May. Burundi is a rugged land where people live by subsistence farming or by grazing cattle. About 80 percent of the people are Hutu, about 15 percent are Tutsi, and most of the remainder are Twa, or Batwa, a Pygmy group. The Tutsi have traditionally controlled the military and the government. Rundi and French are the official languages, though Swahili is also spoken. More than half of the people are Roman Catholics.
Coffee is the chief commercial crop and export.
Tea and cotton are also grown for trade. Soybeans, oil palms, and sugarcane are also grown. There are reserves of metallic ores. The few industrial plants process cotton and coffee or manufacture consumer products. Trade is hampered by poor transportation facilities.