How Dare the Sun Rise

Ten years before Sandra and her family were driven from their home by war, she was born in the mountains—the Hauts Plateaux in South Kivu, a province of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Sandra’s family left the mountains in 1996, when she was 2. She recalls how her parents met on their wedding day, as it was an arranged marriage. Sandra’s father’s family gave her mother’s family 10 cows in exchange for Rachel’s hand in marriage. The couple’s families then consulted with a pastor who ensured that both sides agreed to the marriage; Sandra’s parents had no say in the matter.

Rachel suffered miscarriages shortly after they wed, leading people to whisper about her supposed infertility. Then, she went on to have six children. In Sandra’s culture, having many children is an indicator of both “health and wealth, unless the children [are] all girls,” who are deemed useless (17).

Shortly after her birth, Sandra’s family moved to Uvira, where war was a frequent reality. Their history, transmitted orally, included many details about conflict and war. In the late 1800s, during Europe’s colonization of the African continent, many members of the Banyamulenge tribe, to which Sandra’s family belongs, left their native Rwanda to escape civil war and discrimination and went to the mountains in South Kivu. They were also enticed by the mountain grasslands, which were beneficial for raising cattle, as the tribe was known for cattle farming.

After the Congolese won its battle for independence against Belgium, the South Kivu region became unstable. Things were more precarious for the Banyamulenge who lived in the Congo but “spoke a language of their native Rwanda” (18). In addition to sounding different, the Banyamulenge looked different. Aware of this, they isolated themselves, leaving the Congolese to wonder where they stood politically. Different Congolese tribes would, on occasion, force members of the Banyamulenge to fight for their side.

Despite this history of war, Sandra insists she had a nice childhood. She remembers her little sister Deborah fondly. She and her brother Alex are closest in age and, therefore, played together frequently. Alex taught Sandra how to play soccer, “using makeshift balls made from wadded-up plastic bags and rubber bands” (20). Sandra taught Deborah some of these tricks. Together, they also played with Sandra’s fabric dolls. With her other sisters, things were different. She admired and obeyed the maternal Princesse, seven years Sandra’s senior. Adele, closer to Sandra’s age, was bossy. While Sandra resented this, she admired Adele’s outgoing personality and sense of style.

Unfortunately, Sandra did not get to know Heritage while she was growing up. He was kidnapped by Congolese soldiers when he was still in grade school. Prudence, their father, begged the men to take him instead, but the soldiers insisted on forcing Heritage, like many other boys, to serve in their army, where they performed cruel acts on rivals and civilians. Prudence vowed to one day bring Heritage home.

Life went on without Heritage. The children played and frequently went swimming in the Kalimabenge River near their home, as well as in Lake Tanganyika. While Rachel worried about the children contracting malaria or getting attacked by crocodiles, they kept going. When Sandra got home after a swim, Deborah would always be waiting outside of the gate with a jar of Vaseline to rub away the residue from the lake.

One of Sandra’s favorite memories is of playing with her pet monkey, Kiki. Another is playing with her siblings in the family’s large yellow house. The home had common modern amenities—electricity, clean running water, indoor plumbing, a bathtub, and a stove. There was no need for hot water because it was usually so warm, though, on cooler nights, they heated water for their baths. Rachel and Prudence found the house, abandoned, shortly after they arrived in Uvira from the mountains. They believed they would be there temporarily until they built their own house.

During her childhood in Uvira, Sandra listened to the radio and watched television; few people had TVs at the time. She watched soccer games, cartoons, and music programming, which introduced her to British and American pop stars. Due to her parents’ careful monitoring, she saw few images of civil war on the news. Occasionally, she heard her parents talking about war or saw her father go into a closet that he usually kept locked—inside, there were guns.

The yellow house was a way station for relatives and fellow tribespeople. Rachel tended to everyone who visited and prepared meals of rice, meat, and beans during holidays. She also tended to the homeless. Through her mother, Sandra learned about her tribe’s generosity. When her own family did not have enough food to eat, they relied on help from neighbors. When there was no help, no one complained. Sandra assumed that this was normal for everyone. 

Sandra started school in kindergarten and immediately demonstrated her intelligence and eagerness to work. Her father told her that one day she could become the president of the Congo. Prudence differed from other fathers because he had ambitions for his daughters. He wanted them to be educated, and Sandra’s brothers made a point of protecting their sisters. It was common for rival clans to try to kidnap a girl and force marriage with one of their sons. Someone had attempted this with Princesse, but their brothers fought the boys off. In other instances, a girl might have been kidnapped and raped. The shame from the rape often forced girls to agree to marriage. Sandra believes her parents insisted on her and her sisters being educated so they would never believe it possible that someone could take away their worth.

A third method of marrying girls off was if a man within her family, even a brother, promised to make the girl someone’s bride. Prudence’s insistence on treating all his children as equals made it so Sandra’s brothers never thought of doing such a thing.

Though Sandra did well in school, largely due to her own ambition, she also hoped her success would make her parents favor her over her siblings. Every morning, she walked to school, like her classmates. Anyone who was not on time would get hit with a stick or a ruler. They could also be assigned the chore of pulling weeds in the garden.

The schools had few resources, and there were even fewer of the essentials, such as textbooks. More worryingly was the ever-present threat of war. It became normal to see Congolese soldiers in the street, wielding machine guns. Once, while in school, Sandra and her classmates heard bombs in the distance. Their teachers locked everyone inside and ordered them to crawl under the tables. As the ground shook, Sandra wondered if her parents were safe.

After Rachel and Prudence learned from one of Sandra’s uncles that the Banyamulenge would soon be attacked, the family packed up and moved to Burundi. They stayed with a family friend, a woman named Joyeuse. Sandra befriended Shiva, the youngest of the many children who lived in the house. Though Sandra struggled to understand Shiva—who, like everyone else in the house, spoke Kirundi, the language of Burundi—Shiva tried to help Sandra feel at home during the year she lived in Burundi. When war made things too dangerous, Sandra and her family fled temporarily to refugee camps.

When Sandra returned to the Congo, she reconnected with her friends and went back to school. She looked forward to Proclamation Day—a ceremonial date when the school invited parents to hear how their children ranked in their respective classes. Sandra was usually among the top three students. One year, though, she contracted malaria and had to miss school. She was heartbroken to learn that she had come in eighth that year.

Meanwhile, Sandra struggled with being teased at school for not looking like other Congolese children. They called her Rwandan—a way of calling her a foreigner or outsider. (Sandra now figures they were merely repeating what they heard from their parents.) Sandra insisted she was born in the Congo, like them, but her parents advised her not to mind her classmates’ words, because they did not cause her any injury.