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Burundi and Rwanda, or...officially the Republic of Burundi and the Republic of Rwanda
Two small, bordering, landlocked countries in East Africa. Both in the African Great Lakes region.
Burundi borders Lake Tanganyika, the second-largest and second-oldest freshwater lake in the world.
And Rwanda borders Lake Kivu, a lake that is one of three known lakes to go through limnic eruptions.
A limnic eruption is a rare type of natural disaster in which deep lake waters burst into a gas cloud that can kill any living creature near the lake.
So if that ever happens, Rwanda would be very vulnerable.
Tensions have been high between the two for a few years now.
However, even though the current leaders of both have been talking trash, the two countries have a lot in common.
For starters, they used to be part of the same kingdom.
Ruanda-Urundi, which was once part of German East Africa, a territory ruled by Belgium between 1922 and 1962 and before that ruled by...you guessed it...Germany.
But how about before the Europeans came in? Well let’s go way back.
Humans first occupied the area which would later be Rwanda and Burundi soon after the last ice age.
They were hunter gatherers, of course.
Flash forward thousands of years, and kingdoms had formed.
And yep, there was the Kingdom of Rwanda, which some say sprung up around the year 1000, and later the Kingdom of Burundi, which sprung up in the 1600s.
The group of people in both kingdoms shared a lot of the same characteristics, and yet three subgroups emerged: The Hutu, Tutsi, and Batwa, or Twa.
Well these kingdoms were ruled by Tutsis. By the 1800s, being Tutsi just meant you had more wealth and power than others in the kingdoms.
While the difference between Tutsi and Hutu was not always easily apparent, after the Europeans came in and colonized they created a more rigid hierarchy, giving better treatment to the Tutsis and keeping them in positions of power.
This ultimately led to more and more Hutu resentment toward Tutsis.
After World War II, the residents of Ruanda-Urundi began to push for independence, much like other countries did against colonial powers around the world at the time.
When Burundi became an independent country, they established a more diverse government made up of both Tutsis and Hutus.
When Rwanda did so, however, they installed a Hutu government that discriminated against and led violence against the former Tutsi leadership.
Many Tutsis fled Rwanda during the 1960s because of this, some ending up in Burundi.
During the Cold War, Burundi aligned itself with the Communists, whereas Rwanda aligned itself with the Americans.
Beginning in the 1960s, extremist Hutu rebels and extremist Tutsi rebels went back and forth committing all sorts of atrocities in both Burundi and Rwanda.
This cycle of violence escalated BIG TIME in the 1990s.
In Burundi, a civil war broke out, mostly fought along ethnic lines, ultimately taking the lives of more than 300,000 people.
But what you’ve probably already heard of is one of the most horrific genocides in world history.
The Rwandan Genocide, which occured over a period of just a few months in 1994, happened when extremist Hutu gangs murdered an estimated more than 1 million Rwandans, mostly Tutsis but also moderate Hutus who were sympathetic to Tutsis.
They killed around 70% of the entire Tutsi population, often in terrifying ways.
Today, you could argue that Rwanda is still recovering from it.
Rwanda has two public holidays to mourn the genocide, and denial or historic revisionism of the genocide is against the law.
Due to all this shared history, today both countries have mostly the same religions and traditions.
In both countries today, the Hutu make up around 85%, the Tutsi make up around 14%, and the Twa make up around 1%.
Most residents in both identify as Christian, although more in Rwanda identify as Protestant and more in Burundi identify as Roman Catholic.
Due to the legacy of foreign influence, today English and French are official languages in both.
Kirundi is the main official language in Burundi, however, and Kinyarwanda is by far the main official language in Rwanda, although Swahili is also an official language there.
Both are growing at a similar rate (B-3.25%, R-2.45%).
Both have capital cities located in the middle.
Kigali in Rwanda, which, with around 1 million people, is also Rwanda’s largest city. Burundi’s capital is Gitega, which only has about 120,000 people.
However, Burundi’s largest city, Bujumbura, also has around 1 million people.
While more folks in Rwanda live in cities, both countries are mostly rural.
In fact, Burundi is the 2nd most rural country in the world.
Both have authoritarian-leaning governments.
I mean, both are democratic republics, but according to the organization Freedom House, both countries are two of the least free countries in the world due to citizens in both having limited political rights and civil liberties.
Censorship in both is common, and it’s not a smart move for citizens in both to criticize their governments.
Residents in both pay similar tax rates.
Residents in both have a high risk of catching infectious diseases like malaria. In fact, Burundi had a serious outbreak of malaria this year.
Part of the reason why diseases spread so easily is because of the high population density in both countries.
Rwanda has the second highest population density in Africa and Burundi has the third highest.
Another reason why diseases have spread so easily is because of the lack of access to clean water for drinking and bathing in both countries, although fortunately this is becoming less and less of a problem.
Both border the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Tanzania.
Both have high elevation and are hilly with lots of mountains in the west and grassy uplands in the east.
Rwanda has the tallest peak, however. It’s highest point is Mount Karisimbi , located in the Virunga Mountains in the northern part of the country.
Burundi’s tallest peak is Mount Heha. Or is it Hee ha? I kind of like Hee ha better.
Both have a tropical highland climate. It would be hot, but the higher elevations of both moderate the temperatures.
Both have four seasons: a long dry season from June through August, a short wet season from September through November, a short dry season from December through January, and a long wet season from February through May.
During the wet seasons, both countries can experience heavy rainfall almost every day, although more so in the western portions of both.
Both can experience flooding, but also periodic droughts. Both get about the same amount of annual rainfall.
Both are on the East African Rift and can get earthquakes, but Rwanda has to currently also worry about volcanoes.
Both have plenty of natural resources, from precious metals to agricultural products.
Unfortunately, both have had tremendous environmental damage due to stuff like deforestation and overgrazing.
This lack of conservation has not only threatened wildlife populations, but led to soil erosion.
Despite the natural resources, both are among the poorest countries in the world. Rwanda is wealthier overall, though.
Farming does dominate in both countries.
Other major industries in both include mining, energy, and manufacturing, although the two specialize in making different products.
Both have really cool flags. Both are members of the African Union, the United Nations, and the East African Community.
So what about differences between the two? Eh?
While Burundi is slightly bigger, Rwanda has more people.
While residents of both countries tend to be younger than the residents of most countries in the world, Burundi residents are younger, on average.
In fact, Burundi has the 8th youngest population in the world. More than 45% are under 15 years old.
The life expectancy is higher in Rwanda. (B-60.9, R-64.3)
However, many more Rwanda residents are currently living with HIV and/or AIDS.
Burundi has a higher literacy rate. This might be because it spends more money on education.
4.8% of its GDP, compared with Rwanda spending 3.1% of its GDP.
Many more residents in Rwanda, however, have access to electricity.
Just 9.3% of the population of Burundi has access to electricity.
Yep. That’s the lowest rate in the entire world.
Earlier I mentioned that agriculture was big in both. Remember that? Yeah, I do, too. Well, kind of.
Anyway, more in Burundi rely on subsistence farming, meaning that most of the farmers in Burundi farm to feed themselves and their families, not to have a surplus to sell to others.
The cost of living is about 48% higher in Rwanda.
Rwanda also has a much higher GDP per capita. (B-320.09 USD, R-748.39) Related to this, Burundi has a higher poverty rate. (B-74.7%, R- 63%)
Well, Burundi has a MUCH lower unemployment rate. (B-1.5%, R-14.5%)
Hold on, 1.5%?!? That doesn’t seem right. Well, it’s what the Burundi government reported, anyway.
This could be related to the fact that I’m getting unbelievable data here, but Burundi’s government is much more corrupt than Rwanda’s.
Burundi has 18 provinces. Rwanda has 5.
Other random stuff?
Burundi residents like to drink homemade banana wine and beer and sip it through a straw.
Rwanda is one of the rare countries where tourists can safely see mountain gorillas. No, not that type of gorilla. Yes, that’s the type.
At the 1996 Olympics, Burundi became the poorest country ever to win an Olympic gold medal.
Rwanda has this thing called Umuganda, basically a tradition of helping out your neighbors, which has ultimately led to a mandatory community cleanup held on the last Saturday of every month.
Yep, on this day, every citizen of Rwanda has to help clean and the police go around enforcing it.
You can actually get a hefty fine if you don’t help out.
In conclusion, Burundi and Rwanda definitely have their challenges.
Both still are poor countries, and Burundi in particular has much political instability and corruption.
But they do have each other.
While Rwanda seems to have the more promising immediate future economically, Burundi can easily follow in its neighbor’s footsteps, and for decades the two countries have mostly gotten along well.
In the future, if the two do want to succeed, they are going to have to get along well.
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Finally! I made a video that looked at countries in Africa! It took long enough. So this video was part of a another mega collaboration of history YouTubers called Project Africa.
Hopefully you came from the previous video on the playlist, which was by History Hustle. A video about the East African Campaign of World War I.
Be sure to check out the next video on the playlist by the Cynical Historian.
How "Guns, Germs, and Steel" got Africa wrong.
Enjoy the rest of Project Africa.