Anything for a hot meal, right? Not quite.

Kamauu teaches me that sometimes Dignity is stronger than Hunger.

Kamauu is a jobless youngster who dreams of making a life as a comedian. Our protagonist is without parents, and his household only sources of income are his grandmother’s casual work in a hospital, and some unpredictable Wester Union transfers from a better off relative in Australia. All in all, Kamauu and her grandmother struggle to put enough food on the table on a regular basis.

A few months into my research trip I finally had the opportunity to attend to one of Kamauu’s comedy shows: which funny as it was paid 50 dollars, quite a sum for Bukavu’s economy. Instead of transforming that money into some sort of household security- food or pocket money would have been clear choices to me. What does Kamauu do?

He spent two thirds of the price into a new pair of shoes and other pieces of clothing. Why? Because being ‘bien sapeé’ (well dressed, styled) is not only important to maintain the public image of the comedian he dreams of being, but it also buys him the respect of his peers- it makes him feel good, which for him seem to be more important than ensuring food in a weeks’ time.

Make what you will from Kamauu's story, but for me, Kamauu's behaviour literally shakes Maslow's hierarchy up side down. I have an idea: Let's just not ignore how people's subjective ideas of well-being affect their social behaviour just because they live under the social condition of war. Let's treat them instead as full humans with a complex web of needs and wants beyond the fundamental.