We did not talk about it.
— Lusakalalu Miezi Bernadette2022
Lusakalalu Miezi Bernadette
Lusakalalu Miezi Bernadette was born in central Congo and grew up in Kinshasa. In the full interview, Lusakalalu discusses her personal history, her work at the Kuumba Flemish Cultural House, and how she makes sense of her collective identity as Belgian and Congolese while maintaining connections to Kongo culture through song and dance. This interview was conducted in French in Brussels, Belgium.
Watch the full interviewConversation Transcript
At home, if we talked about colonization, about Leopold II, about Belgian colonization, of course, we did not talk about it. We don’t talk. I still felt that, there was something. I have always asked myself questions about our meetings with the Belgian priest who was there. I think we always wanted to hide that, that we didn’t want to put the link, discuss it. But the feeling and the feeling, I think, is not bad, my father, among other things, there was a lack of something, a lack of connecting what they experienced in these times of colonization, with what we were experiencing. The only thing I can say is that we had to speak in French. We didn’t want us to speak in our language. I also asked myself questions, why? But there was no response to that. […] Why is it that there are silences in relation to colonization and slavery? I think, personally, I think that there was so much suffering that the elders did not want to pass it on to the young. So they wanted to keep them to themselves. It is very difficult because it remains a point that, until today, is like violence in any case. Today, what I feel about the fact that we are starting to talk about it, and how about the fact that we are starting to put our finger on it, is violence, [inaudible].
