Burundi, flag ofcountry in east-central Africa, south of the Equator. The landlocked country, a historic kingdom, is one of the few countries in Africa whose borders were not determined by colonial rulers.

The vast majority of Burundi's population is Hutu, traditionally a farming people. Power, however, has long rested with the Tutsi minority, which historically has controlled the army and most of the economy, particularly the lucrative international export of coffee. Few real cultural differences are distinguishable between the two peoples, and both speak Rundi (Kirundi). Such linguistic homogeneity is rare in sub-Saharan Africa and emphasizes the historically close cultural and ethnic ties among the peoples in Burundi. Even so, ethnic conflict between the Hutu and Tutsi has plagued the country since it gained independence from Belgium in 1962, at a great cost in human life and property. Few Burundians escaped the ensuing anarchy into which the country was plunged when this interethnic violence flared anew in the 1990s, a bloody conflagration that well illustrated the Rundi proverb “Do not call for lightning to strike down your enemies, for it also may strike down your friends.” Neither the presence of an international peacekeeping force beginning in the late 1990s nor the ratification of an agreement to share power between Hutu and Tutsi were immediately effective in curbing interethnic violence, which also spilled into the neighbouring countries of Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (Congo). Burundians are now faced with the task of quelling ethnic dissent, promoting unity, and rebuilding the country.

Burundi is bounded by Rwanda to the north, Tanzania to the east and south, Lake Tanganyika (Tanganyika, Lake) to the southwest, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (Congo) to the west.

Burundi's topography includes the eastern flank of the Western Rift Valley (Rift Valley). A chain of mountains and high plateaus formed from ancient Precambrian rock rises to 9,055 feet (2,760 metres) at Mount Heha, the country's highest point. In the northwest the narrow Imbo valley extends southward from Rwanda to Lake Tanganyika and includes the Rusizi River, which separates Burundi from the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Farther south and west, along the shores of Lake Tanganyika, the land rises steeply to form part of the Congo-Nile divide, which reaches elevations of 8,500 feet (2,600 metres). East of the divide, plateaus slope gently to elevations of 5,000–6,000 feet (1,500–1,800 metres) to the southeast; the Ruvyironza River flows northeast, cutting through the plateaus. A few valleys and shallow lakes occupy the northern frontier near Rwanda.

The hilly geography of the country discourages village formation, and traditional family compounds tend to be dispersed rather than concentrated—a key settlement characteristic of the area. This pattern has encouraged isolation rather than community and has contributed to the ongoing ethnic conflict between the Hutu and the Tutsi. Nonetheless, Burundi is heavily populated, with one of the highest densities in Africa. Urban centres are rare, the exceptions including Gitega in the central part of the country, Muyinga and Ngozi in the north, and Bujumbura, the largest city, sprawled along the northern tip of Lake Tanganyika. Civil unrest that began in the early to mid-1990s forced thousands of Hutu to settle in refugee camps spread throughout the countryside and in neighbouring countries. Around the same time, Burundi received an influx of refugees from Rwanda, fleeing from the genocide and subsequent political strife in their country. Rwandans also sought refuge in Burundi in the early 21st century. A large portion of the refugee population consists of women and children.

Approximately half of Burundi's land area is considered cultivable, and about one-third is suitable for pasture. Staple food crops include beans, corn (maize), cassava (manioc), and sorghum. Arabica coffee traditionally has been a major commodity for Burundi. The production of coffee dropped by about half in the 1990s because of civil strife but has since rebounded. Tea and sugar are also major export crops. Large areas of cotton are cultivated, mainly in the Imbo valley; however, cotton output has decreased to less than half the production levels of the early 1990s. Although the density of livestock results in overgrazing, the commercial value of livestock production is virtually nil. By the early 21st century, Burundi's forested area had shrunk to less than 3 percent of the total land area in spite of reforestation efforts. Lake Tanganyika and the smaller lakes and rivers of the interior are rich sources of tilapia and other fish.

Under the 2005 constitution, power is to be shared by the Hutus and Tutsis. Executive power is vested in the president, who is ordinarily elected directly to a five-year term, renewable once. The president appoints the Council of Ministers. There is a bicameral legislature, with power exercised by the National Assembly, which is mandated to comprise 60 percent Hutu and 40 percent Tutsi, and by the Senate, which includes one Hutu and one Tutsi representative from each province, with three seats reserved for former presidents. In addition, three seats in each house are reserved for the Twa, and at least 30 percent of the seats in both houses are to be held by women. Members of both houses, most of whom are elected by universal suffrage, serve five-year terms.

The traditional settlement pattern is one of family compounds (rugo), with circular one-room houses—often hidden by banana trees—rising above the hedges of individual enclosures. Urban areas contain colonial-style buildings as well as more-modern housing. Homes that utilized local resources were being built at the beginning of the 21st century. The new dwellings were intended to help relieve a chronic housing shortage, caused in part by the high population density in urban areas and exacerbated by the return of refugees who fled the country during the late 20th-century civil strife.

Much of Burundi's rich cultural heritage, most notably folk songs and dances, was intended to extol the virtues of kingship; however, since the fall of the monarchy in 1966 (and particularly after a massacre of Hutu in 1972), such cultural expression has waned. Burundian daily life has since been conditioned by the exigencies of survival in a time of civil strife and ethnic hatred, and many important social institutions, such as the family and the village council, have lost their force, weakened by political chaos and the wholesale displacement of populations. Once widely celebrated events include the annual sorghum festival (umuganuro), the occasion for a magnificent display of traditional dances by court dancers (intore). Also participating in the festival are drummers beating the Karyenda (“sacred drum”), an emblem of the monarchy—their performance is intended to give both musical and symbolic resonance to this festival and to other ceremonial occasions. Government efforts to promote interethnic harmony through displays of a shared cultural heritage have been sporadic and only modestly successful. Burundian museums that celebrate the country's heritage include the National Museum in Gitega and the Living Museum in Bujumbura, which also includes botanical gardens and animal exhibits.

Traditional activities such as drumming and dancing contain aspects of both culture and competition: the Intore Dancers, a group that celebrates national folklore, has won numerous international folk dance competitions, and drummers compete with the traditional Karyenda drums. Burundi's best-known cultural export is a troupe of traveling musicians called Les Maîtres-Tambours du Burundi (Drummers of Burundi). This group, made up of as many as 30 percussionists and dancers, produces an energetic, polyrhythmic sound organized around the inkiranya drum. The addition of the amashako drum, which provides a continuous beat, and the complimentary rhythm of the ibishikiso drum complete the impressive sound. The group has been widely influential and has made many recordings. Burundian singer Khadja Nin has also released several recordings, with lyrics in Swahili, Rundi, and French.

Europeans did not enter Burundi until the second half of the 19th century. The terrain that had made it difficult for slave traders to exploit the country also created problems for European colonizers. English explorers Richard Burton (Burton, Richard) and John Hanning Speke (Speke, John Hanning), generally credited as the first Europeans to visit Burundi, entered the country in 1858. They explored Lake Tanganyika (Tanganyika, Lake) as they searched for the source of the Nile (Nile River). In 1871 two more Britons, Henry Morton Stanley (Stanley, Sir Henry Morton) and David Livingstone (Livingstone, David), also explored the lake.

Burundi, along with Rwanda and Tanganyika, became part of the German Protectorate of East Africa in 1890 (see German East Africa). Burundi and Rwanda (as the mandate of Ruanda-Urundi) were awarded to Belgium after World War I, when Germany lost its colonies. Under the Belgian colonial administrators, Burundi was reorganized in the late 1920s, with the result that most chiefs and subchiefs were eliminated.

An introduction to the country's geography can be found in Françoise Cazenave-Piarrot, Alain Cazenave-Piarrot, and Albert Lopez, Géographie du Burundi: le pays et les hommes (1979); and Atlas du Burundi (1979). Useful sources on language, literature, and arts include Ethel M. Albert, “‘Rhetoric,' ‘Logic,' and ‘Poetics' in Burundi: Culture Patterning of Speech Behavior,” American Anthropologist, special issue, pp. 35–54 (winter 1964–65); Alexandre Kimenyi, Kinyarwanda and Kirundi Names: A Semiolinguistic Analysis of Bantu Onomastics (1989); F.M. Rodegem, Précis de grammaire rundi (1967) and Sagesse kirundi (1961); R.P. Bagein, Grammaire kirundi à l'usage des commençants (1951); and the classic Jan Vansina, De la tradition orale: essai de méthode historique (1961).The classic source for precolonial ethnography and history is Hans Mayer, Die Barundi (1916), also available in a French edition excellently annotated by Jean-Pierre Chrétien, Les Barundi (1984). Also useful for this period of history is Emile Mworoha (ed.), Histoire du Burundi: des origines à la fin du XIX^e siècle (1987). For colonial history, some useful sources are Michel Lechat, Le Burundi politique; and Joseph Gahama, Le Burundi sous administration Belge (1983), which also includes an English-language summary. Postindependence developments and politics are dealt with at length in René Lemarchand, Rwanda and Burundi (1970); René Lemarchand and David Martin, Selective Genocide in Burundi (1974); René Lemarchand, Burundi: Ethnocide as Discourse and Practice (1994, also published as Burundi: Ethnic Conflict and Genocide, 1996); and Marc Manirakiza, La Fin de la monarchie burundaise (1990); and a shorter pamphlet and article are provided by Reginald Kay, Burundi Since the Genocide (1987); and Allison Boyer, “Unity at Last?,” Africa Report, 37:37–40 (March/April 1992). Ellen K. Eggers, Historical Dictionary of Burundi, 2nd ed. (1997), includes an extensive bibliography and a chronology of Burundi's history.Ellen Kahan Eggers