Bobo-Dioulasso

Sister cities

• Châlons-en-Champagne
• Saint-Étienne
• Gironde
• Bamako
• Fez

History

According to local tradition, Bobo-Dioulasso was founded as Sia in the 15th century. Populated by the Oule and Dioula subgroups of the Bobo people, it became an important market center, particularly in the export of horses southwards. Sia was therefore an important link in the developing trade routes linking Djenne and the Inner Niger Delta to Kong, Begho and ultimately the Gold Coast. Kong's growing influence in the region culminated in the reign of Seku Watara, who established the Kong Empire in 1710. His brother Famagan Watara and sons Kere-Mori and Bamba Watara played important roles in conquering Sia and subjugating the native Bobo-Dioula and Bobo-Oule in the late 1730s. Sia proper, which survives today as the Dioulasoba neighborhood, was partly spared this total destruction. It was dramatically modified in 1932 when a large road artery was built through it and by the widening of streets in successive urban renewal projects. Between 1926 and 1929, the French colonial government constructed a typical European grid pattern of new avenues and streets in the city, intersected by diagonals radiating from a center, with square urban lots between them. This established the framework for the modern city center. The Abidjan Railway reached Bobo-Dioulasso in 1934, increasing its access to markets, transportation, and communications. But the growth of the city as a colonial industrial center halted because of the world economic crisis during the Great Depression, as well as the suppression of the colony of Upper Volta in 1933. The city started expanding again after World War II. Reorganization of the colony of Upper Volta in 1947 attracted business to Bobo-Dioulasso, although Ouagadougou had been selected as the capital. An early industrial center, Bobo-Dioulasso is also…