A Burundi postcard from Italy

Kingdom of Burundi

10 Mar 2015 | From Gian Luca of Italy

POSTCROSSING SWAP

Burundi, officially the Republic of Burundi and once known as Urundi,  is a landlocked country in the African Great Lakes region of East Africa. It is also sometimes considered part of Central Africa. Burundi's capital is Bujumbura. Although the country is landlocked, much of the southwestern border is adjacent to Lake Tanganyika.

For more than 200 years, Burundi had an indigenous kingdom. At the beginning of the twentieth century, Germany colonized the region. After the First World War and Germany's defeat, it ceded the territory to Belgium. The Belgians ruled Burundi and Rwanda as a European colony known as Ruanda-Urundi. Their intervention exacerbated social differences between the Tutsi and Hutu, which contributed to political unrest in the region. There was civil war in Burundi as it fought for independence in the middle of the twentieth century. Presently, Burundi is governed as a presidential representative democratic republic.

One of the smallest countries in Africa, Burundi is also one of the five poorest countries in the world. It has one of the lowest per capita GDPs of any nation in the world. It is a resource-poor country with an underdeveloped manufacturing sector. Some of Burundi's natural resources include uranium, nickel, cobalt, copper, and platinum. Besides agriculture, other industries include: assembly of imported components; public works construction; food processing, and light consumer goods such as blankets, shoes, and soap.