Joseph Ouédraogo (11 January 1919 – 1988) was a Burkinabè trade unionist and politician, active during the last years of the

French Upper Volta Upper Volta (french: Haute-Volta) was a colony of French West Africa established in 1919 in the territory occupied by present-day Burkina Faso. It was formed from territories that had been part of the colonies of Upper Senegal and Niger and th ...

and subsequently in the

Republic of Upper Volta The Republic of Upper Volta (french: République de Haute-Volta) was a landlocked West African country established on 11 December 1958 as a self-governing colony within the French Community. Before becoming autonomous, it had been part of the ...

Biography

Joseph Ouédraogo was born on 11 January 1919 in Saaba, French West Africa. From 1929 to 1933 he received his primary education at the Catholic Mission School of

Ouagadougou Ouagadougou ( , , ) is the capital and largest city of Burkina Faso and the administrative, communications, cultural, and economic centre of the nation. It is also the country's largest city, with a population of 2,415,266 in 2019. The city's ...

and before undertaking Secondary studies at the Pabré Undergraduate Seminary from 1933 to 1939. Ouédraogo became a Catholic labor activist and was a member of the

Voltaic Union Voltaic Union (french: Union Voltaïque) was a political party in Upper Volta. It was formed soon after World War II on the initiative of the French governor Albert Mouragues, and Mouragues was accused of interference in the June 1948 local ele ...

after

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

. In 1954, he was elected Secretary-General of the Catholic ''Union nationale locale des syndicats chrétiens de Haute Volta'', out of which grew the ''Confédération africaine des travailleurs chrétiens'' in 1956, which was renamed the Confédération africaine des travailleurs croyants in 1957 to accommodate non-Catholic workers. He was a member of the Territorial Assembly of Upper Volta from 1952 to 1959, and President of the Assembly in 1952–53. In 1956 he joined the Unified Democratic Party (PDU) as a supporter of Ouëzzin Coulibaly. Ouédraogo was selected to be a member of the Senate of the French Community. He was mayor of

from 1956 to 1959. He was Minister of Finance, 1957–58 and Minister of the Interior, 1958–59. In August 1959

Maurice Yaméogo Maurice Yaméogo (31 December 1921 – 15 September 1993) was the first President of the Republic of Upper Volta, now called Burkina Faso, from 1959 until 1966. "Monsieur Maurice" embodied the Voltaic state at the moment of independence. However ...

forced Ouédraogo out of office as mayor of Ouagadougou, and after Yaméogo became President in 1960 Ouédraogo was interned for a while. Ouédraogo was a leader of the syndicalist general strike and 1966 military coup against Yaméogo. In 1970 Ouédraogo became Secretary-General of the Union démocratique voltaïque (UDV), and he was elected to the new

National Assembly In politics, a national assembly is either a unicameral legislature, the lower house of a bicameral legislature, or both houses of a bicameral legislature together. In the English language it generally means "an assembly composed of the rep ...

in the December 1970 elections. In the early 1970s Ouédraogo and Gérard Ouédraogo (unrelated) were rival leaders of the Union démocratique voltaïque (UDV): an agreement that Gérard would serve as prime minister and Joseph as president of the National Assembly broke down in 1974, and in February 1974 the army stepped in to suspend the 1970 constitution and restore military rule. Joseph Ouédraogo gained 16.6% in the first round of the 1978 presidential election, and did not continue to the second round.Dieter Nohlen, Michael Krennerich & Bernhard Thibaut, ''Elections in Africa: a data handbook'', 1999, p. 146 He died in 1988.

Citations

References

* * * 1919 births 1988 deaths Mayors of Ouagadougou Unified Democratic Party politicians Presidents of the National Assembly of Burkina Faso Members of the National Assembly of Burkina Faso {{BurkinaFaso-politician-stub