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Aksanti Murhebwa
I am Aksanti Murhebwa Florybert. I was born on 12 August, 2001 in Democratic Republic of Congo (In South Kivu, Bukavu). I am. a Mushi by tribe.
I began drawing in 2009, when I was in Grade 4, eight years old. I always liked to draw animals, houses, imaginary faces, cartoons, etc. In grade 5, I was chosen to teach children in preschool and I started to draw for them, too. When I reached secondary school, I started to create short events/stories. In Form 1, I came up with my first story called “YOUTH WITH A VISION,” exploring how youth often fail to make use of their talents, and how to overcome this and discover who you are. This work pushed me hard in my drawing, and many people appreciated and acknowledged me for what I had created. Therefore, I made a decision that after finishing Form 4, I would pursue my studies at an art school. This became my biggest dream, and after I explained this to my father, he agreed with me. I made a promise to become a big artist and to help the world.
Before I finished secondary school, my father passed away. It was on the night of 20th of August 2017 when unknown strange people came to our house and asked for money from us. After that, they killed my father with a gun and took away my elder brother. We still do not know where he is.
From that situation, my mom made a decision to leave the country. My mom tried to protect us, and she saw that the best way to do that was to run away. We moved without any idea of where we were going. We tried to live in different churches, until finally getting help to reach Malawi on the 21st of September, 2017.
I started searching for an art school in Dzaleka Camp, and I found ART CLUB, which is supported and funded by Plan International. This is where I learned even more drawing-skills. Now, I do different kinds of art like abstract portraits and so on. I am also involved in the training of Generation Art, which helps young people in the camp. I have performed at Tumaini festival two times and at UBUNTU National two times as well.