[1] Following the 1830s, commercial relations between the Lake Tanganyika region and the Swahili traders of the Indian Ocean grew more intense, and Ujiji, located at the western end of one of the main overland caravan routes, quickly gained significance.

[3] Due to caravan trade networks from the East African coast into the interior, the Swahili language had historically been spoken around the beaches of Lake Tanganyika since the second half of the 19th century.

The first school in Usumbura (today's Bujumbura) was established in 1909 by the German Residentur, who chose Kiswahili as the medium of teaching because it was the only official language in Ruanda-Urundi.

The main reason they first upheld the German linguistic policy was that Swahili was also spoken in the Belgian Congo along the coast of Lake Tanganyika.

It was unfathomable to be unable to communicate in Swahili, but throughout time, numerous new regulations came into effect, affecting Bujumbura's residents' social, economic, and linguistic circumstances significantly.

Bujumbura grew more stratified as the Belgians attempted to create distinct economic and physical sectors for the various racial groups.

[9] Due to their link with Islam, Kiswahili speakers were eventually marginalized by Belgian authorities because Swahili had been used as an ideological tool during German administration.

In order to clearly implement a strategy of strategic stratification, new boundaries were erected between Muslim and non-Muslim groups as well as between urban and rural ones.

[10] People who spoke Kiswahili were forced by the Belgians to pay higher taxes, and starting in 1927, Kirundi was the sole language taught in schools.

Muslims who refused to convert to Christianity were denied access to education and the skills that the European government and businesses required.

[13] By the end of the 1920s, the divisions within Bujumbura's population and the communes allocated to them were firmly drawn: Europeans, Asians, Swahilis, and other Africans, each group with its own neighbourhood, each with appropriate occupations'.

[15][16] They typically spoke French and had stable employment in a respectable position that they had been able to obtain as a result of attending a mission school.

In response, the Swahilis regrouped various nations and ethnic groups, including the Congolese, Ugandans, Rwandans, Rundis, Tanganyika residents, and Arab-Swahilis, to build an increasingly cohesive community.

[24][25] Bujumbura resembled a massive formation of layered rock towards the end of the 1950s, with strata made up of "people of various occupations and national origins."

These Swahili men's and women's actions were the first indications of political opposition to the colonial government and, as such, were a symbolic step towards Burundi's independence.

[28][29] Prince Louis Rwagasore, the leader of UPRONA and the son of Urundi's mwami (king), Mwambutsa, was well-liked in Buyenzi.

They want independence, a reduction in the high taxes, opportunities in Rundi society, the ability to engage in commercial activity, and the freedom to travel to the countryside because they were frustrated.

Their flexibility, which is a result of their intermediary status on the outside of Burundian life, shown that they could transport not just people and products but also ideas.

The Muslims in Burundi eventually made the decision to publicly withdraw from social and political life by establishing their own educational system of Qur'an schools.

[36] Congolese officials who were in charge of maintaining order and performing duties were strict, which made them despise Swahili.

Karangwa portrayed Burundi as a monolingual nation in 1995, with bilingualism prevalent among Bujumbura residents and Swahili ranking second to Kirundi, ahead of French and English.

The new government in Burundi is also mostly composed of former refugees, rebel members, many of whom came from outside the country, and Swahili-fluent individuals who lived in Swahili-speaking nations throughout the war.

Both Kiswahili and English have been taught in Burundian elementary schools since the academic year 2005/2006, also as a move to strengthen political ties with other members of the East African Community.