Bambi Ceuppens

I think that with The Unfinished Conversations Series, we managed to have what may be the first testimonies about the continued memories of the Transatlantic slave trade by people who grew up and lived in the region of the ancient Kongo Kingdom. So I think that’s very important and that it can really become a basis for further research. It was also, I think, the first time that an attempt was made and then specifically as regards [to] the colonial era to have testimonies from people not only from Belgium but also from Rwanda and Burundi that were governed by Belgium on behalf of the United Nations and its predecessor since the end of the First World War, they having been German colonies previously until they gained independence in 1962. And so what we tried to do, and that was not always obvious in Belgium, was to have a good balance of testimonies of people of Belgian, Congolese, and Rwandan descent.