After being extended six times since March, the state of health emergency expires on July 21 in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. President Félix Tshisekedi has yet to "fix the cohabitation measures between the Congolese people and the coronavirus pandemic", while "the invisible enemy is always everywhere and everywhere", announces the Kinshasa daily Le Phare.

This invisible enemy, who affected nearly 8,500 people on July 19 and killed 194 in the country, has been tracked since mid-March by a dozen Congolese photographers. Their work feeds an online collaborative report "Congo in conversation", initiated by the Canadian-British photographer Finbarr O'Reilly. Updated regularly, this stream of photos and videos shows how the DR Congo has endured this new crisis.

Arlette Bashizi, Justin Makangara, and Moses Sawasawa, among others, take a look at the social, health and political challenges of this country which is barely emerging from this epidemic and is slowly plunging into another - the WHO alerted on July 18 'a resumption of the Ebola haemorrhagic fever epidemic in the north-west of the country.

In April 2020, three days after the first case of Covid-19 in DR Congo, a woman distributes disinfectant gel in Goma, when water resources are not very accessible. © Arlette Bashizi for Fondation Carmignac

"For too long, foreigners have dominated storytelling in Africa"

This photographic adventure begins on the initiative of Finbarr O'Reilly. At 49, this seasoned photographer, already winner of a World Press Photo, won the 11th Carmignac photojournalism prize dedicated this year to the DR Congo. A connoisseur of the country, he began a report which was to last six months. But the global Covid-19 pandemic has decided otherwise.

"In February, while I was following a Red Cross team preparing for the funeral of an infant in Rutshuru, North Kivu, I thought I was documenting the last days of the second worst Ebola outbreak in history. I never imagined that an even more deadly health crisis was threatening, "he said on the project site.

Red Cross agents bury the body of an 11-month-old child in Rutshuru, DR Congo, who died during the Ebola epidemic in February 2020. © Finbarr O'Reilly for Fondation Carmignac

Due to the gradual closure of the borders, Finbarr O'Reilly returns home to London. On March 14, DR Congo registers its first case of Covid-19. Ten days later, a state of emergency is declared, while the tenth Ebola epidemic, which started in 2018, was still underway in this central African country. The photographer then decides to collaborate remotely with Congolese photojournalists to get their perspective on the crisis.

"For too long, foreigners have dominated storytelling in Africa, often using a distorting prism inherited from the colonial mentality, a reflection of structural and racial bias," regrets the man who has been traveling around Africa for more than 25 years. "Fortunately, this dynamic is changing and more and more African journalists are working to disseminate their own stories, ideas and perspectives."

Street scene in Kinshasa, capital of DR Congo, in March 2020. The authorities have just closed schools and imposed social distancing measures due to the Covid-19 pandemic in a country where the inhabitants do not perceive the virus as a threat. © Justin Makangara for Fondation Carmignac

"Because we cannot do otherwise"

Based in Goma, North Kivu, independent photographer Arlette Bashizi documented the confinement "in the dark". "We have a lot of power outages in Goma. We are used to it, but it makes life difficult, especially at night, and it is even worse now that we are locked up all day," she wrote. She photographs her little sister, Marie, who studies by the light of a laptop while the schools are closed. It also covers campaigns to distribute hydroalcoholic gel in the Katoyi district of Goma, where access to water is difficult.

School in confinement. Marie, 13, studies at home in the light of her mobile phone during yet another power outage in Goma, in eastern DR Congo, in spring 2020. © Arlette Bashizi for Fondation Carmignac

Also from Goma, Moses Sawasawa became interested in the informal economy - unregulated and unreported - during the health crisis. He went to the crowded Kituku market, on the shores of Lake Kivu, the day after the confirmation of the first case of Covid-19 in Goma. "Many people continued to go about their business," says the photographer. "Informal workers have no form of protection (…). A sick person can bring ruin to a family. Yet people continue to frequent markets, not because they make fun of their health, but because "They cannot do otherwise," he said.

The market on the shores of Lake Kivu, in Goma, in the east of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, on April 2, 2020. Thousands of Congolese depend on this daily income and cannot afford to respect social distancing measures related to Covid-19. © Moses Sawasawa for Carmignac Foundation

Black Lives Matter " Countdown time has come"

When the Covid-19 pandemic started to subside in DR Congo, the photographers took up more political subjects. Moses Sawasawa covered the protests in July to protest against the choice of a new president to head the Election Commission. 

Based in Brussels, Pamela Tulizo covered the demonstrations demanding the unbolting of the statues of the former Belgian king Leopold II. In the Black Lives Matter movement, the Congolese diaspora is asking for a re-reading of Belgium's colonial past. At the same time, Raissa Karama Rwizibuka covered in Bukavu, in South Kivu, the demonstrations celebrating the 60 years of independence of the DR Congo, while Justin Makangara captured in Kinshasa the traces of colonialism. "The time has come for the accounts," he wrote, "not for us, but for Belgium. It is up to our former colonizers to make up for lost time and to confront their past."

Demonstration in Brussels in support of the Black Lives Matter movement, in June 2020. The crowd denounces the horrors of Belgian colonialism in what is now DR Congo. © Pamela Tulizo for Fondation Carmignac

Committed photographers, therefore, who come up to the front to describe, according to Finbar O'Reilly, "the ways in which their country is gradually emerging from a long history of exploitation, conflict and neglect".

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Bukavu, DRC, June 30, 2020. Carine Baraka, 22 (left), Rosalie Kinja, 19 (center), and Linda Maroy, 20 (right), give the Black Power salute in the eastern city of Bukavu to mark the 60th anniversary of Congo's independence from Belgium on June 30th. Independence anniversary celebrations in Democratic Republic of Congo traditionally involve visiting foreign dignitaries and an extravagant military parade along the capital Kinshasa's main downtown thoroughfare, the Boulevard du 30 Juin. Due to Covid-19, the government this year scrapped public celebrations and announced the anniversary would instead take place “in meditation” with the anniversary budget redirected to containing the pandemic. (Photo by Raissa Karama Rwizibuka) Captions: [2] Goma, DRC, June 30, 2020. Activists from the non-violent youth civil society movement Lutte pour le change (LUCHA), gather at the Peace Roundabout in the eastern city of Goma to mark Congo's 60th anniversary of independence © Guerchom Ndebo for Fondation Carmignac. [3] Goma, DRC, June 30, 2020. Rebecca Kabul, an activist from LUCHA © Guerchom Ndebo for Fondation Carmignac. [4] Bukavu, DRC, June 30, 2020. Congolese flags fly at Independence Place roundabout in the eastern city of Bukavu to mark the 60th anniversary of Congo's independence © Raissa Karama Rwizibuka for Fondation Carmignac. [5] Beni, DRC, June 30, 2020. LUCHA activists gathering to protest the lack of security in Beni. [6] Bukavu, DRC, June 30, 2020. Linda Maroy, 20 © Raissa Karama Rwizibuka for Fondation Carmignac. 📌 Read the full article "Congo's 60th Anniversary of Independence, a Time of Reckoning? »On our blog. Link in bio. “Congo in Conversation” by @finbarroreilly a collaborative digital reportage produced in close cooperation with Congolese journalists and photographers.⁠ #Congo #Independence #AntiRacism #Protests #BLM #Kinshasa #RDC #DRC #PrixCarmignacRDC #Photography

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