On a sunny afternoon in early July 1962, I was standing in the corridor of the train that would take me away from Africa. Leaning on the wooden ledge of the open window I watched the unusual hustle at the Art Deco railway station of Jadotville, a town soon to be renamed Likasi.
My parents, sister, and I were leaving the Congo for good, a country where I grew up and that I loved. I had little hope of seeing it ever again …
Bio:
Greta du Bois Cleynhens was born in Belgium and has lived most of her life in Africa. She was raised in the Congo and later settled with her husband in South Africa. She studied modern languages in Belgium before pursuing a career in the commercial airline industry. Now a retired widow, she has become a Canadian citizen and lives in Kingston, Ontario, where she is currently writing an autobiography about her youth in the Congo.