Joseph Cimpaye

Cimpaye was born in 1929 in Mugera, Gitega Province in Ruanda-Urundi which was then under Belgian rule. A member of the Hutu ethnic group, his father had been employed as a medical assistant (assistant médical) and was literate. This background enabled Cimpaye to receive further education at the Groupe Scolaire d'Astrida where he graduated as a veterinary technician in 1951. As one writer has noted, Cimpaye's élite background and education made him "an intellectual almost without peers in his era in Burundi".[1]

He entered colonial-era politics within the minor conservative Christian Democratic Party (Parti démocratique chrétien, PDC) which formed part of an electoral coalition called the Union of Popular Parties (Union des parties populaires, UPP) against the more popular Union for National Progress (Union pour le Progrès national, UPRONA) under Prince Louis Rwagasore. Cimpaye served briefly as prime minister of an interim government between 26 January to 28 September 1961 shortly before the country gained full independence from Belgian colonial rule. However, UPRONA won the country's first elections decisively in September 1961 and Rwagasore replaced Cimpaye as prime minister. Rwagasore's assassination in October the same year, attributed to supporters of the PDC, led to the radicalisation of politics in Burundi and forced Cimpaye to leave politics to pursue studies in Europe.[1] Burundi became independent in July 1962.

After returning to Burundi, Cimpaye worked for the Belgian airline Sabena as its head of public relations in Bujumbura. He was distrusted by Michel Micombero who came to power at the head of a radical Tutsi regime after a series of coups d'état in 1965–66. Cimpaye was arrested in October 1969 for "endangering state security" and imprisoned for five years.[1] During this time, he authored a French-language novel entitled L'homme de ma colline (lit. 'The Man From My Hill', or 'District') which followed the struggles of a protagonist named Benedikto living in a rural part of Burundi during the colonial era. It addressed the theme of exile and has been praised for its use of language, particular Kirundi proverbs in translation.[1] It has been hailed as the country's first novel although it remained unpublished until 2012 when it was distributed by the Archives et musée de la littérature based in Brussels, Belgium. Cimpaye was among a number of Hutu public figures killed in the genocidal violence of 1972 under the Micombero regime.

• Cimpaye, Joseph (2013). L'homme de ma colline. Brussels: Archives & Musée de la Littérature. ISBN 978-2-871680-68-0.

• Ndoba, Gasana (2008). "L'Homme de ma colline par Joseph Cimpaye. Un exercise posthume de transmission littéraire". In Quaghebeur, Marc (ed.). Analyse et enseignement des littératures francophones: Tentatives, réticences, responsabilités. Actes du colloque de Paris, 31 mai-2 juin 2006. Bruxelles: PIE Peter Lang. pp. 315–20. ISBN 978-90-5201-478-4.
• Ngorwanubusa, Juvénal (2013). La littérature de langue française au Burundi. Brussels: Musée et Archives de la littérature. ISBN 978-2871680703.