Burundi
POPULATION 6,373,002
ROMAN CATHOLIC 62 percent
AFRICAN INDIGENOUS BELIEFS 23 percent
PROTESTANT 13 percent
MUSLIM 2 percent
Country Overview
Introduction
The Republic of Burundi is a small Central African country between Rwanda, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Tanzania, with its south-west border along the shoreline of Lake Tanganyika. Mostly mountainous and wooded, the country has tropical rainforest in the northwest. Nineteenth-century European travelers described it as a land of almost ideal beauty, but political turmoil has rendered Burundi one of the poorest countries in Africa.
Burundi's main ethnic groups are the Hutu (the majority), Tutsi, and Twa. Though many Burundians (particularly the Twa) retain vestiges of indigenous religious practices, the country is predominantly Catholic. The White Fathers opened their first mission in Burundi 1879. The Germans colonized the region following the Berlin conference of 1885, bringing Protestant denominations. After World War I Burundi came under Belgian control. Like the Germans, the Belgians left the Tutsi king and political system in place; however, the Belgians provided the Catholic missions a more favorable climate for expansion. Burundi gained its independence in 1962. In 1966 Tutsi Captain Michel Micombero ended 400 years of Tutsi monarchy, renaming the country the Republic of Burundi.
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