Louis Rwagasore

Who is Louis Rwagasore?

Prince Louis Rwagasore (10 January 1932 - 13 October 1961) was a Burundian prince and nationalist politician who became the leading figure in the struggle for Burundi's independence from Belgian colonial rule. Born into the royal Ganwa family as the eldest son of Mwami Mwambutsa IV, he was educated in Catholic schools in Burundi before studying in Belgium. On returning home in the mid-1950s, he founded cooperatives aimed at economically empowering ordinary Burundians, work that raised his national profile and drew him into anti-colonial politics after the Belgian administration moved to take over the venture. He became the leading figure of the nationalist party UPRONA, the Union for National Progress, which under his leadership won about eighty percent of the vote in Burundi's first pre-independence election in 1961. As a Tutsi prince who married a Hutu woman, he actively campaigned to reduce ethnic rivalry and envisioned replacing the traditional centralized monarchy with a more unified constitutional order rising above colonial-era divisions. He was sworn in as Burundi's second prime minister on 28 September 1961, but just two weeks later, on 13 October 1961, he was shot and killed by a Greek national acting at the direction of leaders of a rival political party, with the probable support of the Belgian Resident. Burundi honors him as its foremost independence hero, marking the anniversary of his assassination each year as a national holiday.

Sources: Louis Rwagasore, Wikipedia · BlackPast.org, 'Prince Louis Rwagasore (1932-1961)' · Pan African Review, 'Rwagasore - Africa's betrayed hero'