KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — More than 100 Congolese gathered at the Eastminister Presbyterian Church to celebrate freedom. On Sunday, it was the 63rd celebration of the independence of the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Jolie Kalumbi was 15 years old when she escaped from Congo.
"There was killing people... there was shooting everywhere," she said. "That's why we...just go out, everybody went a different way."
Kalumbi and her younger sister escaped to a refugee camp in Mozambique.
"[We were] walking many, many places. I can't even remember the place he was in the forest. We stop, we sleep, we stop... no eat, no food, nothing," Kalumbi said.
But her escape was just the first of many battles.
"My sister at that time, she was 11 years old, and when we get there, she got malaria and she died," Kalumbi said.
Roughly 14 years later, Kalumbi remembers the journey, now with a celebration of independence for Congo in East Tennessee. Congolese lost their freedom up until June 30, 1960. The day marks the country's independence from the Belgian colonial powers.
"I think it was February 5, 1885... when the king of Belgium, Leopold II decided to pick a piece of land in Africa [and] make it his own property," said Sylvia Tony, master of the ceremony speaker. "[We] were... granted our independence. We became a free nation, a country of its own, not somebody's property," Tony said.
The celebration is a yearly rendezvous. People are able to fellowship with one another, play their music, speak in their language and express their culture through fashion.
"You feel like you have a piece of home that you are bringing in Knoxville," Tony said.
While closing a chapter on the struggles of her escape, Kalumbi is focusing on the positive.
"God bless America to welcome all the refugees here. We are blessed to be in America," she said.