Draw Burkina Faso from Memory
Test your geography knowledge by drawing Burkina Faso from memory on a blank canvas. Shape comparison scoring is coming soon — practice Burkina Faso's outline in the meantime.
Related Countries in Africa
Why Burkina Faso Looks the Way It Does
Three names in a century tell most of this country's story. France carved the colony of Upper Volta out of the savanna inside the great bend of the Niger in 1919, dissolved it in 1932 and handed the pieces to three neighbors, restored it in 1947, and in 1984 the government of Thomas Sankara renamed it Burkina Faso, usually rendered as 'land of upright people'.
The first name came from water. Three rivers called the Volta — Black, White and Red — drain the plateau southward to the Gulf of Guinea, and the French named the territory after them. The second and third names came from politics: the 1932 dissolution was a cost-cutting exercise that folded a poor landlocked colony into its neighbors, and the 1947 restoration reversed it once the region's labor and strategic value became clear. Neither episode had anything to do with where a border ought to run.
What the map shows instead is a savanna platform between the Sahel and the Guinea coast, settled for centuries by the Mossi kingdoms, whose resistance held up the French advance into the 1890s. Because nothing dramatic happens on any edge — no coast, no great river boundary, no mountain wall — the lines were drawn by administrative convenience and later argued over by neighbors: a strip of ground on the southeastern frontier was fought over with Mali in 1985 and divided by the International Court of Justice the following year.
Set down a soft box with one heavy southern curve and you are already close to right: a landlocked block whose borders record three reorganizations by a colonial office and almost nothing about the ground itself.
Quick Facts: Burkina Faso
- Capital
- Ouagadougou
- Continent
- Africa
- Area
- 272,967 km²
What is "Drawing Burkina Faso from Memory"?
Drawing Burkina Faso from memory means sketching Burkina Faso's border on a blank canvas without looking at a map. Focus on the country's distinctive features and overall shape — that's what pushes your accuracy score up.
Burkina Faso sits in Africa and is rated ★★ out of 4 for drawing difficulty — a manageable, compact shape for a first try. It connects to 5 neighboring country pages on this site. Border comparison scoring for Burkina Faso is coming soon — the shape tips below will get your mental map sharp before it lands.
Burkina Faso is a landlocked, roughly rectangular block in West Africa, slightly tilted and irregular, with its southern border dipping and bulging against Ghana and its northern edge running straight along Mali.
How to Draw Burkina Faso from Memory
Step 01
Begin with a broad, boxy rectangle floating in the middle of West Africa, wider from east to west than it is tall. Burkina Faso is landlocked and blocky, so the first move is to set down four rough corners and then smooth the shape into a slightly tilted slab; it has no coastline at all to anchor it, so the rectangle is everything.
Step 02
Give the rectangle its one strong curve: the southern border against Ghana dips down in a broad bulge before rising again, while the northern border with Mali stays comparatively flat. That single asymmetrical southern curve is what keeps the block from looking like a plain square; the western and eastern sides stay the straightest.
Step 03
Lock the outline using the countries that ring it: Niger and Mali run along the top, Ghana dips into the south, and Togo and Benin trim the southeast corner. Since Burkina Faso is entirely surrounded by land, fitting it snugly between these neighbors is the surest way to place it; trace the whole ring and the interior falls into place.
A boxy, landlocked rectangle in West Africa, tilted slightly, with the southern side notched by Ghana's top and the northern edge running straight toward Mali.
How Burkina Faso Is Scored
When you hit Reveal & compare, your sketch is measured against Burkina Faso's real border, point by point, in the same canvas space. Three numbers come back:
Matched — the share of the real border your drawing covered. 100% means you traced every part of the outline.
Extra — how much of your drawing fell outside the true border. This catches sketches that are too big, mispositioned, or drifting off.
Missed — the border you didn't reach, the flip side of Matched.
The three combine into a single 0–100 accuracy score. The rating names give you a target: 80+ is Cartographer, 60+ is Border patrol, 40+ is Getting there, and below 40 is Try again.
Automated scoring for Burkina Faso is coming soon. When it ships, drawing large and centered will be the fastest way to raise your score, because a small sketch overlaps less of the true border.
FAQ
- Which countries are Burkina Faso's neighbors?
- Burkina Faso connects to 5 neighboring country pages on this site: Mali, Niger, Benin, Togo, and Ghana. Once you've drawn Burkina Faso, try a neighbor next — drawing two shapes side by side locks both into your mental map.
- How hard is it to draw Burkina Faso from memory?
- Burkina Faso is rated ★★ out of 4 for drawing difficulty — a manageable, compact shape for a first try. Automated scoring is coming soon, so use the shape tips below to practice in the meantime.
- How is my Burkina Faso drawing scored?
- Once Burkina Faso's border data goes live, your sketch will be compared with the real border point by point. You'll get a 0–100 score built from Matched, Missed, and Extra, plus a clear overlay showing where you nailed it and where you drifted.
- Can I draw Burkina Faso on mobile?
- Yes — Burkina Faso works on desktop, tablet, and mobile. Draw with your finger on touchscreens; no app download is required and it runs directly in your browser.