Hi, my name is Elke Van Hellemont and I'm a lecturer in Criminology at the University of Kent.
So what I've been doing over the past eight years is doing
research about gangs. And more specifically, Congolese gangs in Brussels.
The theoretical question was: 'what is the seduction of gangs?'
So the topic of today is the pains and pleasures of doing that research...
of doing an ethnographic research about gangs.
First a short introduction about what I have been doing...
So my research was about the seductions of gangs which means that
I was looking into the attractiveness of gang life - not really the reasons why
young people would join a gang but just: 'what is so attractive about gangs?'
Why would you feel cool when you were in a gang? Why wouldn't you just join the Boy Scouts?
So that was the main point of my research. And to do that, I had to have a case study.
In Belgium, at that point, we had really some very violent issues
with gang members in Brussels, and more specifically, Congolese gang members.
But because the Congolese community is such a closed community we didn't have really
any information or any data to start from. So when you're in that situation,
as a researcher, what you do - and certainly me with an anthropological background -
is you start ethnography... which means that you're going to do
participant observation... which means that you are going to hang out with gang members.
I've been quite successful in doing that. So I hung out with gang
members for one and a half years... joined them going out, joined them on several adventures.
If you want to know more specifically about that there is a
course about how to do ethnography... But what I want to talk about today is a
question I get the most whenever I'm talking about my research: 'how did you do that?'
'How did you as a young, white female, go and hang around with about 30-40 black Congolese guys?'
So that's what I'm going to talk about today.
As you can see this is a picture of me with some of the gang members
on a weekend we're going to talk about non-violent communication...
and as you can see I'm quite visible the entire time.
So normally what we would do as an ethnographer as you would 'Wallflower' a
certain time but my entire position made that quite impossible.
I was just unable to be not seen whenever I was there.
So the question is again: 'how do you make them trust you? How do you become invisible?'
Because, of course, we have an influence when you're there and being that visible.
So how did I do that? So you see the third title which
is 'Snow White in Matongé'. Matongé is actually the neighborhood in Brussels
and the name is coming from a neighborhood in Kinshasa. So Kinshasa
is the capital of Congo there it's really like the neighborhood where they
go out. And this was a nickname I got in the beginning - Snow White - because I was
always there, I didn't fit in and I looked so innocent among all these men.
For instance, one of the reactions I would get, if we were going into the city especially...
middle-aged white men would look at me like, 'get out! Get out, immediately, of
that group! What are you doing?' so they were the age of my father at that point.
So again, how did I do that? Well, and this is what I'm going to talk about today,
is the power of 'otherness'. So I was the absolute anomaly in that group. I was so different
in every [way]. Every characteristic of me was totally different and I exploited that.
I just wanted to be the totally different person and this is quite
unusual and this is quite contradictory to what you would read in literature -
trying to fit in. I've never tried to fit in I really exploited the fact that I
was something they wouldn't even meet in their daily lives, normally.
One of the big differences, of course, is that we're all Belgians but I had a Flemish background
and they have a Congolese background. So when I was doing my
fieldwork, in Brussels, I felt far away from home than when I
was, for instance, visiting UCLA in California because it
was about different food... for instance, they would sometimes give me food and I
had no idea what it was. Then afterwards, they would tell me about it I
would be quite disgusted about what I just ate. But there was also good food.
There were also totally different customs - like a really strong will for religion and
there were these churches with very intense ceremonies and I would go to
them. It's also about different beliefs - like that's what the cat is about with
the witch heads... it's because they would feel - especially Congolese women -
were really afraid of cats. And so it happened several times that when I came into
apartment I was asked by a maman, which are the really elderly women,
to chase away a cat because they were so afraid of witchcraft. And witchcraft was
also something very tangible when I was doing this. So especially we Belgians, we
don't believe in witchcraft anymore let alone chicken divination. Well...
these were all things that I actually met during my fieldwork and had to
adapt to, to a certain extent. And then of course, the whole history also between
Congo and Belgium. But even in my case, there were also language issues.
I'm Dutch speaking. I'm a native Dutch speaker but Congolese they speak French.
Well they speak French and Lingala. So my French was not that bad when I started
but even then I would make really silly mistakes. To give a very embarrassing
mistake... and this is when it goes to pure embarrassment... is in Brussels you have
the habit of kissing each other. So, I mean, especially for British culture this
might sound very strange but even boys kiss each other when you just meet. But
especially for women meeting a group of boys, it would be like a ceremony of
kissing... kissing me on the cheek to say 'hello' in a decent way. So at some point I
really got fed up with that. I mean imagine... every time being kissed by
thirty men! So at some point I said 'ne me baise pas'. So you should say 'ne m'embrasse pas' not 'ne me baise pas'.
'Ne me baise pas' means 'don't fuck me'. 'Ne m'embrasse pas'
means 'don't kiss me'. So at that moment when I said that the
young man in front of me was so embarrassed and everybody started
laughing and I was so embarrassed I would just wish the ground would open up
and swallow me. But at that point it was also this huge
ice breaker, I mean, everybody was, 'yeah, she's from the university but, you know,
she says quite silly things'... and at some point they really laughed about it
and they were quite happy that I could laugh about it too. Although I was
completely red and totally embarrassed! But sometimes it was also an
opportunity... when they were explaining gang life to me, it gave me an
opportunity sometimes to say 'well, I don't really understand that' and blame
it on the language which meant that they would actually explain it better to me.
So at that point, I got more information than someone who would be
french-speaking got. And then, of course, there is the shared painful past
that Belgium shares with Congo. I mean, especially for the Congolese in
Brussels. This is really painful because Brussels has all these buildings which
were financed with the profit that out King Leopold, at that point, got from
Congo. Especially if you look to dictators of these days - you can see him
over there - he is one of the dictators throughout history that caused so many
deaths and one of the [highest death tolls] actually throughout history. Then you
can see, for instance, all the buildings over there that are in Brussels and are a
continual reminder for Congolese people of that history which is painful.
Then, of course, I had the role of the coloniser when I was working with them.
They had the role of the colonised and sometimes it was really painful. Also for
me, to go to these discussions and really see the elderly - especially the women -
bringing up all these memories. And for me as a Belgian - and especially as Flemish -
to be there and always being called like really racist names - whether it was to me
or about my background - was painful. But at the same time, I guess
because I was a woman, I was not really representing the colonisers to them. It's
something role that a more the sign to man so that's how I actually got past
that one and then this one it like I'm familiar with you the City University
it's quite comparable to Canterbury so it's very wide
it's one of the richest city ulcers in Belgium so and this was the imagery hat
for me the girl with the flower very naive something they definitely at some
point they felt like they needed to protect me so one of the instances for
instance was so I moved to Brussels and Brussels as a lovely like a lovely night
scene and very lively so I was on what they call a nuit blanche which means a
night we were asleep and I was walking through Brussels and suddenly there is
like what happens also a lot in Brussels at some point you get man really asking
me a car let's go to dance and I was walking through Brussels and
then there were three men coming up to me I didn't want to go and dance with us
and this mad and I was like no and I learned that being polite it's more
effective than being like no let me alone
so I just kept on walking at some point I got a telephone so it was my
gatekeeper which is like this very muscle Congolese guy with dreadlocks and
a gate keeper means like this was kind of my bodyguard and he also in the
beginning negotiated between me and a group and I still in contact with him so
it became a kind of brother to a certain extent and he called me was what are you
doing in the middle of my there running on the street hey come on just went out
I mean I didn't do anything and then so one of the guys throw
talking's like no no let me alone who are you talking to I'm like yeah one of
the guys here but I'm not going with him I'm just going home I'm going to
displace to grab Tek it was just stay where you are so probably he had seen me
so then we come at a crossroad and these three guys get really kind of aggressive
and I'm like really saying leave me alone this and that's why thrown around
and at that point they just take off like run away and I'm like wow I've been
really effective in doing this but well what's happening was my gate keeper and
his friends just stopped on the crossroad chasing them away and starting
yelling at me what are you doing here like you could have been raped you could
have been kidnapped you could have been and I'm like being completely blown
speechless and then they're saying to me like get in the car we'll bring you home
and then you have this audience there because we've quite the scene all these
warlike and white students almost like whispering to me time
it's don't get in the car roulette is nothing like look these are friends of
mine they brought me to my apartment and I got a speech the entire way of how
dangerous it was but at the same time again this rule gave me this kind of
outsiders inside of position they really felt like they should protect me and
they should warn me because I was so naive and it also helped me especially
in the beginning it's really strange method is buying a new car so I bought a
new car and I need the car quickly and it was an Alfa Romeo Giulietta which at
that point was really merchandise really well so I arrived in a brand new car and
before the elderly Gangnam they didn't want to sit with me in the car whenever
we were moving around so when we were moving around with the car because
public transport is just way too dangerous for them to take because it
passes through different territories in the city and suddenly because of my new
curve all these elderly man wanted to sit in my car I want to be transported
with my car and just to say that a car is an excellent interview setting
because they don't have anything to do and they're having all these kind of
discussions and I learned a lot about gang life in course so how did I do it
if we come to a conclusion so and this was one of the advice as I got from one
of my professors in anthropology and he said have the courage to be weak have
the courage to put yourself in a very weak position and that's exactly what I
did so being I like to call myself some kind of feminist and putting yourself in
a position that you're over protected that indeed I mean they would take me to
place in the end just to show me off like this is a university white Flemish
middle class woman and she is falling following us around to wherever we go
and it was quite prestigious but you really have the feeling it at that
moment you have a feeling it's being at someone who's like yeah in France she
would say that that's why I bail it means like just shut up and be beautiful
and like that was your role and then gradually on I moved to the trusted
outsider someone they would feel really confident to talk about
stuff that they don't feel confident about talking with some people of their
own community because they knew I was not part of the gossip chain so I
wouldn't tell other people about it but also some things are really taboo to
talk about within a Congolese community and if I was not part of that
totally not well they felt really at ease to talk with me about those things
and he also told it was amusing because I would have totally different views on
things so I mean how did I do it I just stayed myself not trying to fit in but
being very comprehensive and a lot of integrity just I was always honest with
them when I didn't agree I didn't agree although I knew that they would be mad
at me at some point but I knew it in the end they would still like to talk with
me and also I just was very open whenever they start talking to me so
like if you are going to confess something to me that I still need to
happen well then you better not tell me because I will have to go to the police
so and it took a while I think one of the biggest things is also I had the
time to do it it's when I look at my entire and graphic period it was about
four years one and a half year really intense that I moved to Brussels but
really for years they could still go back and talk to them so I kept my own
identity humor is hugely important just really to use it to gather cross
boundaries so getting in costed boundary of a colonizer purses or coolin eyes
getting across ethnic boundaries especially in that period there was a
bit of we're not going to see political instability but at that point the
flemish region wasn't it kind of fide with the french-speaking region in
belgium and of course their french-speaking so they were also part
of that and humour was what helped at that point patience loads of patience in
the beginning I just said there I never give got really to talk to them I just
waited for about three full months for them to come and talk to me so and this
is actually the biggest thing well my biggest strategy
doing this type of research so what do you see the picture here is with my
gatekeeper and this is on my PhD defense so it just came to my defense as well
which gave a very rare mix of academics family all my worlds coming together and
the Congolese community or the gang members in this way in this case and I
gave people what is the downside of this so what is the hardship about this is
it's very emotional so when I was doing my fieldwork three of the man of the
group that I studied died too very violently one because of cancer and of
course you and your middle middle class existence you don't know about gang
violence and you're certainly not used about having to deal with young man
getting stabbed and having to go to funerals so it's very emotional and also
because it's what we call a close to home at number fear I was only living 20
miles away from that well at that point it's like you you never stopped returned
Dorothy even these days when I go back to Belgium you add the Brussels South
one on the three times I just meet someone or I need them somewhere in the
station because this is one of the places where they hang out so and it's
very emotional and it's like especially for us academics to experience these
emotions of extreme fear sometimes of extreme sadness of death and reconcile
that with a middle-class existence or with your academic background is really
difficult on the other hand it is such an experience
it goes beyond your work it's really a life a life changing experience and also
in the good sense like there are parts of Cornelis culture that I did take with
me and I mean there is no party as a Congolese party so these are also very
nice emotions and also the emotional valorisation and also the emotion that
some things are more important than your career not saying that I'm not ambitious
but just the idea that sometimes some things that we take as very evident or
for granted actually in our middle-class existence are not exactly to be taken
for granted so I hope at some point you will have
the opportunity to actually engage in this type of research thank you for
listening