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Rehema Mussanzi

There is a saying, that there is no place like home yeah. But er of course, of course if home is burning, can you just stay and say, there is no place like home? And then, no you have to flee and that is why we came here.

Commentary

Rehema Mussanzi was 13 years old when his family fled from the Congo to Bradford.

Rehema

As a young boy Congo is the ideal place to live to be honest for me [laughs]. When I go to Bradford and my houses are terraced, I’m like, what kind of houses are these? And we had a lot compared to here, but then that was before the war started so...

When you’re moving from Congo to here and you’re 13 years old and it’s all good, you’re going to, well, a better place to Congo, compared to Congo but then all the bad things, you store, you saw as a child starts coming back in your head, it’s horrible, horrific. But, yeah, and believe me that’s not an easy experience to re-live what you saw.

Everyday you’re here and you’re getting a call from Congo that one of your cousins has been killed. And when you were there the same things were happening but then you were looking at the things that would happen. So when they tell you that the picture comes back in your head and you’re like oh my goodness.

Commentary

Rehema is now studying at university and working in a supermarket.