Kamatari spent her childhood as a royal princess in Burundi, a tiny African nation located between Rwanda and Tanzania. In 1970, at the age of 19, she left the country after several members of the royal family were assassinated, including her father, brother of then-King Mwambutsa IV. Kamatari fled to Paris, where she became a writer and model. In 2004, Kamatari announced plans to run for president in her homeland, where ethnic violence has claimed more than 300,000 people over the past ten years. The 2005 vote was the Burundi's first free election in 12 years; her name never reached the ballot.
Royal Factoid: Kamatari was France's first African supermodel, strutting the runway for designers like Christian Dior and Yves Saint Laurent.
"Why should I be afraid when so many people in Burundi have died? Anyway,
I believe that when your time is up, your time is up."
—Kamatari, on receiving death threats after announcing her plan to run
for president in Burundi
—M.J. Stephey