This summer, Radio Netherlands Worldwide is looking at the theme of 'Homesickness'.

Matonge is Brussels' unique Congolese quarter and has become a home-from-home for many Congolese ex-pats - including those who left due to the Mobutu regime. Despite having nearly all of Kinshasha's home comforts, many of its residents long to return home one day. RNW Europe correspondent Vanessa Mock reports

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It is hot in the men's hair salon, hot and noisy. The sound of Afrobeats mingles with the buzz of hair-clippers and men's animated chatter. Next door, Congolese shoppers in bright cotton robes pick up yams and plantains at the local stall and stand talking in the sunshine.

"I reminds me so much of Kinshasa," smiles one local resident as he awaits his haircut. "Everything here feels so familiar. There's nowhere else in Europe I'd rather be. But I miss the real Kinshasa."

Large African community
Named after the market district of Kinshasa, Matonge is just a stone's throw from the grey, anonymous EU quarter of Brussels. But it feels like another continent. Home to Belgium's large African community, its streets are colourful and frenetic, and when they meet at the various African bars, people speak mostly in Lingala, the Congolese dialect.

There is also a shopping gallery, devoted entirely to selling Afro hair products and extensions, and dozens of agencies offering money transfers and flights to the Democratic Republic of Congo, the former Belgian colony.

Matonge has for decades been a home for Africans, many of whom fled violence, poverty or political instability back home.|
 
"I had no choice but to leave," says Durane, a computer engineer, a former member of President Mobutu's party. "I would have been killed if I had stayed. And it's the same for many of us. That makes it hard to return, much as we want to."

Dreaming of home
Although they are well established, all Matonge's residents share the same dream, says Cecile, the owner of a Congolese food store: to return home. Holding up a dried fish that looks like a giant eel, she smiles and says: "It comes from the Congo River, it lives both in and out of water. We, too, feel like fish out of water." 

"It is true that many of us have been here for decades. We have experience in working and running our businesses, but we all do so with the thought of one day returning home. We want to take all this knowledge back with us to help improve our homeland. Home is where we feel best."

But in reality, the return home may never happen. For some, the risks are too high; others are scared off by the poverty or corruption in the motherland. Near Cecile's shop is the Maison Africaine, home to 80 students from the DRC. Director Thierry van Pevenage says:

"The idea is to give students scholarships so they can learn and take vital skills back home. But many of them find it hard to go back. And it's the same for many Matonge people. They share this longing for Congo but find that the reality is harder."

Matonge, though, is also under threat: house prices are rising and African businesses are being forced out. Eric Nobles, a Brussels tour guide, explains: "It is fighting for survival. It could be that there won't be an African quarter one day."

Utterly unique
But Matonge's residents refuse to acknowledge this. Arnaud, the owner of a hair salon, says: "This place is utterly unique. Africans will keep wanting to come here, just like I wanted to come here. If you are homesick, it's the only place to be."