Documentary: Looking back

“I have just spent a year in Burundi with Enabel’s Junior Programme. Burundi is a small country of 27,834 km2 wedged in between the Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda and Tanzania.

In Belgium, people asked me to show them where Burundi is on the map, while in Burundi, people knew Belgium all too well.

When I got there, I was surprised and pleased of finding Belgian chocolate on the shop shelves. But soon that feeling gave way to a less pleasant feeling. I discovered that my history classes back home had not prepared me properly. I realised that none of my family or friends knew that Belgium had colonised Burundi and that Belgian colonisation had been violent and has long-term repercussions.

So, I thought I would share this with you. To show you a reality that I got to grips with in the course of a year by talking to Burundians on the ground and doing a bit of research.

In this video, I tell you the story of this “little country near Africa’s Great Lakes”, of its drums, of its hills and of Lake Tanganyika that borders it. But above all, I would like to share the story of its people and how that is linked to Belgium through Belgian colonial history. ”

Clotilde Moulin, former Junior Expert with Search for Common Ground.