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In The House of Kinshasa, Po B. K. Lomami uses transmission to emphasize the struggle between their roots in the Congo and their lived experience in diaspora. Through discussions with and excerpts from their parents, diasporic Congolese living in Belgium, themes of memory and cultural loss come to the fore in otherwise mundane conversations. In this way, Lomami highlights the everyday violence that is part and parcel of Black Atlantic negotiations; as perceived standards of modernization necessitate cultural hybridization, the result is damage to original practices and the adoption of new norms. -Introduced by Austin T. Richey