Maisha ni kuvumiliya – patrimonialism, progress and the ambiguities of waiting in Goma, DR Congo

Abstract

Maisha ni kuvumiliya – ‘Life is patience’ is a very popular catchphrase in Goma, the capital of Eastern Congo’s North Kivu province. Patience takes waiting as a starting point for progress and points to the uncertainties on the horizon. In a world of velocity and mobility, young people, who are so often forced to wait, feel frustrated about being ‘stuck’ or in ‘waithood’. Drawing on ethnographic examples gathered during longitudinal fieldwork carried out since 2008 in Goma, DR Congo, I will analyze various biographical trajectories that indicate that waiting, despite its immobilizing effects, should not be reduced to a passive experience; it can also be understood as productive space in which Goma’s youth engage in relational practices with the objects/subjects they are waiting for. The ambiguities of waiting become manifest in Goma’s political economy where gerontocratic and patrimonial politics dominate and impede progress. As context-specific practice, waiting is connected to larger discussions around youth, experiences of temporalities and political-economic factors.

Maisha ni kuvumiliya – ‘La vie est patience’ est un dicton très populaire à Goma, la capitale de la province du Nord Kivu au Congo oriental. L’attente est le point de départ de la patience pour progresser et souligne les incertitudes à l’horizon. Dans un monde de vélocité et de mobilité, les jeunes, qui sont si souvent contraints d’attendre, se sentent frustrés d’être ‘bloqués’ ou ‘dans l’attente’. En m’appuyant sur des exemples ethnographiques rassemblés au cours d’un travail longitudinal sur le terrain effectué depuis 2008 à Goma, en RD du Congo, j’analyserai les différentes trajectoires biographiques qui indiquent que l’attente, malgré ses effets immobilisants, ne devrait pas être réduite à une expérience passive; elle peut aussi être comprise comme un espace productif dans lequel les jeunes de Goma s’impliquent dans des pratiques relationnelles avec les objets/sujets qu’ils attendent. Les ambiguïtés de l’attente deviennent manifestes dans l’économie politique de Goma, où les politiques gérontocratiques et patrimoniales dominent et entravent le progrès. En tant que pratique spécifique au contexte, l’attente est liée à des discussions plus vastes sur la jeunesse, les expériences de temporalités et les facteurs politico-économiques.

Keywords:

• Goma
• Eastern DR Congo
• patrimonialism
• progress
• waiting
• youth
• future

Mots clés:

• Goma
• RD du Congo oriental
• patrimonialisme
• progrès
• attente
• jeunes
• avenir

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

ORCID

Silke Oldenburg http://orcid.org/0000-0002-3109-6514

Notes

1 For a thorough discussion on patrimonialism and neopatrimonialism compare Erdmann and Engel (2007). Here, I am referring to the political but first and foremost the socio-economic relations within Eastern DR Congo.

2 Afro-pessimism expresses a ‘radical sense that the ideals of progress and fulfillment associated with the narrative of modernity are doomed to fail when applied to Africa or African subjects’ (Gikandi 2010, xii). In this sense, Comaroff and Comaroff have plead for a discursive shift, stating ‘Just as it has a history, many histories, Africa most certainly has a future. Indeed, in some respects it is the future.’ (Comaroff and Comaroff 2004, 346).

3 Interestingly, these studies more often shed light on the ‘other’ generation, as it is normally always ‘adults’ who define youth – be it their elders in the local contexts or adults from national or international media, development, and academic contexts. Much research done in areas of conflict is devoted to the question: Why do young people ‘chose to fight’? (e.g. Brett and Specht 2004; Jourdan 2004). Other researchers who have worked in the Great Lakes region, like Sommers (2012) or Uvin (2009), provide insightful accounts of juvenile life in Rwanda and Burundi which are, however, based on more formulaic surveys or preset-interview datasets; they do not stem from long-term everyday interaction with young people. Here, it could be also asked if all relevant categories of youth are included in those larger surveys mostly carried out by research assistants instead of the respective authors themselves.

4 My analysis is based on PhD field research conducted in 2008 and 2009 (14 months in total). I primarily worked with young men and women between the ages of 15 and 40. These youths represented a variety of backgrounds in terms of education, class, ethnicity, and religion, and included youths with and without direct experience with Kivu’s protracted armed conflict. Focusing on everyday life in an urban setting, I carried out research with what I frame as ‘ordinary youth’, meaning students, barbers, market vendors, motorcycle taxi drivers or those lacking a job. I conducted interviews and engaged in casual conversations and group discussions in urban spaces where young people congregated, like street corners, schools, motorcycle associations, homes, markets, barbershops and the Children’s Parliament. In the years following my fieldwork, I had lost track of many of these youths. However, thanks to the emergence of social media, I have reconnected with many and can easily follow their lives; this has given my analysis a long-term focus.

5 Il faut tafuta kwanza = you have to search first.

6 Tunateseka = we suffer, être traumatisé = to be traumatised, être bloqué = to be blocked.

7 Emically, this is expressed for example by ‘niko na kichwa, niko dynamique’ (I am smart and dynamic).

8 Tunafuraisha kwanza, ni mungu tu = Let’s have fun first, it all depends on God’s will. Elliot frames terms such as ‘mungu tu’ as ‘the discursive submission to divine omnipotence’ (Elliot 2016, 489).

9 You have to be flexible.

10 ‘I am ready on call.’

11 A commissionaire in Goma is a self-description of a person who earns money by brokering favours and reselling items of more of less dubious background. As this is no socially ‘recognized’ job, it is clear that a commissionaire is ‘fending for himself’ (I only know of male commissionaires), which in DR Congo alludes to the famous social practice of ‘débrouillardise’ (Oldenburg 2016b).

12 Coop means cooperation, a small deal that is often related to some kind of trickery.