“I think that Child of Congo will provide an edge to something bigger than just writing or reading. Such that people see their story through the book”. – Laurène Southe.
By Evidence Egwuono Adjarho
African poetry stands out as a unique genre because of the various ways it lends itself to poets, and reveals itself to readers. Different poets across distinct African countries and regions use their writings to achieve various purposes.
For Laurène Southe, a Congolese living in the diaspora, poetry offers her the leeway to represent and tell the stories of Congo. In this light, Child of Congo, which is her debut chapbook, hinges on themes of identity, and the cultural elements of her ancestry. But beyond these, there is a universality in the way each poem is written that takes readers on a journey that is although differing in some aspects, familiar.
In this exclusive interview with Afrocritik, Laurène Southe opens up about her creative journey, the inspirations behind her work, and the challenges she faced in bringing Child of Congo to life. She also shares her thoughts on African poetry, the power of storytelling, and her hopes for the future of underrepresented voices in literature.
For our readers who may be meeting you for the first time, who is Laurène Southe?
I like to refer to myself as a normal girl from Congolese descent. I was born in Austria, and I grew up in London. I am a multifaceted artist because I do a number of things. I do not only write poetry but also articles, essays, and sometimes lyrical passages. I am also a photographer.
At what point did you decide to start writing, specifically poetry?
My writing journey started subconsciously. As a kid, I was never a really good communicator. There was a specific instance where a toddler came to our home and played with my siblings and I wanted to express my jealousy so I wrote a letter to her sister. She read it and hugged me afterwards. This was the first spark for me. The incident made me realise something; Writing made up for what I lacked in communication.
Later on there was a school in London where I read one of my poems in front of a public. Surprisingly, I received good remarks and that continued to encourage me. However, I made a conscious decision to begin writing in 2021. I decided to pursue writing as a career.
What does writing poetry mean to you?
Writing poetry is a means of survival to me. There’s a long and somewhat depressing process that came with writing my book in terms of uncovering a lot about my history. However, writing about it through poetry offered me healing. I believe that poetry is my bridge towards the rest of humanity.
I have never been a strong communicator, and I am introverted. But I become an entirely different person when I write. I am no longer the introvert who has a hard time communicating with people. I feel like I can be understood and seen through writing poetry. So, poetry is not just something I enjoy doing, it is also a way for me to connect with my world.
Everyone has that one author or piece of writing that ‘opened their eyes’. Who or what was that for you?
The book that really opened my eyes to boundlessness, so to say, would have to be Ben Okri’s The Famished Road (1991). What I liked about this book specifically is it did not feel as though I was reading a book. It felt like I was experiencing the book.
Ben Okri has a writing style that makes you look beyond the surface. You can not help but to read against the grain and see all that the book offers you. Moreso, even experience them. In Child of Congo, I resonated with that approach.
Okri’s book was so powerful and unforgettable that I take it whenever I change location. It is the only book I brought with me to New York. The book is usually the source of my inspiration when I am writing.
What is your view of African poetry as an underrepresented genre in African literature?
African poetry is very vast and layered with such a large continent which has a range of cultures and languages. I grew up in Europe and I must admit that I use that lens sometimes when it comes to matters like that.
However, one thing I am sure of is that certain regions occupy more of the conversations unlike smaller regions. As a Congolese writer, I can attest to this. Congolese people do not really read because it’s not part of the culture. And if you ask around how many Congolese poets people know and especially how many of them are women, you see the truth in what I have said. The answer you would get is most likely zero.
Therefore, I do feel it is part of my duty as a writer to shed light on this particular area of the African continent as much as I can and encourage other congolese to write about their own stories.
That is just to say, African literature is vast so I cannot say African poetry in its entirety is an underrepresented genre although I do not think so but certain regions occupy most of the conversations and it is the duty of writers from other less popular regions, like Congo, to popularise and bring up these stories into the conversation as well.
You are not just a writer but also a photographer and a creative with diverse interests. How do these pursuits influence your writing process?
I almost see my various interests as separate entities. This is because my introduction to photography is completely different from my introduction to writing and the other things I do. Although I believe that in the future they would overlap perhaps in a bigger form, but right now, they exist in their separate worlds.
Photography fell into my lap coincidentally. I remember when I was in Congo for the first time and my sister brought a camera with her and told me to do photography. I took the camera as a 15 year old with zero knowledge and began taking what I thought were good pictures.
In retrospect, it would turn out to be the best photos I have ever taken. I also had to take up photography in school as a hobby because it didn’t require me to talk. But my writing journey wasn’t similar to this. So, right now, my photography and my writing are almost entirely separate worlds.
Let’s talk about your book. What inspired Child of Congo, and what is the story behind its creation?
My book underwent several phases. As a person who mingled around as a multidisciplinary artist, I took the book somewhere for an exhibition and I was asked to explain poetry in a visual sense. This was what birthed the title in the first poem of the book, “Child of Congo”.
In that period of time, I felt I had something going on. I just wanted to uncover more around it. The title is Child of Congo. What does that mean? What does that look like? What is so special about Child of Congo? I had the opportunity of being at a residency last year and it gave me the time to do some research about myself, my country and also about what I wanted to say through a collection of poems.
Finally when I completed the book, I put it aside and went to normal life for almost a year. Then I realised it would be worth it bringing the book to the public so I decided to do just that.
Some poems in Child of Congo feel deeply personal. Were you or your experiences a direct muse for any of these pieces?
Absolutely. I was, at a time, undergoing certain situations where I had my first forlorn experience of grief which made me reflect and I had to grow through it. This experience perspired and ended up being some of the poems in my book.
I would say in terms of muses, that it has always been the world around me. I would absolve all of the different elements in my environment and I expunge them into my writing. So in that sense, the poems that came out are a reflection of the environment I grew up in.
If you could bring any poem from Child of Congo to life, which one would it be, and why?
I have performed some of the poems in person, none to which have been Congolese crowds, so it is safe to say they have come alive at some points. It just shows that the issues in my poems are universal so I was not worried about relatability. I can say that anyone who has been under some form of oppression can relate to these writings.
Now to answer your question, I would go with the last poem. The reason is that I feel like the world needs what’s written there right now. It’s quite ironic because I am not actually religious and the poem is.
However, I am always going to speak of God because of my background. The last poem is simple but is all we need in the world today. So, it has to be this poem if I am to bring any to life.
Has your experiences as an African in the diaspora shaped the themes and messages in this book?
I think this is quite uncontrollable because I grew up in Europe and have European experiences as an African individual from the diaspora. But it doesn’t come as clear until you have conversations with people who live in Africa. There are Africans who grew up in the continent and moved to Europe. But it is not quite the same thing if you speak with people who were bred and raised in African communities.
I was really starting to understand how Europeanised my vision and understanding of the world was when I started having conversations with my cousins.
When I told my cousins that I had written a book about Congo, it didn’t go down well with them. They thought that people like me didn’t know the reality of what they faced everyday and so shouldn’t write about them.
I empathise with what they said because I knew that was right to an extent. But I also made them understand that as much as I didn’t understand his side of the world, he would have a hard time understanding mine. But my book takes a middle standpoint of these sides and shows that both realities can be understood.
What were the major challenges you faced, either in writing or in publishing Child of Congo and how did you navigate them?
Writing the book was definitely the easiest part although I thought it would be the hardest. The real struggle started when I completed the book and I needed to find a way to navigate the literary industry. I do not come from the European world and didn’t have anyone in my family who was a writer.
So, I went into researching and going to bookstores, trying to study the kind of books they had. These are things you are not aware of as a reader until you decide to publish your book.
I could say that my struggle with publishing made me understand where my writing is placed in that realm. And it’s not the best rankings. I reference what I said earlier about the favourable regions and narratives.
Apparently, my book was nothing near those. I would get emails from people who wrote that they haven’t heard of a Congolese author and as such, do not know how good it would sell or if people would be interested in it.
Coming into the understanding of where Congolese authors stand in the industry and how to navigate it was my biggest obstacle. But I found a pathway and it’s why my book is going to be published. I do hope more Congolese authors start telling their stories.
For readers picking up Child of Congo, what should they expect from this collection?
Going back to Ben Okri’s book, I said The Famished Road was an experience. So in that sense, I think that Child of Congo will provide an edge to something bigger than just writing or reading.
Such that people see their story through the book and hopefully seek for healing, because generational trauma is still prevalent in the African sphere. I hope that my book can serve as a tool to encourage and make people express themselves, and tell their stories too because it matters.
Evidence Egwuono is a passionate literature enthusiast who spends her time lending her voice through her reviews. She is also a media enthusiast as she believes in the potency of visual storytelling, especially in amplifying the voices of women in society. Find her creating content on Instagram @evidence_egwuono and on LinkedIn.