Burundi

Burundians are sociable people who greet friends and relatives warmly. Handshaking is a common greeting as is hugging, kissing cheeks, and touching heads. Burundians maintain personal space between sexes.

Proverbs are an important part of Burundi expression. Burundians do not explain the proverbs they use; proverbs are intended to make the listener think.

A typical greeting is shaking hands with the right hand. Friends greet by touching cheeks three times. Friends of the same sex give each other a firm hug. To point at someone with the index finger is considered rude and pointing is done with an open hand, palm up. To call someone over one would extend an arm with the palm turned down and bring the fingers toward the wrist.

Burundians are social people and visit without announcing it.

Pagnes (cloth wraparounds) are the traditional clothing of Burundi and are still worn in the rural areas. Male herders wear two pieces of cloth that hang down to the knees with a cord at the waist. Many people go without shoes in rural areas. In urban areas, people wear western-style clothing and young people wear jeans and tee shirts.

Beans, particularly red kidney beans, are a staple in Burundian cooking. Most people eat beans at least once a day. Rice is another staple. The people of Burundi enjoy having ugali. Ugali is prepared by boiling cassava flour in water and making a paste of it. Other common foods are plantains, sweet potatoes, cassava, peas and maize. The snack foods of Burundi include groundnut, sugarcane and fruits. Serving deserts along with the meal is not a custom in Burundi food culture. The people are not in favor of cooking sweet foods. In rural areas, the Burundi foods are generally prepared over a wood fire. Boiled foods are mostly preferred by the Burundians. Burundians may drink urwarwa (homemade banana wine) during special celebrations or as part of a meal. A small number of families raise cattle, sheep and goats. Those who own cattle regard them as a status symbol and are reluctant to kill them for meat. Snack foods include groundnuts, sugar cane and fruit. Traditionally, Burundians do not cook many sweet foods or serve desserts with meals.

Beans, particularly red kidney beans, are a staple in Burundian cooking. Most people eat beans at least once a day. Rice is another staple. The people of Burundi enjoy having ugali. Ugali is prepared by boiling cassava flour in water and making a paste of it. Other common foods are plantains, sweet potatoes, cassava, peas and maize. The snack foods of Burundi include groundnut, sugarcane and fruits. Serving deserts along with the meal is not a custom in Burundi food culture. The people are not in favor of cooking sweet foods. In rural areas, the Burundi foods are generally prepared over a wood fire. Boiled foods are mostly preferred by the Burundians. Burundians may drink urwarwa (homemade banana wine) during special celebrations or as part of a meal. A small number of families raise cattle, sheep and goats. Those who own cattle regard them as a status symbol and are reluctant to kill them for meat. Snack foods include groundnuts, sugar cane and fruit. Traditionally, Burundians do not cook many sweet foods or serve desserts with meals.

Most Burundians live in rural areas. Children are very important to Burundian families. A common Kirundi saying is Nta ndagukunda nka kwankira umwana (“You cannot say you like me if you do not like my children.”) Young boys are trained to follow their fathers as head of the family. Girls are taught household duties. Children are also security for their parents' old age and are taught that it is their duty to take care of elderly relatives.

The hilly nature of the country has impeded the formation of villages and reinforced close ties among members of a clan. Each clan inhabits a hill (people do not live or farm in valleys because of the tsetse flies). In general, each clan lives as an extended family in an enclosed compound called a rugo. The clan's farmland is separate from the rugo and usually consists of several plots of land at different altitudes. This arrangement minimizes the likelihood of losses due to crop failure in one place.

Young people are usually expected to obtain their parents' approval when choosing marriage partners. Sometimes parents arrange the marriage. When a young couple is to be married, custom demands that the groom's family pay an inkwano (bride-price), in the form of cattle, other property, or money to the bride's family. The groom's family may also pay for the wedding. The marriage ceremony is usually held in a church, followed by festivities at the bride's home. The newlywed couple usually moves into the rugo where the groom's parents live.

Soccer and basketball are becoming popular throughout the country.

Storytelling is a favorite pastime. Storytelling can be in the form of an igitito (chant), which is both entertaining and educational. The chants tell stories of kings or gods. Among cattle herders, kivivuga amazina, a poetry contest, is popular. An individual or a group performs a song, improvised on the spot, describing his or the group's abilities and accomplishments in exaggerated terms. The competitors respond with improvised songs, exaggerating even more. The contest takes place before an audience. Judges determine the winner, based on the competitor who makes the greatest claims.

When children get together, they like to play the game “gusimba ikibariko” which involves jumping with a ball. The object of gukina amabuye is to throw several stones a few feet in the air and catch them all before they fall to the ground. “Horo” is a ball game played by girls. A version of the ancient African game of “urubugu”, also known as “mancala” is often played. It can be played with pebbles or seashells on hollows scooped out on the ground, or with seeds on expensive, elaborately carved wooden boards. The object of the game is to capture as many stones and place them in your urubugu as you can. The player with the most stones at the end of the game wins.

The day for a child in Burundi is likely to begin sometime before dawn. Going to school involves some walking, depending on how far they live from the school. Most children have to cover a long distance before they get to school, usually by walking and most of them will be walking barefooted. Shoes are considered a luxury that you enjoy once you get to secondary school. After getting up, some households may prepare sorghum porridge but the greater majority will do without it. Others will have to do with the leftovers if any, of the evening meal and they will then rush to school. Lessons in most schools begin at 7:30 a.m. and will go on until 12:45 p.m. when they will break for lunch.

The classes are generally crowded, with anything from 50 to 150 kids per class and the teachers are generally overwhelmed. The classrooms are most likely made of baked bricks or most of the time they could be simply made of mud walls. The teachers have to do with the few facilities that are available and when it comes to things like textbooks the children have to share them. The only thing you would say you are sure to find in class is a chalkboard at the front of the class. Due to the big number of children, they will cram themselves into the few available desks but the rest will have to sit on the floor or perch on rocks and boulders they bring to class for that purpose. Lunchtime comes as a relief to many school-going children because, in some schools, NGOs have a school feeding program that gives them a guarantee of at least a meal for that day, usually the first one of the day for many. In the schools where such a program does not exist school enrollments are low.

The lower classes will normally go home after lunch whereas the bigger siblings remain for the afternoon classes which begin at 2:00 p.m. and go on until 3:30 p.m. or 4:00 p.m. The lessons are usually 35 to 40 minutes long. They are motivated by the fact that at the end of it all education is going to make their lives better than what they see in their homes living with their parents, most of who never received an education due to the ravages of the civil war. The children will often rush home after the evening classes to assist with some chores. However, there are those who live on their own, being orphaned who must get home early to fend for themselves and for their younger siblings.

Traditionally children have their own forms of entertainment which may include playing an ancient game known as ‘urubugu’ which is played on bare ground using stones or seas shells on holes that they scoop into the ground. Sometimes even adults play a particular version of the game but this time they play it on a board that has been carved using some types of seeds. Girls play a type of ball game known as ‘horo’ and when they are together with adults, there are usually poetry contests known as ‘kivivuga amazina’ as well as riddles. They also love participating in storytelling. Burundi has a unique and long-standing musical heritage. At family gatherings imvyino songs with a short refrain and a strong beat that often include improvised verses, are sung. The indirimbo song is a more subdued form that is performed by a single singer or a small group. Men sing kwishongora, a rhythmic song with shouts and trills, whereas the bilito, a sentimental musical expression, is generally a female form. "Whispered singing" is also typical of Burundian music. It is performed at a low pitch so that the accompaniment of the instruments can be heard more clearly. Songs are played on the inanga, an instrument while six to eight strings stretched over a hollow wooden bowl; the idono, a fiddle with one string; the ikihusehama, a clarinet-like woodwind; and the ikimbe, a linguaphone. Drums are important not only as musical instruments but as symbols of power and status. Several men play one drum at the same time and alternate playing solos.

Since most people live in rural areas, a lot of what must be done will have to be done before darkness sets in. that means that by 7:00 p.m. supper will have already been consumed and the younger kids run off to bed. The older ones may sit around the fire and catch up with their parents or grandparents if they do not have any homework to do. There are no luxuries such as TV, so the news is never an issue for the children and even their parents. Anytime between 8:00 p.m. and 9:00 p.m. everybody is off to sleep. Children here do not have the luxury of having a bedroom of their own and so they will always share one room and sleep on a mat on the floor. They also share the few available types of bedding, which most of the time will be one blanket.

The official languages are French and Kirundi but those who spent some time in the refugee camps were able to pick up Kiswahili. English is known by extremely few. Being a patriarchal society a big part of the workload - especially on the domestic front - is done by women, and children have to automatically come in and assist their mothers. Any free moment children have after school and before darkness sets in is spent collecting firewood, cooking, doing laundry, and taking care of their siblings. It is during this time also that they must run to the nearest river to fetch water as well as take their daily bath in preparation for the evening family meal.