Woman's nightmare childhood story in the DRC

WHEN a young girl abducted in the war-torn Democratic Republic of Congo escaped her harrowing captivity: walking across the DRC at the age of ten, she had no idea of the new life and opportunities to be found in South Africa.

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Taken from the unspoilt beauty of an idyllic village, rebel soldiers subjected Popina Khumanda to years of torture and rape alongside her friends and family, during the tumult of the Second Congo War. Traumatised and shorn of childhood innocence, she eventually took flight from the terrors of bondage, finding refuge and succour in a children’s home in Despatch, Eastern Cape. After years of indefatigable work towards earning her higher education and independence, Popina finally published her autobiographical book this June, The Smallest Ones - an emotional memoir of her ordeals and journey to freedom.

As a second year student in 2021 at Nelson Mandela University in Port Elizabeth, Popina felt an intuitive call for visiting the Tsitsikamma National park - a multi-day hike through lush mountains and dense vegetation. There she would remember and process her experiences in the serenity of raw nature.