Conflict and Coffee in Burundi 9 1Pre-colonial Burundi
There is no unanimity of views on the circumstances of Burundi's pre-colo-
nial social order, including the nature of the distinction between Tutsi and
Hutu, the nature of the political system, and the consequential impact of
colonial rule. In addition to the difficulty of researching oral societies, and
the extreme distortions of most missionary and colonial reports, the main
obstacle to a consensus understanding today is the extreme contemporary
political importance of any interpretation.16 A comment made by David
Horowitz about South Africa applies to Burundi as well: "There is the conflict
itself. and there is the meta-conflict - the conflict about the nature of the con-
flict."" Various commentators outside as well as within Burundi also note
that laying disproportionate responsibility at the door of the 'colonial legacy'
has been used by some Tutsi politicians for political mileage and vindica-
tionla. Despite these justified calls for caution, it is clear that colonialism fun-
damentally changed Burundian society from its pre-colonial condition, and
that many of the structures that were put in place then, now continue to cre-
ate conflict. These include a predatory state, socio-economic and political
exclusion, and rigid ethnic identities.
Before analysing the colonial impact, some brief comments about pre-
colonial Burundi are necessary. Burundi's social system was bifurcated, not
along ethnic lines but between royals and commoners: the ganwa-lhtsi on
one hand and the non-royal Tutsi and the Hutu on the other. Twa were treat-
ed as social outcasts then as they are now. The distinction between Hutu and
Tutsi was one of a stratified division of labour; some have likened it to 'class-
es'. Hutus were predominantly agriculturalists and provided the bulk of
labour and Tutsi were pastoralists and warriors. Hutus could 'become' Tutsi
by achieving a certain level of wealth (in cattle) or influence. Without roman-
ticising this division of labour, which was based on hierarchy and inequality.
there was nevertheless a relationship of mutual dependence and exchange.
Furthermore, and contrary to widespread belief. Hutus, although not con-
trolling all levers of power, enjoyed significant positions of responsibility and
authority and were accorded property rights. Access to political and eco-
nomic power, that is access to land and cattle, hinged around the patronage
of the royal court, and was mediated through kinship relations and shifting
kinship alliance^'^. In sum, pre-colonial Burundi was characterised by a high-
ly complex social and political system based on the clan, heterogeneous and
flexible ethnic group organisation, competition for access to land and cattle
via the king, and a traditional mechanism of conflict management, the
Bashingantahe, based on respect for clan eldersz0.