Coming from all over the country, many participants danced, sang and shouted during the festivities linked to the ingoma, the drum of Burundi. These are rituals that combine the beating of drums with heroic poetry, traditional songs and acrobatic dances.
If today the practice of ingoma and the rituals that accompany it are no longer royal, this drum remains sacred for many Burundians. Both respected and very popular, the instrument is supposed to beat only for the nation since a government decree of 2017. But over the decades, its use has spread within society, especially among young people and women who would like the rules for its application to be relaxed.
12 photos of Tchandrou Nitanga taken on December 20 during the final of the 5th edition, illustrate this point.