00:00In eastern Congo's Goma, stages sit empty.
00:04The city is known for its vibrant cultural scene,
00:08hosting music and dance festivals and fashion shows every year.
00:11When Rwanda-backed M23 rebels took over the city in 2025,
00:17Goma's cultural scene took a hit.
00:20Festivals slowly returned, but now an Ebola outbreak has forced another shutdown.
00:31What we're doing for this city in our cultural field is to make people smile again
00:36for this population who has gone through a lot of stress.
00:41Many times we say to ourselves, by investing in culture,
00:44we can also give the population of Goma the opportunity to relax.
00:49So when there are no events, it really increases the stress
00:52and we risk finding ourselves in a situation where the mind will not be well managed.
01:02Goma is home to many of eastern Congo's up-and-coming rappers, singers and designers.
01:08With no possibility of organizing events,
01:11cultural commentator Jacques Changa said producers will have little reason to invest in the city.
01:20When there is music, there are many other disciplines that live around it.
01:23There are dancers, maybe, who are booked on stage.
01:27There are instrumentalists who are booked.
01:29There are event hosts that are preserved for these things.
01:33There are hotels that are booked when there are people who come for cultural events.
01:37This is a missed opportunity, not only for culture.
01:41In Goma's markets, traders also said business has been slow since the Ebola outbreak began.
01:48The city has had only one confirmed case.
01:52We are not selling much anymore since Ebola has been present here.
01:56People no longer come to buy, and business is not going as well as it did before.
02:06Festival Amani, Musika Na Kipaji, the Goma Dance Festival, and Kivo Fashion Week are among the events the city holds
02:14annually.
02:17Festival Amani, Musika Na Kipaji, the Goma Dance Festival, and Kipaji, the Goma Dance Festival, and Kipaji, the Goma Dance
02:19Festival, and Kipaji, the Goma Dance Festival.
