In 2018, Cécile Djunga made a video to denounce the racism she suffered when she presented the weather in Belgium. The video created an international buzz, with more than 2.5 million views in 48 hours. She thus launched an appeal for tolerance, initiating numerous debates. “It was just the cry of a chick who was in distress, of a citizen who wanted to say “no but in fact, we have no right in fact, we must stop.” It was not at all a political act at all, I was not involved in an association“Says Cécile Djunga, actress and TV host.
Following the video, she was invited to the United Nations, became an ambassador for the Royal Museum for Central Africa and participated in numerous campaigns in favor of the fight against discrimination. “By making this rant, I said to myself that I wanted to be able to take concrete actions, against racism, in particular to raise awareness, to educate, I really think that education is a very important vector for developing mentalities, it’s not me who said it, it’s Nelson Mandela, with a sentence that I like very much which says that education is the most powerful weapon to change the world“, explains Cécile Djunga.
Wanting to take concrete action, Cécile Djunga wrote an open letter to Caroline Désir, the Minister of Education in Wallonia Brussels, Belgium. “I challenged her in relation to that, to say no to racism and yes to education because there are still big gaps in the teaching system of Belgian colonial history in schools.“, she explains. 48 hours later, the minister replied. For the latter, this part of the story”is too often ignored“.
“We created a small commission to move things forward and so they are working on school programs in Belgium in relation to education and that’s a crazy thing“, rejoices Cécile Djunga.”When I look back, I tell myself that I was right to open my mouth that day. Even if it isn’t going to be obvious, I’m not going to wipe my magic wand away from racism, we agree. But, maybe with my little means, I can try to raise awareness, to talk about it, to educate“, she adds.
–
