Day 6 – Tiébélé, Ouagadougou and out | Six Days in Burkina Faso

After breakfast at the hotel, we headed out south to Tiébélé which is a 4-hour drive from the capital city of Ouagadougou.

Tiébélé

A small village exhibiting circular and rectangular buildings and housing one of the oldest ethnic groups in West Africa – the Kassena tribe. The village’s buildings strike a distinctive character through its symbol-laden painted walls dating back to the 15th century. The community uses their building envelope to decorate the walls in geometric shapes and symbols of local folklore, expressing the culture’s history and unique heritage.

As one walks through the labyrinth of houses in Tiébélé, there is a plethora of patterns, from geometric shapes and celestial symbols to animist symbols. Each of them communicates differently about the households within them. For example, stars and moon symbols project hope, arrow symbols on a building indicate the household of a warrior, animist symbols such as crocodiles and snakes are considered sacred and drawn on buildings to keep away bad luck and diseases, while simple geometries like the semi-circle communicate everyday objects like the calabash.

One of the special feature of these houses is the interior architecture – lower, narrow entrances with a wall barricading the room is to make the homes secure from intruders. In old days a guard used to stand inside the entrance, if an intruder tried to force-enter the home, they have to bend down because of the lower entrance and the guard can cut the head and secure the home.

We drove 4-hours back back to Ouagadougou later in the evening, and headed to the airport for a late night flight out of Burkina Faso.

Burkina Faso story highlights on Instagram This trip report can also be seen on our story highlights on Instagram account @travelonthedollar. Click the image on left to go directly to Burkina Faso Highlights, or visit our Instagram profile and under ‘Highlights’, scroll to the right and click on ‘Burkina Faso’.

Note: All values in USD, unless otherwise mentioned, are approximate and based on the exchange rate of USD 1 = XOF 590 at the time of publishing. Each cost is for one adult. Note that the expenses do not include international flights to and from Burkina Faso.