3. A Congolese Woman’s Life in Europe: A Postcolonial Diptych of Migration

Abstract

Sandrine Colard uses the photographs in her family photo album to tell the story of her mother leaving the Congo, of her studies in Europe, and then meeting and getting married to Colard’s Belgian father. She explores the difficulties her mother faced as a young woman migrating to a new country and the cultural attitudes towards her mother and father’s interracial marriage. Colard compares photographs of herself as both a student and a professional with those of her parents on their wedding day and reflects on her family’s past.