Historical Dictionary of Burkina Faso

Lawrence Rupley is a professor of economics and a former editor and administrator. He worked in Burkina Faso in the latter 1980s and still follows events there closely, being one of the major American specialists on that country. He was also the author of the second edition of the Historical Dictionary of Burkina Faso.Lamissa Bangali is a consultant and researcher in socio-cultural anthropology in Burkina Faso. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana and has taught at the National School for Administration and Courts in Burkina Faso. He has also worked for the World Health Organization and has done consultancy for the European Commission and the African Development Bank.Boureima Diamitani, also a Burkinabe, is the former Director of Cultural Heritage and Museums of Burkina Faso and has been Executive Director of the West African Museums Programme since 2001. He received his Ph.D. in art history from the University of Iowa, has been a fellow of the National Museum of African Art, the Smithsonian Institution, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. He has also worked as a consultant for the World Bank.

This third edition sees the addition of two editors from Burkina Faso--Bangali (anthropology consultant/researcher) and Diamitani (West African Museums Program). As a result, the book benefits from more extensive use of material from archives, government agencies, and other sources of local information. This edition contains an updated and expanded chronology, introduction, bibliography, and appendix. The latter lists cities and towns, populations, ethnic groups, and the ministers of government administrations since 1978. The number of entries has expanded significantly, and some previously published entries have been edited as well. By and large, the 1,000-plus entries are well written and informative. As with other works from this series, this dictionary is useful because information on former French West African colonies can be difficult to find in English. From this standpoint, the dictionary and its counterparts on former French colonies are important sources for undergraduate libraries with basic Africana collections. Summing Up: Recommended. Lower- and upper-level undergraduates; general readers