ABSTRACT
This chapter shows how soldiers were subjected to hunger in the army barracks and the ways in which they tried to find alternative ways to deal with lack of food in the barracks. It argues that absence of food in the barracks and in some cases the provision of sub-standard food to soldiers represented a state failure, especially to soldiers who served it. The chapter explores the practices which were not soldierly, but they were driven by hunger and the uncertainties which surrounded tomorrow, a day which soldiers were not aware of in terms of food in the barrack canteen. For Papa Whisky, ‘the Congo army was a rebel army in all its practices, be it food provision and combat clothing and army equipment’. Soldiers ended up bringing dried traditional vegetables such as mufushwa wemushamba, meaning boiled dried pumpkin leaves, from home, storing it in the barrack lockers and drawers, a practice which was not known in a professional army.
