The Gambia and The Democratic Republic of Congo

jaw3:

This mother of eight was raped by Congolese troops who raided her village at night. She hid in her house, but they trapped her. Before they left, they stole everything in her house including the clothes she was wearing. She was left injured and naked. She said a neighbor gave her the clothes she was wearing in this photo. She says it is wrong to have to live “like an animal.” She is so traumatized by the attack she has been unable to return to her field to cultivate her crops.

Sarah Fretwell’s photographs may be beautiful to look at, but the truths they reveal are not easy to digest. In the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), one woman (or child) is raped nearly every minute, according to the project statement on her website, The Truth Told. When Fretwell launched the project site in 2011, it was to bring awareness and funding to help prevent these atrocities, a result of the fight for resources in the mineral-rich nation where, according to Fretwell, “rape is used by rebel and military groups as a scare tactic to control and destroy local communities.”  This violence, however, has sadly become a way of life for many. For a period of 50 days Fretwell teamed with humanitarian and writer Amy Ernst, and the human rights group COPERMA, to interview and photograph victims of rape in the North Kivu region of the DRC to promote healing and help the women (and family members of the women) in isolated communities get their stories out into the world. “With no immediate way to protect themselves and a dysfunctional ‘justice system’ survivors are left alone and afraid they will be attacked again,” she explains in her project statement.

To see more of Fretwell’s work, visit: www.sarahfretwell.com.

theleastthaticando:

“These women have taken the courage to protest about my attack to the authorities. They even grouped together to pay for my ticket home - these are women who do not have anything, they live on less than a dollar a day.”

 

Denis Mukwege spoke to Outlook on the BBC World Service. 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-21499068

godilleur:

“The rubber terror in the Congo”. 95 pages brillantes pour relater l’histoire atroce de la colonisation du Congo (le magnifique gâteau africain) par le roi Léopold II de Belgique (1891-1906). Charles Lemaire, Stanley, Alphonse Chodron de Courcelles, Leon Fievez “the devil of the equator”… toute une cohorte d’abominables suppôts de la machine à asservir, à broyer des hommes noirs, a couper des mains pour la seule exploitation du caoutchouc.
“Alors on glissa à la place de son oreiller une pierre nue, à la place de ses draps un tapis de terre humide, à la place de son lit un trou noir. C’était le trou noir de la conscience, la terre humide de nos malheurs et la pierre nue de nos vérités.”
Il n’y aura jamais de rédemption pour autant d’horreur!

Beautiful African gown by Feyi

Also from We are the Voice Fashion show 2012

Model Micheal rocking t-shirt Mr face of Africa style

From we are The Voice Fashion Show 2012

White lace dress by designer Feyi

From The We are The Voice Fashion Show, organized by one of the Founders of Gam Congo. Elisabteh Kadesi. 2012

congofriends:

#Congoweek #DRC - Drawings by Congolese artist Justin Kasereka are featured at this year’s Congo in Harlem. Find out more about Justin by visiting his facebook site http://www.facebook.com/justin.j.kasereka?ref=ts&fref=ts

congofriends:

Musicians & artists celebrate the life of #Congo’s independence hero Patrice Lumumba in New York on Wed. Jan. 16th #DRC http://t.co/M25TSiRZ

(via soulofcongo)

(Source: theystillfalling, via soulofcongo)