ABSTRACT
The arrival of the German imperialists coincided with severe economic hardship in Burundi, which, together with the burden of the colonial yoke, led to a retrenchment by the beleaguered population. The mwami remained the source of stability until the abolition of the monarchy in 1966, following a military coup. By then Uprona had become riven with internal rivalries along Hutu-Tutsi lines. The rise of military power is not to be understood in terms of providing the only alternative to the failure of civilian politicians to organize the affairs of state. Hutu disillusionment with democracy after the horrific violence of October 1993, was also influenced by suspicion of Major Pierre Buyoya’s own motives. The history of invasion by the Watusi, for which read Batutsi or Tutsi, is the most potent of the myths invoked today, in the already enflamed political climate of the Great Lakes, to perpetuate the sense of injustice felt by the Hutu majority.
