Burundi

My very first postcard from Burundi which I actually received quite some time ago thanks to Maick and his friend :) It is such a shame the majority of people from Europe know so little about African countries, especially the smaller ones, such as Burundi.

Burundi is a relatively small landlocked country in the African Great Lakes region. Burundi had been an indigenous kingdom for over 200 years when Germany colonized the region at the beginning of the twentieth century. After the German defeat in the WWI, Belgium established a colony called Ruanda-Urundi whose part was Burundi. In the following decades a civil war broke out resulting in Burundi as a democratic republic as we know it today. Unfortunately, Burundi is nowadays one of the poorest countries of the world. It is also one of the least globalized countries. 

In April 2015 protests broke out after the ruling party announced President Pierre Nkurunziza would seek a third term in office. Protestors claimed Nkurunziza could not run for a third term in office but the country's constitutional court agreed with the President (although some of its members had fled the country at the time of its vote). 

In spite of all the difficulties that the country is facing, the culture of the peoples living in Burundy is very interesting and literacy among adult women in Burundi has been increasing. So, not everything is bad!