Ururimi rw'Ikirundi

The Kirundi Language

Kirundi is a complex and difficult language, very similar to Kinyarwanda, the language of Rwanda. Similar languages are also spoken in southern Uganda, eastern Congo, and western Tanzania. My friend Eric Riley has assembled a useful website that gives helpful phrases in Kirundi. For anyone planning to visit Burundi, it would be extremely helpful to learn some of the basic words and greetings in Kirundi.

Linguistic studies have shown that Kirundi and Kinyarwanda enjoy a special status within the entire African and Bantu community. In terms of population, they each rank among the top twenty African languages. Collectively or jointly they rank among the top ten. They are each the major and predominant languages of their respective countries, a rare situation which is shared with Lesotho, Djibouti, Swaziland, and Madagascar among Africa's fifty-two nations. Kirundi and Kinyarwanda are regularly used in most domains: political offices, meetings, and economic affairs. Each enjoys official language status. There are broad-based monolingual media (TV, radio, and the press). They are media of instruction in primary school and functionally literate citizens have plenty of materials to keep their skills from atrophying.

Here is an important text in Kirundi:

WOBA WARUMVISE . . . .

INGINGO ZINE Z'IVY'IMPWEMU? Ikintu cose gifise amategeko akigenzura. Nawe nyene kugira ngo ucudike n'Imana, hariho amategeko ukwiye gukurikiza. Ingingo ya1IMANA IRAGUKUNDA KANDI IKUGIRA IMIGABO Y'AGATANGAZA MU BUGINGO BWAWE URUKUNDO RW'IMANA "Kuk'urukundo Imana yakunze abari mw'isi, ari rwo rwatumye Itanga umwana wayo w'ikinege, ng'umwizera wese ntaz'apfe rubi, arikw'ahabwe ubugingo budashira." Yohana 3:16 IMIGABO IMANA IGUFITIYE Yesu arakubwira ati: "Nanje jeho nazanywe no kugira ngo zironke ubugingo, kandi ngo ziburonke busagutse." Yohana 10:10 Mbega ni kuki abantu benshi badafise ubwo bugingo?

UMUNTU NI UMUNYAVYAHA KANDI IVYAHA VYIWE VYAMUTANDUKANIJE N'IMANA Ingingo ya2BITUMA ATAMENYA URUKUNDO N'IMIGABO IMUGIRA MU KUBAHO KWIWE. UMUNTU NI UMUNYAVYAHA "Kukw ata tandukaniro, bose bakoze ivyaha, ntibashikira ubwiza bw'Imana". Abaroma 3:23 Imana yaremye umuntu kugira ngo bacudike. Yamara umuntu yahisemwo inzira yiwe bituma atandukana n'Imana. Kugarariza no kutumvira Imana ni Icaha. Kandi iyo umuntu ahushanije n'ivy'Imana Igomba, bituma aba mu buja bw'ivyaha. UMUNTU YARATANDUKANYE N'IMANA "Ingero y'icaha ni urupfu" (gutandukana n'Imana mu buryo bw'impwemu) Abaroma 6:23. Iki gicapu kitwereka kw'Imana an lyera kandi k'umuntu ari umuvyaha. Hagati yiwe n'Imana hari imanga nini y'ivyaha yamutandukanije n'Imana. Umuntu agerageza gukoresha uburyo bwinshi kugira ngo ashike ku Mana, aronderera inzira mw'idini, mu masengesho, mu bikorwa vyiza n'ibindi... Ariko ivyo vyose ntibihagije, umuntu aba akiri umunyavyaha. Ingingo ya gatatu iduha inyishu y'iyo ngorane.

YESU KRISTO NI WE GUSA NZIRA Y'UKURI ISHIKANA UMUNTU KU MANA YERA. Ingingo ya3muri we ni ho ushobora kumenya urukundo Imana igukunda n'imigabo Ikugira mu kubaho kwawe. Yapfuye mu gishingo cacu. "A rikw'lmana yatweretse urukundo rwayo ldukunda, kuko Kristo yadupfiriye tukiri abanyavyaha " Abaroma 5:8 YESU NI MUZIMA "Kuko nabanje kubashikiriza ico nanje nahawe, yuko Kristo yapfiriye ivyaha vyacu, nk'ukw' ivyanditswe bivuga, agahambwa, akazuka ku musi ugira gatatu, nk'ukw'ivyanditswe bivuga, akiyereka Kefa, maz'akiyereka bamwe cumi na babiri, akongera akiyerekera hamwe bene Data basaga amajana atanu" 1 Ab'i Korinto 15:3:6. YESU WENYENE NI WE NZIRA. "Yesu aramubwira ati: Ni jewe nzira n'ukuri n'ubugingo: Ntawushika kuri Data ntamujanye". Yohana 14:6 Iki gicapu kitwereka kw'Imana yashizeho igitarurwa kugira ngo kiduhuze, Nayo. Nico gituma Imana yatanze Umwana wayo w'ikinege Yesu Kristo, ngw'apfe ku musaraba kugira ngo tubashe kwegera Imana. Ariko ntibihagije kumenya izo ngingo zitatu zonyene.

Ingingo ya4URAKWIYE KWAKIRA YESU KRISTO UMWAMI N'UMUKIZA WAWE; NI HO UZOMENYA URUKUNDO RW'IMANA N'IMIGABO IKUGIRA MU BUGINGO BWAWE. DUKWIYE KWAKIRA UMWAMI YESU KUBWO KWIZERA "Ariko abamwakiriye bose yabahaye, ububasha bwo gucika abana b'Imana, ni bo bizeye izina ryiwe." Yohana 1:12 "Ubuntu ni bwo bwakijije kubw'ukwizera, na vyo nyene ntivyavuye kuri mwebwe, ni ingabire y'Imana; ntivyavuye kubikorwa kugirango hoye kugira uwirarira." Abanyefeso 2:8-9 Iyo twakiriye Yesu -Kristo tuba tuvutse ubwa kabiri. (Yohana 3:1-8 ) KWAKIRA YESU NI UKUMUSABA KUZA MU BUGINGO BWAWE. Yesu arakubwira ati: "Ehe mpagaze ku rugi, ndaramukije Umuntu ni yumva ijwi ryanje, akugurura urugi, ndinjira i we dusangire". Ivyahishuwe 3:20 Kwakira Yesu 1 Ni ukumenya ko uri umunyavyaha, ukihana, ugahindukirira Imana. 2. t ukwizera kw'Imana ishobora kuguharira ivyaha vyose 3. Ni ukwakira Yesu Kristo mu bugingo bwawe umwzeye, akagutegeka kugirango ukore ivy'agomba. YESUNTARI MU BUGNIGO BW'UYU MUNTU YESU ARI MU BUGINGO BW'UYU Umuntu yiganza umuntu aganzwa na Yesu Mbega mugenzi ni ikihe gicapu wogereranya n'ubugingo bwawe? None woshima ku ereranywa n'ikihe gicapu? Ibikunkira biraguso banurira ukugene wokwakiraYesu mu bugingo bwawe.

USHOBORA KWAKIRA YESU UBU NYENE KUBWO KWIZERA MU GUSENGA. (Gusenga ni kuganira n'Imana). Musabe Yesu yinjire mu bugingo bwawe. Wizere kwashobora kugukorera ivyo yasezeranye. Aya masengesho yogufasha kwakira Yesu, uyavuze n'umutima ukunze. Mwami Yesu ndagutakambiye kugira ng'unyiganzire mbe uwawe Ivyaha vyanje vyantandukanije nawe. Ndakwinginze Mwaming'uze mu rnutima wanje Ndagushimiye ko umpariye ivyaha vyanje vyose. ndabizi neza ko wahejeje kubimparira Ubu ndemeye kuva mu vyaha ngo tubane Yesu Hindura ubu bugingo bwanje mbe nk'nk'ugomba ibihe vyose. Amen. Mbega, aya masengesho arahuye n'ivy'umutima wawe wifuza? Asangwa ahuye n'ivyo wifuza, yavuge usabe Umwami Yesu kuza mu bugingo bwawe nkuko yasezeranye INGENE USHOBORA KUMENYA KO YESU ARI MU BUGINGO BWAWE. Mbega wakiriye Yesu Kristo mu bugingo bwawe ? Ukunkije isezerano ryiwe mu Vyahishunwe Yohana 3:20, ubu Knsto ari he ? Yesu Kristo yavuze ko azokwinjira mu bugingo bwawe. Uravyemera ? None womenya ute kw'Imana yishuye amasengesho yawe ? (ku bw'isezerano ry'Imana n'Ilambo ryayo). BIBILIYA ISEZERANA UBUGINGO BUDASHIRA KU BAKIRIYE YESU KRISTO BOSE. Kandi iyo ntahe ni iyi: n'ukw Imana yaduhaye ubugingo budashira, kandi ubwo bugingo ko buri mu Mwana wayo. Ufise Umwana wayo ni we afise ubwo bugingo; udafise Umwana w'lmana ntafise ubwo bugingo. Ivyo ndabibandikiye, mwebwe mwizeye izina ry'Umwana w1mana, kugira ngo mumenye yuko mufise ubugingo budashira Yohana 5:11-13 Ukurikije iryo sezerano ushobora kumenya ko Yesu Kristo ari mu bugingo bwawe kandi ko ufse ubugingo budashira kuva umwakiriye mu bugingo bwawe. Ntazoguhemukira. Shimlra Imana imisi yose ko Yesu Kristo ari mu bugingo bwawe kandi ko ufise ubuglngo budashira. NTUKABESHWEHO N'AKAMEREMERE KAWE. Ubushobozi bw'Umukristo buhagaze kw'Ijambo ry'Imana, atari kuri kameremere kiwe canke uko avyiyumvamwo. Umukristo abeshwaho n' ukwizera mu kwizigira Imana n'Ijambo ryayo.Uyu musi ushobora kunezerwa, ikindi gihe ukababara.Uko umuntu yiyumvamwo biva mu gihe aba arimwo.Ntukabeshweho n'akameremere kawe kugira ngo ugire icemezo c'uko Kristo yama ari mu bugingo bwawe. "Imana Ubwayo yavuze iti: Nta ho nzoguhemukira, nta ho nzoguta". Kuko uzi kw'Itabesha. ushobora gusa gukengurukira Imana kuko rnu bihe bibi n'ibihevyiza ibana nawe mu bugingo bwawe. Mu kuvuga uti: "Urakoze" vyerekana ko wizeye Isezeiano iyayo. IBISHIKA MU BUGINGO BWAWE UMAZE KWAKIRA YESU KRISTO NI IBIKI? Mu gihe wakira Kristo,ibintu vyinshi vyagushikiye mu bugingo bwawe 1. Yesu Kristo yaje mu bugingo bwawe (Ivyahishuwe 3:20) (Ab'i Kolosayi 1:27) 2. Ivyaha vyawe vyahariwe (Ab'i Kolosayi 1:14) 3. Wacitse umwana w'Imana (Yohana 1 :12) 4. Waronse ubugingo budashira (Yohana 5:24) 5. Watanguye ubugingo buhimbaye. ubw'lmana yaknremeye (Yohana 10:10 II Ab'i Konnto 5: 17. II Ab'i Tesalonike 5:18). Mbega mugenzi, wibaza ko hari ikindi kintu cokunezera kuruta kwakira Yesu mu bugingo bwawe ? None ntiwoshimira Imana buno nyene ku vyo yagukoreye ? Gushimira Imana no kuyisenga vyerekana ukwizera. Dusenge ... UBURYO BWO GUKURA MU VY'IMPWEMU Nk'uko umwana mutoyi akeneye gukura ni ko n'umukristo akeneye gukura mu vy'impwemu Niwakwirikiza imisi yose izi ngingo zitandatu zizogufasha gutera imbere mu nzira y'Imana 1. Urama uganira n'Imana mu gusenga (Yohana 15:7) 2. Urama usoma Ijambo ry'Imana (Ivyakozwe n'Intumwa 17:11) 3. Wubahe Imana ibihe vyose (Yohana 14.21) 4. Urashingira intahe Kristo mu bikorwa no mu majambo yawe (Matayo 4:19, Yohana 15:8) 5. Wizere Imana muri vyose (1 Petero 5:7) 6. Ureke Mpwemu Yera arongore ubugingo n'intahe vyawe ku musi ku musi, kandi abihe ububasha (Ab'Igalatiya 5:16, 17, Ivyakozwe 1:8). NI NGOBWA KW'ABAKRISTO BAKORANIRA HAMWE Aka karorero ka radufasha kubitahura: "lyo inkwi zirunzwe hamwe, zirushaho kwaka cane. Ukuyemwo rumwe ukarushira ukwarwonyene ruca ruzima". Nawe nyene biragukwiriye gukoranira hamwe n'abandi bakristo. ni wafatanya n'abandi bakristo bamaze kwakira Yesu nk'Umukiza wabo; ukwizera kwawe kuzorushirizaho gukomera. Uraja mw'isengero ry'abantu bizera ko Bibiliya ad ijambo ry'Imana, kandi bahimbaza Umwami Yesu, ata wundi batumbera. Tangura gufatanya n'abandi mur'iyi ndwi. "Twoye guheba gukoranira hamwe, nk'uko bamwe babigira, ariko duhanurane, kandi uko mubonye wa musi wegereza, murushirize kugenza gurtyo."

ASANGWA AKAGATABO KAGUFASHIJE NI UGASOMERE UWUNDI MUNTU

Kahise k'Uburundi

The history of Burundi.

I am not a historian, so I refer you to an excellent historian on Burundi -- René Lemarchand. The following is taken completely from an excellent article by Lemarchand that was published in October 2006.

There are many ways to read this [Burundi’s] troubled situation, and they all point to specific episodes in the country’s convoluted history. There is, to begin with, the irreducible fact that in the 45 years since independence at no time has Burundi experienced as much as a glimmer of democratic rule. Though elections were held in 1965 and 1993, they each led to military dictatorships, accompanied by widespread violence. From the coming to power of Michel Micombero (1966-1976) to his overthrow by Jean Baptiste Bagaza (1976-1987) and the latter in turn by Pierre Buyoya (1987-1993) Burundi has been governed by a mixed assemblage of civilians and army men, with the army acting as the ultimate arbiter of conflict within and outside government. Beginning with the drastic purges of the military in 1965 and 1969, the trend has been increasingly in the direction of Tutsi dominance, reaching its most extreme form in the aftermath of the 1972 genocide.

Besides having been subject to decades of military rule, Burundi has the sad distinction of being the first state in the Great Lakes region to have experienced genocidal violence, a fact largely obscured by the far more devastating bloodletting in Rwanda. Unlike what happened in Rwanda in 1994 – a total genocide – the 1972 killings, involving a wholesale massacre of Hutu elites, can best be described as a “selective” genocide, with the victims numbering anywhere from 150,000 to 300,000. Nonetheless, the points of convergence with Rwanda are unmistakable. In both instances the killings occurred in response to what was perceived by the state as a major threat to its survival. In Rwanda the menace came from the armed invasion of the Tutsi-dominated Rwanda Patriotic Front (RPF) on October 1, 1990; in Burundi it took the form of an externally supported Hutu uprising, in late April 1972, which took of the lives of thousands of innocent Tutsi civilians. In both cases the roots of disaster must be found in the policies of exclusion long practiced by the ruling elites, and which made it almost impossible for the Tutsi in Rwanda and the Hutu in Burundi effectively to exercise their political rights. And just as in Rwanda the outcome of genocidal violence has been the rise of a thinly veiled military ethnocracy, so also in Burundi where the state, like the army, became the monopoly of Tutsi elements. From 1973 to 1993 Burundi was in essence a Tutsi state. Furthermore, in each case genocide has generated massive flows of refugees and internally displaced persons (IDPs), many of whom became actively involved in externally-based insurgencies.

Which brings into focus two critical challenges faced by the Nkurunziza government as it tried to make good on its promise to restore security to the country: the persistence of Hutu radicalism as an enduring element of the social landscape, and the refugee problem. To these we shall return in a moment. Suffice it to note that although both are traceable to the1972 bloodbath, the challenges they posed to the state were made even more daunting by the massive eruption of violence triggered by the 1993 crisis. The long civil war that followed in the wake of Ndadaye’s assassination accelerated the flow of refugees to neighboring states, and further intensified ethnic hatreds.

The disastrous consequences of the failed 1993 democratic transition must be seen as a key reference point for an understanding of the current crisis. As will be recalled, the pro-Hutu opposition party Front pour la démocratie au Burundi (Frodebu) scored a major victory at the polls against the former ruling pro-Tutsi Union pour le progrès national (Uprona) in the presidential and legislative elections in June and July 1993. “One of the most remarkable transitions to democracy yet seen in Africa”, is how one Western embassy described the elections – a judgment which subsequent events showed to be sadly premature. Hutu elation over the election of the Frodebu leader, Melchior Ndadaye, proved just as short-lived: Ndadaye was last seen on October 21, 1993, when the Tutsi-dominated army moved against the presidential palace, a prelude to the arrest and massacre of key Frodebu personalities. With the news of Ndadaye’s death reaching the countryside ethnic violence suddenly rose to a frightening pitch of intensity, with groups of enraged Frodebu militants turning against Tutsi civilians. Perhaps as many as 15,000 to 20,000 Tutsi were massacred. Probably as many Hutu were killed by the army in the course of the ensuing repression.

The coup rapidly collapsed, however, in the face of the international outcry caused by the army’s brazen attempt to reverse the verdict of the polls. While a compromise of sorts was reached over an interim government consisting of notoriously undistinguished personalities, Hutu and Tutsi, every effort was made by hard-core Tutsi politicians and army men to recapture power. In Filip Reyntjens’ terms, “a creeping coup followed, which aimed at destroying the legitimacy, and indeed the very existence of Frodebu and at imposing a de facto constitutional order that in effect consolidated the achievements of the October 1993 coup. This strategy increasingly radicalized political life and handicapped the search for a peaceful solution”.

Ethnic radicalism found expression in the growing strength of hard-core Hutu holdouts, traceable to the creation in 1983 of the Parti pour la Libération du Peuple Hutu (Palipehutu) in a refugee camp in Tanazania (Mishamo), and the emergence of a breakaway faction led by Agathon Rwasa, the Forces Nationales pour la Libération (FNL). Though largely confined to Bujumbura rural province, near the capital, the FNL has confronted the new government with major security threats, and forced the army into military engagements that led to countless human rights violations. Whether the cease-fire agreement recently negotiated in Dar-es-Salaam will hold is anybody’s guess.

The radical strand in the post-coup dispensation took another and equally ominous form with the split between radicals and moderates within the Frodebu. While the latter opted for collaboration, others chose to enter into armed rebellion. It was in June 1994 that a well-known Hutu politician, Leonard Nyangoma, until then Minister of Interior, decided to launch a new political movement, the Conseil National pour la Défense de la Démocratie (CNDD), whose armed wing, the Forces pour la Défense de la Démocratie (FDD), in time became hard to distinguish from its parent organization. Although the movement spawned several dissident factions, under Nkurunziza’s leadership the CNDD-FDD developed into a powerful politico-military organization. Its carefully calculated decision to join the transitional government headed by Domitien Ndayizeye, in 2003, signaled its mutation from a rebel organization to a legitimate political party.

The process of fragmentation reached its peak during the Arusha negotiations, beginning in July 1998 and ending with the formal signing of the so-called Arusha Peace and Reconciliation Agreement on August 28, 2000. From four main parties in 1996 no fewer than 17 had come into being in 2000, of which ten were pro-Tutsi (G-10) and seven pro-Hutu (G-7). Most of these newcomers had no constituencies to speak of beyond a handful of relatives and friends, their main concern being to position themselves for government jobs.

In the sheer proliferation of parties lies a major difference between the 1993 and 2005 transitions. Whereas in 1993 electoral competition took place in a highly polarized field, in 2005 it unfolded in a far more pluralistic environment, with several Tutsi and Hutu parties vying for the vote of their respective ethnic constituencies, and the predominantly Hutu CNN-FDD claiming the support of not a few Tutsi. As we shall see, the 2004 constitution formalized a power-sharing arrangement that not only legitimized the rights of the Tutsi minority but made possible the representation of smaller parties, Hutu and Tutsi, in the institutions of government.

What this brief excursus into the country’s recent history shows is the persistence of ethnic conflict as an irreducible fact of Burundi politics, combined with a trend in the direction of a more politically fragmented environment, where opportunities for cross-ethnic alliances greatly minimize the risks of a bi-polar confrontation. In this more flexible context lies a major difference between the 2005 transition and that of 1993. The downside of the equation is no less important to bear in mind: if the present government suffers from a conspicuous lack of competent civil servants, this is traceable to the circumstances of a prolonged insurgency which made it impossible for the CNDD-FDD recruits to acquire the kinds of professional skills needed after the guns fell silent. To this must be added the devastating economic costs of a ten-year civil war, which in addition to causing the loss of an estimated 300,000 human lives, has driven the economy into a poverty trap from which it is unlikely to extricate itself in the foreseeable future.

Burundi Bwacu!

Our Burundi!

This blog is about Burundi as seen through the eyes of an American born in Burundi. Burundi is a beautiful country, but it is little known by people outside of Burundi. By contrast, our neighbor to the north -- Rwanda -- is well known. Rwanda and Burundi are about the same size, with similar histories (pre- and post-colonial), similar people groups and languages, and similar geography and terrain. I hope that you will enjoy this blog dedicated to telling others about Burundi, its people, its beauty, and life in Burundi. Enjoy!