One Burundian lesson for East Africans in enduring adversity

In September last year, Doudou Diene, chairman of the commission of inquiry set up by the UN on Burundi, said the country was primed for a genocide.

His commission, working with the UN Office for the Prevention of Genocide and the Responsibility to Protect, established risk factors in Burundi for criminal atrocities likely to lead to genocide.

These factors included an “unstable political, economic and social environment; climate of impunity for human rights violations; weak judicial system and the absence of an independent press in addition to lack of freedom of expression”.

Burundi has just lost President Pierre Nkurunziza and the focus, rightfully so, has been on the president’s office, his successor and atrocities committed since the attempted 2015 coup.

In all this many may miss important lessons Burundians have taught us, such as resilience. Many of us are struggling with curfews and lockdowns lasting months, yet Burundi was under a midnight to dawn from 1972 to 2006.

The trepidation on the Burundi 2020 election reminded me of lessons we learnt in 2008 after Kenya’s post-election violence.

We facilitated meetings with communities in Nairobi’s informal settlements, with Yves Niyiragira from Burundi and Leonie Abela from Democratic Republic of the Congo. The two spoke on experiences in overcoming ethnic divisions.

Kenyan communities were fascinated by Niyiragira and Abela, asking questions that brought out not only how little we knew about each other as neighbouring countries but also how much we can teach each other if we cared.

For instance, the identity of Niyiragira as a Hutu from Burundi and Abela Tutsi from the DRC confused Kenyans.

Many had assumed the Hutu and Tutsi only hailed from Rwanda, an opinion largely attributed to knowledge of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda.

Burundi and Rwanda have several commonalities such as being the only two African countries who speak the same language—Kinyarwanda in Rwanda or Kirundi in Burundi.

They are the same people—Hutu, Tutsi and Twa—sharing the same “cow” culture, dowry negotiation methods, jokes, proverbs, myths, taboos and even dressing in the same traditional attire.

The two countries share history. Before the Berlin Conference of 1884-85 partitioned Africa and regulated European colonisation, Ruanda and Urundi were independent Kingdoms subsequently incorporated into German East Africa.

Germans introduced the concept of racial superiority based on among others, physical features resembling the Caucasians such as height, skin colour and length and sharpness of nose.

The Belgians received the League of Nations mandate to administer Ruanda-Urundi in 1923 having first occupied the kingdoms in 1916. The Belgians enforced ethnic division, measuring skulls to prove superiority based on criteria later used by Nazi’s and issuing identity cards designating one as either Hutu or Tutsi.

Ruanda-Urundi gained independence in 1962 as the countries of Rwanda and Burundi.

The two countries have often played host to each other’s refugees. In 1993, Burundi broke into an ethnically driven civil war which continued on and off until former Tanzanian President Julius Nyerere brokered The Arusha Peace and Reconciliation Agreement in 2000.

Many people feared massive violence during Burundi’s May 2020 elections – but thankfully, that did not ensue. There were isolated incidents, which though unfortunate were nowhere near the feared level and scope of violence. Burundi has done a number of things right.

There were seven presidential candidates campaigning across the country, not an easy task during the Covid-19 pandemic. Each of the political parties fielded an inclusive list of candidates from all ethnic and religious backgrounds and gender.

Disputes are being resolved through existing national legal mechanisms with Burundi’s constitutional court, for instance, upholding the provisional results of the presidential elections, declaring Evariste Ndayishimiye of the ruling party as the winner.

The elections were fully funded by Burundian taxpayers, a difficult thing to do with sanctions hanging over the country.

In the meetings in Nairobi, we would ask Kenyans to guess whether Niyiragira and Abela were either Hutu or Tutsi. Niyiragira (Hutu) looks like the typical stereotype of Tutsi, tall and sharp-nosed and Leonie, (Tutsi) was short, like a typical stereotype of a Hutu. Kenyans would, based on the stereotypes, guess wrong.

Drawing parallels with their experiences, the Kenyans mapped ways towards a pluralistic coexistence based on understanding that whichever way the politics flowed, when there was violence, the poor suffered most, regardless of ethnicity, or country.

Hopefully, no effort will be spared in addressing the risk factors identified by the UN Commission of Inquiry. Thank you, Burundians for your resilience.

Wairimu Nderitu is the author of Beyond Ethnicism, Mukami Kimathi, Mau Mau Freedom Fighter and Kenya: Bridging Ethnic Divides [email protected]