Things to see and do Bujumbura

This garden filled with original plant essences was rehabilitated in 2009 with the support of the French Embassy and the Green Belt Association for the Environment (ACVE). It is hemmed between Pierre Ngendandumwe Avenue and Muramvya, Ngozi and January avenues. This is an ideal place to walk or run (courage under the sun!), make a little bike even. Open air concerts are regularly organized (especially in June, on the occasion of the Music Festival). Children's games and sports fields attract a lot of people in the week or weekend. Sports courses and children's activities are regularly organized there. Get information on site.

Built in the mid s thanks to Colonel Gaddafi's financing, following the rapprochement of the Bagaza regime with Libya, this so-called central library includes a large number of works, whether scientific or not, on Burundi and Africa in general. It can be accessed by negotiating a temporary entry with the management or the academic authorities.

This literary coffee is a "space where all forms of writings arise and intersect: slam, poetry, tales, news, novels, theatre. This is an initiative of the Association des Writers du Burundi, which is already celebrating several years of regular literary exchanges. Every Thursday, comes who wants to talk about works, authors or themes, with writers, intellectuals, musicians… The main facilitators of this «café» (where one does not drink) are the poet Ketty Nivyabandi, its coordinator, and the writer Roland Rugero, his presenter, whose respective coordinates are indicated here. In 2012, Samandari members published a collective Collection, In-dependency (Soma editions), a literary and poetic approach to the fiftieth anniversary of Independence.

Prince Louis Rwagasore is the national hero of Burundi, the major political figure of decolonization. Murdered on 13 October 1961, he was buried a few days later on Vugizo Hill, cleared hastily by hundreds of followers of Uprona Party whose leader he was the leader. Cried by the crowds at his funeral, the son of the Mwami Mwambutsa is still celebrated regularly in front of his mausoleum.

The monument is of sober design, with three arches marked with the colours of the national flag and, on the right, plates on behalf of each of the "boroughs" (provincial divisions) of the time. It stands on the outskirts of calm, in this very residential area.

On each side of the mausoleum stands the stelas of two other illustrious Burundians whose deaths remain mysterious: the grave of Ignace Kamatari, senior brother of the Mwami Mwambutsa, killed in May 1964, and that of Pierre Ngendandumwe, the Hutu Prime Minister murdered in January 1965.

In recent years, prohibitions to take pictures of the monument are regularly addressed to the tourist. It is not very logical, but we cannot do much…