From crisis to national identity: Migration in mutation, Burkina Faso, 1930-1960

In the eyes of many colonial administrators in Dakar, the abolition of Upper Volta in 1932 may have signaled the beginning of an era of realism, the end of an economic experiment that had turned bad after 1928. This decision did little to reduce instability in the ex-colony. The centerpieces of this eventful history were the struggle for labor, in the midst of a world economic crisis and war-time conditions, and the slow emergence of national awareness. We would like to offer some insights in both processes by suggesting that the path specific to the Burkinabe experience of otherness follows the lessons learned during the migration periods in Gold Coast or in COte d'Ivoire. As a corollary, the presence of large migrant populations in COte d'Ivoire, both from Upper Volta and other parts of the West African federation of French colonies (Afrique Occidentale Frangaise, or AOF), nurtured the rise of what has been termed xenophobic feelings and the birth of national identity. We contend that both at the sending and at the receiving ends of the migration process one of the central impacts of the migration experience was to crystallize the will to assert a national state. Indeed in recent years it has become an important part of the political debate in COte d'Ivoire, its importance only highlighted by recent events.