BURUNDI IS A LAND OF STEEP GREEN HILLSIDES, RED EARTH, AND ROCKY PLATEAUS rising from the eastern shores of Lake Tanganyika.
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CLIMATE |
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Its high altitude keeps Burundi relatively cool. The two rainy seasons last from March to May and September to December.
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The Land of the Mwami
The first known inhabitants of Burundi (buh-ROON-dee) were the Twa (TWAH) people, who hunted animals and gathered roots, berries, and wild honey in the forests. The Twa were probably already living in the region in prehistoric times.
According to some historians, the Hutu (HOO-too) moved into Burundi about one thousand years ago and were followed some four hundred years later by the Tutsi (TOOT-see). The Hutu were farmers, part of the migration of Bantu-speaking peoples originally from western Africa (see CAMEROON). The cattle-herding Tutsi may have arrived from the Nile River region to the northeast. However, other historians now argue that ancestors of both the Hutu and Tutsi were already living side by side in Rwanda and Burundi many centuries before these dates.
During the 1500s C.E. in Rwanda, a social division developed between the two peoples (see RWANDA). The Tutsi became lords over the Hutu, protecting them in return for their work on the land. This system, very like the feudal system of medieval Europe, was called buhake (boo-HAH-kae). In Burundi a powerful kingdom developed in the late 1700s, with its capital located in the center of the country at Gitega. It was ruled by a Tutsi king, or mwami (oo-MWAH-mee).
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FACTS AND FIGURES |
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Official name: Republika y’u Burundi Status: Independent state Capital: Bujumbura Major towns: Gitega, Bururi, Ngozi, Muyinga Area: 10,745 square miles (27,835 square kilometers) Population: 8,000,000 Population density: 745 per square mile (287 per square kilometer) Peoples: 85 percent Hutu; 14 percent Tutsi; 1 percent Twa Official languages: Kirundi and French Currency: Burundi franc National day: Independence Day (July 1) Country’s name: Burundi means "southern land" (as opposed to Rwanda, or "northern land") in the Kirundi language.
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In the mid–nineteenth century, power passed to local princes called ganwa (gahn-WAH). Their aristocratic status was thought to be more important than their Tutsi descent, and they ruled over Hutu and Tutsi alike. The Twa were considered to be on the bottom rung of traditional Burundi society. Both Hutu and Tutsi bartered crops and tools with them in exchange for game caught in the forests.
In the late 1800s, European explorers began to penetrate the kingdoms of eastern central Africa. Their chief concern was to bring these lands within the great European empires of the day and to exploit their natural resources.
In 1895 Ruanda-Urundi (Rwanda and Burundi) came under German rule. The Germans supported the existing pattern of rule in the region. However, they did not stay in power long. World War I broke out in 1914. Germany’s enemies fought them in Africa as well as in Europe, and within two years Belgian troops had seized Ruanda-Urundi. After the war the League of Nations decided who would rule Germany’s former colonies in Africa, and Belgium was the country chosen to govern Ruanda-Urundi.
When the Belgians moved in, they simply formed an extra rung, above the ganwa, in the existing hierarchy. These Europeans favored the Tutsi over the Hutu and gave them key jobs in the army and administration. The Tutsi now maintained their power as rich city dwellers and landowners rather than as feudal lords.
During the 1950s an independence movement emerged in Burundi. The eldest son of the reigning mwami, Prince Louis Rwagasore, led a political campaign based on unity between Hutu and Tutsi. Disliked by the Belgian authorities, he was assassinated with their backing.
