A wedding procession in the hills of Kaniola, Walungu, South Kivu Province, November 27th 2022. Hugh Kinsella Cunningham.
Reclaiming joy and ‘everyday peace’ in the shadow of violence
A wedding in the hills of Kaniola, South Kivu Province. I was photographing a workshop in the area, when sounds of music and singing drifted in. Looking out, this colourful procession walked past. I ran after the crowd and walked with them for a while, taking a few photographs and soaking in the elation.
The town is very isolated, in the wet season the roads are barely functional. Arriving in town had taken an entire day’s drive, as jeeps surf on slick mud, occasionally becoming cemented into the wet earth. Despite this environment, the bride and her party were pristine, with her friends holding her dress up above the mud. I hope the image speaks of happiness, with a joyous groom and laughing bridesmaids. The bride herself makes eye contact with the viewer, her expression holding a hint of ambiguity.
The local history of this image is darker. A few hundred metres behind the couple is a monument to those massacred in a previous war. 500 people were killed in this one town alone by Rwandan FDLR rebels as war crimes were committed against captives who were taken to the forest and tortured. Armed groups like the FDLR consisted mainly of former Hutu génocidaires and remnants of the former army fleeing the aftermath of the 1994 Rwanda genocide as the Tutsi Rwandan Patriotic Front gained the upper hand in the violence. The génocidaires began to regroup in Eastern Congo, plotting their return to Rwanda. They were mostly shattered and defeated by Rwandan incursions, but groups survived and have been committing atrocities against civilians in the years since.
Here storytelling is important to place this single image into a bigger picture. The meaning of this image – the continuity of life in a war zone – comes from the layers of interpretation contrasting the vibrant atmosphere of a wedding party with the darker history in which it is embedded.
Though taken unwittingly at the time, the photo has become one of my favourite images. There is a spectre of historical violence as the area is still plagued with local rebel groups. But the sons and daughters of the victims of war are celebrating important life moments. The work is attempting to do justice to the nuance of the community, and a statement that joy is as much of a right as security.
Hugh Kinsella Cunningham