Dodging lorries, lava and war, DRC’s skaters feel reborn
When the Mount Nyiragongo volcano erupted in May, Serge Makolo only had time to grab his roller skates and a fistful of medals before the magma swallowed his house on the outskirts of Goma in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo.
Makolo, a medallist at several local and regional meets, is eager to win more competitions so he can get money to rebuild his academy, whose recruits currently have to share the remaining equipment, training in relays. The stresses of wars and eruptions evaporate when we skate, Skating makes us feel alive, reborn again.Large portions of the city’s roads remain unmetalled or scarred with potholes, but as the city’s roads have improved, so too have the opportunities to skate.
Despite the challenges, Makolo and his friends are undaunted. Five of them have set their sights on the 2022 Francophone Games in Congo’s capital, Kinshasa.
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