From Burundi to Washington: Recognising the warning signs
Demonstrators hold a banner during a protest against the planned deployment of federal agents, at Embarcadero Plaza, in San Francisco, California, US, October 23, 2025.
I moved to the United States in 2012 with great reluctance. But the US turned out to be different. t was, and still is, a mosaic of cultures, languages, and nationalities unlike anywhere else. Most important, it was a country rooted in the fierce belief that people are free to speak, dissent, and live as they choose.
That bedrock principle, however, is eroding. The US is changing in ways eerily reminiscent of my home country, Burundi. In 2015, when President Pierre Nkurunziza defied the constitution to seek a third term, peaceful protesters were met with bullets, political opponents were silenced, and journalists fled.
