Ya Nanie: Midwife In The Bush

The Flemish midwife Annemie - Ta Nanie was her Kikongo name - lived and worked from 1979 to 1988 in Lumbi near Masi-Manimba, between Kinshasa and Kikwit, in the middle of the bush. The crisis resulting from Mobutu's policy was felt in even the smallest villages. Ta Nanie worked there with a big heart as a midwife and as a doctor, because there was no real one available. She was also given the responsibility for the education of local young women. For nine years she tied together bits of life, as she describes it herself, supported by the home front.