Project Description
Amba Bongo
Amba Bongo was born in Kinshasa in 1962, She studied at the Institut Superieur Pédagogique de la Gombe, Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo, where she graduated in English and African Culture. She then went on to study Psychology at the University of Warocqué, Mons, Belgium. Her first novel was Une Femme en Exil published 2000 (l’Harmattan, Paris). She has completed her second novel Cécilia soon to be published and is currently working on her third novel which recounts the experiences of her trips to Congo. Amba works as project director to Active Women, a refugee community organisation supporting French speaking African women with their claims for asylum.
Memory
I miss my mum and dad
I want to sit close to them and smile
Destiny has kept me far away
In a country cold and windy
I should have stayed home with them
Swam in the warmth
Of their tender love and care
Leant on their welcoming shoulders
To seek refuge and grow in peace
But for my own sake I had to leave
Had to start all over again
Somewhere on the other side of the world
Now I feel lonely and feverish
I feel melancholic and sad
And that’s because I miss my mum and dad
One day, you see, I will go back
To my family, my land, my memories
I will caress my mum’s soft wrinkles
And drink banana rum with my dad
It’s only then that my life will brighten up
Profound joy and complete happiness will be mine
I miss my mum and dad so much
But I have to keep on smiling
And pretend that everything is fine
Shame you cannot read my mind
You would discover how much
I really, really miss my mum and dad