Rue des étoiles (Ouagadougou)
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Overview
About this site
Overview
La Rue des Étoiles (Street of Stars) is a cultural initiative on Avenue Kwame Nkrumah in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso. It was launched in 2025 by the Académie des Sotigui and honours Burkinabé and African figures who have marked the history of the continent in various fields.
It is marked by stelae, each paying tribute to one person, and is therefore a modern memorial and not an ancient monument.
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Rue des étoiles (Ouagadougou)
In February 2025 the Académie des Sotigui started the project in order to revitalise Avenue Kwame Nkrumah, a landmark of Ouagadougou.
HistorySources for this section
Sources for this section
In February 2025 the Académie des Sotigui started the project in order to revitalise Avenue Kwame Nkrumah, a landmark of Ouagadougou. The project aims to celebrate Burkinabé and African excellence by drawing attention to influential figures in several fields. The official inauguration took place in February 2025, in the presence of many authorities and cultural figures.
DescriptionSources for this section
Sources for this section
The street is marked by stelae installed along the avenue, each honouring a notable person. For the first edition, 140 figures from the arts, culture, science, sport, Pan-Africanism and the defence and security forces were selected.
InterpretationSources for this section
Sources for this section
The people honoured are chosen by set criteria: excellence in a specific field (art, sport, science, culture, defence and others); a notable act in the military or civic domain; and a notable contribution to African knowledge and cultural heritage.
ContextSources for this section
Sources for this section
The Atlas applies the heading “stele” to a very mixed group of monuments, and the type should be read as a form and not as a date.
Tradition and region
About this kind of monument
Steles in Europe and elsewhere
A stele (or stela) is a stone or wooden slab, generally taller than it is wide, erected in the ancient world as a monument. The Greek and Roman use is well known. Its surface often has text, ornament, or both, inscribed, carved in relief or painted. Steles were created for many reasons: grave steles served funerary or commemorative purposes, slabs of stone were used as Greek and Roman government notices or as boundary markers, and steles were occasionally erected as memorials to battles.
The Atlas applies the heading to a very mixed group of monuments: carved standing stones of the Bronze Age and Iron Age, funerary steles of the classical and medieval periods, Roman milestones and cippi, medieval cross-stones, wayside crosses, and modern memorials. A reader should treat the type "stele" as a form and not as a date. Prehistoric steles, such as the statue menhirs of the Copper Age, are usually carved with a human figure and sometimes with weapons.
Because many steles carry a date or the name of a ruler, they are among the best dated stone monuments; for those that do not, the Atlas gives a broad range based on style.
The best-known examples show the range. The Gwanggaeto Stele in China, erected in 414 CE, is the largest engraved stele in the world; Maya stelae of the Classic Period (about 250 to 900 CE) are tall sculpted shafts paired with low circular altars; the first Armenian khachkars date from the ninth century; and the Grave Stele of Hegeso in Athens was carved about 410 to 400 BCE.
When visiting, read the inscription and note the carved figure or symbol.
Paraphrased from Wikipedia: Stele, Wikipedia: Statue menhir, Wikipedia: Menhir, Wikipedia: Wayside cross, Wikipedia: Grave Stele of Hegeso, Wikipedia: Gwanggaeto Stele · CC BY-SA 4.0
From the article
Dated moments in the story
- 2025
Lancée en 2025 par l'Académie des Sotigui, elle vise à honorer des personnalités burkinabé et africaines ayant marqué l'histoire du continent dans divers domaines.
Source - 2025
En février 2025, l'Académie des Sotigui a initié le projet de la Rue des Étoiles dans le but de revitaliser l'avenue Kwame Nkrumah, un lieu emblématique de Ouagadougou.
Source - 2025
La cérémonie officielle d'inauguration de la Rue des Étoiles a eu lieu en février 2025, en présence de nombreuses autorités et figures culturelles.
Source
Photographs
1 photograph, each with its author and licence
Where it stands
Burkina Faso
The pin marks the monument itself — its exact point.
- Coordinates
- 12°21′29″ N, 1°31′00″ WFor a GPS or map app: 12.35802, -1.51680
Access is as our sources describe it; we have not visited the site to check.
Nearby
The closest sites in the Atlas, by straight line.
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Sources
Every record behind this page, with the link it came from.
1 source behind this page
- 01Wikidata Q132686180wikidata.org
Image files
- La rue des étoiles à Ouagadougou.jpgKONATEYaya226CC0
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Credit
Text, licence and sources
Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Rue des étoiles (Ouagadougou)" (French), licensed CC BY-SA 4.0; authors are listed in the page history. Reused under CC BY-SA 4.0. Read on Wikipedia · Edit history and authors