Judith Raupp ● Life and Survival in the Congo

Judith Raupp and Dominique Burckhardt, two long-serving foreign correspondents and experts on Africa, will take to the stage at sphères to talk about Raupp’s life and work in Goma, in eastern Congo, and offer an exclusive insight (including photographs).

This is a collection-based charity event. All proceeds will go towards Judith Raupp’s project in the Congo.

Judith Raupp has been living and working as a freelance reporter and media trainer in Goma, in eastern Congo, for 15 years. In her book, she takes us to meet the people there who counter violence, arbitrariness and misery with their zest for life and ingenuity. We accompany her to weddings and funerals, visit the hairdresser, the university, government offices and friends in prison, and witness interrogations by the secret service, raids, war, Ebola and Covid. She offers us unique insights into politics and everyday life in the Congo, where the colonial legacy weighs heavily on the countryside.

Judith Raupp, born in 1964, was an editor at the *Süddeutsche Zeitung* from 2000 to 2010. She left the SZ to set up a press office for a women’s organisation in Goma, the provincial capital of eastern Congo; taught journalism at the universities in Goma, Butembo and Bukavu; and trained a team of trainers for the Association of Community Radio Stations. In 2022, the team was awarded the Johann-Philipp-Palm Prize for freedom of expression and freedom of the press. Raupp is a trainer and freelance reporter in Goma and reports on everyday life in the Congo for publications including the SZ, DIE ZEIT and Deutschlandfunk.

Dominique Burckhardt, born in 1965, has been working as a foreign affairs editor at the NZZ since 2015. From 1993 to 2015, she held the same position at the Basler Zeitung. As the Africa correspondent, she undertook reporting and research trips to numerous countries across the continent. She studied history and international relations in Zurich and Paris.