Paper short abstract:

Based on long-term ethnographic research, the paper highlights how young Burundians' experiences of conflict in childhood and youth affect practices in young adulthood. The aim is to identify how past conflicts feed into or divert new conflict, and how people find ways to live with chronic crisis.

Paper long abstract:

Based on long-term ethnographic research, in this paper I seek to understand how young Burundians' experiences of conflict in childhood and youth affect narratives and practices in young adulthood. I describe the life courses of several youths who I have come to know in the aftermath of the civil war that lasted from 1993-2005, focusing on their experiences during the most recent political crisis (2015-now). I met all young interlocutors in Bujumbura (2007-2010), yet nowadays several of them reside in other countries in the Great lakes region and beyond - in search of employment, education and/or security among others. I am particularly interested in the question how childhood experiences with conflict affect later life decision-making and practices, particularly with regards to the use and avoidance of violence/ non-violence. In this way, the paper aims to contribute to insight into how past conflicts, through everyday practices and meaning-making, may feed into or divert outbreaks of new conflict, as well as how people find ways to live with what appears as chronic or cyclical crisis.