15th century – 18th century
Upper Volta basin
The Mossi states formed multi-ethnic political units in the upper Volta basin during the sixteenth to eighteenth centuries. Their political systems combined dynastic authority with relationships involving indigenous communities, traders, craft specialists, and religious institutions. Mossi rulers maintained a negotiated coexistence between Islam and traditional religion, while economic life connected millet-based agriculture to caravan commerce in salt, kola, cotton cloth, and metalwork. Internal succession disputes, social tensions, and external economic pressures weakened these state-building experiments.
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The Story
The Mossi states formed part of a wider phase of state building in the countries between the Niger bend and the upper Volta basin. They were multi-ethnic units, as were the Jula, Gulmanceba, and Bambara states. The dominant group claimed privileges, yet the political order itself resulted from and encouraged interaction among different peoples.
Mossi political and economic life rested on a mixed foundation. Millet was the staple crop, while maize, groundnuts, cowpeas, beans, sesame, and other plants supplemented production. Caravan commerce brought salt and kola into the northern markets, cotton cloth served as cargo in north-south trade, and Yatenga became a major metalworking area whose blacksmiths exported to central Mogho.
Religious policy was marked by tolerance and compromise. Muslim influence reached the courts through Jula traders and warriors, but rulers and dignitaries continued traditional observances. At Ouagadougou, Naaba Dulugu formally converted and built the first mosque around 1796, while the early form of Mossi Islam remained largely aristocratic.
The political order also contained serious internal contradictions. Succession disputes could produce rival chiefly lines, while excluded princes might exploit peasants. Tensions between royal entourages, relatives of the king, and subject communities weakened the state, and broader commercial pressures increasingly tied Mossi politics to horses, firearms, captives, and the Atlantic slave trade.
15th century – 18th century
Upper Volta basin
The Mossi states formed multi-ethnic political units in the upper Volta basin during the sixteenth to eighteenth centuries. Their political systems combined dynastic authority with relationships involving indigenous communities, traders, craft specialists, and religious institutions. Mossi rulers maintained a negotiated coexistence between Islam and traditional religion, while economic life connected millet-based agriculture to caravan commerce in salt, kola, cotton cloth, and metalwork. Internal succession disputes, social tensions, and external economic pressures weakened these state-building experiments.
Continue exploring
The Story
The Mossi states formed part of a wider phase of state building in the countries between the Niger bend and the upper Volta basin. They were multi-ethnic units, as were the Jula, Gulmanceba, and Bambara states. The dominant group claimed privileges, yet the political order itself resulted from and encouraged interaction among different peoples.
Mossi political and economic life rested on a mixed foundation. Millet was the staple crop, while maize, groundnuts, cowpeas, beans, sesame, and other plants supplemented production. Caravan commerce brought salt and kola into the northern markets, cotton cloth served as cargo in north-south trade, and Yatenga became a major metalworking area whose blacksmiths exported to central Mogho.
Religious policy was marked by tolerance and compromise. Muslim influence reached the courts through Jula traders and warriors, but rulers and dignitaries continued traditional observances. At Ouagadougou, Naaba Dulugu formally converted and built the first mosque around 1796, while the early form of Mossi Islam remained largely aristocratic.
The political order also contained serious internal contradictions. Succession disputes could produce rival chiefly lines, while excluded princes might exploit peasants. Tensions between royal entourages, relatives of the king, and subject communities weakened the state, and broader commercial pressures increasingly tied Mossi politics to horses, firearms, captives, and the Atlantic slave trade.
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