Republic of Upper Volta President and the National Assembly for a term of five years. Shortly after coming to power, Yaméogo banned all political parties other than the Alliance for Democracy. Thomas Sankara came to power by a coup on August 4, 1983. After coming to power, he formed the National Council of the Revolution (NCRC), and became the president of the twenty-man council. Under his rule, the name of the state was changed on August 4, 1984, from Upper Volta to Burkina Faso, meaning "the homeland of upright men." From 1958 to 1960, the Republic of Upper Volta was headed by a High
Languages of the Central African Republic Languages of the Central African Republic The official languages of the Central African Republic are French and Sangho. In total there are about 72 languages in the country. In the CAR, French is the language of writing and formal situations. In 2005 it was estimated that 22.5% of the population could speak French. Sangho has about 350,000 native speakers. It has become the lingua franca of the country. It became a national language in 1963 and an official language (alongside French) in 1991. It is estimated that 92% of the CAR's population is able to speak Sangho. The language has