Bujumbura- “The City that Never Sleeps"

I was out and about in Bujumbura with a friend one Friday evening and I remarked on the traffic. Bujumbura is not a city that normally has heavy traffic. Chronic fuel shortages means that most people walk everywhere. This particular evening, however, traffic was relatively heavy. “The border with D.R. Congo has been opened” I was told, which is definitely a good thing as it means the conflict just some 20km away has died down for a while.

People were going back to visit family in Congo, people were coming to Bujumbura to spend the weekend. Apparently Bujumbura is the place to be for the weekend. Not only for Congolese taking a break from a broken country in the grip of seemingly intractable violence, but for many others around the region. People even come from Kigali to spend a weekend in Bujumbura, the wealthy maybe flying in on the regular Air Rwanda service, the rest taking the long way round by road via Tanzania because the land frontier between Burundi and Rwanda has been closed for the past few years. This idea surprised me, Kigali is a good deal more wealthy and better organised than Bujumbura, but Bujumbura is a comparatively easy going and relaxed city, and it has the lake shore, something not available in Rwanda.

It is a remarkable truth that the city has many decent restaurants and a busy night life. I was used to Kitwe where everything closed early and everyone was tucked up in bed by 22:00. Bujumbura is still humming along at 22:00, with restaurants, bars, night clubs all busy and people still wandering around in the streets. People from Congo and Rwanda seem to like the relaxed air of the city, and Rwandans especially favour the many “resorts”, hotels, and restaurants along the shores of the lake. Other big East African cities are further away and more expensive to get to. Both Congolese and Rwandans enjoy favourable exchange rates with the Burundian Frank, making a weekend in the city good value for money.There are also hotels further up the hill with stunning views over the city and the lake.

That Friday night we went to one, a place that, once we got inside, would have fitted into any big western city. We went upstairs to the rooftop restaurant (closed that evening) and stared at the lights of the city spread out below us, lights which curved round the top of the lake all the way to Uvira in Congo. Like my long trip up the shores of the lake towards Tanzania on my first weekend of this trip to Bujumbura they were a vision of what might be. A relaxed city “comfortable in its own skin” where people could unwind and enjoy the atmosphere. Of course that’s not the whole story. Most people in Burundi, including Bujumbura are stunningly poor. The problems with the supply of pretty much everything are chronic. Yet somehow the possibilities are there. Those possibilities that might, if embraced, generate an economy capable of supporting the population.

As I read it the Hebrew and Christian Scriptures are all about the possibilities already emerging into our world. Hope and an open-ended future are embedded in the whole story of Israel and of Jesus, his followers and interpreters. In the midst of the crisis, caused by the war with Iran and the economic chaos it is causing, hope might well be in as short supply for people in Europe and North America as it is for people in the rural communities of Burundi. Nevertheless we are a “kingdom of priests” a people called into the mission of God, a mission of hope and change.