Lullabies and Lingala songs

A musical journey with the quiet heroes of the Ebola response

Ngilongo thought Ebola was witchcraft and that it could jump through the air to infect her. She was terrified for her family of three young children and didn’t dare go to market. She heard messages on the radio and got visits from teams going house-to-house. She got her kids vaccinated and tried to convince her friends and neighbors to protect their families too. She says local community members were essential in helping her build trust.

This is Ngilongo singing a traditional lullaby to her daughter. 

Veronique doesn’t know how old she is but she guesses she’s over 80. She lives in Butembo and the disease ravaged her family in a matter of days. She lost nearly all her family and got sick with Ebola herself but recovered. She now looks after her two grandchildren who were orphaned when their mother died of the disease. 

This is Veronique singing a church song in Kinande language. 

Jonas is an Ebola survivor who now works as a caretaker for children in the response. His wife was seven months pregnant when he got sick and he was devastated because her thought they were all going to die. He recovered and was released from isolation a week before his wife gave birth to a healthy baby. Jonas left his job as an accountant to work with children and he says it’s making him a better father. 

This is him singing a spiritual song with his fellow caregivers at the creche in Katwa near Butembo.

Oripia lost her mother to Ebola and then found out that she and her sister were infected. Still grieving, they went to treatment together and recovered. Here Oripia sings a traditional song in Lingala.

Joyce works in logistics at the Transit Centre in Beni. It’s a critical facility in the Ebola response as it’s here that all patients get taken for tests and monitoring before being admitted to the Ebola Treatment Centre. Keeping the systems running in a place like the ‘Beni CT’ is a complex operation. A round the clock roster of 300+ staff need to be organized to decontaminate, treat and comfort patients in isolation. 

Joyce and her friends are passionate musicians and she improvised this song in response to the needs of the children she’s met at the centre.

Esperance is on the local committee to help educate her neighbors about Ebola prevention in Aloya. She says she lots several neighbors before she decided to take action. As a trusted member of her community, she was nominated to be a leader who works to convince households to protect themselves from the disease. She says women are most at risk because they look after the sick and fall ill themselves. 

This is Esperance singing a traditional lullaby.

‘Jesus Power’ is a music group in Beni that has several members of the Ebola response in their ranks. Patient works as a hygienist at the Transit Center in Beni where he’s on duty to decontaminate the doctors, nurses and other health workers who go inside the redzone to deal directly with patients. Another member of the group, Primiatia, works on the ambulance teams that go get suspected Ebola cases and bring them in for treatment. The whole group, just like the region itself, is impacted directly and indirectly by Ebola and the response.

Here, the group sing an original song in Swahili.

Presilia and Promese are both 18 and are in high school in Beni. They both know neighbors who’ve died of Ebola and they’re struggling with living a normal life of school and family in the context of a full scale medical response. They say they stay home more and it gives them more time to study. 

Here, they sing a traditional song in Lingala.

Esperance is from Kinshasa but she works as a clinical psychologist to help Ebola survivors in Butembo. She was taken hostage at a funeral for an Ebola victim whose family members hated her for delivering the results of the test. Armed with machetes and clubs, the crowd wanted to bury her alive in the grave with their loved one. After a tense four-hour stand off, the family agreed to let her go. Everyone in the response who works in the communities is aware of the hostility they face and the risks they are taking. For Esperance, it’s inspired her to do more. “It gives us strength to continue,” she says..”We saw the worst but we can still keep going ahead and it can work.”

This is her singing a traditional song in Lingala.

‘La Voix Divine’ choir at Mabolio school in Beni. The school has had to cope with fear and uncertainty about Ebola but slowly everyone has understood the ways to protect themselves. When the school welcomed Oripia back after she recovered from Ebola earlier this year, the choir celebrated most of all as Oripia has been a member for years and is one of their best singers.