LIVINGSTONE-STANLEY

Situated halfway between Bujumbura (13 km) and Kabezi (8 km) by taking the 3 littoral RN to the south, this 10-ton monolith is visible on a promontory overlooking the lake, where it was installed by the Belgian colonizers in November 1956. It commemorates the meeting on the banks of the Tanganyika in 1871, to postpone Henry Morton Stanley and Dr David Livingstone. The first, on mission for the New York Herald, had gone to the search for the second one whose trace was lost and some believed dead.

In fact, we know that it is more south, in Ujiji (Tanzania), that Stanley'regained'Livingstone in November 1871. It is then that the two men crossed the coasts of Tanganyika to the North, stopping near Nyanza-Lac, Rumonge, Resha, Minago, Kabezi and, finally, near the mouth of the river Mugere where the famous stone is today.

Apart from its massive appearance and its symbol, this monument is not very interesting, but the surroundings of the site, recently refurbished and débroussaillés, host a very appropriate snack under the sun, "the Livingstone".

It should be noted that, before arriving at Livingstone-Stanley, coming from Bujumbura, the cemetery of Ruziba is located 10 km from the capital. This cemetery between road and lake was until the end of the 1990 s the largest in Burundi. It has come to saturation, and the burials are now made in Mpanda, near the airport. There are still graves buried in coastal grasses that bear a long social history in Bujumbura.