"The Hutu rebel groups broke into the university and asked who they were Tutsis. Students refused to idenficarlos. They would not condemn their colleagues and friends ... or would not die. Addition, many of them mixture of both races. But in the end, aside those who decided they were Tutsis and killed. The survivors had to flee, because they knew that sooner or later come Tutsi forces and take revenge, annihilating those who were there. "
We had Hypolite, our tour guide in a country without tourism. "Atrocities were made by both sides -proseguía- Now we have learned to forget the genocide. "He belongs to the Tutsi ethnic group, but condemns the war in both directions. Nobody boasts race, no one sticks out his chest in a country that lost the heart.
Nobody boasts race, no one sticks out his chest in a country that lost the heart.
They are too tired to open debates and combating corruption prevents them from ruin that was installed in Burundi more than they can remember. Some African countries have precipitated the chaos of freedom which marked its independence. Burundi separated from Belgium 1962 and at that point he started to crumble. Encouraged by the growing hatred that reigned in the neighboring country -Ruanda- Burundians were identified among them, eagerly they accepted the exclusive advertising on both sides and delivered to the insatiable activity extermination. And 2005 He ended the civil war. And when we come, in summer 2018, there was nothing, or parks, or postcards African dances, or shoes for children.
It took me two months to complete the requirements required to enter the country and see that no sights to see. But there were, in a hotel on the shores of Lake Tanganyika, not far from downtown Bujumbura.
When we arrived we, there was nothing, or parks, or postcards African dances, or shoes for children.
Hypolite appeared flawless, white shirt and trousers tweezers, appearing as a local guide. When I told him we did not want to see the performance of drums we just advise, He faked to collapse. So what? I think I had nothing else in their tourism. I took a map. It takes just half an hour to comb the country and go deciding destinations. The next morning we were on our way to nowhere, intending to go stopping at towns that we were lost finding.
Hypolite understood we wanted to mingle with the locals, know the country without major monuments and museums and so we discovered the identity of Burundi, in its corners, in their fishing villages. Dozens of small boats moored on a beach of coarse gravel. And where there are people there are markets, fruit stalls, women wearing bright colors to ward off wars. We were surrounded by curious, with a white smile, no other aim than to pose for abroad.
We also stopped several times on the roads of red earth, where barefoot children carry bricks on their heads but still have the ability to find balance and hold all the weight with one hand, to greet the other. In them, in that way to build the country, stone by stone, in that the reward is eternal smile traveler. Adults also smile, but do so with some reluctance, without strength. Some women engaged us grimaced, a foiled joy, a half smile as African Gioconda.
Some women engaged us grimaced, a foiled joy, a half smile as African Gioconda.
We saw many men carrying an exaggerated the fruit of oil palm on their bikes, as if they arrastrasen your destination, his penance. On the flip flops they seemed to push a punishment of wars and genocides.
And oil palm there is no future. They ravage their remaining forests and survive, maybe, their rulers. The houses that overlook the Tanganyika were marked with a red cross. A new law prevents any homes within a hundred meters from the shore. We saw hundreds of adobe houses with painted cross, which it meant that the house will be demolished soon. In fact, everyone seemed to seek refuge to misery looming lake. Now no longer have even that. And who cares?
We reached a nature reserve chimpanzees, llamada Kigwena Forest Nature Reserve. Hypolite told us that after the war was reported missing until the last chimp country. But, They discovered by surprise that in this tiny park had survived a family. We located the park ranger who had been months since he received a visit. We walked through the forest excited, We sharpen the look between the branches ... nothing. After a couple of hours, the guard concluded that it was too hot and primates should be siesteando in the treetops. We left without seeing the last chimpanzees in Burundi.
On the flip flops they seemed to push a punishment of wars and genocides.
But there is a place south of the country, yes demands the attention of explorers late, XXI century adventurers, collectors geographical emblems, discoverers of the discoveries of others, lovers, ultimately, unique places: the remotest sources of the White Nile.
A small river, Luvironza name a stream carries its waters to the river Kagera, which flows into Lake Victoria which feeds the flow of the White Nile. And so, small stream sources are considered by many the sources of the Great River. As usual, There is some controversy to determine the exact point of this legendary place, the birth of the White Nile, no less. Some consider that honor belongs to himself Lake Victoria; also they must specify that within the lake, the true source of the Nile is in the town of Jinja; others say it is in the Ruwenzori mountains, between Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
The truth is that the farther from the mouth of the Nile place is the hidden stream of Burundian river, and since this country has no tourism, ni gorilas, or a glorious history, nor a future in sight, I think it would be nice to give them at least the pleasure of seeing the birth of the most important river in Africa.
And there we, with reddish hair of road dust and cervical accustomed to swinging a winding road.
I think it would be nice to give them at least the pleasure of seeing the birth of the most important river in Africa
As if the guide would delay the big time, before descending a small valley to see the sources of the river, He asked us to follow him to the top of a hill. On a small ridge had erected a commemorative pyramid. He explained that the monument actually separating the two basins that have marked the history, culture and anthropology to the continent. Raindrops that should fall on the eastern slope of that pyramid reach the stream that would take the Nile, cross the desert and reach the Mediterranean Sea. The water come down in the western part of the monument would slide by a different basin. be part, before or after, Congo River, cut through jungles and come to the Atlantic Ocean.
Two pending marked the destiny of the continent. Nilotic and Bantu peoples, Nubian cultures with its pyramids and temples or animist traditions of black Africa, Tutsis or Hutus the, even life and death. A visceral difference that started on that ridge, he was going away, as if the place outside the door that divides two worlds.
After visiting the monolith, We descended the valley, we went down some stone steps and reach the source of the Nile, the recondite source to be nourishing water basin that crosses the western part of the Sahara. It was quite disappointing. They had built something like a swimming pool with blue tiles, many of them broken. The Nile at birth like a waterhole, Tacky hotel source, one tatty pool. But it was the birth of the White Nile, After the.
And there, in the heart of Burundi, I felt a little David Livingstone, John H. Speke Pedro Páez. Not only for being in a mythical place, but because there were no tourists around, or large posters advertising the place. There were only villages of children carrying bricks on a land scarred. Who the matter if the Nile was born there when the people die without memory in a country called Burundi.
