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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
It was the old royal capital; the lakeside port city remains the economic capital and largest city.
Q 02Which is Burundi's largest city and economic capital?
Bujumbura
Called Usumbura under colonial rule, it was renamed at independence in 1962 and has the biggest port on the lake.
Q 03Lake Tanganyika, on Burundi's southwestern border, holds which world record?
Longest freshwater body
It is second deepest and second largest by volume, both behind Siberia's Baikal.
Q 04Which three countries border Burundi?
Rwanda, Tanzania and DR Congo
Zambia is a fourth neighbour only across the waters of the lake.
Q 05Under which colonial power was Burundi governed as part of German East Africa from 1885?
Germany
Belgian troops took it in 1916, and Belgium ran it under League of Nations and UN mandates until 1962.
Q 06Between the wars, Burundi and its northern neighbour formed a Belgian mandate called what?
Ruanda-Urundi
It split into independent Rwanda and Burundi on 1 July 1962.
Q 07Burundi gained independence on 1 July of which year?
1962
It kept its monarchy at first, under Mwami Mwambutsa IV.
Q 08Burundi's independence-era kings carried which title?
Mwami
They headed a princely aristocracy called the ganwa; the kingdom's founding is traditionally dated to 1680.
Q 09How long had Prince Louis Rwagasore been Burundi's prime minister when he was assassinated in October 1961?
Two weeks
His party UPRONA had just won over 80% of the vote; a Greek gunman shot him at a lakeside hotel.
Q 10Which last king of Burundi did Michel Micombero depose in November 1966?
Ntare V
Ntare V had himself deposed his own father months earlier; he was killed on returning from exile in 1972.
Q 11Melchior Ndadaye, elected in 1993, was Burundi's first what?
Hutu president
He was assassinated by Tutsi soldiers after three months in office, sparking a 12-year civil war.
Q 12Burundi's leader Cyprien Ntaryamira died on 6 April 1994 in what event?
The plane shot down over Kigali that also killed Rwanda's Habyarimana
Juvénal Habyarimana's death that night was the trigger for the Rwandan genocide.
Q 13Roughly how many people died in the Burundian Civil War of 1993-2005?
About 300,000
Q 21Which drum sanctuary, founded by a 19th-century king, lies 7 km north of the political capital?
Gishora
Mwami Ntare Rugamba founded it after defeating a rebel chief.
Q 22Which national language of Burundi is mutually intelligible with Rwanda's Kinyarwanda?
Kirundi
Virtually the whole population speaks it; French and English are also official, English since 2014.
Q 23Which two crops provide about 90% of Burundi's foreign exchange earnings?
Coffee and tea
The main port ships most of the coffee crop; over 90% of Burundians work in agriculture.
It formally ended with the swearing-in of former rebel Pierre Nkurunziza as president in August 2005.
Q 14Which 2000 deal, mediated by Mandela and Nyerere, set out power-sharing for Burundi?
The Arusha Agreement
Its two-term limit was at the heart of the 2015 crisis over Nkurunziza's third term.
Q 15Burundi's constitution fixes the ethnic split of the National Assembly at what?
60% Hutu, 40% Tutsi
It also mandates 30% women and three seats for the Twa minority.
Q 16Pierre Nkurunziza's 2015 bid for what triggered protests, a failed coup and a refugee exodus?
A third term as president
A former PE teacher and rebel leader, he was later titled "Supreme Guide of Patriotism" and died in office in 2020.
Q 17In 2017 Burundi became the first country in the world to do what?
Leave the International Criminal Court
The move followed a UN report accusing the government of killings, torture and sexual violence.
Q 18Burundi's flag features a white saltire and three red stars. What do the stars represent?
The Hutu, Tutsi and Twa peoples
Red stands for the suffering of the freedom struggle, green for hope, and the white cross for peace.
Q 19Which sacred drum symbolised the Burundian king and appeared on the national flag from 1962 to 1966?
Karyenda
The mwami was said to interpret its beats as rules for the kingdom; a sorghum plant sat beside it on the old flag.
Q 20The world-famous Royal Drummers of Burundi helped inspire which world music festival in 1982?
WOMAD
They also appeared on Joni Mitchell's The Hissing of Summer Lawns and influenced Adam and the Ants' "Burundi beat".
Q 24Burundi is home to the most distant source of which great river, at the head of the Ruvyironza?
The Nile
A pyramid monument was raised near Rutovu in 1937; the river distance to the Mediterranean is 6,671 km.
Q 25Which German explorer erected a pyramid in 1937 marking Burundi's southernmost source of the Nile?
Burkhart Waldecker
It stands near Rutovu, close to Mount Kikizi in Bururi Province.
Q 26Mount Heha, Burundi's highest peak at 2,685 m, rises how far from the great lake to its west?
About 20 km
It sits southeast of the largest city in the Burundi Highlands.
Q 27Kibira National Park, Burundi's only montane rainforest, was until 1933 reserved for what?
Hunting by the kings
It adjoins Rwanda's Nyungwe forest and shelters chimpanzees and colobus monkeys.
Q 28Rusizi National Park north of the largest city is home to Gustave, a notorious what?
Nile crocodile rumoured to have killed 300 people
The park's wetlands also shelter hippos and sitatunga antelope.
Q 29Vénuste Niyongabo won Burundi's first Olympic medal, a gold, at the 1996 Atlanta Games in which event?
5,000 metres
It was Burundi's Olympic debut and he had raced the distance only twice before, having given his 1500 m place to a teammate.
Q 30Francine Niyonsaba won Burundi's second Olympic medal, a silver at Rio 2016, in which event?
800 metres
Barred from that distance by testosterone rules, she moved up and set an African 2000 m record in 2021.