Top 15 Most Famous People from Burundi

Khadja Nin at the 2018 Cannes Film Festival. By Georges Biard-Wikipedia

Top 15 Most Famous People from Burundi

*Originally published by Roseline on October 2022 and Updated by Vanessa R in October 2023 

Burundi is a landlocked country located in the Great Rift Valley, at the crossroads of the African Great Lakes region and East Africa. It is bounded to the north by Rwanda, to the east and southeast by Tanzania, and to the west by the Democratic Republic of the Congo; Lake Tanganyika runs along its southwestern border. However, here is a list of some of the most famous people from Burundi.

1.Khadja Nin

Nin was born in Burundi, the youngest of eight children. Her father served as a diplomat. Like most of her siblings, she began studying music at a young age. She became one of the lead vocalists in the Bujumbura choir and performed in the local cathedral at the age of seven, thanks to her outstanding singing voice. In 1975, she fled Burundi for Zaire, where she married in 1978.  Later on, she immigrated to Belgium with her two-year-old son in 1980. She signed a contract with BMG in 1985. Her second album, Ya Pili, was released in 1994 and received critical acclaim.

2.Diane Nukuri

Diane Nukuri-Johnson in the Marathon at the 2012 Olympics in London,By Tom Page from London, Wikipedia

Diane Nukuri  is a professional distance runner of Burundian-American descent, who was born on December 1, 1984 in Kigozi-Mukike. As a fifteen-year-old, she competed for Burundi in the 5,000m in the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney and in the marathon at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London. In college, Nukuri ran for the University of Iowa. She carried the Burundian flag at the Summer Olympics in both 2000 and 2012.

Nukuri presently holds the Burundian records in the 1,500m, 5,000m, 10,000m, half marathon, and marathon. She continues to work with Coach Anderson. Her story has been covered in several publications, including Running Times in October 2012.

3.Hussein Radjabu

El-Hajji Hussein Radjabu is a politician from Burundi. He was the party chairman of the ruling National Council for the Defense of Democracy – Forces for Democracy until February 2007, when he was dismissed at a party conference. He was detained in April 2007 on charges of “planning an armed uprising” and insulting the president by referring to him as a “empty bottle.” Radjabu Hussein was convicted of these charges in April 2008 and sentenced to 13 years in jail. 

4.Pierre Nkurunziza

 Pierre Nkurunziza, President of Burundi, captured during the Opening Plenary of the World Economic Forum on Africa 2008 in Cape Town, South Africa, June 4, 2008. By Copyright World Economic Forum-Wikipedia

Pierre Nkurunziza was a Burundian politician who served as the country’s ninth president from August 2005 until his death in June 2020. He declared his intention not to run for re-election in 2020, instead handing over control to Évariste Ndayishimiye, whose candidacy he had supported. He died on June 8, 2020, just before the end of his tenure. He was the country’s longest-serving president.

Nkurunziza was member of a Hutu ethnic group, he taught physical education before becoming active in politics during the Burundian Civil War as a member of the rebel National Council for the Defense of Democracy – Forces for the Defense of Democracy (CNDD-FDD), of which he became head in 2000. At the end of the Civil War, the CNDD-FDD became a political party, and Nkurunziza was elected president. He held the role for three terms, meeting deadly resistance and causing great controversy.

5. Sada Nahimana 

Nahimana POI21, By si.robi – Wikipedia

Sada Nahimana is Burundian tennis player, who was born on April 21, 2001. She has a career-high singles ranking of world No. 256, which she achieved on August 29, 2022. She also has a highest junior ranking of 12, which she obtained on July 15, 2019.

Nahimana made her WTA Tour main-draw debut in the doubles tournament at the 2018 Rabat Grand Prix, partnering Egyptian Sandra Samir. At the 2022 ITS Cup in Olomouc, she defeated former top ten player Kristina Mladenovic.

6.Juma Mossi

 Juma Mossi  is a retired Burundian footballer who captained the Burundian national team. He was given the nickname “Mossi” in appreciation of his extraordinary skill, which drew similarities to Brazilian footballer Pelé, and is widely regarded as the best Burundian footballer of all time by many Burundian football experts. He rose to prominence with FC 105 de Libreville and Overseas in Gabon’s Ligue 1.

Mossi was a member of the Burundian national side who came close to qualifying for the African Nations Cup in 1993, only to lose on penalties to Titi Camara’s Guinea.

6.Mohammed Tchité

Mohamed Gasana Tchité  is a striker from Burundi and Belgium. He was born on January 31, 1984  in Bujumbura, the largest city and capital of Burundi. He spent the majority of his professional career in Belgium, playing for Standard Liége, Anderlecht, Club Brugge, Sint-Truiden, and White Star Bruxelles, as well as Racing de Santander in Spain.

Tchité was called up by national team coach René Vandereycken for the 2010 FIFA World Cup qualifying campaign, but FIFA intervened and ruled him ineligible because he had previously represented Burundi at senior level in the CECAFA Cup in 2000, as well as having appeared for the nation at under-20 level.

7. Louis Rwagasore

Portrait of Louis Rwagasore, By unknown, UPRONA –Wikipedia

Louis Rwagasore  was a Burundian prince and politician who served as the country’s second prime minister for two weeks, from September 28 to October 13, 1961. Rwagasore was born in 1932 to the Ganwa family of Burundian Mwami (king) Mwambutsa IV in Belgian-administered Ruanda-Urundi and educated in Burundian Catholic schools before attending university in Belgium. When he returned to Burundi in the mid-1950s, he established a series of cooperatives to economically empower native Burundians and expand his political base. The venture was taken over by the Belgian state, and as a result of the event, his national prominence rose, and he became a key figure in the anti-colonial movement.

8.Andre Muhirwa

André Muhirwa was a Burundian politician who served as the third Prime Minister of Burundi from 19 October 1961 to 7 June 1963 as a member of the Union for National Progress (Union pour le Progrès national, UPRONA). His tenure coincided with the independence of Burundi. 

He co-founded the Parliamentary Monarchist Party in 2001. (Parti Monarchiste Parlementaire, PMP).  He passed away in 2003. 

10.Lydia Nsekera

Futsal, Victory ceremnony Girls, By Sandro Halank, Wikipedia

Lydia Nsekera  is a Burundian athlete and member of the International Olympic Committee since 2009.  Between 2004 until 2013, Nsekera served as President of the Burundi Football Federation. She was the first woman to be co-opted onto the FIFA Council for a one-year term in 2012, and the first woman to be elected to a full four-year term in 2013. 

11. Jean-Pierre Ndagijimana

Jean-Pierre Ndagijimana, a Burundian-Belgian actor, is best known for his role in The Constant Gardener. Born in Burundi in 1970, he fled the country during the civil war and moved to Belgium in 1993. Ndagijimana began his acting career in the early 2000s and has appeared in films and TV shows like The Constant Gardener, Black Mirror, and Sense8.

He is also a human rights activist and founder of the non-profit organisation “Ndakasi,” which supports Burundi’s war and violence victims. Ndagijimana is known for his versatility and advocacy for human rights and social justice.

12. Domitien Ndayizeye

Christian Lambiotte/EC, Attribution, via Wikimedia Commons

Domitien Ndayizeye, a Burundian politician, served as President of Burundi from 2003 to 2005. Born in 1953, he studied law and economics at the University of Burundi and later worked as a teacher and lawyer. After the assassination of President Cyprien Ntaryamira and Rwandan President Juvénal Habyarimana in 1994, Burundi entered the civil war.

Ndayizeye played a key role in negotiating a peace agreement between the warring factions, which was signed in August 2000. In 2003, he was elected president, overseeing the transition to a new government and democratic elections. Ndayizeye is a respected figure in Burundi and is currently the head of the National Gathering for Change (RANAC), a political party.

13. Gaël Faye

Coup d’Oreille, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Gaël Faye is a Burundian-French rapper, singer, songwriter, and author, best known for his novel Small Country: A Childhood in Rwanda, which won the Prix Goncourt des Lycéens in 2016. Born in 1982 in Bujumbura, Burundi, Faye fled the country during the civil war and moved to France in 1995. He began his music career in the early 2000s and has released two albums.

His music combines rap, hip-hop, and soul, often addressing themes of identity, migration, and exile. Faye’s semi-autobiographical novel Small Country, translated into over 30 languages, has been a critical and commercial success. He is a versatile artist, musician, writer, and activist, and a role model for many young people worldwide.

14. Melchior Ndadaye

In 1993, Burundian politician and financier Melchior Ndadaye became the country’s first Hutu president to be elected democratically. His reforms outraged the Tutsi-dominated army, even though he was trying to bridge the racial gap.

After Ndadaye was killed in October 1993 following an attempted military coup, the Tutsi and Hutu ethnic groups engaged in vicious tit-for-tat killings. Ndadaye, a Hutu man of modest means, began his education at a Catholic school and gained experience as a bank clerk before joining the opposition Front for Democracy in Burundi (FRODEBU) in 1983.