Ouagadougou

Ouagadougou (pronounced OOH-AH-GAH-DOO-GOO) is the capital city of Burkina Faso. Locals sometimes shorten their cities name to simply "Ouga". The official language is French, since Burkina Faso (Upper Volta) was a French colony for many years.

Ouagadougou is one of the oldest capital cities in Sub-Saharan Africa and has a population of over 1.2 million people. The tropical climate has made Ouagadougu a large marketplace for tropical foods such as bananas, coffee, silk, and papayas. There is a large zoo and safari not far from the city center.