The Anglican churches of the area were under the authority of the Archbishop of Canterbury until 1965, when the Province of Uganda and Ruanda-Urundi (later of Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, and Boga-Zaire) was created;[1] Burundi was then part of the Province of Rwanda, Burundi, and Boga-Zaire from 1980[2] until its own church province was erected in 1992.
In 1951, Jim Brazier was consecrated a bishop, to serve as an assistant bishop in the Diocese of Uganda[4] with delegated oversight for all of Ruanda-Urundi (a "suffragan area");[5] he was based in Ibuye (now in Burundi).
[7] Brazier retired in 1964 and was succeeded by Lawrence Barham, part of whose brief was to prepare the diocese for division: as part of this process, Yohana Nkunzumwami, Archdeacon of Northern Burundi, was appointed Assistant Bishop in Burundi[8] and was the first Burundian consecrated a bishop.
[9] He became the first diocesan bishop of all Burundi when that diocese was erected in 1966;[10] by the time of his death in post in 1978, his See was that of Buye.
The second Burundian diocese, Bujumbura, was split from Buye in December 1975.