FEATURE QUESTIONS FOR BENITA
1. Benita, tell us a bit about yourself, your childhood, where you’re from, and how you came to be the Benita we know today.
-If I had to define myself, I’d say that I am primarily a sister, an aunt, and a daughter. My family is the most important part of me, and I wouldn’t be where I am if it wasn’t for the ways my siblings, parents, and nieces shaped me.
But to that, I would add that I am a child of Kinshasa. Every time I close my eyes and think of home, I find myself on the street I grew up in. I think about the heat on the back of my neck on the days our car broke down and we had to walk back home from school. I think of the loud music, Rumba and Seben, filling the wide, sandy streets of Kintambo and Bandal.
I think of walking back and forth with my childhood best friend from our house to hers, not wanting to let go of each other even though we knew we would see each other the next day. Home is the woman selling puff puff on the edge of the road who smiles and greets, but also scolds me when I buy my puff puff from someone else. A lot of my childhood happened in that neighborhood; many of the faces I dream of are still there.
On the other hand, a lot of who I am was defined by leaving home. When I turned 15, we moved from the DRC to Gabon, then to the US. The move happened very abruptly, and we were not prepared. It felt, and still feels, like being ripped away from all I had known. So the last eight years of my life were defined by looking for that feeling of home and belonging, whether in people’s faces or in foreign places. My siblings and I spent these last years thinking about what it meant to be a stranger, to learn a new language, to wear a new race.
A lot of who I am today has been shaped by that desire to find home. My studies in development at the LSE are centered around understanding Congolese identity, history, and politics. The people I gravitate toward, the man I am in love with, they’re all pieces of home.
2. LSE is not an accident, but first, when you saw the call for entries for the Voices & Visions Photo Essay Competition at the London School of Economics and Political Science, what made you decide to put yourself forward?
-I didn’t realize it when I first applied, but later on I understood that it was a way for me to fit into this new place, city, and country. I realized that ever since I was little, art has always been a way for me to fit in and find my place in the world. I was a very shy little girl and had a hard time fitting into social spaces. But every time I started drawing, I would find myself surrounded by classmates in awe of the art I was making and that stuck with me: the ability of art to be a place of encounter, a means of belonging. I replicated this pattern in undergrad when I added an Art major as a way to make sense of the world I was in and the person I was becoming. I guess subconsciously, when I found myself in London, I had the natural need to find my place again, and art, in this case photography, was my way of doing that.
3.How did you get to LSE in the first place? What was that journey, and was it ever really the plan?
- At the end of undergrad, I had experienced a lot of stressful events at the same time, and I knew that I needed to leave the United States for a while. The question was, “Where to go?” I had applied for a fellowship in an African country and two Master’s programmes in London, one of which was LSE. I knew that I wanted to live in a big city, somewhere that felt alive, where I could reinvent myself.
LSE had been on my radar ever since 2022, when I came across the work of Mia Mottley, the Prime Minister of Barbados. I was struck by her intelligence, her charisma, but also her kindness. I researched her journey and saw that she had studied at LSE, and from that moment on, I knew that if I was ever going to do a master’s, it would be at LSE. The university became part of the path I was forging for myself.
So when the time came to apply, I took a chance and went for it, and I am so glad I did, because I ended up getting accepted.
4. You won the Chude Jideonwo Prize for Creativity 2025, but let’s talk about the work itself. What part of your winning entry are you most proud of, and why does it matter to you beyond the competition?
-I am very proud of the message behind the submission. People, especially black men, often define themselves by the representation of their identity they encounter in the media. Their expansive universe is often forced to fit into the box society has built for them. That image, that box, defines the way in which one speaks up or chooses to remain silent. It defines who one believes they are supposed to be, who they have the right to become. I have seen up close how the complexities inherent to being a black man have shaped the ways in which my friends, siblings, and peers have carried themselves in certain rooms, the choices they made.
The photo, therefore, is an invitation for all of us to expand beyond the boxes society has put us in, to humanize ourselves and others, but also find the joy in the lives we have been gifted.
5. The Voices & Visions Photo Essay Competition framework is designed to pull things out of people. What did it pull out of you that genuinely surprised you about yourself?
I have re-learned that I am primarily an artist. I am unapologetically studying policy, development, and political economy, but my core will always be artistic. I am realizing that the artist in me, the one I sometimes try to suppress, is the part of me that has remained through every step of this journey. This project made me long for the art studio in a way I hadn’t in a while.
6. You are being given the opportunity to work and intern with Chude Jideonwo for one month. Honestly, what does that feel like, and what are you hoping to leave with that you didn’t walk in with?
I hope to learn from him, particularly the ways he has used storytelling and filmmaking to shape narratives around social movements in Nigeria, ensuring government accountability and amplifying the voices of individuals we would not have heard from otherwise. I want to carry his wisdom and apply it to the many stories that need to be told about the DRC and its people.
7. What’s the lesson from this whole experience that you think most people would overlook or underestimate?
The lesson is to take chances and to live fully. I remember when I arrived in the US in high school, my American Literature teacher had us read Thanatopsis by William Cullen Bryant. I had only been learning the English language for about a year or two, but I remember vividly being moved by the last stanza below:
“So live, that when thy summons comes to join
The innumerable caravan, which moves
To that mysterious realm, where each shall take
His chamber in the silent halls of death,
Thou go not, like the quarry-slave at night,
Scourged to his dungeon, but, sustained and soothed
By an unfaltering trust, approach thy grave,
Like one who wraps the drapery of his couch
About him, and lies down to pleasant dreams.”
Ever since I read that poem, I have tried to live fully so that in the end, when God calls me home, I go at ease knowing that I loved without restraint, that I fought for what I believed in, and I took every opportunity to leave the world a better place than I found it.
8. We are in an era where women are pushing the envelope, collaborating, and becoming true allies for each other. What kind of collaboration are you looking forward to, and how can people reach you?
I would love to collaborate and expand my knowledge of filmmaking. There are many African, Congolese stories in particular, aching to be told, and I would love to bring those to life. The easiest way to reach me is via LinkedIn at Benita Manzengo | LinkedIn
9. Five years from now, where is Benita, and what does that version of her look like?
I see myself contributing to building a better world through policy and continuing to tell stories through art and filmmaking. On a personal note, I hope to be an aunt to many more kids!
10. Last one, if someone out there is sitting with an idea, a draft, a dream they haven’t entered anywhere yet, what do you tell them?-Just do it! It is important to take a big bite out of life. It is important to try and continue failing until everything finally clicks. And it will.
