the peoples of the Republic of Burundi, who speak Rundi, an Interlacustrine Bantu language. The Rundi are divided into two main ethnic groups: the Hutu, the majority of whom have traditionally been farmers; and the Tutsi, the majority of whom have traditionally been cattle-owning pastoralists. A small third group, the Twa (Pygmies), are hunters and potters.

Regional variations of the Rundi language (also called Kirundi) include Hutu, Tutsi, and Twa, although all are mutually intelligible. Rwanda (Rwanda language) (also Kinyarwanda), which is spoken in Rwanda, is also understandable to speakers of Rundi. Hundreds of thousands of speakers of Rundi reside in Uganda, Tanzania, and Rwanda, mostly as refugee populations from Burundi. Some 6,000,000 people speak the language.