Burkina Faso

Burkinabe respect the older generations. The majority of the population are farmers raising enough crops to meet their own needs.

Rural women wear a long cotton skirt wrapped a the waist, with a top being added in recent years. Men's traditional clothing is a cotton shirt and pants. Urban people are wearing used Western style of clothing.

Millet, sorghum and grains are staples with the primary food being tô or fufu

a porridge made from millet flour. Chickens and guinea fowl are the main meats.

A funeral marks the transition from a living elder to a watching ancestor. Burials occur soon after death due to the hot climate, but the funeral may be delayed for months until the family including relatives can be present.

Descent is through the father except in some places in the southwest where some ethnic groups pass goods through the female line. Families feel responsible for the well-being of those in the village who are usually relatives.

For the Mossi people, marriage is usually arranged between families and at the time of a marriage, the wife's family receives payments from her husband and his family.

Soccer and bicycle racing are the most popular sports.

The day for the child who goes to school begins before dawn, and in rural villages, children wake to the crowing rooster and the first signs of light - usually between 5:00 a.m. and 6:00 a.m. There are no alarm clocks in the village so the rooster comes in extremely handy. As soon as they wake up the children need to quickly sweep the courtyard and also tend to the family sheep and goats before they prepare to run to school. As there are not many schools the average child will walk about 3 to 5 kilometers to attend the nearest school. In many families, it is the boys who will go to school, while the girls will remain behind to assist in family chores. Some mothers have many children and because there are no people to assist around, the responsibility often falls to the older girls to help. In families that have many animals, the older children may also have to remain at home to take care of the animals as the younger ones go to school. For breakfast, there are a few homes where sorghum porridge will be eaten, and in other homes there are leftovers from the evening meal. The rest will consider breakfast a luxury, and will run to school after washing their faces without eating. Many will go barefooted because shoes are also a luxury of the rich who live in the cities. Some children are seconded (loaned out) to other families to help with chores and in return, the family receives some money for subsistence. These children, usually girls, are referred to as “bonne”. The reason girls are seconded is most parents consider it a loss to educate a girl since she is going to just get married and have children. In such cases, the older girl child has no choice but to work as their hosts children go to school.

School begins with a general assembly at about 7:30 a.m. and classes begin immediately thereafter. The average class has about 70 pupils. About three-quarters of the class will be boys because very few girls are allowed to attend school. The official language of the school is French and the lessons take an average of about 40 minutes each. The schools are made of bricks and the roofs are made of iron sheets which can make the class extremely hot. The only advantage may be that there are rarely any windows so the hot wind blows in the classroom bringing just a little relief. Break time is usually the time for children to catch up with one another and for boys, they will play their usual football (soccer) matches with any makeshift balls they make themselves. There usually are not many other games to play because of lack of equipment and balls are easy to get or simply make. Because the population of students per class is quite high, many teachers do not get the time to give personal attention to the students, especially those who are weak or slow. The children in schools are also taught some practical lessons such as how to tend gardens and some students learn to grow vegetables in the school gardens.

The journey home from school is usually a quick one because the children need to get home before nightfall. As they walk home, boys will more often than not have catapults (slingshots) with which they try shooting birds and geckos. The girls have to run home because they are culturally expected to assist with the chores in the home. Most of the time the children will have to get home by 6:30 p.m. Dinner is usually served before darkness falls and will most likely be a traditional meal which is the main staple known as “to” ‘in Burkinabe, a paste prepared with millet or corn flour In Bissa tô is known as wu, and in Mooré it is called sagabo. It is eaten lukewarm and accompanied by a sauce. The most popular sauces are made with baobab and/or sorrel leaves and contain condiments, which vary from region to region. This will be followed by homework which is done next to the kerosene lamp.

Homework is never supervised at home because the majority of the parents are illiterate. When children get back to school without completing their homework it is not unusual for them to receive corporal punishment. For children in other families, the few hours before nightfall are spent hawking any wares such as snacks that some of their mothers make in an effort to secure some money for the family. The sources of income are extremely limited. The girls and boys will carry the wares on small trays on their heads and walk around the village paths and a few passersby will buy them but as soon as darkness falls it is time to return back home. The family setting is usually such that there is one big family house that is shared by all. The number of children in most households could go up to 12 or even more because this is a polygamous society. Since there is a great Muslim population, men are allowed to marry up to four wives. When it comes to bedtime the boys will sleep in one corner and the girls in another corner, usually on a mat or an animal hide. Bedtime comes anytime after it is dark and homework is over in order to save the kerosene.

During the long school holiday which is usually between July and October most of the children will work on the family farm because this is mostly the rainy season. The children will join the grownups working on the farm doing such chores as planting and weeding using hoes. The girls remain to do house chores which include fetching water from a communal water pump. In some areas that are hardest hit by drought and because of hunger and malnutrition children may not go to school. In some areas, organizations run school feeding programs and kids are given two meals daily which is helping bridge the gap brought by poverty. This has helped to increase enrollment in schools in such areas. The children are given porridge (blended flour) at breakfast and lunch which improves concentration and learning capacity and help keeps children coming to school on time. School feeding is also a powerful incentive encouraging families to send children to school, rather than having them work at home or go outside to earn additional income.