Sewing amidst uncertainty (DRC Africa)

(Noella Nyirabihogo/Global Press Journal)

First appeared here.

Manassé Hatungimana used to live a quiet life in the hills of Minembwe, tending cattle like his father and grandfather before him. The rhythms were familiar. Early mornings. The sounds of animals. The hush of the grass beneath his feet. But in March, everything changed. Armed men swept through the village, and what couldn’t be taken was burned. Like nearly six thousand others, Manassé fled with only what he could carry. He didn’t look back. There wasn’t time to mourn what was lost. Not the home, not the land, not even the routine that once gave his days their shape.

Now, in Bwegera, 200 kilometres and a lifetime away, Manassé sits beneath a tree with a sewing machine someone gave him. It’s a strange new rhythm. No longer herding, he patches school uniforms, hems skirts, and mends what others might throw away. It’s not glamorous. But every stitch means food on the table and dignity held together with thread. He says little about what happened back home. Instead, he focuses on what’s in front of him. A needle. A torn seam. A small chance to rebuild. Sometimes ordinary courage looks like a man sewing beneath a tree, choosing to make something useful from whatever he has left.