As Luck Would Have It

I was inspired to paint "As Luck Would Have It" after reading an article from the New York Times by Jeffry Gettleman.  The headline caught my eye first: 

Rape Epidemic Raises Trauma of Congo War

More than that, the opening line (the lede) was so deftly written that I could not turn away:  “Denis Mukwege (moo-craig-eh), a Congolese gynecologist, cannot bear to listen to the stories his patients tell him anymore.”

After reading the rest of the story, I felt moved by the strength and optimism of the young mother who not only kept her baby, but named her "Luck."  Here is the rest of the column:

“Every day, 10 new women and girls who have been raped show up at his hospital. Many have been so sadistically attacked from the inside out, butchered by bayonets and assaulted with chunks of wood, that their reproductive and digestive systems are beyond repair.”

“We don’t know why these rapes are happening, but one thing is clear,” said Dr. Mukwege, who works in South Kivu Province, the epicenter of Congo’s rape epidemic. “They are done to destroy women.” …

“Few seem to be spared. Dr. Mukwege said his oldest patient was 75, his youngest 3.”

The rape epidemic seems to have started in the mid-1990s, which coincides with the waves of Rwands’s Hutu militamen when escaped into the Congo’s forest after killing 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus during Rwanda’s genocide 13 years ago.

“These are people who were involved with the genocide and have been psychologically destroyed by it,” said one official said.

“Sexual violence in the Congo reaches a level never reached anywhere else,” he said.

The subject of this painting is Lucienne M’Maroyhi. She was home one night with her two children and her younger brother when six soldiers broke in: They tied her up and began to rape her one by one.

They made her brother watch, and told him that he, too, had to rape his own sister. He refused, saying, “I cannot do such a thing. I cannot rape my sister.” So they took out their knives and stabbed him to death.

Lucienne was then dragged through the forest to the soldier’s camp, where she was forced to become their slave and was raped every day for eight months.

Finally, Lucienne escaped.

She was pregnant, carrying the child of one of her rapists.

When the baby was born, she named the girl, “Luck.”

“I named her Luck because I went through many hardships. I could have been killed in the forest. But I got my life back. I have hope.”

The United Nations peacekeepers are stepping up efforts to protect women.

“Recently, they initiated what they call ‘night flashes,’ in which three truckloads of peacekeepers drive into the bush and keep their headlights on all night as a signal to both civilians and armed groups that the peacekeepers are there. Sometimes, when morning comes, 3,000 villagers are curled up on the ground around them.”

The entire article is well worth reading and includes many powerful images and a video interview.  Click here to visit the New York Times page and learn more.