Browsing by Author "Ncube, Florence"

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    Social navigation among Rwandan army deserters in South Africa
    (University of the Western Cape, 2022) Ncube, Florence; Gibson, Diana M.
    In this thesis, I explore the post military lives of Rwandan army deserters who served in, deserted from the post-conflict Rwandan Defence Force (RDF), and went into self-imposed exile. I sought to understand the transition from military to post military life in a context of exile. I argue that being a Rwandan army deserter in self-imposed exile conjures a complex form of post military life and being �on the run� is the best way to navigate Rwandan state surveillance in South Africa. An ethnography conducted in Cape Town and Johannesburg over a period of eighteen months revealed that the military to post military transition of Rwandan army deserters is complicated because these former soldiers believe that they are being �hunted� by their government.
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    When soliders become refugees: Surveillance and fear among Rwandan former soliders living in Cape Town, South Africa
    (University of the Western Cape, 2017) Ncube, Florence; Gibson, Diana
    This study examines the fears of Rwandan army deserters who oppose President Kagame, of being found by the External Security Organisation (ESO), a Rwandan spy organisation meant to sniff them out wherever they are in exile: in this case Cape Town, South Africa. The army deserters are perceived as both a political and military threat to the survival of President Kagame. I argue that the fear of being hunted is a real threat which (re)produces 'militarised identities' as these former soldiers employ their military training skills to hide from the ESO in South Africa. In this I employ Foucault's (1977) concept of 'panopticism' to examine these army deserters' experiences of surveillance by the ESO and also Vigh's (2006) concept of 'social navigation' to understand how the army deserters 'scan' and manoeuvre the exile terrain. In substantiating the thesis argument, my study draws from six in-depth interviews and conversations with Rwandan army deserters living in Cape Town. It also made use of thematic analysis, drawing themes from the data on which it is based.