Bujumbura

The site where Bujumbura stands was a fishing and trading point at the head of Lake Tanganyika long before Europeans arrived. In 1871 David Livingstone and Henry Morton Stanley explored the northern end of the lake together, and a monument at Mugere south of the city records a place where they stayed. The town itself grew from a small village after the Germans made it a military post at the end of the nineteenth century, under the name Usumbura, at the edge of a kingdom whose court lay inland in the hills.

After the First World War, Belgium took over the administration of Ruanda-Urundi, and Usumbura became the administrative centre of the mandate, laid out with a European quarter, a Swahili quarter for traders from the coast, and a port shipping goods across the lake. It grew quickly in the 1950s, and at independence in 1962 it became the capital of Burundi and was renamed Bujumbura.

The decades that followed marked the city heavily. It was the centre of political power through the coups and mass violence of 1965, 1972 and 1993, of the civil war that ran from 1993 to 2005, and of the crisis of 2015, when protests against a disputed third presidential term were followed by a failed coup, a crackdown and an exodus of residents. Fighting in the 1990s destroyed hospitals, administrative buildings and the university in the city. In 2019 parliament voted to make Gitega the political capital, a transfer still under way, and Bujumbura, still by far the largest city, became the economic capital.

Bujumbura is where the national culture meets the wider region. Kirundi is spoken by everyone, but Swahili is the language of the markets and of the old trading quarters, French remains the language of administration and the university, and Congolese music, fashion and slang cross the lake from the other shore. The result is an outward-looking city in a country whose life is otherwise overwhelmingly rural.

The ritual dance of the royal drum, added to UNESCO's intangible cultural heritage list in 2014, is the country's best-known tradition, and drumming groups perform in the city at national ceremonies and for visitors, though the sanctuary of the tradition is inland near Gitega. Church life is central for most families, Catholic and Protestant, with long Sunday services and choirs, and a Muslim community, descended largely from Swahili merchants, is concentrated in Buyenzi.

Football is the mass enthusiasm, played on every open ground and watched at the Intwari Stadium and in bars. Evenings out mean grilled brochettes, Primus beer, brewed in the city since 1955, and music that runs from Burundian gospel and rumba to Congolese soukous. Manners are formal: greetings before business, deference to elders, and discretion about politics.

Bujumbura has grown from about 60,000 people at independence to around a million today, counting the built-up area that runs along the plain and up the lower slopes. It holds most of the country's formal jobs: the port and customs, the university and colleges, the breweries and small factories, the banks and the remaining ministries and international offices, along with an enormous informal economy of markets, workshops, transport and street trade.

Life is divided sharply by quarter. The old centre and the hillside suburbs above it have gardens, services and generators; the dense northern and eastern quarters have narrow plots, shared water points and frequent power cuts. Rents and food prices have risen faster than wages, fuel shortages have caused long queues at filling stations in recent years, and many households depend on income sent from relatives abroad.

The day starts early, with minibuses filling before six and markets trading from dawn, and ends early too: the heat of the afternoon slows the centre, and the lakeshore fills in the evening. Weekends belong to church, football and the beaches, which are where the city goes to cool down.

Bujumbura eats better fish than anywhere else in Burundi. Mukeke, a lake fish served whole and grilled or fried, is the favourite, usually with fried plantain, chips or rice; the lake's tiny sardine-like fish are eaten fresh or dried and fried crisp. The beach restaurants along the shore south-west of the centre exist largely for this.

The other pillar is the brochette: skewers of goat, beef or sometimes fish, grilled over charcoal and eaten with fried plantain and a beer, which is the standard way to spend an evening out. Everyday home cooking is closer to the national pattern — beans, cooking bananas, cassava and sweet potato, with ugali, a stiff maize or cassava porridge, and isombe, a stew of cassava leaves.

The eastern quarters add samosas, chapati and rice dishes from the Swahili coast, and street stalls sell roasted maize, fried dough and skewered meat through the evening. Primus, brewed in the country, is the common beer, urwagwa banana beer the traditional drink, and Burundian coffee and tea — the country's main exports — are drunk sweet and strong, though the best beans mostly leave the country.