An experience of Bujumbura’s night life

By Joseph Batte
During Uganda’s turbulent past, one would be considered completely nuts if one dared stay out past 6:00pm. Clubs were no-go places. If one wanted to dance, it would be during the day. Even then, there was fear trigger-happy, blood-thirsty soldiers could walk into the discotheque and lob a grenade at the revellers just for fun.

When I enquired from our Congolese driver how night life was like in Bujumbura during the war, he sighed. In rapid fine French, he said, the war did not affect their drinking habits and partying on weekends, because it was fought in the countryside.

In Uganda, if you are looking for signs of the turbulent past, you go no further than the parliament building. It is still dotted with bullet holes.

But there are no signs of that kind on buildings of Bujumbura city. They are still intact.

IN HIGH SPIRITS: Revellers dancing away the night at Saga Plage

“Bujumbura is generally a town where people in some places keep moving all night long,” says Conglais.

“Where are these watering holes?” I enquired. The names came tumbling out of his mouth in rapid succession: “L’Archipel, Havana, Saga Plage, Odeon among others.”

“Do you mind if you show me around?” I asked my guide.

“No problem, patron. I am a party animal myself,” he said.

The first place we went to was L’Archipel in downtown Bujumbura, near the Belgian Embassy. This is the place to be on Friday night. The crowd is made up of local upper class.

L’Archipel has an open-air atmosphere and a dancing floor located in the centre. On that day you will see youth clad in skin gripping attire, compete with the old people for the little space to show off their dancing strokes.

What a spectacle to behold. The elders lumber on stage to show off an awkward version of the twist dance, while the young do bad imitation of intricate moves they picked from Shakira’s latest video!

Watching them strut their stuff, I cannot help, but feel that the young wild things at Silk and Ange Noire back home in Kampala could give them a few lessons in dancing.

L’Archipel is ideal haunt for football fanatics. They don’t pay entrance fee as is the case with most pubs in Uganda. All you have to do is buy a drink, a coca cola or Primus to watch a match that is beamed on high definition flat TV. However, it is easily noticeable that the English Premier League has not reached fever pitch like in Uganda, but it is catching on fast.

The most famous club in ‘Buja’ is Havana, which is situated on Boulevard de l’UPRONA. Its most ‘happening’ night is Saturday, since the crowds in Bujumbura gather at L’Archipel on Friday. Local and sometimes international artistes hold concerts there. Havana booms from 6:00pm onwards, on a happy-go-lucky mix Congolese, Hip-Hop, Bongo, RnB, Reggae and Techno tunes.

A few minutes walk from Havana is another club called Odeon Palace. Every Wednesday there is an energetic live show which has peerless musicians that flawlessly pump Burundi classics. The patrons say the atmosphere is greater during school holidays. Le Consulat and Le Calvados also offer great entertainment.

Saga Plage, situated in the industrial area near the airport, offers more than music. Its clean beaches are a tourist attraction. The place is suitable for staging big shows.

Bujumbura people do not only love music, according to my observation they must be the most sports-loving people in the entire East African region. Every Sunday evening, ministers and other high-ranking government official emerge from their mansions and join hundreds of local people to jog on the city streets, after which, most of them retire to bars!

Burundi has a lot of business prospects

By Joseph Batte
When you talk about investing in Burundi, the immediate question that will pop in any business person’s mind is: What good business does Burundi offer? There is also that nagging fear about war. The fact is, there is no war in Burundi.

Burundi had been pleading for a decade to be allowed to join the East Africa Community. They were told in very straight terms to put their house in order for their requests to be considered.

This meant bringing the war to an end, establishing democratic institutions and making tax reforms. Burundi and Rwanda were admitted last year, after fulfiling those requirements.

Does Burundi have business opportunities to offer any investor? Yes. Burundi is literally uncharted waters brimming with a lot of business opportunities that promise quick returns because most investors have adopted a wait-and-see approach.

There are investment opportunities in agriculture, fisheries, manufacturing, retail and wholesale trade, education; the list goes on and on.

Burundi is one of the most fertile countries in the East African region, with a potential of becoming a food basket, just like Uganda is to its neighbours. There are opportunities for flower growing and food-processing.

Burundi grows high quality Arabic coffee that has always won awards on the international market. But the coffee industry still remains largely unexploited. A coffee processing plant that would produce instant coffee can be a great investment.

Lake Tanganyika is surrounded by virgin beaches that are ideal for holiday resorts. The deep waters which were used to breed the Nile Perch before it was introduced in Uganda are brimming with a very tasty species of fish know locally as mukeke and sangala, but there is no fish factory to process the fish for export! The Bujumbura population has been increasing and there is shortage of houses. Investment is needed to develop real estate industry.

There is no supermarket in the whole of Bujumbura, as big as Game Stores or even Metro, that offers a wide range of products. Any investor who opens a big supermarket with a variety of goods will mint money. For your information, the Burundi franc is stronger than the Ugandan shilling and the Burundians are good at spending.

LIFE AT THE MARKETPLACE: Women are increasingly coming into business life. Selling foodstuffs at the Bujumbura Central Market

Uganda is one of Burundi’s biggest trading partners and you don’t have to look very far to find out – you have to just look at the shop shelves. They are loaded with Maganjo maize flour from Kikuubo, text books from Picfare Industries from Kampala and Uganda Waragi from Uganda Breweries just to mention a few. And their cost triple the retail price in Kampala. A new shirt that costs sh10,000 in Kampala goes for the equivalent of sh30,000 in Burundi. Every business person you ask will tell you: “It is due to the transport costs and taxes.”

Some Ugandan companies like Roofings, Picfare and Mukwano have set up offices in Bujumbura to co-ordinate their businesses in the country.

Richard Kabonero, the Ugandan Ambassador to Rwanda and Burundi, says Uganda exported goods worth $49m to Burundi and 60% of this money was made by Roofings.

“Uganda is our Dubai. We import almost everything from Kampala. But by setting up businesses here, Ugandans will be widening their market,” commented one businessman.

Burundi is bounded by Rwanda in the north, Tanzania to the east and south and the vast Democratic Republic of Congo to the west, which has a population of 53 million people.

The country also neighbours Malawi and Zambia and offers the shortest route to South Africa.

You can access Burundi by road or air. Gaso Bus Company has two buses which ply the Kampala-Kigali-Bujumbura route.