Nadia Nsayi . Daughter(s) of Decolonization

In 2020, Belgian-Congolese political scientist Nadia Nsayi made her debut with the highly praised Daughter of Decolonization. Five years after the Black Lives Matter protests and just before the 65th anniversary of Congo's independence, an updated edition of the book is now being released.

On June 4, 2025, Nadia Nsayi will engage in a discussion with other daughters of decolonization at De Centrale in Ghent. Together, they will reflect on the past few years. What steps has Belgium taken in dealing with its colonial past? Is the AfricaMuseum still relevant? Where does the fight against racism stand today? And what is the situation in Congo and what role does the diaspora play?"

Program:

• Introduction by Thomas Blommaert (Publisher, EPO)
• Nadia Nsayi in conversation with Tine Geunis (Former AfricaMuseum employee) & Jihad Van Puymbroeck (Former Chair of Hand in Hand Against Racism)
• Musical interlude
• Nadia Nsayi in conversation with Ama Koranteng-Kumi & Hafsa El-Bazioui (Alderman of Ghent)
• Closing with influencer Bitshilualua Kabeya

About 'Daughter of Decolonization'
Antwerp, shortly after the Great War. Arthur Clerebaut boards a ship heading to what was then Belgian Congo. He becomes a supervisor of public works and... meets a Congolese woman. This marks the beginning of a family history that coincides with a hundred years of colonization and decolonization. For the colonialist and his Black wife have a son, a mestizo who grows up in a boarding school. Later, a granddaughter follows. After her father’s death, she ends up in Landen, in Flemish Brabant, in 1989. It is only at university that she begins to deepen her knowledge of her homeland. Her name? Nadia Nsayi. With Daughter of Decolonization, she wrote a gripping story that intertwines the history of her family with the relationships between Belgium and Congo. Nsayi tells the story of the fundamentally unjust system known as colonization, its contemporary legacy in the form of the Congolese presence in Belgium, and the importance of Belgian apologies, coupled with a sincere decolonization process.

Nadia Nsayi Madjedjo studied International Politics at KU Leuven. She made her debut with the highly praised Daughter of Decolonization (EPO, 2020). In 2024, she published Congolina. The Legacy of Nele Marian.

In collaboration with EPO Publishing, Bookstore LIMERICK & AMAL