Burundi

Bujumbura — the former capital of Burundi (a landlocked country of 27,830km² on the shore of Lake Tanganyika — the second deepest lake in the world — population 12 million, the most densely populated country in Africa south of the Sahara, with a history marked by recurring ethnic violence between Hutu and Tutsi communities, the most recent crisis being 2015–2018 when President Nkurunziza’s contested third term triggered protests, a coup attempt and the emigration of 400,000 people) — with the Livingstone-Stanley Monument and the Lake Tanganyika shore.

💡 Burundi is often overshadowed by Rwanda in discussions of Great Lakes African history, but the Burundian genocide (1972 — in which 100,000–300,000 Hutu were killed by the Tutsi-dominated army in response to a Hutu uprising, the first documented genocide in post-colonial Africa) preceded the Rwandan genocide (1994) by 22 years and has received far less international attention. The 1993 assassination of Burundi’s first democratically elected Hutu president, Melchior Ndadaye, triggered the subsequent cycles of violence.

Lake Tanganyika (the second deepest lake in the world at 1,470m — the longest freshwater lake in the world at 673km, shared between Burundi, the DRC, Tanzania and Zambia — containing the most diverse cichlid fish community in any lake on earth: 350+ endemic fish species, the most extraordinary freshwater ichthyological diversity in Africa, with the crystal-clear water and extraordinary snorkelling accessible from the Bujumbura beaches of the Saga beach strip).

💡 Lake Tanganyika’s cichlid diversity (350+ endemic fish species found only in the lake — having evolved from a small ancestor population over 10 million years of isolation in the rift lake — represents the most spectacular example of adaptive radiation in African freshwater fish. The cichlids of Lake Tanganyika (along with Lake Malawi and Lake Victoria) are the primary model for evolutionary biology’s understanding of speciation and adaptive radiation.

Kibira National Park (40,000 hectares of montane rainforest in northwestern Burundi — the largest intact forest in Burundi and the most important watershed for the country’s rivers, with chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes schweinfurthii — the eastern subspecies), colobus monkeys, olive baboons, sitatunga and the extraordinary montane bird diversity of the Albertine Rift — accessible by 4WD from Bujumbura with a local guide).

💡 Kibira National Park (established 1980 as Burundi’s most important protected area) has suffered from encroachment, charcoal production and refugee disturbance during Burundi’s periods of conflict. Despite this, the park retains one of the most intact chimpanzee habitats in the Great Lakes region and is the primary source of clean water for northwestern Burundi through its role as a watershed catchment for the Kagera, Ruvubu and other rivers that feed Lake Victoria.

Rusizi National Park (the delta where the Rusizi River enters Lake Tanganyika — a wetland of papyrus swamps, gallery forest and open water with the largest concentration of hippopotamuses and Nile crocodiles accessible in Burundi, along with the sitatunga and the extraordinary birdlife of the papyrus delta including the papyrus gonolek and the white-winged warbler) and a boat safari through the delta channels.

💡 Rusizi National Park (covering the Rusizi River delta — one of the most important freshwater wetlands in the Great Lakes region, fed by the Rusizi River’s flow from Lake Kivu) contains the most accessible large wildlife in Burundi: the hippopotamus pool at the Rusizi bridge is one of the most reliably productive hippo viewing sites in Central Africa, with 50+ animals visible from the road in the morning.

Gitega (the geographic and administrative capital of Burundi since 2019 — when President Nkurunziza moved the capital from Bujumbura to the highland centre — with the National Museum of Burundi (the finest collection of Burundian royal drums, traditional crafts and history), the Royal Palace museum of Muramvya and the drumming traditions of the Ruyigi region, the intore dance of the Burundian royal court and the extraordinary highland scenery of central Burundi).

💡 Burundian royal drumming (the sacred drum (karyenda) tradition of the Burundian kingdom — the ritual drums were the symbols of royal authority, kept at the royal residence and played at state ceremonies, the drummers themselves a hereditary caste — is the most culturally significant music in Burundian heritage. The Gitega Drummers (Tambourinaires du Burundi) have performed at UNESCO events and international festivals; the tradition is inscribed on the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage list.

Ruvubu National Park (50,800 hectares along the Ruvubu River in eastern Burundi — the largest national park in Burundi, with the most intact savanna landscape, buffalos, hippos, crocodiles and baboons along the river, and the extraordinary claim that the Ruvubu River is the most distant source of the Nile — the Luvironza tributary of the Ruvubu, in the mountains of Bururi province, being identified by some geographers as the ultimate source of the world’s longest river).

💡 The source of the Nile (the most distant headwater of the Nile River system — from Lake Victoria the Nile flows north for 6,650km to the Mediterranean, but Lake Victoria is itself fed by rivers, and the most distant of these tributaries is the Kagera, which is fed by the Ruvubu, which receives the Luvironza from the highlands of Bururi province in southern Burundi — making Burundi the hydrological source of the Nile, though this is debated by geographers who define the source differently).

A final day on Lake Tanganyika: snorkelling the reef (the lake’s rocky shores support endemic cichlids in extraordinary density, visible through the crystal-clear water from the surface — the only snorkelling experience in the world where every fish seen is found nowhere else on earth) and a sunset from the Bujumbura waterfront — the mountains of the DRC visible across the lake, the hippos surfacing in the evening, before flying from Bujumbura (BJM).

💡 Lake Tanganyika snorkelling (the rocky reef communities of the lake — particularly the areas around Bujumbura and Resha beach — where 50+ species of endemic cichlid feed, breed and display in the transparent water of the world’s second-deepest lake, visible without diving equipment from the surface) is one of the most remarkable and affordable wildlife experiences in Central Africa, costing almost nothing beyond the bus to the beach.