Burundi country guide — editorial, map and photograph sources Prepared 29 October 2026 Scope Sixteen cities and towns, eight connected rivers and lakes, twelve selected sights, ten illustrated readings, thirty answered reading questions and eighty reviewed multiple-choice facts. Existing French and Swahili lessons are linked. Kirundi is the national language; there is no dedicated Kirundi course yet. No citizenship exam, seed execution, schema change or data migration is added. Editorial sources Britannica: country geography, capitals, history, people and language context https://www.britannica.com/place/Burundi https://www.britannica.com/place/Burundi/History https://www.britannica.com/place/Burundi/People 2018 Constitution: Article 5 names Kirundi as the national language and refers other official languages to legislation; parliamentary and representation rules https://www.constituteproject.org/constitution/Burundi_2018?lang=en The reading uses this precise constitutional wording rather than treating an inconsistent list of official languages as settled by Article 5 alone. UNESCO: ritual dance of the royal drum, Representative List, 2014 https://ich.unesco.org/en/RL/ritual-dance-of-the-royal-drum-00989 UNESCO: Burundi has no inscribed World Heritage properties as checked October 2026; Tentative List entries and intangible heritage are separate systems https://whc.unesco.org/en/statesparties/bi/ World Bank: livelihoods, infrastructure, agricultural exports and development https://www.worldbank.org/en/country/burundi/overview Human Rights Watch: World Report 2026, Burundi (events of 2025) https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2026/country-chapters/burundi Convention on Biological Diversity: country profile and biodiversity documents https://www.cbd.int/countries/profile?country=bi Supplementary references: five provinces implemented in July 2025; culinary terms; historical markers and learning locations https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Provinces_of_Burundi https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burundian_cuisine https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Livingstone%E2%80%93Stanley_Monument https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gishora https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Museum_of_Gitega https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%89variste_Ndayishimiye https://www.gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice/burundi Review decisions Avoid undated population percentages, income rankings and changing officeholder lists as evergreen facts. Do not describe Hutu, Tutsi or Twa as biological types. Ndayishimiye took office after Nkurunziza died in June 2020. The coat of arms has a lion, not a crowned crane. The Mugere inscription recalls a later visit, not the explorers' first meeting at Ujiji. The German boma and National Museum are separate sites. Karyenda expresses sacred kingship; it is not a synonym for the leading drum in every modern performance ensemble. A Rutovu headwater monument does not establish a single uncontested source of the Nile. Maps: provenance and limits The Burundi outline is retained from public/countries.geojson, the site's Natural Earth-derived country outlines. Natural Earth is public domain: https://www.naturalearthdata.com/about/terms-of-use/ The outline is generalised and includes national lake territory. It is not a survey boundary, a shoreline or the five-province administrative map. Settlement points in scripts/burundi-map-places.json are curated approximate WGS84 longitude/latitude centres. Available Wikipedia settlement coordinates were cross-checked; familiar town names are retained despite province changes. Sight coordinates in src/lib/country-sights/burundi.json are approximate learning locations. Large landscapes use representative interior points. Pins do not establish entrances, routes, opening hours or current access conditions. Water source snapshot: scripts/burundi-water-source.geojson Offline regeneration: node scripts/build-burundi-map.mjs Ruvubu: OpenStreetMap relation 1232094, retrieved through Overpass on 29 October 2026. All connected main-stream ways are ordered by exact shared endpoints; the side_stream way 328912502 is excluded. No straight bridge is inserted. https://www.openstreetmap.org/relation/1232094 Rusizi, Akanyaru, Kagera, Lake Kivu and Lake Rweru reuse the retained complete snapshots documented by public/data/rwanda-guide-sources.txt. OSM object/way IDs are recorded on each feature. All OSM-derived geometry is credited to OpenStreetMap contributors, ODbL 1.0: https://www.openstreetmap.org/copyright https://www.openstreetmap.org/relation/1213500 (Rusizi) https://www.openstreetmap.org/relation/171534 (Akanyaru) https://www.openstreetmap.org/relation/171687 (Kagera) https://www.openstreetmap.org/relation/9072 (Lake Kivu) https://www.openstreetmap.org/relation/3990246 (Lake Rweru) Lake Tanganyika and Lake Victoria use the full Natural Earth 1:10m lake polygons already retained in the Rwanda snapshot, including cross-border portions. Lake Kivu and Lake Victoria lie outside Burundi; they explain feeder/receiving connections. They are not presented as Burundian national lakes. The upper Kagera is mapped from the Nyabarongo–Akanyaru confluence through to Lake Victoria, following the retained relation's naming convention. Ruvubu starts at the mapped named mainstem, not at its Ruvyironza tributary's Rutovu headwater. Rivers continue across borders to their named confluences/outlets. Minor branches and the wider Congo/Nile networks are not all included. Generalised geometry is for learning, not navigation, hydrology modelling or current lake levels. Photographs Ten licensed Wikimedia Commons photographs are stored locally. Full source URLs, authors, licence names and licence URLs are retained in src/lib/country-guides/burundi-photos.json. The same credits are displayed beside the images in the guide. Photographs were visually checked; older views do not establish current access or conditions. They are downloaded thumbnails, without edits. The hero reuses the Lake Tanganyika fisheries photograph. History: Entrance of the National Museum in Gitega, Burundi Dave Proffer, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Burundi_National_Museum_at_Gitega_-_Flickr_-_Dave_Proffer.jpg Licence: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0 Language: School buildings and the Burundian flag in a school courtyard Real Jocelin, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Burundian_school.jpg Licence: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0 Geography: Sunset over Lake Tanganyika in Burundi Edouard mhg, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Lac_Tanganyika_au_Burundi_2.jpg Licence: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0 Politics: Unity Monument in Bujumbura, Burundi Adken123, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bujumbura_monument_unite.jpg Licence: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0 Culture: Drummers performing at Gishora near Gitega, Burundi NSENGIYUMVA Joseph, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Les_tambourinaires_de_Gitega.jpg Licence: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0 Economy: Tea-growing landscape at Teza, Burundi Jostemirongibiri, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Teza-Muramvya.jpg Licence: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0 Landmarks: Karera waterfalls in southeastern Burundi Grâce Aurore, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Chutes_de_Karera.jpg Licence: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0 Food: A meal with stiff porridge and accompaniments in Burundi [https://augustinetours.com Augustine Tours], CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Meal-options_in_Burundi.jpg Licence: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0 People: Fishers with a boat beside Lake Tanganyika, Burundi FRANCESCA ANSALONI, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Burundi_-_Lake_Tanganyika_fisheries.jpg Licence: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0 Nature: Montane forest in Kibira National Park at Teza, Burundi NIHEREWENIMANA Richard, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Kibira_national_park_(Teza).jpg Licence: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0