Although Congolese people have been migrating to Britain since the late 1980s as a result of the destabilisation in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) – which was formally known as Zaïre and is not to be confused with neighbouring Congo – and the consequent civil war, there are no national archives or records of the history of Congolese people in Britain.
Lisapo – The Congolese Tales is a ground-breaking heritage project that aims to record, preserve and share the migration and settlement experiences of Greater Manchester’s Congolese community by creating an oral histories record for the region’s archives. Supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund, the project was developed by Community Arts North West.
The project was split into two phases: Phase one saw the creation of a permanent public archive of 29 oral histories consisting of audio recordings and the accompanying transcripts, which have been added to the Ahmed Iqbal Ullah Race Relations Resource Centre collection at Manchester Central Library, and the North West Sound Archive.
Phase two involved working with volunteers and local artists to host a live, heritage-inspired oratory featuring spoken word, song and narration telling the powerful story of the Congolese migration to Britain.
There are some great stories of people experiences and extracts of the audio interview can be found at Oral histories extracts