Zorgho is a town in the

Zorgho Department Zorgho is a department or commune of Ganzourgou Province in central-eastern Burkina Faso Burkina Faso is a landlocked country in West Africa, bordered by Mali to the northwest, Niger to the northeast, Benin to the southeast, Togo and Ghana ...

Ganzourgou Province Ganzourgou () is a Provinces of Burkina Faso, province of Burkina Faso and is in Plateau-Central Region. The capital of Ganzourgou is Zorgho, which is along the road between Ouagadougou and Niamey, Niger. Other important localities in the provinc ...

Burkina Faso Burkina Faso is a landlocked country in West Africa, bordered by Mali to the northwest, Niger to the northeast, Benin to the southeast, Togo and Ghana to the south, and Ivory Coast to the southwest. It covers an area of 274,223 km2 (105,87 ...

. Zorgho is the capital of Zorgho Department and Ganzourgou Province, and has a population of 35,398.

Culture

Dances

There is a traditional Mossi dance from the town of Zorgho called ''warba''. The dance involves the dancers moving one after another, shaking their bottoms and shoulders quickly. It was traditionally accompanied by the ''bendré'', a

gourd Gourds include the fruits of some flowering plant species in the family Cucurbitaceae, particularly '' Cucurbita'' and '' Lagenaria''. The term refers to a number of species and subspecies, many with hard shells, and some without. Many gourds ha ...

drum with a sheep's skin.

Nabasga Festival

Around the first week of July every year, the customary festival of ''Nabasga'' is held in the town of Zorgho to pay homage to ancestors. This festival, held by the chief of the town, the ''Naba Sanem'' of Zorgho, consists of a ritual of sacrifice to thank the ancestors for the past season and implore their blessings for the one that begins. The party begins with a secret retreat of the chief from the village for a few days. His return to the palace marks the official beginning of the festivities. On the morning of Saturday, the dance troupes set up in the vicinity of the royal palace. ''Warba'', ''maranse'', ''yarma'', ''liwaga'', ''kiègba'' and other dances are performed to lively music. Meanwhile, the chief, with his notables, receive hundreds of high-ranking guests, arriving from across the area to his palace. On the evening of Saturday around 5 pm, the chief leaves the town on horseback, accompanied by his ministers, his notables and some women of the royal family, each carrying a basket on their head. It simulates a journey whose destination is an old market place located a few hundred meters from the palace, where he makes three laps before making the sacrifice. In the vicinity of the path leading to this place, in front of and behind the chief, thousands of people make the movement to observe the ritual. After the chief returns to the palace, some go to see the dancers, and others go to the bar to drink beer. The party officially ends with the tour of the market by the "queens", 3 days later. An appointment is then made for the festival of the next year.

References

External links

Satellite map at Maplandia.com
Populated places in the Plateau-Central Region Ganzourgou Province {{Ganzourgou-geo-stub