Burkina Faso’s Ministry of Secondary Education has launched a sweeping overhaul of the national school curriculum, introducing 54 new history, geography and citizenship lessons across all grade levels from CP1 to Terminale starting this school year.
The move marks a definitive break from colonial-era framing in African education. Minister of Secondary Education Moumouni Zoungrana stated that previous textbooks utilized vocabulary designed to “infantilize” and “animalize” Africans in the teaching of their own heritage. Under the new curriculum, historical European figures previously labeled as “explorers” or “conquerors” will now be formally designated as “spies” and “invaders.”
“Those who came to conquer Africa, we call them explorers, conquerors. Were they conquerors? They were spies. They were invaders,” Zoungrana declared during the official announcement on September 7.
The updated history modules will replace European-centered topics, such as the French Revolution, with foundational African milestones, indigenous resistance movements, major global revolutions, and African contributions to science and technology. Students will also undertake an in-depth study of the Charter of Kurukan Fuga—a 13th-century constitution created by the Mali Empire in 1236 following the Battle of Kirina.
Codifying principles of governance, women’s rights and diplomacy, the charter will be taught as a foundational document of West African political thought.
In geography, instructional focus will pivot away from traditional Western paradigms to center on Burkina Faso’s domestic resource strengths and regional partnerships within the Alliance of Sahel States (AES).
Educational specialists are finalizing the core instructional content, and comprehensive guidebooks are being distributed to educators nationwide ahead of implementation. Officials emphasize that the transformation aims to instill historic self-reliance and national pride, replacing legacy narratives of passive colonization with an accurate accounting of African governance and sovereignty.
