Lake Kivu Merchants: Living and Selling on the Water – My Last Photo of Goma, Blurred Like the Future – To Tell Is to Resist

Father and Us, Merchants of the Lake

Lake Kivu, recognized as a natural heritage site, serves as the fastest route connecting the major cities of Goma, Idjwi, and Bukavu in the Greater Kivu region of the DRC. Here, boats, barges, and speed canoes transport travelers across the waters. With our handcrafted canoe, we carry fruits, livestock, and various agricultural products, approaching passing speedboats that often stop, allowing passengers to buy our goods.

This is our trade—doing business on Lake Kivu. We never asked for war. All we want are tourists and travelers sailing peacefully across our lake so we can carry on with our work, our lives.

Lake Kivu, Democratic Republic of Congo. December 2024.

In december...

December 2024. I was in Greater Kivu, first in Goma, then in Bukavu—my home, my country. Today, I want to return, but war forbids me. My airport is blocked. Borders are uncertain. The city I left behind is no longer the same.

The last photo I took of Goma was from an airplane window at 9 PM, as I headed for Kinshasa. A blurry image, lights zigzagging due to the shutter speed. A final glimpse of a city dissolving into the night. I have kept this image for months. Not because it is aesthetically perfect, but because it embodies what followed—a reality becoming more and more obscure, a future slipping out of focus.

As a visual storyteller, I carry the emotional weight of my images. Some bear the intensity of life, others the weight of death. We capture moments that outlive us, stories that will not die even when the world turns its gaze elsewhere. To tell is to resist.

This story is not just mine—it is theirs, ours, Congo’s.