The two former colonies were linked by an important trade route crossing their common border and passing through Wa, a town in northern Ghana which played a crucial role in the rise of the Ahmadiyya in Burkina Faso.
When he arrived in Wa, which today lies in the Upper West Region of Ghana, he became an Ahmadi Muslim on hearing the Ahmadiyya teachings.
The inhabitants of Kougny took this as an opportunity to loot and bully the Ahmadiyya Community, which happened to be still confined to the extended Barro family.
[2] In a separate development, Yusuf Kanate, a local from Ouahabou, and a seasonal traveller to gold mining sites in Ghana, converted to Ahmadiyya in 1949 whilst in Wa.
Kanate’s town of Ouahabou was formerly founded in 1850 by Al Haji Mamadou Karantao, a descendant of Marka Muslims from northwest Mali.
[2][3] A pioneer of the Ahmadiyya movement in the Koho-Boromo-Ouahabou department in the Balé Province, the community of Ahmadi Muslims Kanate initiated remained small.
As a consequence he left his hometown and established Hérédougou, a village which today lies in the Pâ department, roughly 5 km from Ouahabou.