Background
The Mahindule photo exhibit is a set of pictures taken by women (the Mamas) in refugee camps in Eastern Congo. The women have been displaced by what the United Nations describe as the deadliest conflict in the world since World War Two. Since 1996 at least six million Congolese have perished due to the conflict in the Congo. An estimated seven million Congolese have been displaced by the conflict in the Congo. Hundreds of thousands of women have been raped as a war strategy to drive villages from mineral rich lands – minerals that are critical to the modern tech tools like smart phones, laptops, video games and a range of other tech and electronic devices.
The Mamas
The Mamas are fifty displaced women from the Bulengo displacement camp. They come from thirteen villages outside of the city of Goma in the North Kivu province of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. As a part of an Agro-liberation program by Yole Africa, a local cultural organization, the mamas were trained in photography so they could ultimately document their own stories. Photos from twenty-seven of the fifty women were chosen to be a part of the display and companion book.
The Vision
The photo display and companion book are a gift of love from the Mamas to the greater human family. It is a call for a deeper listening—a way for us to enter into a shared space, to witness and feel the depth of intergenerational colonial trauma alongside the vital and tenacious force of renewal and regeneration that these mamas, children, and young artists of the Kivu region bring into their creative practices. Despite the ongoing violence, their stories are testimonies of strength and the potency of a hope infused with life. It invites us to reflect on the spaces we inhabit, both physical and emotional. It challenges us to transform sites of pain and trauma into sanctuaries of courage and love, in ways similar to how the earth herself metabolizes death and transforms it into fruit-bearing life.
Purpose
The aim of the display is to raise awareness about the conflict and displacement crisis in the Congo and raise funds to support frontline organizations providing relief and support to the displaced women and children.
Aspiration
Drawing from this power of place, of the living soil underfoot and the breathing forest and all within it, the people of Kivu seek to resist the system of violence normalized by the industry of mineral extraction. As we engage these photos, may we glimpse into a different future where the interweaving of our collective relations and actions join with our collective memory to overcome generations of bloodshed while retaining the knowledge of our past.
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If you would like to display the photos at your institution (museum, university, cultural center, studio, etc), please contact us at Ph: 202-584-6512 or email info@basandja.org