March 27, 2014---In the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, Hakiza Ndaba, a 58-year-old tailor, lives a life of displacement, continuously running with his family from a war that has surrounded them for decades. The feature-length documentary film This Is Congo follows him through two different displacement camps over the course of two years, witnessing the horrific conditions that victims of war confront on a daily basis. This is an excerpt from the film, currently in production.
This Is Congo takes an unfiltered look at one of the world's longest ongoing wars. The film documents the most recent cycle of conflict with the Rwandan- and Ugandan-backed M23 rebels, who have threatened peace and stability in and around Goma for the past two years.
For an in-depth article on the war in the Democratic Republic of Congo, click here.
HAKIZA:
The big grave is for my niece Sifa and the little one is for her child that was still in her womb. Cholera took her. She had diarrhea, vomited, and died. Cholera comes with the poor hygiene that we have here.
Flies leave contaminated feces, and fly where people are preparing porridge, so these health issues are a direct result of the conditions we are living in. These are the problems we face with this life.
Just because some people have plastic sheeting and are building shelters, it seems better. But they are without food. They don’t even have one potato. Disease won’t fear that person because food is also medicine. It is tradition in our culture at funerals people bring food or some small offering. Something to comfort the family in mourning. But now the people are wondering, with what shall we comfort this mother who lost her child? A funeral without food is like a double funeral. It is painful. We have failed my niece.
PRIEST:
For everything, there is a time, a time for being born and a time to die.
HAKIZA:
Since the war started I have lost four children. The first four died in an ambush by bullets and now this one. Every time we are forced to displace we lose children. These problems are not made by small people like us. They are made by the greedy people in charge who want money. They bring the war because of minerals. They chase us out of our homes and start looting Congo and this displacement becomes a cultural cycle. Because of this, these children cannot grow up with a good heart.
They carry a heaviness in their mind toward leaders like Kabila. They blame those that force them to displace and that hatred will accumulate in their hearts. The hatred will grow.
