The Road Back Has Many Lanes — and Bobo-Dioulasso Wants to Build the On-Ramp

 

 There is a particular kind of fatigue that comes from living between two places. It is the fatigue of distance—of the overnight bus from Abidjan, the border crossing in the middle of the night, the cheap hotel room near a market. It is the phone vibrating with messages from home: “Awa is sick.” “School fees are coming due.” “We need cement.” It is the fatigue of pulling two shifts in Paris while thinking in CFA francs, of harvest work in Italy while saving every euro, of night jobs in America while the mind stays in Bobo, Ouaga, Kaya, Banfora.

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And yet—despite the fatigue—people keep building. Not with speeches. With small transfers. With sacks of rice. With a repaired roof. With a cousin enrolled in school. With a shop opened. With a call that says: “I can help.”

That is the real story of Burkina Faso’s diaspora: not luxury, not celebrities, not the headlines about “brain drain,” but a million and a half ordinary Burkinabè who have become a quiet infrastructure for the families and neighborhoods they love.

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Most Burkinabè Abroad Do Not Live in the West

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Most live in Africa, especially West Africa—in countries like Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Mali, Niger, Togo, Benin, Nigeria, Gabon. A smaller share is in Europe—especially in France and Italy—and a smaller share still in North America. The best available estimates place the total number of Burkinabè living outside Burkina Faso at around 2 million. This is not a minor group. It is almost a second country, in motion. Today, a new idea is asking the diaspora—especially those who work with their hands and their courage—to do something bigger than remittances, without disrespecting remittances. (Burkinabè government estimate up to 16 million according to the 2024 statistical yearbook of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, a figure used in some official communications at the end of 2025.)

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At the Belgian Embassy in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, Dec. 19, 2025

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The idea is simple to describe, hard to deliver, and exactly the kind of thing a serious country needs:

A Diaspora Village in Bobo-Dioulasso, with an incubation campus where small businesses and startups can grow; where skills circulate; where you can land, get grounded, and work effectively—even if you only return for two weeks at a time.

This is not a museum of nostalgia. It is a functioning neighborhood: housing, training rooms, workshops, reliable internet, reliable electricity, and a concrete system that turns “I’d like to help” into “Here is how we do it.” A place designed for the diaspora we actually have.

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When people talk about “diaspora engagement,” they often picture a very specific person: a degree-holder in a suit, settled in Europe, returning with investors.

That person exists. And that person matters. But they are not the majority.

The majority of Burkinabè abroad are doing what Burkinabè have always done: surviving with dignity, working hard, sending support, and moving forward. Many are traders, drivers, domestic workers, artisans, security guards, construction workers, market vendors, farmers, loaders—people whose education is not always “formal,” but whose intelligence shows up in the trades that keep cities standing.

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Creating a diasporic village of mutual aid and forward motion: digital spaces, a living laboratory for regenerative futures, rooted in Ubuntu.

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The Diaspora Village is built for that reality.

It should be a place where:

• someone in Abidjan can invest in a simple, secure housing plan without needing “connections,”

• someone in Accra can join a cooperative for storage, transport, or agro-processing and see results,

• someone in Paris can mentor a project leader in Bobo without being asked to “save the country,”

• someone in Milan can open a supply chain for export and know the paperwork will be handled properly,

• someone in America can support a business with clear, transparent follow-up—not vague promises.​

 

A village designed for the diaspora that carries Burkina Faso every month—often in silence, sometimes in pain—with amounts that will never make the front page.

 

Street graffiti art - Bobo

 

Why Bobo?

Because Bobo is not just a city. It is a rhythm.

Workshops and markets, trucks and trade routes, food and music, apprentices and repairmen, fabric sellers and mechanics’ garages. It is a place where the economy is concrete—where you can point to what you built.

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A diaspora campus in Bobo is not a fantasy of “becoming the Silicon Valley.” It is strengthening what already exists—turning daily hustle into activity that scales.

The first successes will not necessarily be glamorous. They will be useful:

a cold chain that prevents fruit from rotting before it is sold; packaging that makes local products export-ready; logistics tools that reduce losses and delays; training programs that produce technicians, not just “agro-entrepreneurs”; companies that hire.

That is what growth looks like in real life: not noise, but reliability.

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Another Way to Think About Help

For years, the diaspora has supported Burkina Faso mostly in one direction: from abroad to home, from worker to family, from the individual to the urgent.

That support is honorable. It is also exhausting. And it rarely becomes capital.

The Diaspora Village aims to build a second channel—help that becomes an asset:

money that becomes a house, not only a month of survival;
skills that become a workshop, not only a favor;
a diaspora network that becomes a market, not only a WhatsApp group.

The goal is not to ask people to stop helping their families. The goal is to make that help stronger, by turning part of it into durable structures.

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The Emotional Truth Nobody Says Out Loud

Many people abroad want to contribute, but they do not trust the process.

They have seen projects announced and then abandoned. They have heard about problems on the ground, committee politics, money that disappears. They have received: “Send it, we’ll handle it,” and then watched the story change.

“Live better for less” — modern housing in green nature, within a warm francophone culture, with senior support, nearby medical care, organic slow-food, for about €800 per month, all included.

That is why the Diaspora Village must sell something more important than buildings.

It must sell credibility.

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Our promise is simple: zero opacity.

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Diaspora funds are managed through an investment structure in Dubai, with milestone-based disbursement rules, independent audits, and public reporting. The housing and jobs, meanwhile, are built in Bobo-Dioulasso. Digital traceability strengthens oversight—and audits guarantee it.

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“Dubai to secure governance, segregate funds, audit, publish, disburse by milestones.”

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That means clear governance, audits, transparency on land, published reports, visible progress, and simple ways to participate that do not punish those who have “little.” Because most diaspora contributions are not huge. They are sacrifices. And sacrifices deserve respect.

 

An Invitation Not Reserved for the Wealthy

If you are Burkinabè in Africa—working, trading, moving—this project does not ask you to be a philanthropist. It invites you to be a co-builder of a place that protects your effort: a place where your money can become something tangible, where your children can be trained, where your visits can be useful, where your return—temporary or permanent—does not feel like a leap into chaos.

If you are Burkinabè in France or Italy—tired of being asked for money without ever seeing a plan—this is a project that should finally speak your language: structure, follow-through, execution.

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If you are Burkinabè in America—far away, busy, sometimes disconnected—this is a project that can make distance less painful: mentorship that genuinely helps, traceable support, and market bridges that turn “made in Burkina” into “sold abroad.”

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This is not a call to perfect people. It is a call to participate.

Because the truth is that Burkina Faso’s future will be built by ordinary people with extraordinary consistency—the same consistency the diaspora already practices every month.

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The village is a promise. The proof must be visible.

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In Doha, last November, the people who started this conversation were not promising miracles.

They were asking a simple, decisive question: What if we stopped asking the diaspora only to send money—and built a place where the diaspora can build?

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Bobo-Dioulasso is ready for this experiment. A village is not a slogan. A village is where people are known, where effort is visible, where something can grow because people return, again and again. The diaspora has been returning for decades. It now deserves an address: Bobo-Dioulasso.

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Our Vision: Citizen D’

 

We believe in a world where progress frees the human being instead of exhausting them.

Citizen D’ — Samandéni Basin concept, 40 km from Bobo-Dioulasso, the economic capital of Burkina Faso

At the heart of Africa, Burkina Faso embodies a forward path founded on respect for the land, for life, and for communities.

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Our vision is to create places where the diaspora, elders, and visitors from around the world meet to live differently.

Places of chosen slowness, transmission, creation, and solidarity.

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Youth—the country’s wealth and future—are at the center of our commitment.

Training and supporting young entrepreneurs, creating and accelerating local employment: this is our vocation.

We also support international professional mobility by facilitating access to jobs in developed countries, in order to generate multiplied incomes, transfers of skills, and durable impact for communities of origin.

We cultivate an art of living rooted in African wisdom and open to the cultures of the world.

Nature is an ally there; food is alive; longevity becomes harmony.

We work toward a lasting happiness—shared, and deeply human.

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Written by Ônomad

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At the Samandéni Basin, 40 km from Bobo-Dioulasso, Dec. 22, 2025

A 14-Day Exploration of Burkina Faso’s Emerging Innovation Ecosystem

Ouagadougou – Bobo-Dioulasso | July 1–14, 2026

We welcome:

• Burkinabè diaspora & returning families

• Local community partners

• Volunteers, teachers & NGOs

• Digital nomads, artists, makers

• Construction technicians, health professionals

• Travelers ready to contribute

We offer residencies. If you have a project you would like to test, or if you want to bring regenerative concepts to life, send a DM so we can talk.

• citizenDburkina@gmail.com (multilingual)

 

For more information:
amicalburkinabelgique@gmail.com
Boureima Quedraogo +32 485 14 11 89 (WhatsApp)
AMIRB-ASBL Association — United by our roots, committed to the future (Belgium)