Northwest Center for Holocaust, Genocide and Ethnocide Education
Genocide: Burundi
Genocide
in
Burundi:
1972
An
Annotated
Bibliography
Compiled
by
Devin
Smart
Historical Overview
Map provided by
the Central Intelligence Agency
During 1972 in Burundi, Tutsi-led government forces and other collaborating Tutsi massacred an estimated 100,000-200,000 Hutu, as well as other Tutsi who attempted to stop the violence. Burundi is located in the Great Lakes region of Africa and is the southern neighbor of Rwanda, and, like Rwanda, has tragically suffered from genocidal violence. Burundi was a part of the Ruanda-Urundi colony (present-day Rwanda and Burundi) that was controlled by Belgium until the early 1960s, and, like in Rwanda, the Tutsi were the minority of the population.
Tensions in the 1960s between the Hutu and Tutsi escalated as they both vied for control after independence. In 1966, the army, led by Michel Micombero, seized power and quickly began to exclude Hutu influence in government. However, as scholar René Lemarchand has shown, the cause of the 1972 genocide was not simply a matter of the politically dominant and homogeneous Tutsi attempting to wipe out the opposing Hutu, but was also precipitated by conflict between Tutsi struggling to control the government. The regional and ethnic group represented by Micombero was moving to consolidate its power at the expense of other Tutsi, and, as a result, the oppressed Hutu could see the power of the government weakening.
With this perceived opportunity, a group of Hutu attempted a coup against Micombero’s government. The Hutu violently tried to seize power and killed between 2,000-3,000 Barundi—most of whom were Tutsi. However, following the initial Hutu violence, the Tutsi forces began a genocide against any Hutu who may have—or could potentially—pose a threat to its power. As the scholar Lemarchand writes: “What followed was not so much a repression but a hideous slaughter of the Hutu populations.”[1] The perpetrators went through the country and massacred Hutu from primary and secondary schools, colleges, the army, churches, and other sectors that gave the impression of status. In May of 1972, Time magazine observed how easily a Hutu could be murdered by writing that those Hutu being killed were “practically anyone who can write his own name or afford a hut with a corrugated-iron roof instead of a thatched one.”[2]
By the end of the genocide, Hutu leadership had been devastated and between 100,000-200,000 people had been killed.
Bibliography
The genocide in Burundi in 1972 is widely underwritten about in English-language sources. Consequently, much of what is available is academically oriented. Within this, scholar René Lemarchand’s book Burundi: Ethnic Conflict and Genocide should be the starting place for anyone who is interested in the subject.
Chrétien,
Jean-Pierre.
The
Great
Lakes
of
Africa:
Two
Thousand
Years
of
History.
Translated
by
Scott
Straus.
New
York:
Zone
Books,
2003.
This
is a
history
of
the
Great
Lakes
region
as a
whole,
but
significant
portions
of
the
book
focus
on
the
historical
background
of
the
Hutu-Tutsi
conflict.
Lemarchand,
René.
Burundi:
Ethnic
Conflict
and
Genocide.
New
York:
Woodrow
Wilson
Center
Press,
1996.
This
is
the
best
treatment
of
the
1972
genocide
in
Burundi
- and
other
conflicts
in
the
country
- available
in
English. Lemarchand
emphasizes
the
need
to
not
simply
view
the
conflict
in
Burundi
as
only
Tutsi
against
Hutu,
but
rather
in a
more
complex
way
that
considers
how
tensions
within
the
Tutsis
have
also
contributed
to
the
violence.
Additionally,
Lemarchand
considers
the
relationship
of
Rwanda
and
Burundi,
and
how
violent
incidents
in
one
affected
the
other.
Melady,
Thomas
P.
Burundi:
The
Tragic
Years
Maryknoll,
NY:
Orbis
Books,
1974.
Melady
was
the
United
States
Ambassador
to
Burundi
from
1969
until
1972.
This
book
provides
the
reader
with
some
firsthand
descriptions
of
the
conditions
in
the
country
during
this
period,
and
it
can
also
give
a
personal
perspective
of
how
the
genocide
was
viewed
from
the
United
States.
Weinstein,
Warren,
and
Robert Schrire.
Political
Strategies
and
Ethnic
Conflict:
A
Case
Study
of
Burundi.
Syracuse,
NY:
Maxwell
School
of
Citizenship
and
Public
Affairs,
1976.
This
is
an
academically-geared
study
written
shortly
after
the
genocide
(1976)
that
looks
at
the
causes
of
the
violence.
Important
for
Weinstein
and Schrire
in
their
conclusion
is
how
central
ethnicity
became
to
how
these
groups
(Tutsi
and
Hutu)
interacted
and
competed
politically.
[1] René Lemarchand, Burundi: Ethnic Conflict and Genocide (New York: Woodrow Wilson Center, 1996), 97.
[2] “Double Genocide,” Time, June 26, 1972, 35.
Devin Smart is a graduate student in the History Department at Western Washington University. He is studying African and European history and has a particular interest in the history of the Great Lakes region and Eastern Africa. He welcomes any questions about genocide in Burundi and Rwanda, or any others that may relate.
To contact Devin, please send an email to NWCHE@wwu.edu. We will forward your comments to him.
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