Ebola gathering ban stalls cultural revival in eastern Congo’s Goma

In the eastern Congolese capital of Goma, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, stages sit empty. The city is known for its vibrant cultural scene, hosting music and dance festivals and fashion shows every year.

When Rwanda-backed M23 rebels took over the city in 2025, leaving hundreds dead in fighting, Goma's cultural scene took a hit. Festivals slowly returned, but now an Ebola outbreak has forced another shutdown.

Goma had only one confirmed Ebola case, but M23 authorities soon banned public gatherings altogether, shortly after massive crowds assembled to watch the Congolese team play in the World Cup.

“Nothing is progressing in culture at the moment, given the Ebola context, we are forced to slow down,” said Goma-based producer and cultural organizer Élie Loka.

“What we are doing for this city in our cultural field is to make people smile again, for this population who has gone through a lot of stress. Many times we said to ourselves, by investing in culture, we can also give the population of the city of Goma the opportunity to relax,” he said.

Goma is home to many of eastern Congo's up-and-coming rappers, singers and designers. With no possibility of organizing events, cultural commentator and analyst Jacques Kyanga said producers will have little reason to invest in the city.

Festival Amani, Musika Na Kipaji, the Goma Dance Festival and Kivu Fashion Week are among the events the city usually holds annually.

“When there is music there are many other disciplines that live around it. There are dancers maybe who are booked on stage, there are instrumentalists who are booked, there are event hosts that are preserved for these things, there are hotels that are booked when there are people who come for the cultural events. This is a missed opportunity, not only for culture,” said Kyanga.

In Goma's markets, traders also said business has been slow since the Ebola outbreak began.

Though Goma remains Ebola-free for now, the outbreak in Ituri and North Kivu provinces has outpaced response teams' ability to keep up.

The outbreak surpassed 5,000 confirmed cases this week and is now on track to be the largest Ebola outbreak in history. It is spreading many times faster than the 2014 West Africa outbreak.

Eastern Congo has suffered three decades of violent conflict, leaving millions displaced in one of the world's largest humanitarian crises.