On the Need for Harmonization between Tradition and Modernity in Contemporary Burundi: Analysis of Values and Anti-Values for Sustainable Peace

Abstract

This article analyzes the problem of harmonization between traditional values and modern values, alongside the struggle against traditional and modern anti-values for the construction of sustainable peace in contemporary Burundi. It starts from a reminder of the historical events in Burundi which, from the advent of European colonizers and the confrontation on Burundian soil between Germans and Belgians, and the brutal accession to independence in 1962, have fundamentally caused the loss of axiological and cultural references, coupled with trauma experienced by Burundians due to the unprecedented violence of these events. The analysis of the traditional values of ubuntu and ubutungane/intahe makes it possible to show that Burundian society was based both on the virtue ethics and on deontological ethics which should urgently be rediscovered to reinvigorate democratic institutions. Rediscovering these values requires a corollary work of struggle against the anti-values of uwawe and igihugu ntikiribw ’ ivu which corresponds to the modern anti-values of ethnocentrism and capitalist greed. The article proposes that education of the Burundian people in the values cited above and against these anti-values be promoted as a solid path to the formation of a new leadership embodied by ethically committed leaders who can carry with responsibility the project of a new Burundi, peaceful and prosperous, which was the dream of the two national heroes celebrated every year: the Prince Louis Rwagasore, the father of Independence, and President Melchior Ndandaye, the hero and martyr of democracy.