Joelle and Aurelie

Joelle walks through the world fully aware of who she is and refuses to make herself smaller for anyone.

A Black Belgo Congolese woman, lesbian, and Afrofeminist activist, she moves through a world that often struggles to hold complexity. Visibility has come with friction, misunderstanding, and at times violence, but also conviction. She has learned to remain visible anyway.

Alongside Aurélie, love becomes a place of grounding. Their relationship unfolds through tenderness, learning, and mutual care, shaped by difference but never defined by it. What they share feels quiet, steady, and deeply intentional.

For Joelle, loving openly is not a performance. It is healing. Resistance. Survival.

Deeply connected to Congo and to Kinshasa, she knows that queer love across parts of Africa can carry heavier consequences. Change, for her, begins with visibility, dialogue, and the courage to imagine something different.

“To love, and to be loved, while Black, queer, and Congolese, that’s not just personal. That’s political.”

Paris, France (2022)