Mwambusta was the youngest son of the Sultan and Mwami of Burundi, Mutaga IV Mbikije and his second wife Princess Ngenzahago, of the Munyagisaka clan. He was born at Nyabitogi in 1912 and was only three years old when his father died of malaria.
German East Africa
The young king of the central African country was enthroned at Muramvya of December 16, 1915 and his step-mother, Queen Nidi Ririkumutima served as head of the Regency Council until Mwambutsa came of age and was invested with full powers installed as king in 1931.
When Mwambutsa’s reign began it was under the control of Germany and called German East Africa.
Ruanda-Urundi
In 1916, during the First World War, Belgium seized control of the area and called it. In 1923, when Mwambutsa was eleven and still under regency, the League of Nations established a Belgian mandate over the area. Belgium adopted a policy of indirect administration retaining the established political structure. The church controlled education and the state was proclaimed Christian. In order to take advantage of the education the Belgians offered, and secure their own dominance, the Tutsi quickly converted to Christianity.
The king took Therese Kanyonga as his first wife on December 24, 1930. Their first child was Crown Prince Rudoviko (Louis) Rwagasore, born on January 10, 1932, followed by two daughters, Princess Rosa Paula Iribagiza, born March 20, 1934 and Princess Régina Kanyange, born on June 16, 1935. He divorced Therese in 1945 and on July 13, 1946 married Baramparaye. They had a son, Prince Caroli Ndizeye, born in December 1947, who was destined to succeed his father as king of Burundi. In 1946 the United Nations made Ruanda-Urundi a trust territory under Belgian administration.
Burundi and Ruanda
Serious trouble began in September 1961 when elections for members of the National Assembly were held until the watchful eye of the United Nations. The results were a sweeping victory and Prince Louis Rwagasore became premier. Less than a month later the Prince was assassinated. With the death of his brother, Prince Caroli, studying in Switzerland at l’Ecole Nouvelle de Paulex, became heir apparent.
Belgium had long been moving towards the democratization of Ruanda-Urundi and during the elections of 1961, two major parties had surfaced. Prince Rwagasore’s Union pour le progres national and Parti democrate chretian. The former was a progressive nationalist movement while the PDC was a conservative, Belgian friendly party. The elections of 1961 were held with the hopes of granting self-governance to the nation in 1962. The assassination of Rwagasore, however, caused the dissolution of the unification policies and open conflict between the two dominant clans the Hutu and the Tutsi. The ruling princes were Tutsi but they only comprised about 15% of the population and had ruled the country for centuries with a feudal system wherein the Hutu and Twa were inferior caste members. The United Nations had hoped the Ruanda-Urundi would become a single nation but in July 1962 Urundi became independent under the name of Burundi and Ruanda became Rwanda.
Hutu Government
The following elections brought a Hutu majority but the king refused to appoint a Hutu prime minister. Tension reached its peak in January 1965. A band of mutinous police surprised Prime Minister Leopold Biha in his home in the capital of Bujumbura, and assassinated him. Others attacked Mwambutsa’s palace but the king was able to evade them by hiding upstairs until loyal troops arrived and recaptured the palace.
Coups in Burundi
Royal reaction was swift. A hurried court-martial was held and thirty-four Hutu police were tried and stood before a firing squad in the Bujumbura stadium. These actions only served to enrage the Hutus and reports came in from the countryside regarding machete-baring rebels hacking down Tutsis by the score and burning their villages. In response the king declared the country to be under martial law. General Michel Micombero, a Tutsi officer and newly appointed premier oversaw the execution of virtually all Hutu politicians and effectively crushed the coup.
Mwambutsa apparently still feared the worst for on March 24, 1966 he appointed Prince Caroli as regent and gave him full executive powers. Three and a half months later, on July 8, 1966, King Mwanbutsa was deposed by a military coup led by his premier, General Michel Micombero. His son, Prince Caroli, in complicity with Micombero, succeeded as King Ntare V Ndizeye and was enthroned at Muramvya in September. Micombero was then appointed prime minister and dissolved parliament. Not content with being prime minister, Micombero filled his cabinet with loyal army officers and in turn deposed King Ntare while the king was on an official visit to the Congo on November 28, 1966. Burundi was then declared a republic with Micombero as its first president.
Exiled Kings
King Ntare went into exile in Germany until 1972 when he returned to Burundi in an attempt to regain his throne. He was imprisoned and died “during an escape attempt” in April 1972. His death was followed by the massacre of over 100,000 Hutu. King Mwambutsa retired into exile in Switzerland where he died on May 1, 1977.
Bibliography
Nigel Watt - Burundi: The Biography of a Small Country – Columbia University Press - 2008
Kristine Brennan – Burundi – Mason Crest Publishers - 2004
William Silvester - Most of Bill's writing over the past few years has been for the philatelic press and consists primarily of columns and articles about the ...
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