Burundi’s Transition: A Beacon For Central Africa

On 19 August 2005, more than nine-tenths of the members of both houses of Burundi’s legislature capped a free electoral process by choosing Pierre Nkurunziza to serve as the country’s next president. The implications of this event in this small, conflict-ridden state on the northeastern shore of Lake Tanganyika could reverberate positively throughout the Great Lakes region of central Africa and beyond. While Burundi’s democratic reconstruction is far from complete, the election suggests that even the most violent and sorely divided societies can be restored, given sufficient political will and generous resources to support the process of negotiation and change.