Matonge

Matonge (/matɔŋge/ sometimes written Matongé) is a district in Ixelles, one of the municipality of Brussels-capital, located at the outskirts of Porte de Namur, which takes its current name from the neighborhood of Kinshasa, Matonge (former Camp Renkin), located in the town of Kalamu.

Location

A Congolese high place of Ixelles, the Matongé district is located on the Hill of Waerenbergh, in a triangle formed by the pavement of Wavre and Ixelles and the street of peace with extensions in the neighboring streets. This triangle includes the Gallery of Ixelles, the St. Boniface neighborhood and the Porte de Namur.

History

The neighborhood is located in the vicinity of Maisaf, the "African House" a meeting place for Africans and university residence of Congolese students who were given scholarship by the Belgium at the end of the 1950s.

The House of the Colonies headquarters was also nearby as well as the Union of the colonial women, located at 100 meters in the street of Stassart (Porte de Namur). The colonist wives were trained before joining their spouse: the big trip to the Congo was prepared in the district of Matongé.

The independence of the Congo increases the flow of migrants, and shops opened in the shopping arcade of Ixelles: cafes, restaurants, jewelry stores, hairdressing salons, wax stores and exotic groceries proliferate. Matonge became one of the high places of African elegance. Matongé is not a ghetto. More than 45 Black-African nationalities are present in the district. Latinos, ex-belgo-Congolese and lovers of Africa comes to hang out and do their shopping in the neighborhood.

Although the district was mainly frequented by Congolese, it has also developed with other Africans (Rwandan, Burundian, Malian and Senegalese). In the 1990s, the standing of Matongé suffered a rise in crime. Attacks and police interventions create an atmosphere of violence that culminated in the month of January 2001, in a series of riots after the death of a young man killed by a police officer.

Social life

The Local authorities and residents are trying to restore the situation with success, but also the neighborhood is aging and is undergoing real estate pressure: it is indeed located between the European district and the luxurious area of Louise avenue.

Every year since 2001, a multicultural party of solidarity and reconciliation, Matonge colors, is held in the district.

source https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matonge_(Ixelles)