This Saturday, July 24, we go, my colleague from Radio BINUB Abbas and me to Carama, a few kilometers from Bujumbura to produce a report on the inauguration of several bashingantahe. Arrived at the scene of the ceremony, the drummers rattle the cowhides with their sticks. All around the tents for the occasion, the children play and dance to the beat of drums. Representatives of the National Council of Bashingantahe just arrived and settled under the big tent. The ceremony begins. Bashingantahe greet the new contenders and escorted to their seats. a mushingantahe speaks at the megaphone. I do not understand Kirundi and I translated the beginning of the speech by a fellow journalist. The contenders for the nomination change places to settle in the center of the rectangle formed by the tents. Behind them, their sponsors (umuhetsi) are to testify to the commitment of new entrants in the institution.
Each candidate's solemn commitment to settle disputes voluntarily, without discrimination and regardless of ethnic origin or regional origin. The sponsors put their hands on the shoulders suitors who, by striking the stick ritual (Intahe) on the floor, take an oath (indahiro): "If I betray this pressure, I'm cursed." According to oral tradition, the institution dates back to Ntare Rushatsi Bashingantahe King founder of the monarchy in the late seventeenth century. The mythical founder of the institution was Sacega, which would have made trade-offs in the time of the first famous king at the time of initiation into this function, we always referred to this origin with the formula: "Get the stick that given by Ntare Rushatsi your father and your grandfather father ". Thus, the foundation of the institution, its primary raison d'être, is the settlement of disputes. One, two, three strokes and, like judges in a court, the dispute was settled irreversibly. In
of this primary function, the functions performed bashingantahe also consisted in reconciling persons and families; authenticate contracts (marriage, inheritance, sales, donations ...) look for truth and justice around; ensure the safety of persons and property, wherever one is, advise and balance political power at all levels; speak for the common good of human rights and socio-political responsibility, whenever necessary; authenticate on behalf of the people, the new king, the new leader and the new Deputy Chief ; ensure the ecology of manners; represent the people in all circumstances to judge the appropriateness of war (kugera urugamba) enforce the code warrior in case of armed violence and proceed to the cessation of hostilities; organize negotiations and reconciliation after a war. These tasks were cast in cultural codes and in a highly ritualised inauguration. This nomination was value of alliance between the family of nuclear mushingantahe / Sage and population.
But how this traditional institution does cohabiting with new institutions post-crisis? "One would think that with the elections, bashingantahe have sided with political parties, more favorable to the maintenance of our traditional institutions, as Uprona, but it is not. It has
cons saw their role as apolitical, "we noted Manirikiza Zeno, coordinator of the National Council of Bashingantahe. However, some incidents occurred between bashingantahe and local elected officials, with the recent elections hill. Local elected officials who received a mandate from the people can not tolerate being subordinated to bashingantahe while they were invested for their notability, wisdom and above all integrity. "The elections were held hill after the landslide victory of the CNDD-FDD and many local elected representatives from that party. These are mostly young men and women. Few among those elected are "bashingantahe" traditionally invested, which are also not recognized by the CNDD-FDD, "confides a mushingantahe. This institution is she trying to reform itself, to adapt to changing contemporary mores of Burundi? In any case, the Charter of Bashingantahe has always favored the family as a body for the investiture of new Bashingantahe, instead of basing the Institution on individuals. Through the new mushingantahe, the entire nuclear family is invested. Single women, widowed or single, are now incorporated into a new structure, established by the National Council of Bashingantahe and called Abashigikirantahe (the support points of wisdom). The investiture of women as individuals, regardless of her husband, was not envisaged by the National Council of Bashingantahe. Single women, grouped in the new structure "Bashigikirantahe" is a beneficial pressure group within the Institution of Bashingantahe. The
bashingantahe wished that their institution is mentioned in the post-transition constitution, but this does not happen. Their cultural codes have been battered by colonial rule and the post-colonial regimes that succeeded to power, but they remain a benchmark for much of the population living in rural areas.
