Upper Volta

Proper noun

Upper Volta or the Upper Volta

1. A territory now coextensive with Burkina Faso.
   • The book [Africa Dances] describes a comparatively small part of Africa. Mr. [Geoffrey] Gorer’s travels took him to Senegal, the Upper Volta, Dahomey, Gold Coast and Ivory Coast, and in the company of a Negro dancer, a man whom he met in Paris, he visited many tribes and observed their customs...1935 November 24, Edward Frank Allen, “The Africa That Dances for Strangers […]”, in The New York Times, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC
   • In 1903 the French chose the area as the endpoint for a railway connecting Upper Volta (now Burkina Faso) to the coast, and a small town soon developed around the train station; but without a viable port, it grew slowly at first. In 1934, shortly after the completion of the rail link to the Upper...1999, Elizabeth Heath, “Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire”, in Kwame Anthony Appiah, Henry Louis Gates, Jr., editors, Africana: The Encyclopedia of the African and African American Experience, New York, N.Y....
   1. (historical) A colony of French West Africa established in 1919 in the territory occupied by present-day Burkina Faso, dissolved in 1932, revived in 1947 as a part of the French Union (with its previous boundaries), and in 1958 reconstituted as a self-governing country (sense 1.2).
      • Broadcasting, or long-distance transmission, is accomplished by means of drums, the messages being relayed over tremendous distances with great rapidity. By “drum talk,” as it is sometimes called, news of the approaching visit of American notables to Marshal Lyautey in Morocco was learned on the...1923 April 7, “Drum Propaganda Stirs Up Africans […]”, in The New York Times, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC
      • In 1919 the French made Upper Volta a separate colony in order to better control its people and develop its economy. […] By 1931 Upper Volta was not only famine-stricken but also bankrupt, and in September 1932 the country was dismantled and divided up among neighboring French colonies.1999, Roanne Edwards, Susanne Freidberg, “Burkina Faso”, in Kwame Anthony Appiah, Henry Louis Gates, Jr., editors, Africana: The Encyclopedia of the African and African American Experience, New York...
   2. Former name of Burkina Faso: a country in West Africa, used from 1958 to 1984.
      • The Upper Volta was the eleventh former territory of seventeen that approved the new French Constitution to set itself up as a republic.1958 December 12, “New Republic Formed: Upper Volta Decides Status in the French Community”, in The New York Times, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC
      • THE most important book in the field, however, appeared in 1943. One of the first attempts at religious sociology, it was provocatively entitled, “France, Pays de Mission?” (“France: Mission Country?”). Its authors, two young abbés, Henri Godin and Yves Daniel, argued effectively that France...1965 December 26, John Cogley, “They Are Priests and Workers, Both […]”, in The New York Times, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC