Kingdom Of Burundi: The Incredible Precolonial History In The 19th Century

Kingdom Of Burundi

The precolonial kingdom of Burundi grew from a small dynasty tucked between two politically stronger and larger regions, Rwanda and Buha, into a strong political force of its own over the course of the nineteenth century. It was situated in fertile highlands that overlooked the northeastern shore of Lake Tanganyika.

As the century came to a close, the Kingdom Of Burundi was not only the strongest of the kingdoms along the Great Lakes corridor, but it was also the only African country that could keep slave traders, missionaries, and colonial soldiers out. Two wise and long-ruling kings, Ntare Rugamba (around 1800–1850) and Mwezi Gisabo (around 1857–1908), helped Burundi rise to power in the 1800s. 

Ntare Rugamba, a brave warrior, expanded the kingdom’s borders by conquering new lands. He set up a new territorial framework for the kingdom that his son and successor, Mwezi Gisabo, worked to solidify legally. People think that Mwezi’s rule was the peak of the Burundian royalty. 

Military planning and cooperation between fathers and sons marked the Kingdom Of Burundi’s rise to power in the 1800s. The sons of aristocrats, court officials, and regional leaders formed the Abatezi (“attackers”), Ntare Rugamba’s carefully trained personal guard. They were the core of an army that could grow to several thousand people during wartime. Prince Rwasha, Ntare’s son, led the Abatezi at their peak in the 1840s. His plan was to attack with a main group of archers, while surrounding the enemy from the sides. 

When the Abatezi fought this way, they were successful against both small regional kingdoms and the bigger armies of Rwanda and Buha-Buyungu. In victory, Rwasha’s troops focused on taking cattle instead of killing people. But if they caught the other boss, they were likely to cut off his head and set his house on fire. 

To take over newly conquered areas, Ntare Rugamba set up a political and administrative structure called the Baganwa system of territorial control. In this system, he gave his royal sons (the Baganwa) and his wives, ritualists, clients, and close friends the power to rule. With permission from the king to claim land, these possible rulers went to faraway places to try to set up their own “courts.” 

If they were able to get established, they worked to weaken the power of local leaders or families in order to serve the king’s interests. At the same time, they looked out for their own interests by making local families give gifts or tributes as a way of showing support for the government. Through this method, a king’s favorite client who had done work for the king for many years could be in charge of several separate territories, with each territory being a “reward.” 

During Ntare Rugamba’s rule, his older children, especially his sons Rwasha, Ndivyariye, Birori, and Busumano, owned the most land. Ntare gave lands to loyal followers, but he also directly ruled many domains, many of which were in great spots in the heartland. He gained wealth from these things, such as animals, food, drinks (like honey wine), and well-made items (like bark cloth), which he could give to loyal subjects or redistribute at court. He also received these items as gifts. The king was powerful because he was spiritually strong, not because he was strong in battle or with money. 

The word “king” (mwami) comes from the verb kwama, which means “to be fertile.” His people saw the king as the embodiment of fertility. For the people of Burundi, the mwami was a living charm that brought them happiness. A mysterious aspect of the king’s power was associated with a series of images and practices designed to showcase and bolster his enigmatic attributes.

This included a unique language for referring to the king’s body parts; a complex collection of charms, including a royal bull, a royal python, and sacred drums; and an annual ceremony called umuganuro (the first fruits or sorghum festival held in December), which blessed the king and brought his sacred side back to life.

Ritualists were in charge of both handling a dead king’s body and naming a new king. Most people are familiar with the court rituals from the era of Mwezi Gisabo, the last king to maintain them before pressures from Christianity and colonialism halted them. There is a lot of debate and secrecy about how Mwezi Gisabo was born and how he became ubwami, which is the mwami’s office represented by the drum, which is a Burundian symbol of royal power.

Mwezi Gisabo, one of the youngest royal children, was named Ubwami instead of his brother Twarereye, who was supposed to be the heir. This decision led the supporters of each brother to take up arms on the battlefield, ultimately resulting in Twarereye’s death. During these wars, Mwezi, who was too young to rule, lived at court with his mother Vyano and oldest brother Ndivyariye, who were his tutors and ran the country for him. 

When Mwezi Gisabo became an adult, he took up guns to make his guardian Ndivyariye give up power, even though he didn’t want to. This fight between brothers happened in the late 1860s and led to a grudge between their children and grandchildren, the Batare and the Bezi, that affected Burundian politics for another 100 years. 

As early as within his own family, Mwezi Gisabo faced challenges to his power. These set the tone for his long and difficult rule. But a strong group at court, a skilled royal guard, and a smart and powerful group of sorcerers, ritualists, and advisors supported Mwezi Gisabo. He was able to handle many risks to his power and the safety of his kingdom.

 Wanyamwezi, militarized and seeking expansion, launched an attack from the east in 1884; Arab-Swahili slave traders attempted to enter Burundi from the west and south beginning in the 1850s; long-standing rival Rwanda, with whom he maintained a tense border to the north (1880s–1890s); aspirants for dominance; and shifts in the environment and diseases (1870s–1890s).

Mwezi dealt with all of these problems and stayed in power. Even though Mwezi faced many threats from outside his land during his long rule, the biggest dangers came from within, from his own family. The Baganwa method of governing territory that Ntare Rugamba set up worked well for the warrior-king, but it made things very hard for his son. 

The problem with it was that once the people who were given Ntare Rugamba’s power to rule settled down in more rural areas after their patron died, they and their children didn’t have much reason to stay loyal to Mwezi Gisabo, who took over as leader. So, Mwezi Gisabo should have kicked out these unreliable relatives and given their land to people who were loyal to him, like his own kids. 

These fights among the Baganwa made the country unstable and full of political drama, which outsiders tried to take advantage of. With the help of internal disagreement, Germany was able to conquer other countries in the early 1900s.

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