The Republic of Burundi is a landlocked country in the African Great Lakes region of East Africa, bordered by Rwanda to the north, Tanzania to the east and south, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the west.

The Twa, Hutu and Tutsi peoples have lived in Burundi for at least 500 years. An independent kingdom, for more than 200 years, it became a German colony early in the 20th century. With Germany's defeat in World War I, Belgium joined Germany to rule the colony Ruanda-Urundi, formerly Burundi and Rwanda .

With independence in 1962, Burundi became a monarchy, but assassinations, coups and general instability led to the establishment of a republic and one-party state in 1966. Ethnic cleansing, two civil wars and genocides in the 1970s and 1990s left a terribly poor, undeveloped country. Now a presidential multi-party representative democratic republic, Burundi currently has 21 registered parties.

The country remains overwhelmingly rural. Roughly 85% are of Hutu ethnic origin, 15% Tutsi, and fewer than 1% indigenous Twa. The official languages are French and Kirundi, although Swahili is spoken along the Tanzanian border. One of the smallest countries in Africa, Burundi’s dense population has led to deforestation, soil erosion and habitat loss. Besides poverty, Burundians often have to deal with corruption, weak infrastructure, poor access to health and education services, and hunger.

Drums like the karyenda are of central importance in Burundi. Internationally, the country has produced the music group Royal Drummers of Burundi. More recently, the Burundi beat, distinctive drumming created by tribal musicians, and recorded by French anthropologists, was used to create music by English pop bands Adam and the Ants and Bow Wow Wow.

Burundian-Belgian musicians like Éric Baranyanka, from the Burundese royal family, Ciza Muhirwa and, especially, Khadja Nin, have recently gained prominence.

Burundian men's folk songs use a variety of instuments: the inanga, a type of stringed zither; Ingoma drums, made from tree trunks; the umwironge, a type of flute made from the stem of an intomvu plant; the igihuha, a horn made from antelope horn; the ikinyege, a rattle made from a gourd of the igicuma plant; the iyebe, a rattle with threaded, dried, hollowed-out inyege fruit pods; the inzogera, a closed bell idiophone, similar to the amayugi; the umudende, a narrow cylindrical bell formed by bending a thin iron sheet into a narrow cylinder, with a hook of metal attached at top; the ikembe, technically a lamellaphone with a series of iron lamellae fixed to a rectangular wooden soundbox; the indingiti, a stringed instrument classified as a fiddle; and the idono, a musical bow consisting of a string (umurya) supported by a flexible wooden string bearer or bow.