Mainstory: School’s out! Beware the plague of isenene

ALLAN BRIAN SSENYONGA discovers the chaos school holidays bring What do you do when your man suddenly begins coming home late and friends are telling you he’s hanging out with schoolgirls? Woe unto you if you go around hunting for grasshoppers in Kigali because many people here regard the insect as dirt. But in the neighboring Uganda, especially those from Buganda region, eat this insect with long hind legs without any remorse. They consider grasshoppers a delicacy that comes around like the biblical manna especially during the months of November and December. During this period, one is bound to find many high voltage lamps glowing in the middle of the night to attract the precious insects that are later fried and eaten. When I first came to Rwanda a few years back, I was vexed by the perception of what to me was a delicacy. Here grasshoppers or isenene in the local language are a very different thing altogether. Although they are eaten by some people, the number is not so significant to cause notice as compared to the situation in Uganda. Many just ignore them giving the insect the same cold shoulder they give a moth or a spider on the wall. Secondly and more interesting is the fact that to many people especially in Kigali, the term isenene has very little to do with the insect. Instead the other socially constructed connotations stand out more than what the standard dictionary has to offer. Isenene as I have come to realise over time refers to school children when they return home. Students According to Christine, a senior three student, the manner in which students seem to flood the city streets and neighborhoods on their way back home explains the name. “Because we come back in big groups, and somehow cause traffic jam in the streets, then people label us isenene. This is the way I perceive it generally,” Christine says. She laboured to explain that grasshoppers often appear at once and in large numbers but usually for a small period of time. This, she added, is similar to the scenario that engulfs the country in general and Kigali in particular once the students break off for their holidays. Another student, Edward, assured me that on the day schools break up the taxi operators raise the transport fares because of the increased human traffic caused by the students who in most cases are laden with bags, suitcases, and mattresses. “Some passengers begin to curse us. When a grown up is still negotiating the fare, kids just board and the commuter taxi speeds off,” Edward says. Yvette, a student, echoes Christine’s sentiments. She says students are referred to as isenene largely because of the way they invade the city causing a considerable degree of chaos. City dwellers who are used to boarding taxis with fellow workers now find themselves having to sit together with young boys and girls carrying bags and mattresses. School’s out For Winnie, a Senior 6 student, undisciplined students use holiday to do uncouth things without the knowledge of their parents. “Men buy them mobile phones and sometimes go out with them,” Winnie claims. At times, this disorganises families because these men tell a lot of lies to these innocent girls even though they are married with children. Kenneth Mwebesa, a student at Kigali Institute of Science and Technology, says that the isenene moment is simply a time for sugar daddies to meet with their young lovers. He claims that many school girls have grownup lovers who often assist them with scholastic materials and other niceties so when it is time for holidays, the girls are expected to reciprocate by going out with men. He says girls who have older men picking up most of their bills will often tell their peers about the fun they had during the holidays. They thus encourage others to try and find themselves a sugar daddy. A teacher at Kigali Institute of Education also concurred with what the students say. According to him, the isenene name is drawn from the fact that the event is unusual, like an outbreak similar to a locust attack on vegetation. Married women Another interesting perspective to this isenene concept is that of cross generational relationships. It is claimed by some women that the return of the isenene is not music to everyone’s ears. Some married women say the term is mainly used by men to imply that girls have flooded the city and are going to give the older house wives a run for their money. Maureen is a married woman with four children. She claims that each time school girls are back in town, husbands tell a lot of lies. “If your husband is a driver, he tells you many stories like working at night or traveling upcountry for a business mission. But in a second, you see girls beeping him,” Maureen reveals. “When they go back to school, we say thank God the kids are gone,” says a 38-year-old teacher who has been married for some time. She says that these young school girls are easier prey because the older men can entice them with promises of money, small gifts, and mobile telephone handsets. She adds that some men do not even fulfill these promises. Married men who go in for these younger girls end up neglecting their homes. They spend a lot of money trying to win the girl’s heart, buying her new clothes, taking them out to expensive restaurants while financial demands at home are neglected. This scenario often angers the wives of these promiscuous men. Agnes is also a mother of two. She says it was last year when she checked her husband’s mobile phone. “I saw an SMS from a girl named Lydia. She was telling him that she was back from school and wanted to meet,” Agnes says. Lilliane was married two years ago. Later, she discovered that her husband was paying fees of a senior five female student. She says each time the student is back from school, her husband finds many excuses for not coming back home. “I just keep quiet for the sake of not antagonizing the family,” Lilliane says in an interview early this week. Not a laughing matter The isenene phenomenon and its related cross-generational baggage, has got a dark side too. The older men who go in for the young school girls are in the first place potential defilers as most of these girls are still below the age of consent. More so, a relationship with a student can only yield poor performance for the student. There is also the risk of unwanted pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases. The worst case scenario is where the innocent school girl contracts the deadly HIV/AIDS virus. Some of the men, who indulge in relationships with these girls, are already HIV positive. Where and when does it stop? Evelyn, who is a recent graduate, clarified the boundaries of isenene when she told me that a university student does not fall in the isenene category. According to her, university students demand more from men and that makes it impossible for them to compete with the young ones who demand so little. In other words, once one has completed secondary school, they no longer belong to the isenene bracket. Isenene as understood by many urbanites seems to be more of a reality that a myth. The challenge though is how to enlighten the younger schools-going generation on the numerous dangers of cross-generational relationships. Parents should devise strategies of occupying their little ones in order to discourage idleness that may lead them down the wrong path. 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