Military identities among Rwandan army deserters in South Africa

Abstract

This paper examines the military identity of soldiers who deserted from the Rwanda Defence Force (RDF) and try to make a living in South Africa. Because they are deserters they try to hide their military identity, yet it is simultaneously somewhat coercively ascribed to them by the Rwandan state and can put them in potential danger. The paper attends to the constructions, experiences, practices and subjective understanding of deserters to examine how, under circumstances of perceived threat, these identities are (re)constituted in non-military settings in South Africa where the men have become potential political and disciplinary targets. Conventional post military literature privileges an understanding of the transition of soldiers into civilian life as somewhat unilineal. Little is known about the fluidity or rigidity of identities among army deserters who are labelled ‘dissidents’ and are being ‘hunted’ by their government. We argue that the uncertainty and fear of being discovered and harmed produces fluid and multiple identities in Rwandan army deserters. At the same time, the ex-soldiers retain military dispositions which enable them to navigate real or perceived state sponsored surveillance and threat in exile. We assert that military identity conjures up a complex state of being in exile due to the uncertainties tied to such an identity. We employed life histories, in-depth interviews, focus group discussions and deep hang-outs to collect data.