Parcours and Negotiations in Kinshasa

We use this term here because amplifying the voice of women market gardeners through our field research is a journey that we must negotiate in stages here, on this territory. This process-based work offers us the opportunity to mobilize, strengthen and deepen our relationship with natural spaces and the "mamans" (here, that's what we call all women: mothers) who care for them.

So here we are, in the plantations around "Terre Jaune" (yellow earth), where people are most affected by pollution, making contact with the land and the people who, behind their smiles, are also wary because they don't know why we've come to see them. Indeed, all the green spaces in Kinshasa are being destroyed, either to make way for construction or because of pollution. The army and police have also taken over some of the areas where mothers cultivate their fields and turned them into camps, making women's work even more difficult and further threatening their autonomy.

Recently, because of the destruction of all the mangroves, the Congo River was flooded in both capitals - Kinshasa-Brazzaville is a cross-border conurbation made up of Kinshasa, capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Brazzaville, capital of the Republic of Congo, which face each other on the Congo River.

We are developing this project with the aim of promoting equal access for all to an understanding of what is happening in the field, to critical thinking and to a culture of commitment, through listening and action.