Ouédraogo, Progenitor of the Mossi Kingdoms

Ouédraogo (Naaba Wedraogo) is the apical ancestor of the Mossi ruling class. His name, meaning 'stallion' in Mooré, commemorates the horse that carried his mother Yennenga from Gambaga to the hunter Rialé. Raised at his grandfather Nedega's court and given horsemen with whom he rode north, he established himself in the region of Tenkodogo, married among the local Bisa and Gurunsi peoples, and fathered the ancestors of the Mossi ruling houses. Every legitimate Mossi chief validates his naam — the ancestrally sanctioned power to rule — by tracing descent from Ouédraogo, and he is honored in royal ancestor observances of the Ouagadougou court. The name remains the most common patronym in Burkina Faso.

Parentage

• Yennenga, Warrior Princess and Mother of the Mossi
• Rialé the Hunter

Children

• Naaba Zoungrana of Tenkodogo

Domains

• kingship
• conquest

Powers

• to found ruling lineages and transmit chiefly authority to his descendants

Relations

• father of: Naaba Zoungrana of Tenkodogo

Sources

• Elliott P. Skinner, The Mossi of the Upper Volta: The Political Development of a Sudanese People, Stanford University Press, 1964
• Michel Izard, Introduction à l'histoire des royaumes mossi, Recherches Voltaïques 12, CNRS/CVRS, 1970