Joseph Ouédraogo was a Burkinabè trade unionist politician, active during the last years of the French Upper Volta

French Upper Volta

Upper Volta was a colony of French West Africaestablished on March 1, 1919, from territories that had been part of the colonies of Upper Senegal and Niger and the Côte d'Ivoire...

 and subsequently in the Republic of Upper Volta

Republic of Upper Volta

The Republic of Upper Volta was established on December 11, 1958, as a self-governing colony within the French Community. Before attaining autonomy it had been French Upper Volta and part of the French Union. On August 5, 1960 it attained full independence from France.Thomas Sankara came to power...

.

Educated in Roman Catholic schools, Ouédraogo became a Catholic labor activist and was a member of the Voltaic Union

Voltaic Union

Voltaic Union was a political party in Upper Volta. It was formed soon after World War II on the initiative of the French governor Albert Mouragues, and Mouragues was accused of interference in the June 1948 local elections on behalf of the party...

 after World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

. In 1954, he was elected Secretary-General of the Catholic union nationale locale des syndicats chrétiens de Haute Volta, out of which grew the Confédération africaine des travailleurs chrétiens in 1956, which was renamed the Confédération africaine des travailleurs croyants in 1957 to accommodate non-Catholic workers. He was a member of the Territorial Assembly of Upper Volta from 1952 to 1959, and President of the Assembly in 1952-53. In 1956 he joined the Unified Democratic Party

Unified Democratic Party

Unified Democratic Party , was, despite its name, not a political party but an electoral alliance of two parties, the Voltaic Democratic Union and the Social Party for the Emancipation of the African Masses , ahead of the 1958 territorial assembly elections in Upper Volta...

 (PDU) as a supporter of Ouëzzin Coulibaly. Ouédraogo was selected to be a member of the Senate of the French Community

French Community

The French Community was an association of states known in French simply as La Communauté. In 1958 it replaced the French Union, which had itself succeeded the French colonial empire in 1946....

. He was mayor of Ouagadougou

Ouagadougou

Ouagadougou is the capital of Burkina Faso and the administrative, communications, cultural and economic center of the nation. It is also the country's largest city, with a population of 1,475,223 . The city's name is often shortened to Ouaga. The inhabitants are called ouagalais...

 from 1956 to 1959. He was Minister of Finance, 1957-58 and Minister of the Interior, 1958-59. In August 1959 Maurice Yaméogo

Maurice Yaméogo

Maurice Yaméogo was the first President of the Republic of Upper Volta, now called Burkina Faso. He proclaimed the independence of the country on August 5, 1960 and also tried to create a union between Cote d'Ivoire and Upper-Volta...

 forced Ouédraogo out of office as mayor of Ouagadougou, and after Yaméogo became President in 1960 Ouédraogo was interned for a while. Ouédraogo was a leader of the syndicalist general strike and 1966 military coup against Yaméogo. In 1970 Ouédraogo became Secretary-General of the Union démocratique voltaïque (UDV), and he was elected to the new National Assembly in the December 1970 elections. In the early 1970s Ouédraogo and Gérard Ouédraogo

Gerard Ouedraogo

Gerard Ouedraogo is a politician from Burkina Faso who served in the French National Assembly from 1956-1959 .- references :...

 (unrelated) were rival leaders of the Union démocratique voltaïque (UDV): an agreement that Gérard would serve as prime minister and Joseph as president of the National assembly broke down in 1974, and in February 1974 the army stepped in to suspend the 1970 constitution and restore military rule.

Joseph Ouédraogo gained 16.6% in the first round of the 1978 presidential election

Upper Volta presidential election, 1978

Presidential elections were held in the Republic of Upper Volta on 14 May 1978, with a second round on 28 May after no candidate won more than 50% in the first round. The result was a victory for independent candidate Sangoulé Lamizana , who won 56.3% of votes in the second round...

, and did not continue to the second round.