization in the Burkina Faso parliament until his death in 2006.

6 Malidoma Patrice Some

He was an author, medicine man and diviner, born on January 30, 1956, in Burkina Faso at a place called Dano. Malidoma is famous because of his work as an interpreter of West African spirituality for Western audiences. He was raised by a Jesuit priest from the age of four where he later pursued his higher education in West Africa and then lived most of his adult life in the United States and Europe. He earned three master’s degrees and Ph.Ds. from Sorbonne and Brandeis. Malidoma was a professor of literature and he taught literature for three years at the University of Michigan. He died in 2021 at the age of 65.

7 Jacky Ido

Jacky Ido was born on May 14^th, 1977 in Burkina Faso in a place called Ouagadougou. He is a French actor well known among English-language audiences for his role as Marcel, the film projectionist in Quentin Tarantino’s 2009 film, Inglorious Bastards. His first role was as a Lemalian in the 2005 German film 鈥淲hite Maasai鈥�. Ido lives in 麻豆APP, France and has even collaborated working with his brother Cedric Ido, who directed him in the film Hasaki Ya Suda. He has also starred in U.S films and Shonda Rhimes-produced crime drama 鈥淭he Catch.鈥�

8 Sarah Bouyain

Sarah Bouyain is a French鈥揃urkinabe writer and film director born in 1968. She studied mathematics before moving to cinematography. Her first full film, The Place In Between which took seven years to make was released in 2010 at the Toronto International Film Festival. Sarah created the documentary film 鈥淟es enfants du Blanc鈥� and also wrote her book Metisse facon after researching her African heritage in Burkina Faso. She has written several articles, mainly on the theme of mixed-race and exile, for Africultures, presence Africaine and CODESRIA. Sarah was also one of the speakers at the African Women in Film Forum held in Accra, Ghana.

9 Thomas Sankara

Thomas Sankara was born on December 21^st, 1949 in Burkina Faso in a place called Yako. He was a Burkinabe military officer, a pan-Africanist who served as President of Burkina Faso and a Marxist revolutionary. Sankara was viewed as an iconic figure by his people because he was a great leader in the sense that he launched programs for social, ecological and economic change, promoted public health by vaccinating 2 million children, prioritized education, enforced domestic policies on preventing famine with agrarian self-sufficiency and lastly, he refused aid from organizations so that he can reduce reliance on aid by boosting domestic revenues and diversifying the sources of assistance. He was assassinated by troops led by Blaise Compaore in 1987.

10 Fulgence Quedraogo

He is a former French rugby union player, born on July 21^st,1986 in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso. Fulgence started playing rugby at the age of six and he meet his future teammate, Francois Trinh-Duc who have never been inseparable. His usual position was as a flanker. Him together with Trinh-Duc, Louis Picamoles and Julien Tomas, are considered to be part of the young quartet of home-grown talents. Currently, Quedraogo is the captain of Montpellier, and in the 2010 -2011 season he was a main player in the club.