Born: Unknown, Burkina Faso
Died: Unknown
Country most active: Burkina Faso
Also known as: NA
A legendary figure in West Africa, Yennenga has come to symbolise the epitome of the female warrior, a free and independent woman. Believed to have lived between the 1300s and 1400s, Yennenga was the mother of Ouedraogo, who founded the dynasties of Burkina Faso’s Moose chieftains. ‘Moose’ is the plural of ‘Moaga’ in Moore, one of the dominant languages in Burkina Faso. Moose people account for a large part of the population in the country today. She is believed to have lived between the 1300s and 1400s. Their descendants still embody political power among the Moose in Burkina Faso.
Yennenga was a famous warrior and the princess of Gambaga, an area in the north of present-day Ghana. One day, tired of the warrior chieftain role in which her father had cast her, she left, riding off on horse into a forest and far away from her village. She met a young elephant hunter called Riale and fell in love. The named their son Ouedraogo (‘male horse’ in Moore, the Moose language) in honor of the horse that had brought Yennenga to Riale.