Burundi

Like neighbouring Rwanda, Burundi gained its independence from Belgium on 1 July in 1962. Also like Rwanda, the population was largely made up of Hutus and Tutsis (and the earliest inhabitants, the Twa) with Tutsis gaining control. The country was an independence kingdom from the sixteenth century onwards, and came under colonial control in 1903, when it was made part of the German empire, passing to Belgian control after World War I—again, like its neighbour, Rwanda.

The country was visited by Europeans in 1856, but resisted outside influence—when the Germans arrived, the Burundian king Mwezi Gisado opposed colonisation and refused to wear European clothing. The Germans used force, and while they did a lot of damage, they didn’t destroy the kings power—changing tack, they backed one of the king’s son-in-laws in a revolt, and then forced Gisabo to agree to German suzerainty in order to put down the revolt.

When independence arrived (or rather, returned) to Burundi, there wasn’t any real history of democratic institutions, and so King Mwambutsa IV established a constitutional monarchy, comprising equal numbers of Hutus and Tutsis. Unfortunately, the assassination of the Hutu prime minister in 1965 saw Hutu revolts and government repression in retaliation.

1972 saw a swathe of killing—there was a Hutu attack on a hill locality which triggered a military reprisal: it’s believed around 200,000 Hutus were killed, with another 150,000 seeking asylum. (In another fine example of the Cold War mentality, the government tried to elicit sympathy from the USA by claiming the Hutu rebels had Communist leanings.)

1976 saw a coup (thankfully bloodless) with Colonel Jean-Baptiste Bagaza taking power. Though it was a military regime, Bagaza still wanted to see reform—land reform, electoral reform and reconciliation. When he was reelected (a one-party affair) in 1984, his human rights record began to crumble. In 1987 Major Pierre Buyoya overthrew him, suspending the 1981 constitution and dissolving opposition parties that had emerged. Again, tensions between ruling Tutsis and the majority Hutus arose, and its believed around 150,000 people were killed.

After the next president, Cyprien Ntaryamira, was killed in the same plane crash as the then-president of Rwanda, violence and unrest arose in Burundi—though without the general massacre that took place in Rwanda. Another coup came about in 1998, and then in 2001 a power-sharing government was established.

I had some trouble finding Burundian poets and poetry—while I was searching, though, I came across an article entitled “Modern Folklore, Identity and Political Change in Burundi” that quoted political poems. The article appeared in African Studies Review in 1997, and was written by Rose M Kadende-Kaiser and Paul K Kaiser. The except of the poem that follows is from this article. The poems author is Cyriaque Sumu, and he has translated it himself from the Kirundi—he is one of the few authors that writes in this indigenous language.

from Burundi, Who Has Bewitched you?

The country is bewitched, there is no doubt about it
Unity is the boat we are still searching for
The rooster and the deluge are with us now
Those in pursuit of power
And those who cheer for power
Those who stick together in sharing the money
The shield of the state
And what not
They have all mixed up and become a mess
That can only be compared to adding “nothing” to “nothing” in the air
That results in “nothing” that bleeds
And all this becomes what we call democracy
So that the enemy can laugh at us

—Cyriaque Sumu
translated from the Kirundi by the author