Burundi's culture: the drum that outlived the crown

How the royal drum outlived the kingdom

Under the kingdom the drum was the monarchy's emblem. The Wikipedia article on the kingdom records that the most important royal drum, the inkiranya, was said to have been made by the first mwami, that the royal drums were kept in sanctuaries guarded by particular Hutu families and used at festivals and royal rituals, and that the flag of the kingdom carried a karyenda drum at its centre. The Wikipedia culture article adds that royal drummers announced the beginning and the end of the day and played at enthronements and at the start of the farming season.

The monarchy was abolished in November 1966. The drum kept its place. The Présidence's own page on the country lists the karyenda among the national symbols, calls it an ancestral symbol of royalty and social cohesion, and says it still sets the rhythm of the great ceremonies. Gitega, the old royal capital, keeps several karyenda sanctuaries and the ibwami, the royal court, and the sanctuary at Gishora, north of Gitega on the road to Ngozi, is one of the tourism ministry's featured sites. Burundi put the royal residence of Gishora on its World Heritage tentative list in 2026.

UNESCO's description of the inscribed element is precise about the form. The performance combines synchronised drumming with dancing, heroic poetry and traditional songs. Several drums are beaten in a continuous rhythm while the others follow the beat of the central drum. Two or three drummers dance to the rhythm. It is performed at national and local feasts and to welcome important visitors, and is said to wake the spirits of the ancestors and drive out evil spirits. The bearers are recruited from sanctuaries across the country, many of them descendants of sanctuary guards, and the playing, the values it carries and the craft of making drums pass on mainly through practice and also through formal schooling.

Who may beat the drum

The question of who plays has become a matter of law. The Wikipedia culture article records a government decree of 2017 that barred women from beating the drums as a men's activity, and it says that women have drummed in Burundi for centuries. The two claims sit side by side in the sources; UNESCO's text of 2014 speaks of drummers and bearers without addressing the question.

Which languages Burundians speak

Language is the clearest thing the three groups share. Britannica calls Kirundi, a Bantu language, the standard medium of communication throughout the country and notes that Hutu and Tutsi both speak it; the Countries and Their Cultures entry adds that the Twa speak a slightly different dialect. The 2018 constitution makes Kirundi the national language, names Kirundi and whatever other languages the law determines as official, and requires every legislative text to have a Kirundi version. The Wikipedia country article lists Kirundi, French and English as official, English since 2014, and says that just under 10% of the population speaks French. The Présidence names Kirundi and French as official and English and Kiswahili as widely used.

The other languages map onto place and schooling. Britannica describes Swahili as the language of trade, widely spoken in Bujumbura alongside French. In public education, the Wikipedia culture article says, primary schools teach mostly in Kirundi with some French classes and secondary schools and universities teach in French, which it describes as a barrier for rural communities and for girls in particular. Kiswahili and English have since been added to the curriculum.

What Burundians believe

The country is mostly Christian, in figures that vary by source. Britannica gives about three-fifths as Roman Catholic and more than one-eighth as Protestant, with a large minority, including some Catholics, practising traditional religion and Muslims under one-twentieth. The Wikipedia country article gives estimates of 80 to 90% Christian, 60 to 65% Roman Catholic, about 5% following traditional beliefs only and 2 to 5% Muslim, most of them Sunni and living in towns. The 2018 constitution describes the state as secular.

Christianity came late and against resistance. Mwezi IV opposed the missions; three Catholic White Fathers who came in 1881 were killed, and a mission station was founded in 1899 at Mugera, a holy place and royal burial ground, against his protests. The church later became a political question: the government of the Second Republic, from 1976 to 1987, tried to curb the Catholic Church's social and educational work because it judged the church's policies to favour Hutu, and Britannica says many Tutsi went on seeing it as subversive.

The older belief centres on Imana, in the Countries and Their Cultures account the source of all life and goodness, and on respect for the dead. The same entry describes kubandwa, a festival that honours Kiranga, the spirit who leads the ancestors, with chants, dances and a cleansing bath in a stream, and umuganuro, a ceremony at the sowing of sorghum at which a sacred drum is played.

What is cooked and drunk on the hills

The food is the farm's. The Présidence lists cassava, bananas, maize, beans and sweet potatoes as the crops that feed rural households, and the Wikipedia culture article describes maize and bananas as staples, often with red kidney beans, and meals without sweet dishes or dessert. The Wikipedia country article says that meat, because of its cost, is eaten only a few times a month. Cassava is washed and pounded, then strained, and sorghum is ground for porridge, which is rolled into a ball in one hand and dipped in a sauce.

Lake Tanganyika adds fish to the diet along the shore; the culture article names ngangara and mukeke. Brochettes and frites are, in its words, a remnant of the Belgian period, and the national brewery makes Primus and Amstel.

Drink is the social part. When friends gather, the Wikipedia country article says, they drink impeke, a beer, together from one large container as a sign of unity, and isongo, a banana wine, is the other common traditional drink. The culture article adds that the beer and the banana wine are home-made and sometimes drunk through straws from a single large container. In the Countries and Their Cultures account beer accompanies every important occasion, the negotiations over a marriage among them. Refusing food or drink that is offered is rude.

Some food rules come from cattle. Milk, in the same account, may not be heated or boiled, or drunk on a day when peas or groundnuts have been eaten, and when a cow dies the family eats the meat and plants the horns near the house for luck.

How cattle shaped greetings and gifts

Cattle carry meaning in the language far beyond their economic value. The Countries and Their Cultures entry gives the greeting amashyo, a wish that the other person have herds of cattle, and describes a language full of references in which cattle stand for health and prosperity. Greetings involve long handshakes, sometimes with the left hand touching the other person's elbow, and people often keep holding hands for some minutes afterwards. Women have their own greeting, akazehe, an interlocking rhythmic vocal form described in the Wikipedia culture article.

Marriage follows the same logic. The groom's family pays bridewealth to the bride's, traditionally in cattle and goats with hoes, and now also in cash, clothes or furniture, and delivers it on the wedding day. A father's ceremonial spear passes to his eldest son. The Wikipedia culture article describes kivivuga amazina, an improvised poetry contest in which cattle herders boast of their skills and achievements.

What the instruments and crafts are

The oral tradition is the main archive. The Wikipedia culture article links its strength partly to 1972, when many Burundians in higher education were killed and written culture stalled, and partly to low literacy; history and moral lessons pass on through stories and poems and in song. The Countries and Their Cultures entry lists the song forms: imvyino, sung at family gatherings with a short refrain and improvised verses; indirimbo, a quieter song for one singer or a small group; kwishongora, a men's song with shouts and trills; and whispered singing, kept low so that the instrument can be heard.

Crafts are functional first. Baskets woven from papyrus root, bast fibre and banana leaves, dyed with mud in geometric patterns, hold water, carry loads on the head and store food. Leather and ironwork carry the same patterns, blacksmiths forge spears that pass from father to son, and the Twa are known for pottery. The arms of the state carry three traditional spears behind a shield with a lion's head, in the Présidence's description.

How a child is named

Family rites mark the start of life as carefully as the drum marks the state. In the Countries and Their Cultures account, birth usually takes place at home with midwives and other women attending, and six days later the baby is presented to the family in a ceremony called ujusohor, at which the mother receives a crown of flowers and gifts of beer and money. The naming comes later, in the kuvamukiriri ceremony, when the paternal grandfather gives the child a proper name, a clan name and one or two nicknames. In Christian families baptism takes place at the same time, at about one year old. On marriage a woman joins her husband's family, and extended families traditionally live close together in compounds of separate houses.

Where Burundians get their news

Radio is the main source of information for many Burundians, the BBC's country profile said in 2023, and state-run outlets dominate. The same profile records that many privately owned stations were shut after the coup attempt of 2015 and that many journalists left the country. The Wikipedia culture article traces the tension back to the 1990s, when private media funded largely from abroad began reporting on political violence and corruption.

Human Rights Watch's report on 2024 describes the media regulator, the National Communication Council, banning the rebroadcast of two radio talk shows and warning Iwacu, one of the last independent outlets, and notes that the media law had been revised for the fourth time since 2013. The revision partly decriminalised press offences, replacing some prison terms with fines of up to 1.5 million Burundian francs.

Which days the country marks together

The national symbols were fixed at independence. The anthem, Burundi Bwacu, has words by Jean-Baptiste Ntahokaja and music by Marc Barengayabo and was adopted in 1962, according to the Présidence, and the motto is Unity, Work, Progress. The Wikipedia culture article describes New Year's Day as the biggest celebration, with feasting, drumming and dancing.

The holiday calendar set by decree in 2021 gives much of its space to remembrance. Of its 14 days, five recall political events: national unity and reconciliation on 5 February, the assassination of President Cyprien Ntaryamira on 6 April, the death of President Pierre Nkurunziza on 8 June, the assassination of Prince Louis Rwagasore on 13 October and that of President Melchior Ndadaye on 21 October. The rest are New Year, Labour Day, Independence Day, four Christian feasts and the two Eids. The Présidence's own news reported in April 2024 that the head of state had marked the Ntaryamira anniversary by opening a school extension, under the message that not every public holiday has to be a day off. Football is played across the country, and so are board games of the mancala family.