The University Network for Global Partnerships Baden-Württemberg (GloPart), the Africa Centre for Transregional Research and the Arnold Bergstraesser Institute, in support of the Baden-Württemberg Development Cooperation Foundation (SEZ), cordially invite you to the scientific symposium “Burundi in East Africa: Opportunities and challenges”.

The 40-year partnership between Baden-Württemberg and Burundi is situated in specific temporal and spatial contexts that have a formative effect:

1. Burundi was a (marginal) part of the German colony of German East Africa. The relations between Germany and Burundi's neighbouring country, Tanzania, are still relevant today and, not least, instructive about the bilateral culture of remembrance.

2. Burundi's violent conflicts in the recent past have had cross-border consequences: both the escalation patterns and conflict consequences, such as the displacement of people, as well as the political "engineering" through copying or differentiation from other models illustrate the importance of regional embedding.

3. As a landlocked country, Burundi is particularly dependent on its East African neighbours, through which almost all imports and exports pass. Regional integration within the East African Community, which is currently being reorganised and could potentially focus even more on the Indian Ocean as a trading area, therefore has a direct impact on the country.

The conference aims to help to better classify Burundi and its partnership with Baden-Württemberg both geographically and temporally in order to develop realistic, pragmatically sensible perspectives for cooperation.

The event will be held in English and French without translation.