Ouédraogo, Progenitor of the Mossi Kingdoms
Mossi · mortal · Mossi traditional religion; pre Islamic and continuing · Recorded classification
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
Children
Domains
- kingship
- conquest
Powers
- to found ruling lineages and transmit chiefly authority to his descendants
Relations
- father of: Naaba Zoungrana of TenkodogoZoungrana, who ruled at Tenkodogo, is remembered as Ouédraogo's son and successor.Yamba Tiendrébéogo (Larhallé Naba), Histoire et coutumes royales des Mossi de Ouagadougou, rédaction de Robert Pageard, Ouagadougou, 1964 (secondary)
Sources
- Ouédraogo, son of Yennenga and Rialé, is the semi-legendary first Naaba and progenitor of all Mossi royal dynasties, who established himself at Tenkodogo.: Elliott P. Skinner, The Mossi of the Upper Volta: The Political Development of a Sudanese People, Stanford University Press, 1964 (secondary); Michel Izard, Introduction à l'histoire des royaumes mossi, Recherches Voltaïques 12, CNRS/CVRS, 1970 (secondary)