Burundi is a small, landlocked country in the Great Lakes region of East Africa, lying just south of the equator between the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Rwanda, and Tanzania, on the shores of Lake Tanganyika. Densely populated, mountainous, and overwhelmingly rural, it is one of the poorest nations in the world. Like its northern neighbour Rwanda, with which it shares much, Burundi has been scarred by deep tensions between its Hutu and Tutsi communities, which erupted into cycles of violence and a long civil war, even as its people preserve rich traditions, including a famous heritage of sacred royal drumming.
Burundi was for centuries a kingdom ruled by a monarch, the mwami, over a society of Hutu, Tutsi, and Twa peoples. Colonised first by Germany and then, after the First World War, administered by Belgium together with neighbouring Rwanda, it retained its monarchy into the colonial period. Burundi gained independence in 1962, at first as a kingdom, before the monarchy was overthrown and a republic declared. The decades that followed were marked by repeated outbreaks of ethnic violence and military rule, culminating in a civil war that lasted from 1993 until the mid-2000s.
Burundi is a small, hilly, and landlocked country, its landscape dominated by high plateaus and mountains that fall away in the west to the great rift valley and the deep waters of Lake Tanganyika, one of the largest and deepest lakes in the world, which forms part of its border. The source of one of the most distant headstreams of the Nile rises in its highlands. The climate is moderated by the altitude, and the fertile, well-watered hills support intensive farming by one of the densest rural populations in Africa.
The flag of Burundi is divided by a white diagonal cross into red and green fields, with a white disc in the centre bearing three red, green-bordered six-pointed stars. The red represents the suffering and the struggle for independence, the green hope and the future, and the white peace. The three stars stand for the nation's three words of its motto, unity, work, and progress, and are also taken to represent the three main ethnic groups of the country, the Hutu, Tutsi, and Twa, reflecting an aspiration to national unity.
Burundi is a predominantly Christian country, the result of missionary activity in the colonial era, with the majority belonging to the Roman Catholic Church, a legacy of Belgian rule, alongside significant Protestant communities and a smaller number of Muslims. Religion plays an important role in the life of the nation, and churches are central to many communities. Traditional beliefs and customs also persist, often alongside Christianity, and the faith of the people has been a source of solace and community through the hardships of the country's turbulent recent history.
Burundian cuisine is simple and based on the staple crops of the densely farmed hills. The everyday diet centres on beans, which are eaten almost daily, along with plantains and bananas, cassava, sweet potatoes, maize, and other starchy foods, often accompanied by vegetables and, when available, a little meat or fish from Lake Tanganyika. A paste of cooked starch is a common staple. Bananas are also brewed into a traditional beer that holds an important social and ceremonial place. The cuisine reflects a poor, rural society that lives largely on what it grows.
Agriculture is the backbone of Burundi's economy and the livelihood of the great majority of its people, most of whom are subsistence farmers working small plots on the crowded hillsides, growing beans, bananas, cassava, maize, and sweet potatoes for food. The principal export crops are coffee, which dominates the country's foreign earnings, and tea, both grown in the highlands. Fishing on Lake Tanganyika is also important. With little industry and one of the highest rural population densities in Africa, the country remains overwhelmingly agricultural and deeply poor.
The era of the kingdom, colonisation by Germany and Belgium, and independence in 1962 shaped Burundi, but its modern history has been dominated by tragic cycles of ethnic violence between Hutu and Tutsi, including mass killings in the 1970s and 1990s, and a civil war from 1993 to 2005 that cost hundreds of thousands of lives. A peace process eventually brought the war to an end. The country has continued to face political tension and economic hardship, and in 2019 it moved its political capital inland to Gitega.
Burundi has a population of around 13 million people, making it one of the most densely populated countries in Africa, divided among the Hutu majority, the Tutsi minority, and the small Twa community, a division that has been central to its troubled history. The main languages are Kirundi, spoken by virtually everyone, along with French and English. The population is overwhelmingly rural, scattered across the farmed hills rather than concentrated in cities, with the largest city the lakeside Bujumbura, the former capital, while Gitega is now the political capital.
