Burundi Trivia
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50 free Burundi trivia questions with answers — geography quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
Burundi is one of Africa's smallest and least-visited countries, but it has a lot to ask about: a kingdom that survived German and Belgian rule and only fell in 1966, sacred drums that once symbolised the monarch and now tour the world, the most distant source of the Nile, and a shore on the world's longest and second-deepest lake. It also moved its capital in 2019, was the first country to quit the International Criminal Court, and won Olympic gold at its very first Games. This quiz covers geography (Tanganyika, Mount Heha, the Ruvyironza and the Nile), history (the mwami and the ganwa, Ruanda-Urundi, Prince Rwagasore, Ndadaye and the civil war, Nkurunziza's third term), symbols (the saltire flag's three stars, the karyenda drum), culture (Kirundi, impeke beer, the Royal Drummers) and sport (Niyongabo, Niyonsaba, the Swallows). Questions run from easy to expert. Every answer was checked against Wikipedia and other reference pages before publishing.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Since 2019, which city has been the political capital of Burundi?
Gitega
Gitega was the seat of Burundi's kings for centuries and sits near the centre of the country; parliament made its return as capital official in January 2019.
Q 02Which is Burundi's largest city and economic capital?
Bujumbura
Bujumbura kept the trade when it stopped being the political capital in 2019: it is still the country's commercial hub and its main port on Lake Tanganyika.
Q 03Lake Tanganyika, on Burundi's southwestern border, holds which world record?
Longest freshwater body
Longest freshwater body: Tanganyika runs more than 650 km from north to south, far enough to give four countries a shore, and only Siberia's Baikal is deeper.
Q 04Which three countries border Burundi?
Rwanda, Tanzania and DR Congo
Rwanda, Tanzania and DR Congo leave Burundi without a coast, so everything it trades abroad must cross a neighbour or Lake Tanganyika before it reaches a seaport.
Q 05Which European power colonised Burundi first, ruling it until the First World War?
Germany
Germany held it as a corner of its East African colony until 1916, when Belgian troops marched in during the First World War and stayed for more than four decades.
Q 06Between the wars, Burundi and its northern neighbour formed a Belgian mandate called what?
Ruanda-Urundi
Ruanda-Urundi was run almost as a province of the Belgian Congo, under a vice governor-general, until its two kingdoms became separate countries in 1962.
Q 07What is the name of Burundi's currency?
Franc
Franc: Belgian forces brought it in 1916, and the name outlived colonial rule when Burundi began issuing its own notes in 1964.
Q 08Besides English, which European language is an official language of Burundi?
French
French came with the Belgian administration, and it has stayed a language of government and business ever since.
Q 09Prince Louis Rwagasore, Burundi's independence hero, was assassinated in October 1961 only weeks after what?
His party's election win
His party's election win gave it 58 of the 64 seats, and the gunman who shot him weeks later was acting for leaders of a rival party.
Q 10Which teenage king did Michel Micombero depose in November 1966, ending Burundi's monarchy?
Ntare V
Ntare V reigned for under five months, went into exile, then came home in 1972 on a promise of safety and was killed within weeks.
Q 11Melchior Ndadaye, elected in 1993, was Burundi's first what?
Hutu president
Hutu president, and the first chosen in a free election: soldiers from the Tutsi-led army killed him after three months, and the civil war that followed lasted twelve years.
Q 12Burundi's president Cyprien Ntaryamira was killed in April 1994 when a plane was shot down as it approached which city?
Kigali
Kigali: he was flying home from a summit aboard the Rwandan president's jet, and the attack that killed them both set off the genocide in Rwanda.
Q 13Roughly how many people died in the Burundian Civil War of 1993-2005?
About 300,000
Q 21The traditional Burundian greeting 'Amashyo' wishes someone herds of which animal?
Cattle
Cattle: cows stand for health, happiness and prosperity in Burundi, so wishing a friend whole herds of them is a way of wishing a good life.
Q 22Kirundi, spoken by nearly all Burundians, is mutually intelligible with which other language?
Kinyarwanda
Kinyarwanda is close enough to Kirundi for the BBC to serve both with one radio service, started after the genocide in Rwanda to help separated families find one another.
Q 23Which two crops have long been Burundi's leading farm exports?
Coffee and tea
Coffee and tea brought in most of Burundi's foreign earnings for decades, though by 2023 gold had joined them at the top of the export list.
About 300,000 people, most of them civilians, died in fighting that outlasted a peace deal signed in 2000; the last big rebel group agreed a ceasefire only in 2006.
Q 14Which 2000 deal, mediated by Mandela and Nyerere, set out power-sharing for Burundi?
The Arusha Agreement
The Arusha Agreement took four years of talks, begun under Julius Nyerere and finished by Nelson Mandela after Nyerere died, and the main rebel groups still refused to sign it.
Q 15Burundi's constitution guarantees at least 30% of National Assembly seats to which group?
Women
Women are guaranteed that minimum beside a fixed 60-40 split between Hutu and Tutsi deputies; if an election misses the quotas, extra members are co-opted to restore them.
Q 16Pierre Nkurunziza's 2015 bid for what triggered protests, a failed coup and a refugee exodus?
A third term as president
A third term as president broke the two-term limit in the peace deal that had ended the civil war, his opponents said; the constitutional court sided with him and he was re-elected.
Q 17In 2017 Burundi became the first country in the world to do what?
Leave the International Criminal Court
Leave the International Criminal Court: the withdrawal took effect in October 2017, yet the court kept jurisdiction over crimes committed while Burundi was a member.
Q 18Which two colours fill the four quarters of Burundi's flag around its white diagonal cross?
Red and green
Red and green: the red recalls the suffering of the independence struggle and the green the hopes placed on the future, while the white cross stands for peace.
Q 19Which sacred drum symbolised the Burundian king and appeared on the national flag from 1962 to 1966?
Karyenda
Karyenda was held to be semi-divine: only the king could read its beats, which he turned into rules for the kingdom, so it left the flag when the monarchy fell.
Q 20The Royal Drummers of Burundi played at the very first edition of which world music festival in 1982?
WOMAD
WOMAD's first festival put them on stage with Echo & the Bunnymen for one song, and Joni Mitchell had already used their drumming on a 1975 album.
Q 24The southernmost source of which great river rises in the highlands of Burundi?
The Nile
The Nile: the stream feeds the Kagera, which flows into Lake Victoria, though Rwanda has a rival headwater that others count as the river's true beginning.
Q 25Burundi's western edge and its shore on Lake Tanganyika lie in which geological feature?
The Great Rift Valley
The Great Rift Valley: its western branch holds Lake Tanganyika, which is why Burundi climbs so sharply from the shore to mountains more than 2,600 m high.
Q 26Which of these countries shares Lake Tanganyika with Burundi?
Zambia
Zambia holds the lake's southern tip: the two countries share no border, yet boats from its port of Mpulungu can sail all the way to Burundi.
Q 27Which sport did Pierre Nkurunziza keep playing throughout his years as Burundi's president?
Football
Football: a former first-division coach, he ran his own team while president and spent much of his time in office touring the country to play for it.
Q 28Gustave, a giant man-eater said to have killed hundreds around Burundi's Rusizi delta, is what kind of animal?
A crocodile
A crocodile: Gustave was put at about 20 feet and a ton and known by his bullet scars, though it is doubtful that one animal caused every death pinned on him.
Q 29Vénuste Niyongabo won Burundi's first Olympic medal, a gold, at the 1996 Atlanta Games in which event?
5,000 metres
5,000 metres: he was far better known over 1,500 m and had run the longer race only a couple of times before the Games.
Q 30Francine Niyonsaba won Burundi's second Olympic medal, a silver at Rio 2016, in which event?
800 metres
800 metres was closed to her in 2019 by rules on athletes with naturally high testosterone, so she moved up to long distances and came fifth in the Olympic 10,000 m.