Every Day Is Special: October 21 - Ndadaye Day in Burundi

October 21 - Ndadaye Day in Burundi

Posted October 21, 2019

There is a sad truth about humans: When it comes to dealing with other humans, many of us are way too concerned about whether those others are "us" or "them."

In other words, are the others in-group or out-group?

In-group people are considered to be people like ourselves, and most of us have warmer feelings and concern for in-group folks. Whether this is a matter of what nation or town people live in or what school they go to; or their race, religion, language, or ethnic background; or even a matter of fashion / hair styles / music / holidays / foods / or other cultural trappings... Many of us feel more comfortable with people who share as many of these things with us as possible.

Out-group people, of course, are "the other." They're different. It's harder to relate to them, perhaps, and maybe even harder to care all that much about them. And some people go even further than that; they might consider out-group people as less moral, less intelligent, less important...just less!

Of course all of that is pretty terrible. We can - and many of us do! - meet people from other nations, races, religions, and ethnic groups and heartily enjoy learning about their foods and traditions! We can appreciate their visual art and music, we can participate with religious rites when invited to do so, we can widen our in-group circle again and again and again until it includes every human on Earth!

All of these words are a preamble to the tragedy that began today's holiday in Burundi. The background of the tragedy is that there has been many, many years of problems between the Tutsi people and the Hutu people in Africa.

Born in 1953, Melchior Ndadaye was a Hutu in Burundi. His education was interrupted when the Tutsi-dominated army of Burundi started massacring Hutus; the army killed either tens of thousands or maybe even hundreds of thousands of Hutu people. Ndadaye and others fled to Rwanda to escape the genocide.

There Ndadaye got a degree in education and became involved in politics. He started working with other students in exile from Burundi, and he strove to get workers more rights. Eventually Ndadaye made his way back to Burundi.

In June of 1993, Ndadaye was democratically elected president of Burundi! He was the first Hutu to hold the office - even though the vast majority of Burundians were Hutu! Not only did Ndadaye win 65% of the vote, in an election ruled free and fair by observers from the U.N., but his party later that month won the vast majority of the seats in the legislature.

There was an attempted coup on July 3, but the coup failed and Ndadaye and his party were still in charge.

Ndadaye was an intellectual. Rather than wanting to punish the Tutsi in revenge for the 1972 genocide, he wanted to soothe the tensions and smooth over the rivalry between the two ethnic groups. He named a Tutsi woman as Prime Minister and made sure that the Tutsi-dominated political party was given one third of the Cabinet posts and several regional governorships. He freed political prisoners. He guaranteed freedom of the press.

And then he slowly and cautiously began reforms aimed at removing the disadvantages that kept the majority Hutu downtrodden. Apparently many Tutsi people felt their power and wealth were threatened by the reforms, and only a few months after Ndadaye was installed as president - on this date in 1993 - he was assassinated.

The assassination and coup attempt sparked outrage in Burundi and around the world, and it sparked a civil war. That's so very tragic. Tragic that a fair man was killed for being fair. Tragic that some people think that lifting up others - giving others equal rights - somehow diminishes themselves. Tragic that some people cannot stand to share wealth and power, and in fact insist on having greater and greater shares of both themselves. Tragic that violence is seen as an answer.

To end this post on a happier note:

The people of Burundi still honor their fallen leader.