In Part 2 of Lucille’s oral history, she returns to the morning everything changed in Goma. One moment, the neighborhood hummed with its usual rhythm — children walking to school, women bargaining at the market, the soft echo of church songs drifting between houses. And then, without warning, the city fell quiet in a way only conflict can silence a place. Lucille recounts the moment she knew the rebels were close, how the streets emptied, how families pressed together behind locked doors, listening for footsteps that might decide their fate. She speaks about gathering her children, the frantic choices, the haunting calm that comes right before fear breaks open. Through her voice, we witness what “the day the city went silent” really means for a mother, for a woman responsible for the rhythm of a home. We hear how displacement begins not with movement, but with sound — its absence — and the decisions a mother makes before she ever steps across a border. This episode continues our commitment to centering the lives and leadership of female heads of households navigating conflict and displacement. What does it feel like when a familiar city begins to shift — not all at once, but in small, almost invisible ways? In this second chapter of Lucille’s oral history, we return to Goma with her, to the moment when everyday life began to thin out: the quieting streets, the tense glances between neighbors, the unspoken knowledge that something was approaching. Lucille describes the days when danger didn’t announce itself with gunfire — it seeped in through rumors, empty roads, and mothers calling their children home earlier than usual. These were the first tremors before displacement, the moments that rarely make it into reports but live sharply in a woman’s memory. Part 2 carries us through those early signals: the city’s slow unraveling, the fear settling beneath ordinary routines, and the moment Lucille understood she could no longer keep her children safe in the only home they’d ever known. Before flight comes awareness. Before a mother runs, she listens. What You’ll Hear in This Episode: 01:24 Background And Arrival In Goma04:09 Settling In Goma09:40 Life Before And During The War14:20 Financial Difficulties And Daily Struggle16:29 Human Rights And Women’s Security19:47 Your Voice As A Journalist And Your Courage25:10 Hope, Community, And The Future32:33 The Realities Of The War And Current Living37:23 Female-Headed Household Why This Story Matters: For many families in eastern Congo — especially mothers raising children amid decades of militia presence and instability — displacement is not a single event. It begins slowly, in the pauses between normal routines, in the silence that replaces a bustling street, in the whispered warnings passed from one household to another. Yet these intimate, early chapters of displacement are rarely documented. Lucille’s voice opens that space. Her story reminds us that internally displaced women carry the memory of a world before rupture and the burden of recognizing danger early enough to protect their children. Part 2 reveals the emotional and psychological landscape that precedes flight — the part of conflict the world almost never hears. Listening to her story widens our understanding of what conflict does long before a family picks up their belongings and runs — and of the vigilance mothers hold long before the world acknowledges a crisis. These oral histories reflect personal memory, shaped by time, trauma, and survival. The Refugee Archive preserves these voices without political alignment or editorial interference — honoring the stories exactly as they are told. Get full access to The Refugee Archive: Global Center for Displaced FHH at therefugeearchive.substack.com/subscribe
