Mwenga and Kasika: Never Again!

On the 16th October, a convoy of almost 1,000 people in 100 cars travelled to Mwenga, 130 km south of Bukavu. This is the place where, in 1999, during the war, 13 women accused of witchcraft and of being supporters of the Mai-Mai army were humiliated, tortured, raped and immersed in water with salt and pepper before being buried alive. The World March of Women decided to go there for a moment of reflection, to show solidarity with the community and to say: Never Again!

With the presence of more than 3,000 people from the community as well as national, provincial and local authorities, we inaugurated a memorial to the women martyrs of the war and laid down the first stone of a multipurpose women’s centre that will be built.

During the four hours it took to get there and the four hours to travel back, we were able to share the pain but also the hope for justice, of peasant’s women who had walked many days to greet us on the road. Through theatrical performances and the singing of melancholy songs, women also expressed the horror and violence they had suffered in the war.

 Women from Kasika requested to us to stop on the way for a minute of silence in tribute to the 1,937 people killed during the massacre of the 23rd and 24th August 1998. Among them were included the great chief King Mwami Bwami Mubeza III François Naluidi and his wife Queen Nyanghé Yaya Yvette Mauwa who was pregnant. Before killig her, the rebels opened the queen’s uterus and extracted the two fetuses. They wanted to symbolize the death of the seed. But the people of Luindi / Kasika still resist in their territory.

Unfortunately, the tragedies have not come to an end. Women from the chiefdom Luindi / Kasika handed out their manifesto to the WMW caravan participants. In it they denounce: "The tradgedy did not stop on the 24th August because we still continually mourn our brothers and sisters who are brutally killed in the various incendiary raids".

Read the full version of the Luindi / Kasika women’s document (only in French).

Read Nana Aicha Cissé’s speech during the inauguration of the memorial to the women martyrs of the war (only in French).