Burundi is a small central African nation located south of Rwanda, west of Tanzania, and east of Lake Tanganyika and the Rift Valley. Politically recognized as a crisis nation-state experiencing civil war, strife, and genocide in recent history, notably due to infighting between the Hutu and Tutsi ethnopolitical factions, Burundi is struggling to find its place as a competitive survivor within the global market.

Today, Burundi is ethnically composed of 85% Hutu, 14% Tutsi, and 1% Twa. Nearly two thirds of Burundians self-identify as Christian; there are 62% Roman Catholic, 5% Protestant, 10% Muslim, and 23% indigenous practitioners. Like many African nations, practices of honoring familial ancestors are common among nearly all religious practitioners, and long-held oral traditions, ceremonies, and festivals worshipping a local divine creator ...