Lipanda Day to celebrate Congolese culture on Saturday

GALESBURG — The city of Galesburg will hold its very first Lipanda Day, a celebration focused on Congolese “culture and integration,” on Saturday, July 2.

The event will take place from 2-6 p.m. in Park Plaza and feature Congolese music, food and shopping.

Gogo Kupa, who is organizing the event with her husband, Yannick Kapita, said the goal of the festival is to introduce the local community to Congolese culture and connect Congolese people who are living in Galesburg, Moline and Monmouth with resources to better integrate into the local community.

"It's time for the Congolese to integrate and it's time for the American community to know about the Congolese culture,” Kupa said. “Now we can start working together so we can develop a mixed community, that's what the main idea of this event is.”

Kupa, who worked in finance when she lived in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, said she was inspired to organize the event when after moving to Galesburg three years ago, she applied to work for several banks in the area, but was struggling to get called back.

It wasn’t until after she took a professional skills class at Carl Sandburg College that Kupa learned she had been submitting her resume by French guidelines and not American guidelines.

Now that Kupa has opened her own business with her husband — Gyann Event planning — and learned English through classes with the Regional Office of Education, Kupa said that many Congolese people have asked her how they can learn English, get job training or open their own business as she has.

Kupa said that language is a major barrier stopping many Congolese people from getting more informed or better jobs as she knows a number of people who have immigrated to the Galesburg area 10-15 years ago and still only speak French.

“People love to live here because it is safe. That is the most important thing, especially when you are a minority, is to be a place where you are safe where your family is safe,” Kupa said. “But after safety there is living. For living we need to have a good job or you need to have your business. But unfortunately people do not have the job they want because of the language barrier.”

Saturday’s event will feature traditional music by Nkumu Katalay, a Congolese musician who is traveling from New York, and free Congolese dishes such as fufu. Kupa said that she expects at least 100 people to attend the event which is also taking place on the 62nd anniversary of the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s anniversary of independence.

Lipanda translates to independence in the Congolese language of Lingala.

“If somebody attends the event and now knows that they can learn English, knows that they can open a business legally, by opening a business here that means there is a job for people living here. So what I'm expecting is for people to open their mind and know that we can do something.”

This article originally appeared on Galesburg Register-Mail: Galesburg IL will focus on Congolese culture, integration at event