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During the first moments of the morning, the protagonist strolls through the streets of Goma. He makes a mistaken turn and runs into bandits. Back home, his father scrolls through TV channels while his mother tallies bags of flour. No one speaks. The quiet is interrupted only by crackles on the radio.

As night falls, Baraka is sitting on the shore of Lake Kivu, looking south to Bukavu and east towards Rwanda, finding no optimism in either direction.

Here begins the opening to Baraka and the Unpredictable Life of Goma, the initial comic by a emerging visual artist, Edizon Musavuli, released earlier this year. The story illustrates common hardships in Goma through the perspective of a child.

Prominent Congolese artists such as Barly Baruti, Fifi Mukuna and Papa Mfumu’Eto, who seized the public’s imagination in comic strips in the past, primarily worked abroad or in Kinshasa, a city significantly distant from Goma. But there are limited contemporary comics located in or about the Democratic Republic of the Congo created by Congolese artists.

Expression provides light. It's a beginning.

“I've been illustrating since I could hold a pencil,” Musavuli states of his evolution as an artist. He began to engage in the craft professionally only after finishing high school, registering at a media institute in Nairobi. His studies, however, were halted by economic challenges.

His first individual showcase was in January 2020, organised with a cultural institute in Goma. “The event was significant. And it was impressive how everyone engaged to it,” says Musavuli.

But just a year later, the violent M23 militia, aided by Rwanda, returned in eastern DRC and shattered Goma’s delicate art scene.

“Local illustrators are really dependent on foreign exhibitions like that,” he says. “In their absence, it will seem like we don’t exist. That’s what’s happening right now.”

When M23 captured Goma in January this year, the city’s cultural hubs declined alongside its economy. “Art gives hope, it's a foundation, but our circumstances here doesn’t change. So people in Goma are not really interested any more,” says Musavuli.

Artists and creativity have long been relegated to the edges of the state agenda. “Art is not something the government values,” he says.

Using Instagram, he began posting personal and collective experiences of Congolese life in the form of cartoons. In one post, narrating his childhood, he captioned an interactive story: “Where I'm from, sprinting precedes stepping.”

In one video, which has since generated more than 10,000 views, he is seen working on an incomplete painting, while gunshots are heard in the background.

It was against this backdrop that the comic narrative was created. The story is filled with political undertones, showing how daily life have been eroded and replaced with constant uncertainty.

Yet Musavuli maintains the short comic was not meant as direct political commentary: “I am not a political artist or activist however I say what people around me are thinking. This is the way I do my art.”

Although we lack influence but staying silent is so much worse. Should even a few listen, it’s something.

Inquired about he feels able to express himself freely under occupation, he says: “Free expression exists in Congo, but can you remain unharmed after you speak?”

Producing art that appears too oppositional of M23 or the government can be risky, he says: “In Kinshasa it’s acceptable to talk about everything that’s wrong with the rebels. But in Goma it’s normal to not do that because it’s not protected for you.

“Politically, we are cut off from the ‘actual’ Congo,” he says. Unlike other cities in the North and South Kivu provinces of the DRC, Goma remains under full control by the M23.

Based on Musavuli, some artists have come under duress to create pro-M23 content out of apprehension for their lives. “As a creative with a voice in Goma, the M23 can utilize you, sometimes by force, or the artists make that decision to work with M23,” he says. “It's not straightforward to judge. But I cannot permit myself to do something like that.”

Although instability is one challenge, making a living through the arts is another obstacle. “There's an issue in Congo that people don’t buy art. The majority of the artists here have to do other things to get by.” Musavuli works as a cartoonist for a blog site.

But he adds: “It isn't just about doing art to make money.”

Regardless of the risks and the financial uncertainties, Musavuli says he wants to continue making work that gives expression to the overlooked people of Goma. “We are a resilient population – this is not the first time we have been through this.

“Although influence is limited but inaction is so much worse. Although your voice is heard by just two people, it’s something.”

In the conclusion of Baraka and the Unpredictable Life of Goma, Baraka walks alone down an quiet road, his head held high. “Tomorrow might look exactly the same,” he says, “but I’ll keep walking. Holding on to hope is already resisting.”