Downstream to Kinshasa

With Downstream to Kinshasa, filmmaker Dieudo Hamadi follows a group of victims of his country’s Six-Day War in 2000, who are seeking reparations from the government.

In June 2000, Kisangani became a battleground. In this northeastern city on the Congo River, Rwandan and Ugandan forces clashed in a conflict that was part of the bloody Second Congo War. Though a devastating conflict — so much so that it’s sometimes called the African World War — 20 years later survivors are still fighting for compensation and recognition of the atrocities they endured in this siege.

Here, Hamadi’s focus isn’t on past geopolitics but rather on the present and very personal: a group of Kisanganians who were maimed by the heavy shelling and gunfire. Through musical theatre, the victims have reclaimed their voices. But having never had official acknowledgement or financial compensation for their pain, they decide to journey down the Congo River to the capital in a bid to finally make their stories heard.