Rebecca Feeley is a research consultant based in Goma, DR Congo. She has lived in the Great Lakes region for nearly four years, previously working for African Rights, the Clinton Foundation, Humanitarian Policy and Conflict Research International, and the Enough Project.

With a hardened face and chiseled features, Mathias looked older than his age of 23.  Born to a farming family in Muramvya—a town on the route between Bujumbura and Gitega—Mathias grew up extremely poor.  This hardship limited his ability to attend school and so Mathias devised another way to work his way up and out: he joined the National Liberation Forces, or FNL, in 2005 in the hopes that someday members of the rebel forces would be integrated into the Burundian army where, he explained, he wanted to be an officer. 

But his plan didn’t completely deliver.  While he was given the chance to integrate into Burundian army, he was only offered the rank of corporal. He refused and chose instead to demobilize.  He had been a captain in the FNL, he explained to me.  I asked him if he was disappointed.  He hunched his shoulders and unclasped his hands as if to say, “obviously.”

Having previously worked in eastern DR Congo—a place where armed groups proliferate by the day and there seem to be more officers than foot soldiers—I knew Mathias’ attempt at trading up through integration was not unusual.  He explained his story to me with a mix of indifference and exhaustion , and I assumed he was too depleted or too apathetic about the future to have thought of another plan.  I was wrong.  He told me that he wanted to go to school and eventually own and run a small business. “But not in Burundi,” he added. “There are no jobs here. I want to go to school in Tanzania where I could get a job after finishing my studies.” I asked him what kind of small business he wanted to own. He didn’t know, adding only “not in Burundi.”

Posted By: Michael Graham | October 21, 2009 | Comments (0)