Burkina Faso

Harry visited in 2025 — Ouagadougou, an informal gold mine, and Tiébélé — with Kieran joining the road trip. His verdict: his favourite French-speaking West African country, friendlier than its neighbours.

Observations

From I Ignored Western Media and Went to Burkina Faso 🇧🇫

• Politics: Captain Ibrahim Traoré, the world’s youngest head of state, took power in a 2022 coup and is widely loved by the locals Harry met — for taxing foreign (especially French) companies, visible anti-corruption (“no police will take your money”), free childbirth and free healthcare for under-fives, and expelling the French military and Air France. Locals cast him as the new Thomas Sankara; he’s allied with Russia and the Niger/Mali juntas and has survived many assassination attempts (18–25 claimed (from video – unverified)).
• Security: an al-Qaeda-linked insurgency still controls much of the territory outside the capital (over 40%, 10,000+ killed, ~10% of the population displaced (from video – unverified)). Inside Ouagadougou locals say it’s fine; nobody goes north. Military checkpoints line every intercity road, with car searches, cameras, and monitoring.
• Filming: banned in public — police stopped Harry in the market and went through his footage. Hotel staff warn about it unprompted. This is the practical rule most likely to catch a visitor out.
• Rules and order: running a red light earns a fine (about 15,000 (from video – unverified)) plus community service sweeping streets — Traoré-era discipline locals seem proud of.
• Economy: gold dominates (70% of GDP (from video – unverified)), including informal mines worked by hand — teenagers among the workers, migrants from Ghana and Ivory Coast, pay tied to what you find, and extremists targeting the mines. Harry’s takeaway: think about where your gold comes from. It’s one of the ten poorest countries in the world.
• History: French colonial Upper Volta; Thomas Sankara’s 1980s revolution — anti-corruption, renamed the country, refused aid — ended by his assassination and Blaise Compaoré’s 27-year rule. Sankara is still the national hero, with his face on energy drinks; Harry interviewed his brother, from a family that still lives humbly.
• Practicalities: visa is hard work but obtainable for British citizens; immigration itself was easy. Very hot (36–37°C). Beer flows freely despite assumptions — the most popular local beer costs about 95p, the cheapest Kieran had ever bought.
• People: warm, proud, and direct — market bargaining is a contact sport, but villagers in Tiébélé didn’t push a single sale.