March 17, 2008
"From 'Happiness' to 'I fear them,' Burundian names tell a history of bad times and good"
By TODD PITMAN
BUJUMBURA, Burundi (AP) _ Her first son was born 10 years ago on a Bujumbura street while fighting raged. She named him Nzikobanyanka, or "I know they hate us."
Two successive sons were also christened with names reflecting weariness with Burundi's long war: Tugiramahoro ("Let's have peace") and Nduwimana ("I'm in God's hands"). But when the fighting finally stopped and Daphrose Miburu's youngest son was born a year ago, the 35-year-old mother chose something a little more uplifting: Furaha _ "Happiness."
The history of this battered nation can be told through names like these, given to reflect the world as parents see it at the time. Some hail historical moments or a child's most conspicuous trait. But they can also deliver terse commentaries in an unsafe world.
What's In a Name
A list of some Burundian names and their translations
A list of some Burundian names and their translations:
_Baranyanka: "They hate me"
_Bankumuhari: "They hate those people"
_Nzikobanyanka: "I know they hate us"
Worlds Away
War seems world's away from Burundi capital
Children play on the shores of the northern tip of Lake Tanganyika with Bujumbura in the background in 1999. In these days, Hutu rebels moved through the hills behind the capital while Tutus army forces controlled the city. - Photo by Todd Pitman.
June 30, 1998
By Todd Pitman
BUJUMBURA, June 30 (Reuters) - Sporadic bursts of gunfire often crackle over the emerald hills and valleys surrounding Burundi's capital but for most residents the smouldering civil war is worlds away.
At a restaurant by the shores of Lake Tanganyika, wealthy Burundians and expatriate aid workers sip cold beer, chat on mobile phones and keep watch for the occasional hippo grunting in the water.
Out on the lake, sailboats and jet skis whiz through the waves against a backdrop of magnificent 3,000-metre (10,000-foot) mountains to the west in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Bujumbura's lakeside restaurants, gigantic fan-palms, squash courts and playing children contrast sharply with rural life in the hills just east of the city, where officials say dozens of people have died in recent clashes between the army and Hutu rebels.
Listen to Burundi's former coup leader, Pierre Buyoya, talk _ and laugh _ about crying rebels.
20 seconds.
Nobody Sleeps at Home
In eastern Burundi, nobody sleeps at homeJanuary 28, 2000
By Todd Pitman
KAYERO, Burundi, Jan 28 (Reuters) - Michel Nyandwi has a house in the mountain village of Kayero, set high up on a craggy ridge in eastern Burundi.
But when night falls, he - like thousands of others here - doesn't sleep in it.
A Lot to Pray For
Burundi rebels inspire fear in lakeside village
An army soldier looks down from a ridge just south of Bujumbura in 1999. In the background, Lake Tanganyika and the mountains of eastern Congo. Photo by Todd Pitman.
February 12, 1998
By Todd Pitman
MINAGO, Burundi, Feb 12 (Reuters) - When Father Athanase Nibizi bolted the doors shut and crouched down in his church in southern Burundi one night this week, he had a lot to pray for.
Just minutes before, hundreds of Hutu rebels armed with rifles, machetes, hoes, hammers, clubs and knives had descended from hills surrounding the sleepy, lakeside town of Minago, 50 km (30 miles) south of the capital Bujumbura.
Cutting Ears: They Don't Listen Any More
Rebels cut off ears in Burundi war
01:20 p.m Apr 16, 1998 Eastern
By Todd Pitman
ISALE, Burundi, April 16 (Reuters) - On a rainy day in central Burundi, blood trickled from under a white gauze bandage wrapped around the right side of Pascal Baruhurike's face.
The bandage covered the stump of what was Baruhurike's right ear, until it was severed two weeks ago by Hutu guerrillas in a new tactic in the country's vicious conflict.
Hutu rebels have cut a single ear from 20 people in the verdant hills a few kilometres (miles) east of Bujumbura, capital of the tiny central African state.
Chez Deo
04Feb2000 BURUNDI: FEATURE-Burundi economy collapses as war drags on.
By Todd Pitman
BUJUMBURA, Feb 4 (Reuters) - Sipping a cold beer surrounded by coloured lights and palm trees on the lawn at Chez Deo, a bar in the Burundian capital, it is hard to imagine the country is in the midst of an economic collapse.
But ask around, and you'll find the word "crisis" on the tip of everyone's tongue.