{"id":36861,"date":"2023-10-09T09:13:00","date_gmt":"2023-10-09T08:13:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/?p=36861"},"modified":"2023-10-27T12:04:09","modified_gmt":"2023-10-27T11:04:09","slug":"passing-on-a-powerful-culture","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/blog\/passing-on-a-powerful-culture\/","title":{"rendered":"Passing on a powerful culture"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Earlier this year, we learned about Dieumerci\u2019s passion for boxing<\/a> and the profound impact sport had on his life as a disabled man. His brother, Aristote<\/strong>, played a big role in this journey; they both share a love of exercise, family and their Congolese heritage. As Black History Month<\/a> approached, Aristote told us more. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m Dieumerci\u2019s younger brother. We were both born in Congo, but he was there a bit longer than me and had time there before his brain damage. Dieumerci knows a lot about the food and lifestyle of Congo, he\u2019s very connected to it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Diuemerci, Aristote’s older brother, at Saif’s boxing centre, which he visits with Sense each week.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

We grew up in the capital, so it was a hodgepodge of cultures \u2013 different music and people. There’s a lot of family celebrations in Congo and we\u2019d go to the church often, that\u2019s like the heart of our community. We still have that now, in the UK. No matter where we are or what we\u2019re doing, we always remember these days and keep practicing our culture. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dieumerci knows a lot about the food to grow and the cooking side of things. He gardens, picking up seeds for plants we had back in Congo. Sense did some gardening with him too; I think he ran out of space at home! Our grandmother was good at all that, she had a farm with vegetables and mango trees, and Dieumerci shares her passion for it. Me, not so much \u2013 so, you know, good for him! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A different side of history<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

A few years ago, I came to our Sense centre to talk about how much they\u2019ve helped Dieumerci. Growing up with complex needs, he used to be so anxious, he wouldn\u2019t even cross a road. But the more he was going out with support from Sense, the less worried he was and the more things he was able to do. Like now \u2013 right now \u2013 he’s out of the house and has taken a bus by himself into town. Such a big change. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We also spoke about Black History Month. It\u2019s something I only really learned about when I came here. In the Congo, we didn\u2019t talk about black history and culture because it was just there with us. Coming here, being away from the culture, that\u2019s when I started to think about it and research it more. I’m black and so I felt like I should be aware of these things because they won\u2019t be taught to me. We learn a different side of history here. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"A
Aristote, who enjoys going to the gym with his brother, Dieumerci, and celebrating with good food and family.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Congo has a powerful culture; our mothers, our grandmothers, they tell us about it as they\u2019ve been told by generations before them. We know it\u2019s something to celebrate and we want Olivia, my little niece, to have the opportunity to celebrate it too \u2013 obviously, no pressure if she\u2019s not interested. But at least we can make sure it\u2019s always there for her if she is. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our strength<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Family means a lot in our culture. We go out and celebrate with friends over Christmas and New Years, but the end of the night it\u2019s always back together as a family \u2013 all family too, aunties, cousins. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our family is a source of strength for sure. A lot of times, we lean on our religion when there are challenges. Our faith gets us through, but so does our community. We share stories and help each other. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s important to us all to know these things and practice our culture to keep it going. These are some of the first experiences we had, so we want the next generation to have them too. For Olivia, she\u2019s born here but it\u2019s still in her \u2013 we want her to know that she came from where we came from and what that means. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Find out more about Black History Month at Sense.<\/a><\/p>\n\n<\/div>\n <\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Earlier this year, we learned about Dieumerci\u2019s passion for boxing and the profound impact sport had on his life as a disabled man. His brother, Aristote, played a big role in this journey; they both share a love of exercise, family and their Congolese heritage. As Black History Month approached, Aristote told us more.  I\u2019m […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":26,"featured_media":36864,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_searchwp_excluded":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"display_author":[1257],"class_list":["post-36861","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog","display_author-aristote"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36861","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/26"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36861"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36861\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/36864"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36861"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36861"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36861"},{"taxonomy":"display_author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/display_author?post=36861"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}