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During the early hours of the morning, the protagonist wanders through the streets of Goma. He takes a wrong turn and runs into thieves. In his household, his father flicks through TV channels while his mother counts bags of flour. Silence prevails. The silence is interrupted only by noises on the radio.

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

Here begins the introduction to the comic strip depicting Goma's uncertainties, the initial comic by a 31-year-old visual artist, Edizon Musavuli, shared earlier this year. The story illustrates common hardships in Goma through the eyes of a child.

Well-known Congolese artists such as Barly Baruti, Fifi Mukuna and Papa Mfumu’Eto, who grasped the public’s attention in comic strips in the past, mainly worked abroad or in Kinshasa, a city significantly distant from Goma. But there are scarce contemporary comics located in or about the Democratic Republic of the Congo created by Congolese artists.

Creativity offers optimism. It's a beginning.

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

His first personal display was in January 2020, arranged with a cultural institute in Goma. “The event was significant. People reacted strongly how everyone responded to it,” says Musavuli.

But just a year later, the violent M23 militia, aided by Rwanda, resurfaced in eastern DRC and upended 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. This is the reality right now.”

When M23 seized Goma in January this year, the city’s artistic venues faltered alongside its economy. “Art gives hope, it’s something to start with, but our situation here doesn’t change. So people in Goma are not really interested any more,” says Musavuli.

Talented individuals and art have long been pushed to the edges of the state agenda. “We are not something the government prioritises,” he says.

Leveraging Instagram, he began sharing private and public experiences of Congolese life in the form of cartoons. In one post, narrating his childhood, he titled an interactive story: “Where I'm from, sprinting precedes stepping.”

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

It was against this backdrop that this visual story was created. The story is charged with social commentary, emphasizing how daily life have been removed and replaced with perpetual insecurity.

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

Even without authority but staying silent is so much worse. When someone hears you, it’s something.

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

Creating art that appears too negative of M23 or the government can be dangerous, he says: “In Kinshasa it’s common to talk about everything that’s wrong with the rebels. But in Goma it’s standard to not do that because it’s not protected for you.

“Politically, we are divided 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 favorable content out of fear for their lives. “If you are an artist with a voice in Goma, the M23 can utilize you, sometimes by compulsion, or the artists make that decision to work with M23,” he says. “It's not straightforward to judge. But I cannot let myself to do something like that.”

While danger is one challenge, earning an income through the arts is another hurdle. “There's an issue in Congo that people don’t buy art. Many of the artists here have to do other things to survive.” Musavuli works as a cartoonist for a digital outlet.

But he adds: “I don't solely doing art to make money.”

Despite the risks and the financial uncertainties, Musavuli says he wants to continue producing work that gives representation to the marginalized people of Goma. “People here endure – this is not the first time we have been through this.

“Although influence is limited but not doing anything is so much worse. Though your voice is heard by just two people, it’s something.”

In the conclusion of the comic story, Baraka walks alone down an deserted road, his head held high. “Next day may seem exactly the same,” he says, “but I persist moving. Believing in better days is already pushing against.”