{UAH} WHEN BURUNDI'S ONLY FOUR UNIVERSITY GRADUATES WERE ALL KILLED

WHEN BURUNDI'S ONLY FOUR UNIVERSITY GRADUATES WERE ALL KILLED

In Burundi. although the Mwami (King) was like his counterpart in Rwanda, a sacred and absolute monarch, his role was subtly different. He was the father of the nation - almost more of a religious than a political figure in whose mystique everybody shared. More important, the Tutsi segment of the population did not rule politically; this role was devolved to the Abaganwa - a group of highly ranking nobles who dominated both Hutu and Tutsi. They were the Provincial Governors, ruling various areas in the name of the Mwami. In turn, at the ,the king chose his close advisers from among what was called the Abanyarurimbi - those who can judge - they were both Hutu and Tutsi by origin but not Abaganwa. Then in everyday life, the men who counted were the Abashingantahe - generally older gentlemen who were recognised  as social referees and common law judges ARBITRATINGmost of the ordinary quarrels and social problems. Unlike Rwanda, Burundi had a royal court where influential courtiers were both Hutu and Tutsi. A specialised feudal aristocracy of Abaganwa ruling over Tutsi and Hutu alike; both categories being considered as Abanyagihugu (subjects). This does not mean that Hutu and Tutsi were equal - Tutsi definitely formed an aristocracy. Before colonialism there existed an intermediate class between the King and the population. Within the Tutsi there was the High Tutsi, Low Tutsi and the poor Tutsi. Among the peasantry relations between ordinary Tutsi and Hutu were on equal footing and intermarriage was common.

In Burundi the colonialists attempted the divide and rule policy but the existence of a separate princely caste (Abaganwa) meant that the division between the Hutu and Tutsi was not the sole or defining element in society. Instead it meant that the Belgian rulers both privilege to the TutsiELITE and also worked alongside a group which was hostile to both Hutu and Tutsi - the Abaganwa. The result was the anti-colonial revolts like Rubengabenga (1912 - 1922), Innamuvyeyi Nyanvishi (1922), Runyota (1922) and Inamjandi (1934) - were all protests of subject people against Europeans. To some extent, rich Tutsi would sell out to Belgian colonisers. Unlike in Rwanda, the King was protected but not a direct tool of the Belgians. In Rwanda there was the Policy of  'Tustification' of the civil service while in Burundi there was 'Baganwaisation'. Post 1929, most chiefs were Abaganwa rather than ordinary Tutsi. Burundi's  Ubugabire (client/patron system of social contract) was distinct to Rwada's Ubuhake. However, among the ruling Abaganywa, there evolved a split along the lines of Abezi and AbatareLINEAGES. Colonial authorities exploited the rivalry between the competing royal lineages leading to the Abezi acendancy over the Abatare. King Mwambutsa belonged to the Abezi lineage. 

It is against the above background that among the Abatare rose a prominent Chief Pier Baranyanka. He was educated under the German Colonial administration who held different key positions both in the Kingdom and under the colonial administration. He had diligently served both the German and Belgium colonial administrations before becoming a successful coffeeTRADER,  the first Burundian to buy an automobile and to built for himself a mansion at Kayanza. He had more influence over Belgian colonial authorities than the playboy - King Mwambutsa. With his economic and social status, by the time of independence he had managed to push his two elder sons to attain university education. Towards independence the Union for National Progress (UPRONA) party was formed and led by Andrea Nugu. King Mwambutsa's eldest son Prince Louis Rwagasore who had justCOMPLETED his university education in Belgium became UPRONA's Chief Adviser. Around 1958, Prince Rwagasore took over leadership of UPRONA. The Baganwa in general were contented with the Belgian's continued rule over Rwanda/Urundi territory and were not in favor of immediate independence. Prince Rwagasore became rebellious and inked with the likes of Ghana's Nkuruma and Tanzania's Nyerere whose support he used to push for 'Independence Now'. His father King Mwambutsa appointed him Chief of Butanyerera in order to dissuade him from nationalistic politics but Prince Rwagasore turned it down. In February 1960 the prominent Chief Pier Baranyanka formed the Christian Democratic Party (CDP) that advocated for a delay of independence. CDP came to be run by Pierre Baranyanka's two sons Prince Joseph Sebatwa Birori and Prince Jean Baptiste Ntindedereza who were both university graduates. It became clear that these pre-independence nationalistic political parties differed along the old Abaganwa lineage (Abatare and Abezi) rivalries though they regrouped both Hutu and Tutsi. The Belgians considered CDP to be lesser evil than the main nationalist UPRONA.

As a Prince Rwagasore could play on traditionalism and as a young radical intellectual he could play on fiery nationalist and socialist rhetoric; and as a person on a very enlightened approach to ethno-social politics. In September 1959 he had married a Hutu -MARIE ROSE Ntamkevyo the daughter of Adelphonse Ntamkevyo the then Mayor of Bujumbura - a marriage that carried a strong political message. A prince marrying a low caste girl embodied national unity! He had two strong and closest advisers - Paul Mirerekano and Pierre Ngendandumwe who were both Hutu. Both CDP and UPONA had support accross the ethnic divide. The Belgian policy of divide and rule that had worked in Rwanda could not work in Burundi. Belgians decided to support the newly born purely Hutu party - People's Party (PP). In 1960 during a UPRONA congress Prince Rwagasore called for total independence and a boycott of Belgian stores and taxes prompting Prince Rwagasore to be placed under arrest by the Belgian authorities. In 1960 CDP allied with PP and won local elections but in the September 1961 parliamentary elections, UPRONA won the majority 82% of the vote and entered parliament with 58 of the 64 MPs. Of these 58 UPRONA MPs, 25 were Tutsi, 22 were Hutu, 7 were Baganwa and 4 were of mixed parentage. Prince Rwagasore the leader of UPRONA was slated to become the countries first Prime Minister.

On 13th October 1961 Prince Rwagasore was shot dead during a dinner at Hotel Lac Tanganyika in Bujumbura. He was shot by a Greek settler Ioannis Karegeorgis who is alleged to have been hired by a prominent Greek trader who hated UPRONA and was close to the two sons (Birori and Ntidendereza) of Chief Pierre Baranyanka - the ousted Baganwa Batare conspiracy. Karegeorgis together with Birori and Ntidereza were arrested and tried by the Belgian authorities. Despite the fact that Belgium had much earlier on abolished the death penalty, Karegeorgis was convicted of murdering Prince Rwagasore, sentenced to death and hanged immediately. The other two suspect brothers (Birori and Baranyanka) were exonerated of murder. With the assassination of Prince Rwagasore, "the center could no longer hold and things fell apart".  The King decreed that UPRONA leadership would be determined by an election from the rank and file members of the party. At the time not only was the Hutu revolution message was coming to Burundi from Rwanda but the effects of a global cold war too. UPRONA Tutsi cadres immediately embarked on a process of Tutsifying UPRONA. The earlier on exonerated  Birori and Ntidendereza were retaken through a mock trial, found guilty of murdering prince Rwagasore and hanged in January 1963. Their father Chief Baranyanka was detained without trial for a long time only to come out ruined and dishonored before he died in 1973.  

The Vice President of UPRONA Paul Mirerekano had led a mainly Hutu faction of the independence parliament that came to be known as the Monrovia Group that was pro-USA faction that came to be known as Monirovia Group. The other faction that was mainly comprised of Tutsi including the royal house hold came to be known as the Casablanca Group that was pro-Communist China. These Monirovia and Casablanca factions had their origin from the OAU in Adisababa. At the time Aligeria's Ben Bela was spearheading the revolutionaries in Africa. Che-Guvara had travelled through Tanzania to eastern Congo to assist the Kabila (Sr) rebels that had come up following the assassination of Congo's Patrice Lumumba. The USA was determined to stop China's access to uranium in Congo. A Chinese was kidnapped in Bujumbura only to resurface at the USA Embassy in Rwanda. At the same time the pro-communist Rwanda Tutsi exile rebel groups (Inyenzi) attacked the Hutu dominated and pro-USA government in Rwanda. In 1965 the first Hutu university graduate and pro-Monirovia group Pierre Ngendandumwe was appointed Prime Minister only to be assassinated eight days later by a Rwandese Tutsi refugee who was working at the USA embasy in Burundi. Burundi severed relations with China after its Embassy in Bujumbura was surrounded by troops, diplomats expelled and Embassy closed.

Burundi had now lost the fourth university graduate (Pierre Ngendandumwe) out of the only four that it had at independence in 1962. The other three being Prince Louis Rwagasore (1961) and the two brothers - Joseph Birori and Jean Baptiste Ntidendereza (1963). The seeds of instability were sowed in Burundi that have flourished through the decades.

INFORMATION IS POWER

Posted by Uganda - A Change of Guards! 

Viele GruBe

Robukui

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