Yaka Mama

1959. Christine, fourteen, is a child from the tropics. Congo is her world. A safe world, despite the snakes, the constant moving and the blazing arguments of her parents. But something is brewing in the Belgian Congo. Indépendance cha cha: the blacks sing and shout for independence in the streets of Leopoldville. Many white colonists return home. Christine would rather stay, especially when she meets Adam. They secretly meet at the statue of Stanley.
Suddenly there is independence, chaotic and unprepared. With the uprising of the black soldiers, all hell breaks loose. While Congo is tottering, Christine experiences her own “indépendance” with Adam. But then she becomes the prisoner of a hostile city…
Anna Coudenys wrote the future novel Goudmens in the same series. In Yaka mama she gives a beautiful atmospheric picture of the last year of Congo as a colony. Full of colorful characters and anecdotes. About growing into adulthood, budding love and gruesome reality.