ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that unemployed young men have difficulty constructing narratives in which they are progressing toward a desirable future. It based on intermittent ethnographic research in Jimma, Ethiopia, from 2003 to 2012. Jimma is located in a lush, green, coffee-growing area around 350 kilometers to the southwest of Addis Ababa. The lives of young people in Jimma and many other urban areas of Ethiopia, including small towns, are shaped by the experience of chronic unemployment. Young men's progressive desires have been generated partially through their engagement with formal education, and young men assess progress based on local values concerning social relationships. Khat chewing eliminates free time, but perhaps more importantly, it transforms the nature of thoughts that often plague unemployed young men. A close analysis of the day-to-day realities concerning mental distress and khat draws attention to the importance of time in a young man's life.
