The present article addresses the rich and complex morphosyntax of cleft constructions in
Kirundi (Bantu, JD62) and the role they play in its information structure. Although clefts are
one of the main focus marking devices in this and other Bantu languages (Demuth 1984;
Demuth 1987b; Suzman 1991), especially in conversation, they have received little attention.
Some Burundian grammarians took a certain interest in Kirundi clefting (Sabimana 1986:
189-222; Bukuru 2003: 295), but only in a subsidiary way, for instance as part of interrogative
strategies. No systematic and thorough study on the matter exists. This study aims at filling
this gap by means of a detailed analysis of Kirundi cleft constructions based on a text corpus
of 196,000 oral and 2,033,000 written tokens
