The purpose of this summary is to provide readers with some reference points to situate the events mentioned by journalists in their historical context. It begins with the colonial period because it was during this period that the media (as we commonly identify them today, in the form of newspapers, radio, television, online newspapers and social media) first appeared in Burundi.
Burundi experienced German (1885-1919) and Belgian colonisation (1919-1962) until its independence in 1962. During Belgian colonisation, the Tutsis, one of the social categories commonly called “ethnicities” in Burundi, were chosen for the indirect administration (Indirect Rule) of the country. Thus, this category was given preferential access to power positions and education, to the detriment of the Hutus and the Twas, the other two “ethnicities” of Burundi. Another privileged category was that of the Ganwas, the members of Burundi’s royal family. This administration system was applied even more strictly in Rwanda, which, along with Burundi, was part of the Belgian colony of Ruanda-Urundi. As independence approached, in Rwanda, a “social revolution” (1959) aiming at ousting the Tutsi monarchy and nobility caused the exodus of tens of thousands of Tutsis to Burundi. In the meantime, in Burundi, Louis Rwagasore, son of King Mwambutsa IV, had dedicated himself to creating the independence party UPRONA (Union for the National Progress), which included both Tutsi and Hutu members. In 1961, the UPRONA won the legislative elections and Rwagasore became Prime Minister. Two weeks after taking office, on October 13th, 1961, Rwagasore was assassinated. On July 1st, 1962, Burundi officially became an independent constitutional monarchy.
During Belgian colonisation, the print media appeared in Burundi with the European Catholic missionaries, who launched in 1939 the newspaper Rusiziramarembe, which became Ndongozi in 1954. In 1960, the national radio of Burundi also started broadcasting.
Tensions between Hutus and Tutsis became more accentuated in Burundi after the assassination of Hutu Prime Minister Pierre Ngendandumwe by a Rwandan Tutsi refugee in 1965. Following his assassination, elections were held where Hutu representatives of different political parties obtained two thirds of the parliament seats. Despite this result, the king appointed Leopold Biha, a Ganwa, as Prime Minister. This provoked an attempted coup, which was quashed by army captain Michel Micombero. Purges targeting Hutus were carried out in the army. On November 28th, 1966, after the UPRONA had been accepted as the only party authorised in the country, Micombero deposed the king and proclaimed the Republic of Burundi. The government was replaced by a National Council of the Revolution, composed mainly of Tutsi military officers.
After the conviction and execution in 1969 of several Hutus accused of attempting to overthrow the government, in 1972 some Hutus rose up against some Tutsis in the south of the country. The army intervened immediately and proceeded quickly to a brutal and systematic repression throughout the country, targeting not only the rebels (called abamenja, “traitors”) but also Hutus who were educated, wealthy and in power positions. This repression caused the death and exile of hundreds of thousands of Hutu men and women. In 2021, the Burundian parliament adopted the qualification of these massacres as “genocide of the Bahutu”.* It was in refugee camps in Tanzania that the Palipehutu (Party for the Liberation of the Hutu People) was born in 1980.
* In kirundi and swahili, the prefix (a)ba- indicates the plural of words referring to human beings, (u)mu- the singular.
On November 1st, 1976, Micombero was deposed by Tutsi Colonel Jean-Baptiste Bagaza, who, like him, came from the commune (=municipality) of Rutovu (Bururi province). The new president of Burundi inaugurated a policy of “ethnic amnesia” that prohibited any reference to Hutu and Tutsi belongings, considered as a colonial heritage. In his fight against foreign interference in the management of the country’s affairs, Bagaza also targeted the Catholic Church in Burundi: during the “Church-State conflict”, several Catholic schools were closed and hundreds of missionaries were expelled from the country.
In my book, Simon Kururu and Karenga Ramadhan recount their years at the national radio station under Bagaza. In 1984, the radio acquired a television station, thus becoming the National Radio-Television of Burundi (RTNB). Innocent Muhozi talks about the beginnings of the national television in his account.
On September 3rd, 1987, Bagaza was in turn deposed by Major Pierre Buyoya, also from the commune of Rutovu (Bururi province). Once in power, Buyoya established a Military Committee for National Salvation, made up of 31 Tutsi members. In August 1988, some Hutus killed some Tutsis in the communes of Ntega and Marangara, in the north of the country, prompting yet another brutal response from the government. Following these events, 27 Hutus sent a letter to the President of the Republic asking him to stop the persecution and discrimination of the Hutus. In a context where the foreign powers that could support Burundi were pushing for the democratic opening of the country, in October 1988, Buyoya appointed a “government of national unity”, made up of twelve Tutsi and twelve Hutu ministers and led by a Hutu. In this government, President Buyoya held the Ministry of Defence, and therefore the control of the country’s armed forces. In 1989, the president also created a National Commission to study the issue of national unity; in 1991, a Charter of National Unity was adopted. After the La Baule conference (1990), where French President François Mitterrand declared that French aid would henceforth be directed towards African countries on the path to democratisation, Buyoya introduced a new constitution reinstating a multiparty system (1992) and announced democratic elections to take place in 1993. In this period, the first civil society associations were created in Burundi; in 1991, the Burundian Ligue for Human Rights Iteka and the Burundian Ligue for the Defence and Promotion of Human Rights Sonera were accredited. In parallel, there was a proliferation of private journals, a sign of a now “free” press. Louis-Marie Nindorera talks about this period in his account.
At the June 1993 elections, Buyoya’s (UPRONA) main opponent was Melchior Ndadaye, leader of the FRODEBU party (Front for Democracy in Burundi), founded in 1986. After an electoral campaign marked by hate speech between Tutsis from UPRONA and Hutus from FRODEBU, Ndadaye triumphed in the presidential elections with 65% of the votes, becoming Burundi’s first democratically elected Hutu president. On July 10th, the new president was sworn in; three months later, on October 21st, 1993, he was assassinated in a military coup. In his account, Gérard Mfuranzima recounts the difficulties of managing RTNB in the days following the 1993 coup d'état.
Following Ndadaye’s assassination, across the country, several Hutus started to kill their Tutsi neighbours, accusing them of killing “their” president. The army, which was predominantly Tutsi, intervened to “restore order”, and many Hutus fell victim to this. In Bujumbura, an ethnic “balkanisation” of the city took place: neighbourhoods such as Kamenge and Kinama became inhabited and controlled by Hutus, while others such as Ngagara, Cibitoke, Nyakabiga, and Musaga by Tutsis. In what is often referred to as the “1993 crisis”, several hundred thousand Burundians lost their lives. In February 1994, Cyprien Ntaryamira (FRODEBU) was appointed president of Burundi; two months later, on April 6th, 1994, he was killed in the plane crash that took the life of Rwandan President Juvénal Habyarimana and triggered the Rwandan genocide. Sylvestre Ntibantunganya (FRODEBU) became interim president of Burundi.
In this context, the CNDD-FDD (National Council for the Defence of Democracy – Forces for the Defence of Democracy), a Hutu movement, started a rebellion against the Tutsi-dominated army. In July 1996, rebels from this movement attacked the IDP (internally displaced persons) camp in Bugendana, in the centre of the country, killing more than 600 Tutsi men and women in one night. A few days later, on July 25th, 1996, Buyoya regained control of the country through a second coup d’État, to which Burundi’s neighbouring countries responded with an embargo.
Between 1995 and 1997, the first non-governmental radios started broadcasting in Burundi: Radio CCIB FM+, supported by the Burundi Chamber of Commerce and Industry (1995), Radio Umwizero, launched by the French Association for Humanitarian Action (AAH), which shortly after its creation became Radio Bonesha FM (1996), and Radio Culture (1997). In my book, Abbas Mbazumutima talks about the early days of Radio Umwizero-Bonesha. Moreover, in 1997, the newspaper Net Press was the first to publish its content online. On this website, Jean-Claude Kavumbagu recounts the challenges of introducing this new format in Burundi.
In 1998, under pressure from neighbouring countries, negotiations started in Arusha between the Burundian parties to conflict. On August 28th, 2000, the Arusha Agreement for Peace and Reconciliation in Burundi was signed by the representatives of the 19 delegations present at the negotiations, which did not include those of armed movements. The agreement inaugurated a transition period that lasted five years, under the presidency of Buyoya first (2000-2003) and then Domitien Ndayizeye (FRODEBU, 2003-2005), until the adoption of a new constitution and the election of a new President of the Republic and a new National Assembly in 2005. The CNDD-FDD and the Palipehutu-FNL, the two main rebel groups still active in 2000, officially laid down their arms in 2003 and 2008 respectively.
After CCIB FM+, Bonesha, and Culture, other private radio stations emerged in the early 2000s: Radio Publique Africaine (RPA, founded in 2001), Radio Isanganiro (2002), Radio Renaissance (2003). Later, in 2008, Radio Rema FM started to broadcast, and the newspaper Iwacu was launched. In my book and on this website, Alexis Sinduhije, Nestor Nkurunziza, Innocent Muhozi, Claude Nkurunziza, Léandre Sikuyavuga, and Christian Bigirimana recount the creation of these media outlets.
In 2005, the CNDD-FDD, which had become a political party, won the elections and its candidate, Pierre Nkurunziza, became the new president of Burundi. For the first time, a synergy of different media outlets was put in place to cover the electoral campaign and the 2005 elections. In her account, Inès Kidasharira recalls this with nostalgia. In 2010, the elections were again won by the CNDD-FDD and Nkurunziza renewed his mandate. In April 2015, the president ran for a third term, when the 2005 Constitution only allowed two. This sparked unprecedented protests in the streets of Bujumbura, which were violently suppressed by the armed forces. On May 13th, 2015, General Godefroid Niyombare led an attempted coup d’État, and his speech announcing his takeover was broadcast by the private radio stations RPA, Bonesha FM, Isanganiro, and Télé Renaissance. Subsequently, Radio Rema FM, perceived as close to the ruling party, was attacked. Agnès Ndirubusa recounts this moment in her account. Loyalist forces quickly regained control of the situation; during the night of May 13th to 14th, the radio stations RPA, Bonesha FM, Isanganiro, and Télé Renaissance were attacked and their equipment destroyed. In my book and on this website, several journalists - such as Mireille Kanyange, Christine Kamikazi and Mashock - recount the days of the coup. The violence of 2015 led to the deaths of hundreds of people and the exodus of several hundred thousand Burundians.
In this situation, dozens of journalists and activists - like Alexandre Niyungeko, Joséphine Jones Nkunzimana, Alain Majesté Barenga and several others - left the country. Several sought refuge in Rwanda, where in July 2015 Radio Inzamba Agateka Kawe was born. In his account, Valéry Muco talks about the difficulties of life for journalists in exile in Kigali. In 2021, Rwanda asked Burundian journalists in exile to cease their activities on Rwandan territory, prompting some of them to leave Rwanda to seek refuge and continue working in Belgium.
In a media environment deeply affected by the violent events of 2015, Burundians began to use social media more assiduously to follow news from their country. Today, Yaga, launched in March 2015, and Jimbere, created in 2016, are among the most successful platforms in the country, especially among young people. In my book, Dacia Munezero and Roland Rugero recount the birth of these platforms. As for the “traditional” media outlets, in Burundi, Rema FM and Isanganiro radio stations resumed broadcasting in 2016, and Bonesha FM in 2021. Jean-Bosco Nduwimana and Sylvère Ntakarutimana recount the resumption of work, not without difficulties, at Isanganiro. RPA and Télé Renaissance continued to broadcast information from abroad.
In 2020, the CNDD-FDD once again won the elections and Évariste Ndayishimiye became the new President of the Republic.