ABSTRACT
The Burundian prison system celebrated its centenary at the beginning of the 21st century with the greatest indifference, which contrasts sharply with the commemorations of recent years, during which the national authorities have a failed to denounce the damage and upheavals wrought by colonisation on local society. The sources on which this reflection is based are rich for the colonial period in Belgium and up to the early 1970s in Burundi, with a documents that make it possible to address the prison question from many angles. The imprint left by Belgian colonisation on the Burundian prison system, on the other hand, is much more significant. The chapter focuses on the architectural, verbal, and organisational continuities of the Burundian prison, so as to underline the paradox it constitutes in the current ideological environment in which the colonial legacy is strongly questioned.
