Truth Be Told


  • Photographer
    Sarah Fretwell
  • Prize
    Honorable Mention
  • Company/Studios
    Sarah Fretwell Photographs
  • Date of Photograph
    Dec 2010 - Feb 2011
  • Technical Info
    Photo overlaid by handwriting

In December 2010, I traveled to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). For 50 days I attended interviews with recent rape survivors in rural villages around N. Kivu. Some girls had walked over five days to reach us. The youngest was 13. The handwriting are the interview notes as translated by humanitarian/writer Amy Ernst. For most women, sharing their story with me, was the only justice they will ever experience. As one woman put it, “Please take our images back to your country and share them with everyone you can find, so the world will know the extent of our suffering.”

Story

My time in the DRC was spent in the rural villages and bush of North Kivu, one of the areas hardest hit by the war, corruption, and the ongoing battle for access to the mineral-rich land.

What I experienced was the fabric of a society torn by rape as a tool of war. Unable to take in the subject matter and the ethical obligation it holds, the world has turned its face away, and the women and girls of the DRC have been left to face this reality, alone.

Due to social stigma girls and women hide the fact they have been raped. Most never make it to a hospital for post trauma care. Girls as young as 5, 12, and 13 are stigmatized for life, which means there hopes for the future have been devastated. They are no considered “used goods” and are not considered candidates for marriage. As one 13-year earnestly told me, “What man would want me?”

With no functioning justice system and no way to protect themselves from future attacks, the only justice most will ever experience was the opportunity to share their story with us.

During my time in the DRC, it was impossible for me to photograph and interview every woman who wanted to share her story. It is a faux pas in Congolese society to speak negatively of someone, especially a man, and for these women the opportunity to share their story was a defiant and liberating move.

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