Mossi History

Background History of the Mossi States

The Mossi (or Moosi) migrated from somewhere east to the Volta Basin, south of the Niger

Bend in small groups, and dominated indigenous groups (Gurunsi, Fulse, Dagara, Kasena,

Lobi, Nuna, etc) either through conquest or peaceful integration. Many scholars trace the

foundation of the first Mossi states in the Voltaic region to the early fifteenth century. This

region refers to a geographical space stretching from northern Ghana into most of today’s

Burkina Faso. It comprised a number of more or less autonomous states loosely connected to

each other through genealogical ties; nineteen were identified at the beginning of the colonial

period (the late nineteenth century), on the Burkinabé side. The main Mossi states were

Ouagadougou, Yatenga, Tenkodogo and Fada N’Gourma. They constituted founding clusters

from which sprang smaller states, such as Yako, Busma, Bulsa, Conquiztenga, Tatenga,

Ratenga, Zitenga,and Mané. The Mossi states shared the same political structure based on a

‘model’ that first emerged in Mamprusi. From the sixteenth to the nineteenth centuries, this

state system which emerged from waves of migration from the Dagomba-Mamprusi area into

the Voltaic region displayed particularly interesting characteristics, which allow us to formulate

certain principles of state formation in West