Abstract

This paper explores how Burundian adolescents in the Nakivale refugee settlement, Uganda, experience umwidegemvyo, loosely translated as “freedom”, with regard to their sexuality. We draw on ethnographic research conducted between August and November 2017 with adolescents aged 13–19 years. Our research included in-depth individual interviews, focus group discussions, and participant observation. We present a context-sensitive appreciation of “freedom” and its social implications for adolescents’ sexual and love relationships. We show how adolescents attribute their sexual experiences and practices, including experimental sex, stress-relief sex and transactional sex, to the freedom experienced in the refugee context. Yet they also view this freedom with ambivalence: while some degree of freedom is desirable, too much is referred to in terms of kutitabwaho n’ababyeyi, loosely translated as “parental neglect”, implying a lack of parental involvement, care and provisioning.

摘要

本文探讨了乌干达纳基瓦莱难民营中的布隆迪青少年如何体验umwidegemvyo，粗略地翻译为“自由”，关于他们的性取向。我们借鉴了 2017 年 8 月至 11 月期间对 13-19 岁青少年进行的民族志研究。我们的研究包括深入的个人访谈、焦点小组讨论和参与观察。我们提出了对“自由”及其对青少年性和爱情关系的社会影响的上下文敏感的欣赏。我们展示了青少年如何将他们的性经历和行为，包括实验性性行为、减压性行为和交易性行为归因于在难民环境中所经历的自由。然而，他们也以矛盾的态度看待这种自由：虽然某种程度的自由是可取的，但在kutitabwaho n'ababyeyi中提及的太多了，粗略地翻译为“父母忽视”，暗示缺乏父母的参与、照顾和供应。