Happy Independence Day: Burundi & Rwanda

On this date in 1962 Burundi gained its independence from Belgium. Officially the Republic of Burundi, is a small country in the Great Lakes region of Eastern Africa bordered by Rwanda to the north, Tanzania to the south and east, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the west. The Twa, Tutsi, and Hutu peoples have occupied Burundi since the country's creation five centuries ago. The Kingdom of Burundi became a German colony in 1899. After its defeat in World War I, Germany handed control of Burundi to Belgium. On October 20, 1924, Burundi officially became a part of the Belgian colonial empire and was known as Ruanda-Urundi, and consisted of Rwanda and Burundi.

On this date in 1962 Rwanda gained its independence from Belgium. The Republic of Rwanda is a small landlocked country in the Great Lakes region of east-central Africa, bordered by Uganda, Burundi, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Tanzania. It is home to approximately 10.1 million people.

Rwanda received it's most international attention due to its 1994 genocide, in which between 800,000 and one million people were killed in fighting between the Huti and Tutsi people. The ironic thing about the Huti and Tutsi is that there was no clear difference between the two physically until the Europeans came and said so. People called upon to fight in the King's forces in time of war, were known as "Tutsi". Farmers were sometimes known as "Hutu". Prior to the divide and rule tactics of the colonizers, there is no physical evidence of social discord in pre-colonial Rwanda.