Someone Likes My Blog in Burundi!

Blogging, happiness, health related issues, lessons learned, rankings, social justice 3 Minutes

I’m not sure what may have caused this, but today there was an unusually high volume (for me) of traffic from the country of Burundi in eastern Africa.

I can’t tell what blog posts the person (or persons) was reading (at least I don’t think I can with WP stats), but I am assuming it is just one person who may have fallen into some sort of rabbit hole on my web site and couldn’t get out, so he or she just kept clicking different things in a frenzied attempt to escape.

To put things in perspective, prior to today I have had a total of 11 views from the country of Burundi, over nearly a six and a half-year period. Today, as you can see from the screen shot above, there were 50 views alone.

So I thought I would read up a little bit on the country of Burundi and share what I learned. In case you are curious, feel free to keep reading. If on the other hand, you need to escape from here as quickly as possible, just close your browser and pretend like this never happened…

Background and History

Burundi, officially the Republic of Burundi, is a landlocked country in the Great Rift Valley where the African Great Lakes region and East Africa converge. It is bordered by Rwanda to the north, Tanzania to the east and southeast, 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. For more than 200 of those years, Burundi was an independent kingdom, until the beginning of the 20th century, when Germany colonised the region. After the First World War and Germany’s defeat, it ceded the territory to Belgium. Both Germans and Belgians ruled Burundi and Rwanda as a European colony known as Ruanda-Urundi. Burundi and Rwanda had never been under common rule until the time of European colonisation.

Burundi gained independence in 1962 and initially had a monarchy, but a series of assassinations, coups and a general climate of regional instability culminated in the establishment of a republic and one-party state in 1966.

Demographics

The economy is predominantly agricultural, accounting for 50% of GDP in 2017 and employing more than 90% of the population.

As of July 2018, Burundi was estimated by the United Nations to have a population of 11,175,374 people, compared to only 2,456,000 in 1950.

Some Fun Facts about Burundi

  • The source of the Nile River is in Bururi province.
  • When several Burundians of close acquaintance meet for a gathering they drink impeke, a beer, together from a large container to symbolise unity.
  • Crafts are an important art form in Burundi and are attractive gifts to many tourists.
  • Drumming is an important part of the cultural heritage. The world-famous Royal Drummers of Burundi, who have performed for over 40 years, are noted for traditional drumming using the karyenda, amashako, ibishikiso and ikiranya drums.
  • The country’s oral tradition is strong, relaying history and life lessons through storytelling, poetry and song.

Some Sobering Facts about Burundi

  • The population growth rate is 2.5 percent per year, more than double the average global pace, and a Burundian woman has on average 6.3 children, nearly triple the international fertility rate.
  • Approximately 80% of Burundi’s population lives in poverty.
  • Burundi has the severest hunger and malnourishment rates of all 120 countries ranked in the Global Hunger Index. A typical Burundian meal consists of sweet potatoes, corn and peas. Due to the expense, meat is eaten only a few times per month.
  • Only 2% of the total population holds bank accounts.
  • The World Happiness Report 2018 ranked Burundi as the world’s least happy nation with a rank of 156.

source: Wikipedia

Like many people in Africa, those living in Burundi seem to be struggling mightily. i can only hope that things begin to improve, and I offer my gratitude to whoever took the time to visit my blog today…

Published by Jim Borden

A 60-something guy trying to figure out the world, and his place in it. Happily married for 40-plus years, three wonderful sons. Accounting teacher, fitness enthusiast, blogger, reader.

Published

46 thoughts on “Someone Likes My Blog in Burundi!”

  1. 🙂 Jim, I highly doubt that you expected to have only viewers from North America when you started your blog.

    In my case, I get lots of incoming views from India.

    I also get lots of incoming views from countries all over the world.

    Liked by 1 person

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    1. You’re right, Renard. I thought there would be some diversity in terms of what countries people come from who read my blog, but it is more extensive than I expected…

      it is fun to think of our blog being read by people from around the globe!

      Liked by 1 person

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  3. I went looking to learn what people from Burundi were called. Sure enough, you included it in your post. Best wishes to all the Burundian people

    Liked by 1 person

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  5. Well, this could be one person reading fifty different posts, or maybe it was one person who read one post and enjoyed it so much they shared it through social media and drove other Burundian readers to your blog. Either way, it does not surprise me. We all enjoy reading your posts, why would they be any different. Congrats and I am a little jealous. I checked my stats and I am still unknown in Burundi.

    Liked by 1 person

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  6. Given that 80% of Burundi’s population lives in poverty, it seems probable that your posts have come to the attention of the richer clique or, more likely, the government. I hope you don’t get any visits from them enquiring about your intentions towards corrupting their people. But maybe some of these views were from someone who is related to one of those Nigerian princes. Watch your inbox!

    Did you by any chance go the former guy’s school of map making?

    Liked by 1 person

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  7. Because my stats are a fraction of yours, I usually have a good idea which posts are being read when someone binges my blog. When it’s from a country I’ve barely heard of, I always think “Huh, why would someone in {enter country here} possibly cares what I think about lawn care? I confess that I don’t frequently (ever?) read blogs by people in other countries whose lives don’t resemble mine at all. Just one more example of my white, American monoculturism.

    Liked by 1 person

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  8. I recently got a lot of traffic from Nigeria. That same day, someone I didn’t know began commenting on my blog, asking me a lot of personal questions. He claimed to be from Germany, but according to the stats, nobody from Germany viewed my blog that day. I suspect he was attempting to steal my identity. So you might want to beware of whatever Burundian has been frequenting your blog.

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  9. 50 views in one day – someone really likes your blog in Burundi. I’ve had several hundred views from Burundi over the years because of a post about a nurse who helped American forces in Bastogne, Belgium during the Battle of the Bulge in WWII. She was born in what is now Burundi during Belgium’s colonial period to a Congolese mother and a Belgian father. European colonization in the Congo and Burundi caused 10,000,000 native deaths.

    Liked by 1 person

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      2. it is sad, and eye-opening, to see how challenging some people have it, simply because of when and where they were born.

        Perhaps there is a way in Google Analytics to tell who is looking at what posts, but I didn’t see any such feature with WordPress stats…

        Like

  10. Jim, thanks for sharing more about Burundi. I must admit my scant knowledge has changed exponentially after reading. Boy, I am glad I didn’t find myself in a dark rabbit hole without finding this post.

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  12. I was going to attempt some smart-arse comment until I got to your more sobering bit. One of today’s big news items in the UK is that M&S (high street chain) is suing another store because they think their caterpillar-shaped cake (which they have a copyright on) has been copied. You couldn’t make it up.

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  14. That made me laugh, the Burundian blogger trying to escape. We can never know if some bloggers really enjoyed reading or just press Like on every blog they can find. But it is good to read about other places, most of us know too little about the the little countries of the world.

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    1. it would be humbling to see what people really do when they read our blogs, at least it would be for me. My guess is that most people never get past the first sentence…

      And yes, I am quite ignorant about most of the world…

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