Mossi Kingdoms - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

The Mossi Kingdoms, sometimes mistakenly referred to as the Mossi Empire, were a trio of powerful states in modern-day Burkina Faso

Burkina Faso

Burkina Faso – also known by its short-form name Burkina – is a landlocked country in west Africa. It is surrounded by six countries: Mali to the north, Niger to the east, Benin to the southeast, Togo and Ghana to the south, and Côte d'Ivoire to the southwest.Its size is with an estimated...

. Each state possessed similar customs and government, but were ruled independently of each other. At times, the kingdoms fought amongst themselves or united in the face of Muslim

Muslim

A Muslim, also spelled Moslem, is an adherent of Islam, a monotheistic, Abrahamic religion based on the Quran, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God as revealed to prophet Muhammad. "Muslim" is the Arabic term for "submitter" .Muslims believe that God is one and incomparable...

aggression from the north in Mali

Mali

Mali , officially the Republic of Mali , is a landlocked country in Western Africa. Mali borders Algeria on the north, Niger on the east, Burkina Faso and the Côte d'Ivoire on the south, Guinea on the south-west, and Senegal and Mauritania on the west. Its size is just over 1,240,000 km² with...

Origins

The Mossi immigrated into Burkina Faso from northern Ghana

Ghana

Ghana , officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country located in West Africa. It is bordered by Côte d'Ivoire to the west, Burkina Faso to the north, Togo to the east, and the Gulf of Guinea to the south...

around the turn of the 11th century. They displaced the original inhabitants known as the Yonyonse, and began forming complex states with strong militaries focused on the use of cavalry. The Mossi successfully defended their new home from Mandinka

Mandinka people

The Mandinka, Malinke are one of the largest ethnic groups in West Africa with an estimated population of eleven million ....

and Songhai Muslims and even captured territory in Mali at times. They followed and still follow traditional African faiths.

Tengkodogo

The first Mossi kingdom was Tengkodogo, also known as Tenkodogo (The old motherland). It was formed in 1120 in present-day Tenkodogo

Tenkodogo

Tenkodogo is the capital city of Boulgou Province and Centre-Est Region in Burkina Faso with a population of 40,839 . -History:Tenkodogo was the center of a city state of the Mossi Empire that dates back to 1120. The name Tenkodogo is derived from the Moore words tenga, meaning land and kodogo,...

of Burkina Faso. The ruler of the kingdom was called the Naabaa and his capital was also called Tengkodogo (from which the kingdom gets its name).

Yatenga

The second Mossi kingdom was Yatenga. It was formed in 1333 during the height of the aggressive Mali Empire to the north. Its ruler was called Yatenga Naaba or Rima and ruled from the capital city of Waiguya (founded by Naaba Yadegaa and meaning "Come and worship the king" (French)) (modern-day Ouahigouya

Ouahigouya

Ouahigouya is the most important town in northern Burkina Faso. It is the capital of the Yatenga Province and one of its subdivisions the Ouahigouya Department. It is also the biggest town in the Nord Region. It is the third largest city in the country with a population of 122,677. It is situated ...

in Burkina Faso).

Wogodogo

The third and last of the great Mossi kingdoms was Wogodogo, founded by the son of Princess Yennenga

Yennenga

Yennenga, also known as Yennenga the Svelte, was a legendary African princess, considered the mother of the Mossi people of Burkina Faso. She was a famous warrior whose son Ouedraogo founded the Mossi Kingdoms.-Biography:...

Naaba Ouedraogo . Wogodogo became the premier Mossi state in Burkina Faso forming in 1441. Its leader, the Moogo Naaba ruled from present-day Ouagadougou

Ouagadougou

Ouagadougou is the capital of Burkina Faso and the administrative, communications, cultural and economic center of the nation. It is also the country's largest city, with a population of 1,475,223 . The city's name is often shortened to Ouaga. The inhabitants are called ouagalais...

(named for the kingdom).

Downfall

The Mossi kingdoms all survived until the late 19th century with the invasion of Mossi, by the French

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

. The Tengkodogo kingdom, first of the Mossi states, was ironically the first to be conquered by the French in 1894. The Yatenga kingdom, not desiring the same fate as Tengkodogo, signed a protectorate agreement with the French in May of 1895. Wagadougou was conquered and placed under protectorate status in September of the same year.
Wobogoo, the last independent Mogho Naba

Mogho Naba

Mogho Naba is a title for king of the Mossi, an ethnic group in Burkina Faso.-References:...

of Mossi and ruler of Ouagadougou

Ouagadougou

was formally deposed in 1897 and forced into exile in Zongoiri

Zongoiri

Zongoiri Natinga is a community in the Bawku West District of the Upper East Region of Ghana, to the northwest of a bend in the White Volta River....

in the Gold Coast

Gold Coast (region)

The Gold Coast was the region of West Africa which is now the nation of Ghana. Early uses of the term refer literally to the coast and not the interior. It was not until the 19th century that the term came to refer to areas that are far from the coast...

, where he died in 1904.

Sources