Gijs's use_unicode flag works as advertized. Clamp

all string return values to be unicode by setting property on the
database connection.

django_monetdb/base.py

@@ -49,6 +49,8 @@ def _cursor(self):
                 kwargs['database'] = settings.DATABASE_NAME
             if settings.DATABASE_PASSWORD:
                 kwargs['password'] = settings.DATABASE_PASSWORD
+            # Force strings to always come back as unicode.
+            kwargs['use_unicode'] = True
 
             self.connection = Database.connect(**kwargs)
 

regress/tests.py

@@ -263,7 +263,7 @@ def testutf8(self):
 		django_cafe = o.name
 
 		self.assertEqual(type(django_cafe), type(unicode_cafe))
-		self.assertEqual(s1.name, unicode_cafe)
+		self.assertEqual(django_cafe, unicode_cafe)
 
 if __name__ == '__main__':
 	unittest.main()