WATER COSTS LIFE

Dancing for water (choreography)

For my right I must give proof - freedom of opinion, freedom of leisure… that’s neither my right nor even drinking water for everybody - I must walk, walk in time and space to get some - And that since my childhood - Absence of sickness? - Abundance of mud!- Evaporation – Solution – Liquefaction of raw matters – Unity of Life – the cell mother – WATER 

Very early in the mornings, before even the rise of the sun, it is already occupied  by a countless crowd, that place that none ignores in Goma, located in HIMBI, a suburb that could be considered as the siege of Goma’s bourgeoisie.

These people who, before they attend to their daily activities rush to get just some water for bathing.

Not that this is the only place where the population can access the lake Kivu from because elsewhere the waters of the lakes breaks on the long and high fences of the riches, but also because it is the people’s beach.

The Space is of about hundred square meters, limited in the North by the route that leads to the former presidential residence (today it is the North Kivu governor’s residence), in the South bounded by the Kivu lake; it can still be seen; the fences of the rich in the East as well as in the West.

Every morning, that space is occupied by all kinds of people: men. women, children, young and old people… At less than one meter from the road, you can already see men with bicycle carrying four to five jerry cans of water; not far from there   loincloths, trousers, skirts and all sort of dresses drying in the sun shine after washing. From a distance the clothes give multiple colors at the beach, one might believe being in a carnival.

At the Lake shore, women and boys are all holding jerry cans and fetching water from the Lake.

It the same lake, children are swimming; children? Not only children but everybody who, after getting what he wanted goes into the water, if he wants it of course, to swim. After fetching from that water, before taking it at home, they first put in some Chlorine from the service of hygiene to make it <<consumable>>

We can also notice canoes and fishermen in the lake not far from the beach since they occupy one of the fences which bound the people’s beach. These fishermen are not independent because they all work for one person, not autochthon, moreover from Goma. that person the “Bwana” who managed to put them together in order to increase his profits is well known today among the rich “Bwana” of the town; he is rich, but the fishermen who work for him are poor and even more poor that they only manage one meal: the <<SAMBAZA>>, (small fry) 

The beach being always busy by a big unimaginable crowd, the majority are girls of school going age, mostly without proper power to defend themselves and without protection, these young girls in the evenings are exposed to every kinds of danger: rape, drowning, aggression, intimidation…

With the war situation that has prevailed in the region, boys also are not sheltered from the danger that hunts them; because soldiers without payment keep moving around the beach not to secure it, but to fetch water and requisition one person to transport their cans, and also use the opportunity to <treizer> (extort).

The innovator population of Goma, without much violence or public manifestation, wants to change this situation. That is why they have initiated a supervision commission to denounce whoever abuses the people’s beach. Unfortunately, due to lack of follow up and support from the local authorities, that committee suffers inefficiency due to intimidations from “unidentified persons” and lack of financial means.

To talk about the beach denouncing -that is constitutional injustice, the dance company of the YOLE!AFRICA/BAOBABCONNECTIONS youth cultural centre, performed in that space with its new play entitled  <<Dancing for water>> By Katondolo brothers. The play is interpreted by Esperantia SIKULI, Jolie JAFARI and Sekombi KATONDOLO

That is how my people always start their day; if you reach Goma don’t miss the opportunity to just peep at that beach of stones and mud which remains source of life since none ignores that water is life, but for us to get drinking water it cost our lives.

Molok’hobosi