This thesis explores the perceptions of illness and healing among the Congolese diaspora in Boston and Lynn, MA, and within the contexts of migration and transnationalism. With this thesis, I argue that the Congolese who participated in this study perceive illness as social suffering, and healing as the consolidation of the self. Participants express their perceptions of illness and healing according to their identities, or the orientations of the self. Perceptions of illness were expressed as illness narratives framed under the theories of structural violence, and from the perspectives of the Congolese as displaced and migrant people. Congolese extend their perceptions of illness also to other non-Congolese communities they have come to belong to through transnational and global social formations. Congolese demonstrate that healing means the consolidation of their self, or identities, as Catholic Congolese in diaspora, advocates for refugees, African-Americans, Blacks, and “the Priest” in Lynn. Congolese emphasize that building and maintaining their newly acquired identities form part of their strategies to establish themselves in the USA, and bring healing to themselves and others. This exploration is limited, and thus, further research is recommended on: 1) other Congolese community groups; 2) the local and global Congolese diasporic activism for conflict resolution directed to the DRC; 3) practical proposals for collaborative research in order to resolve the socio-cultural and economic barriers that Congolese have in clinical settings.

Fazendo uso da teoria da interseccionalidade, a presente pesquisa objetiva caracterizar, através da interpretação da narrativa construída pelo jornal Le Soir sobre a comunidade congolesa em Bruxelas, o imaginário belga acerca dos fluxos migratórios entre a atual República Democrática do Congo e a Bélgica contemporânea, durante o lapso temporal compreendido entre 1989 e 2000. Neste esforço, dentro do período estabelecido, foi possível identificar as levas migratórias de congoleses e sua relação com os diferentes contextos políticos e econômicos do país africano; ficaram visíveis, também, uma realidade de falta de interseccionalidade nas políticas públicas, de abusos, por parte das autoridades, de insuficiência, por parte das instituições, e de estranhamento e exotização, por parte do belga, de forma geral, ante a comunidade imigrante congolesa e também africana presente no país / Using the theory of intersectionality, the present research aims to characterize, through the interpretation of the narrative constructed by the Belgian newspaper Le Soir on the Congolese community in Brussels, the Belgian imaginary of the migratory flows between the now Democratic Republic of Congo and contemporary Belgium, during the temporal lapse between 1989 and 2000. In this effort, within the period established, it was possible to identify the Congolese migratory movements and their relation with the different political and economic contexts of the African country; also, became explicit a lack of intersectionality in public policies, abuses by the authorities, a institutional insufficiency on the part of the institutions, and a relation of estrangement and exoticization, in general, on the part of the Belgian, regarding the Congolese and the African immigrant community living in the country

Fazendo uso da teoria da interseccionalidade, a presente pesquisa objetiva caracterizar, através da interpretação da narrativa construída pelo jornal Le Soir sobre a comunidade congolesa em Bruxelas, o imaginário belga acerca dos fluxos migratórios entre a atual República Democrática do Congo e a Bélgica contemporânea, durante o lapso temporal compreendido entre 1989 e 2000. Neste esforço, dentro do período estabelecido, foi possível identificar as levas migratórias de congoleses e sua relação com os diferentes contextos políticos e econômicos do país africano; ficaram visíveis, também, uma realidade de falta de interseccionalidade nas políticas públicas, de abusos, por parte das autoridades, de insuficiência, por parte das instituições, e de estranhamento e exotização, por parte do belga, de forma geral, ante a comunidade imigrante congolesa e também africana presente no país / Using the theory of intersectionality, the present research aims to characterize, through the interpretation of the narrative constructed by the Belgian newspaper Le Soir on the Congolese community in Brussels, the Belgian imaginary of the migratory flows between the now Democratic Republic of Congo and contemporary Belgium, during the temporal lapse between 1989 and 2000. In this effort, within the period established, it was possible to identify the Congolese migratory movements and their relation with the different political and economic contexts of the African country; also, became explicit a lack of intersectionality in public policies, abuses by the authorities, a institutional insufficiency on the part of the institutions, and a relation of estrangement and exoticization, in general, on the part of the Belgian, regarding the Congolese and the African immigrant community living in the country