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C H A P T E R S E V E N 156 c h A P t e r S e v e n An Inconstant Existence kigali irinjirwa ntisohokura. (once one enters kigali, he/she can’t escape.) Popular Rwandan proverb the rural youth are coming to look for life in kigali. either they don’t know how to read or write or their education level is not beyond primary school. they don’t have formal jobs. they have a bad situation. Government official in Kigali coming to town In prior field research,rural Rwandan youth that I interviewed referred to the prospect of migrating to Kigali as an impossibility. A youth leader explained that “youth don’t have the heart to go to Kigali because they don’t know Kigali .”Another male youth asserted that “youth can’t go to Kigali because they don’t know anything and they can’t go just to wait around”for a job (Sommers 2006a: 92). Female youth I interviewed viewed urban migration as similarly out of the question. Those interviews in 2000–2002 in northern Rwanda did not reflect the ideas and actions of all young Rwandans at that time, since Kigali was already in the midst of stunning population growth spearheaded by incoming rural youth (and, following the 1994 genocide, refugee returnees). But they do underscore one finding arising from research for this book: that nearly all Rwandan youth migrating to Kigali arrived with little more than hope. Just about every urban migrant youth who was interviewed stated that they arrived without prior knowledge of the city and with severely limited connections or networks—if they had any at all. They arrived to build a better life in town. Some male youth, having found adulthood difficult to achieve, were seeking A N I N C O N S T A N T E X I S T E N C E 157 relief from the pressures of becoming men. The generally harsh indoctrination into urban life is illustrated in the following comment from a destitute twenty-year-old male youth: “I came to Kigali alone. People used to tell me that there is cash in Kigali. But I was disappointed.They lied to me.” Of the seventy-six urban youth who responded to the questions, “Where did you come from, how did you get to Kigali, and did anyone help you get here?”1 only 12 percent stated that they were from Kigali. Of those who had migrated to Kigali (sixty-seven respondents),approximately three-quarters of both male (72.5 percent) and female (75 percent) youth said that they either followed or arrived with someone to Kigali (usually a peer, sibling, or spouse) or followed a job offer in the capital. Many of those who came alone were either orphans or had experienced some sort of family abuse at home. In sharp contrast to findings with rural youth, the themes of roofing and house building rarely arose among urban youth. Migrating to Kigali appears to significantly shift the context of male youth thinking away from working toward manhood to other, more immediate concerns such as finding money (and not always through work) for food,cigarettes,beer,and other things (such as a session with a prostitute),and help pay for house rent.While these issues are addressed in the Money, Hunger, and Instability section of this chapter, it is useful to note here how a young man’s passage from rural beginnings to urban life in Rwanda may not remove expectations of manhood. They only seem to set them aside; perhaps temporarily, but perhaps permanently. As an educated female youth of twenty-two explained, The situation of the youth is really bad.There was this guy who left Butare to come here to Kigali because life was difficult for him and his family there. His house roof was leaking. He couldn’t afford to build a proper house with all the roof tiles it required, so he came here. Many other people do the same: they come here, but once they arrive, they realize that life is not as easy as they thought it would be. And instead of the issue of building a house, which they had in their village, in Kigali they face another issue—paying the house rent. Shame played a part for a significant minority of those who were interviewed .For example,9 percent of eighty-six respondents (eight people) to the question,“Why...

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