Marie Daulne - Early Life and Musical Origins

Early Life and Musical Origins

Daulne was born in Isiro, (pronunciation: "ee SEE roh" or /i 'si ro/) Haut-Uele District, one of the largest cities in the northeast of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, as the fourth child of a white civil servant, Cyrille Daulne, a Walloon (French-speaking Belgian) and Bernadette Aningi, a Bantu woman from Kisangani, formerly Stanleyville, the third largest city in Congo Kinshasa.

When Daulne was only a week old, her father was attacked and killed by Simba rebels, who were opposed to mixed-race relationships. "He did not have a chance to come with us because he was captured," Daulne says. "He said to my mother, 'Escape,' and we escaped into the forest, and the Pygmies hide us while we were waiting to see what happens," says Daulne. "He was a prisoner of the rebels for a while, then they killed him." Her mother was arrested by the rebels but was later set free because she spoke their language. Daulne pays tribute to those pygmies who rescued her family in the song "Gati" from Supermoon. "They saved my family and many others during the Congolese rebellion," Daulne says, "and they deserve recognition for that." "My promise to them was I used your song to be known in the world and my goal is to talk about you," Daulne added.

After eight months in the interior of the country, Daulne and her mother,brother and sisters were eventually airlifted out to Isiro in an emergency evacuation by Belgian paratroopers and flown to Belgium because their father had been a Belgian citizen. "I think the experience of the political situation is more my mother, who had to survive. I was a baby, and I just was protected by my mother. What I know that I learned from my mother is to be strong and to stay positive in any kind of situation; that's the best weapon to survive. That's what I learned, and this is the main message I pass into my music," says Daulne. Everything was different when Daulne, her mother, five other sisters, and an aunt arrived in Belgium. "When we arrived, it was snowing, and my mother said, 'Look — the country of white people is white!'" says Daulne.

Growing up in Belgium was hard for Daulne. "It was hard as a kid, you want to look like everybody else, and there aren’t many black people in Belgium – compared to England, or America or France," says Daulne. "It became easier as I grew older. There were more black role models about – musicians and sports stars. At school I started to see my mixed heritage as a bonus – I could be part of both the African and Belgian communities."