Bobo-Dioulasso is a city of about 400,000, mainly Dioula, after Ouagadougou the second biggest in Burkina Faso. It is located in the southwest of that country, in the Houet province and is significant both economically (agricultural trade, textile industry) and culturally (Bobo is the center of culture and music of Burkina Faso). The name is formed from the two major ethnic groups that inhabit the city: the Bobo and the Dioula.

Lying on the Houët River, Bobo was founded as Sya in the fifteenth century. The city was occupied by the French in 1897, after which it grew around the Abidjan – railway.

Features of the town include the Bobo-Dioulasso Old Mosque, built in 1880, the fifteenth century Konsa house and a sacred fishpond. There is also a museum, a zoo and a pottery market.

External link

• Bobo-Dioulasso (http://www.mairie-bobo.bf/) official site