When was burundi colonized

The immediate effect of the attempted coup is the flight abroad of Mwambutsa, leaving his year-old younger son in Burundi. In July the prince deposes his absent father and takes the crown. But before the end of the year he too has been deposed by his prime minister, Michel Micombero.

A republic is proclaimed, and it is one in which the Tutsi are now unmistakably in power. The subsequent decades reveal that it is a power which they wield with ruthless brutality. The worst blot on Burundi's record is the ethnic slaughter unleashed upon the Hutu community in April and May , in response to an attempted uprising.

At least , people are killed, among them nearly all Hutus of the professional or educated class. This is not the last such occasion. With an almost exclusively Tutsi civil service, discrimination against the Hutus becomes commonplace. If often provokes outbreaks of Hutu unrest. One such, in in the northern provinces of Ntega and Marangara, leads to another massacre of Hutus, bringing this time about 20, deaths.

Meanwhile the ruling Tutsi minority has itself proved extremely unstable, with three new republics in as many decades. A coup topples Micombero in , bringing Jean-Baptiste Bagaza to power as president of the second republic. Another, in , brings in the third republic and President Pierre Buyoya. The new president makes a greater effort than his predecessors to deal with the nation's ethnic problem part of the reason for the uprising and repression may be a disappointed Hutu expectation of rapid improvements under his new regime.

Buyoya takes steps to ensure a Hutu presence in his government. He sets up a commission to advise on ways of achieving a new sense of national unity.

And he prepares the nation for its first democratic presidential election, scheduled for Democracy glimpsed and lost: The incumbent president, Pierre Buyoya, is expected to win Burundi's first multiparty presidential election in June , but he is defeated by Melchior Ndadaye, leader of the main opposition party. Ndadaye's party, Frodebu Democractic Front in Burundi , also wins a large majority in the accompanying legislative elections.

President Ndadaye, the first Hutu to be head of state in Burundi, forms a conciliatory government giving Tutsi politicians eight places out of twenty-two in his cabinet. But this hopeful development is soon frustrated. Within months Ndadaye is killed by Tutsis in an attempted coup. The immediate result is extreme ethnic violence between Tutsi and Hutu.

There are thousands of deaths on both sides between 25, and 50, in all. Some , refugees flee the country. Early in there are responsible attempts to heal these ethnic wounds. The national assembly elects a Hutu president, Cyprien Ntaryamira, who in turn appoints a Tutsi as his prime minister. But again disaster strikes. From FamilySearch Wiki. Burundi Wiki Topics.

Category : Burundi. Navigation menu Personal tools English. Namespaces Page Talk. Views Read View source View history. Submit Wiki Content Report a Problem. Beginning Research. Research Strategies Record Finder. Some scholars believe that the categories of Twa, Hutu and Tutsi, was based upon wealth and profession up until this point [xxxvi].

The categories were supposedly historically fluid and it was under the colonial administration of the Germans and the Belgians that they were constructed into strictly separate ethnic groups [xxxvii]. A system of identity cards was set in place and the top jobs for administrators and officials were reserved for Tutsi people [xxxviii].

The whole colonial period was a process of creating inequality and strict ethnic and economic separation between Hutu and Tutsi people [xxxix].

This strict division would fuel ethnic violence after the colonial period. The Burundian traditions and system of governance became a tools for colonial oppression as the traditional Tutsi elite would be relatively well off while almost all Hutu and Twa people suffered greatly [xl]. So while all people in Burundi during colonial rule were oppressed the Hutu and Twa suffered the most. This in turn lead to some of the anti-colonial struggle being directed towards Tutsi people, as they were seen as complicit in colonial rule [xli].

In Burundi the Kingdom and the royal institutions had survived with some integrity and influence throughout the colonial period, and some of the nobility were directly involved in the struggle for independence [xlii].

The Belgian government denied this demand for independence, but the demand would give momentum to Burundian political parties who had begun to advocate for independence. Source: face2faceafrica. The party supported the monarchy and was led by Prince Louis Rwagasore. Burundi declared itself independent on the 1 July [xlviii].

On the 13 October , before independence was declared, Louis Rwagasore was assassinated by the political opposition [xlix]. This led to the dissolution of his party and a power vacuum which was contested by three groups: the Tutsi-Hima, the Tutsi-Banyaruguru, and a small emerging Hutu elite [l]. During the Kamenge riots Tutsi. In the face of increasing violence Tutsi King Mwambutsa IV Bangiriceng extend the powers of the royal court and established a constitutional monarchy in Burundi [liii].

Michel Micombero [lv]. The military coup meant the end of Burundi as a kingdom, this ended a royal tradition going back to the later s. After the coup most of the country's power was monopolised by the Tutsi-Hima, who also controlled the army [lvi].

This ethnic group would rule Burundi from — to the exclusion of other ethnic groups in the country. The consequent military regimes were: Micombero; , Bagaza; , Buyoya; [lvii]. The period from — was a time of much violence and instability in Burundi [lviii]. On April 29 Hutu bands murdered and torture a number of Tutsi people [lix].

Hutu rebels killed all personal related to the regime in the city of Bururi [lx]. After the seizure of the city and local arms depots the Hutu militia attempted to kill the entire Tutsi population of Burari [lxi]. The Hutu rebels then declared the Republic of Martyazo, an independent Hutu homeland [lxii].

The Tutsi led government of President Micombero, together with paratroopers from Zaire, began their advance against the Hutu led Republic in April [lxiii]. Instead of targeting the Republic of Martyazo and armed personal the government army and its Zairean allies led a wholesale genocide on any Hutu civilians who could not escape [lxiv].

It is estimated that between Almost all the educated Hutu people in the country was either dead or had fled the country [lxvi]. The regime also murdered Prince Ntare V and in turn crushed any hope of the return of the old monarchy [lxvii]. Similar violence broke out in ending with the death of about 3. The same kind of ethnic violence, spurred on by the fear of the other ethnic group acting first, happened in and as well, although on a much smaller scale with hundreds dead [lxx].

In Burundi moved slowly towards a more democratic political system [lxxi]. The regime enacted constitutional change, in part forbidding ethnically aligned political parties, which in turn ushered in a non-ethnic government [lxxii]. Ndadaye appointed Sylvie Kinigi as his prime minister, giving Burundi the distinction of having the first female Prime Minister in Africa [lxxiv].

Ndadaye and most of his government was assassinated by low-level army personal after only three months in office [lxxv].