Since the 1960s, the Porte de Namur district, better known as Matonge, long embodied this meeting point. Almost every Congolese arriving from the Democratic Republic of the Congo made, and still makes, a symbolic stop in Brussels, particularly in Matonge, to reconnect with a familiar atmosphere. Once a space mainly frequented by students, the neighbourhood gradually welcomed musicians, street vendors, and then a more diversified commercial activity. Today, it must be acknowledged that Congolese traders have largely disappeared, replaced by Indian and Pakistani shopkeepers who have become the main economic actors in the area. An evolution that recalls, not without historical irony, the dominance of markets in the eastern Congo by Asian traders before independence.
