Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-fscjk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T06:31:09.819Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Social Change and Political Modernisation in Burundi

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 November 2008

René Lemarchand
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Too often dismissed as a feudal backwater in a seething continent, the kingdom of Burundi has scarcely received the attention it deserves from social scientists. If not out of indifference, perhaps out of sheer consternation in the face of the contradictory policies followed by its successive governments, most outside observers have prudently avoided speculating on future developments in this part of Central Africa. This neglect is unfortunate on several counts, not the least being the sense of dismay of certain Burundi élites upon discovering that so few westerners are even aware of the existence of Burundi on the map of Africa. Nor is their rancour in any way assuaged when they realise that the term Watutsi conjures up in the public mind a form of exertion more akin to St Vitus' dance than to the realities of their national culture; and though it is plain that Burundi politics often tend to exhibit signs of disorderly convulsions, policy-makers here and abroad obviously need more in the way of explanation. Quite aside from policy considerations, however, the fact is that Burundi offers one of the most fascinating laboratories for the study of social change, as well as a unique opportunity to observe and analyse the forces which transform traditional orders into modern ones, or, perhaps more appropriately, which impede this transformation.

Type
Articles
Information
The Journal of Modern African Studies , Volume 4 , Issue 4 , December 1966 , pp. 401 - 433
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1966

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Page 402 note 1 See Apter, David, The Politics of Modernization (Chicago and London, 1965), pp. 94 ff.Google Scholar

Page 402 note 2 Apter, David, The Political Kingdom in Uganda (Princeton, 1961), p. 476.Google Scholar

Page 403 note 1 See Welch, Claude E., ‘The Challenge of Change: Mciji Japan and Contemporary Africa’, a paper delivered at the annual meeting of the African Studies Association, Philadelphia, 10 1965.Google Scholar

Page 403 note 2 For other and more detailed interpretations of the concept of modernisation, see David Apter, The Politics of Modernization; Huntington, Samuel P., ‘Political Modernization: America vs. Europe’, in World Politics (Princeton), xviii, 04 1966, pp. 378–414Google Scholar; Eisenstadt, S. N., ‘Breakdowns of Modernization’, in Economic Development and Cultural Change (Chicago), xii, 07 1964, pp. 345–67Google Scholar. For a more systematic treatment of the theoretical aspects of modernisation, see Levy, Marion, Modernization and the Structure of Societies, 2 vols. (Princeton, 1966).Google Scholar

Page 405 note 1 See Vansina, Jan, ‘Notes sur l'histoire du Burundi’, in Aequatoria (Coquilhatville), I, 1961, pp. 1–10.Google Scholar

Page 406 note 1 Fallers, L. A., ‘Max Weber's Concept of Traditional Authority’, a paper delivered at the annual meeting of the American Political Science Association, New York, 6–1009 1966.Google Scholar

Page 406 note 2 Simmel, G., Conflict, translated by Wolf, Kurt H. (Glencoe, Illinois, 1955), p. 98.Google Scholar

Page 407 note 1 Gluckman, Max, Custom and Conflict in Africa (Oxford, 1963), p. 46.Google Scholar

Page 407 note 2 On this point, see the interesting article by Worsley, Peter, ‘The Analysis of Rebellion and Revolution in Modern British Social Anthropology’, in Science and Society (New York), xxv, Winter 1961.Google Scholar

Page 408 note 1 Max Gluckman, op. cit. p. 45.

Page 409 note 1 Remarques africaines (Brussels), 22 09 1966.Google Scholar

Page 410 note 1 La Chronique du Ruanda-Urundi (Bujumbura), 28 01 1961.Google Scholar

Page 411 note 1 On the implications of ‘withdrawal of status respect’, see Hagen, E., On the Theory of Social Change (Homewood, Illinois, 1962).Google Scholar

Page 413 note 1 Mbwire Gito Cane, translated by Ghislain, J. (mimeo., 1962).Google Scholar

Page 413 note 2 Note au sujet de la traduction de Mbwire Gito Cane by Ghislain, J. (mimeo., 1962).Google Scholar

Page 415 note 1 Merton, Robert K., Social Theory and Social Structure (Glencoe, Illinois, 1963), pp. 421 ff.Google Scholar

Page 415 note 2 Répartition ethnique des fonctionnaires … (mimeo., n.d.). 28Google Scholar

Page 416 note 1 One must note, however, that the ethnic connotations of the terms ‘Casablanca’ and ‘Monrovia’ are not quite as clear-cut as the foregoing might suggest. The leader of the Monrovia group, Thaddée Siryuyumunsi, was a Tutsi-Hima, and some Hutu, like the former Minister of the Interior, Pierre Mpozensi, were quite obviously aligned with ‘Casablanca’. Moreover, there were a number of politically conscious Barundi who refused to let their ethnic origins govern their political options, and others, of mixed origins, who simply refused to commit themselves one way or another. Once this is said, however, there can be little doubt that the terms ‘Casablanca’ and ‘Monrovia’ institutionalised a situation of ethnic cleavage between Hutu and Tutsi which gave the Crown an additional reason to act as a balancer between the two.

Page 419 note 1 For specific illustrations of the ideological commitments of these new élites the reader is referred to the series of articles by Burundi students that have appeared in Remarques africaines; see, in particular, Bimazubute, Gilles, ‘Le 19 octobre…et après?’, issue of 17 11 1965Google Scholar; ‘L'Escalade ou la détérioration?’, ibid. 29 December 1965; ‘Lettre de l'Unéba-France’, ibid. 9 arch 1966.

Page 420 note 1 Zartman, I. William, Destiny of a Dynasty: the search for institutions in Morocco's developing society (Columbia, South Carolina, 1964), p. 2.Google Scholar

Page 424 note 1 Bimazubute, Gilles, ‘Le Coup d'état du 19 octobre 1965’, in Remarques africaines, 3 11 1965.Google Scholar

Page 426 note 1 The text of the royal declaration, along with the list of Ministers, will be found in InforBurundi (Bujumbura), 181, 2–907 1966.Google Scholar

Page 427 note 1 The Politics of Modernization, pp. 359–60.

Page 427 note 2 La Déclaration gouvernementale, mimeo.

Page 428 note 1 Ibid.

Page 430 note 1 For the text of the resolutions adopted at the Presle Congress, see Remarques africaines, 22 09 1966.Google Scholar

Page 430 note 2 For a further elaboration on this point, see Lipset, Seymour M., ‘The Political Behaviour of University Students in Developing Nations’, in Social and Economic Studies (Mora, Jamaica), xiv, 03 1965, pp. 35–76.Google Scholar

Page 430 note 3 Remarques africaines, 22 09 1966Google Scholar. On the tendency of single-party states to conform to a patrimonial system, see Zolberg's, Aristide excellent discussion in Creating Political Order: the party-states of West Africa (Chicago, 1966), pp. 140 ff.Google Scholar

Page 430 note 4 Weber, Max, The Theory of Social and Economic Organization (Glencoe, Illinois, 1957), p. 341.Google Scholar

Page 431 note 1 Ibid. P. 37°

Page 432 note 1 Shils, Edward, ‘Charisma, Order and Status’, in American Sociological Review (New York), xxx, 04 1965, p. 204.Google Scholar

Page 432 note 2 Ibid.