1980 Upper Voltan coup d'état 1980 Upper Voltan coup d'état The 1980 Upper Voltan coup d'état took place on 25 November 1980 in the Republic of Upper Volta (today Burkina Faso). Following a long period of drought, famine, popular unrest and labour strikes, Colonel Saye Zerbo overthrew President Sangoulé Lamizana, another military leader. Zerbo himself would be overthrown only two years later. Upper Volta had gained independence from France in 1960, after which President Maurice Yaméogo set about creating a single-party dictatorship ruled by his own Voltaic Democratic Union. Following several rigged elections and a new austerity budget being instituted, the powerful trade unions rose
Lake Volta Lake Volta Lake Volta is the largest reservoir, man-made lake, in terms of surface area contained behind the Akosombo Dam. It is completely within the country of Ghana and has a surface area of . Stretching from Akosombo in the south to the northern part of the country, it is one of the largest man-made reservoirs in the world. Lake Volta lies along the Greenwich meridian, and just six degrees of latitude north of the Equator. The lake's northernmost point is close to the town of Yapei, and its southernmost extreme is at the Akosombo Dam, downstream from Yapei. Akosombo