Back in 2010, Mireille Tushiminina and her mom wanted to find a way to bring awareness to Boston’s African population and connect Africans in the city with one another. Coincidentally, that year, 17 sub-Saharan African countries were celebrating independence from colonial rule, among them Senegal and Cameroon in the West, Madagascar off the east coast, and, Tushiminina’s home country in the heart of the continent, the Democratic Republic of Congo.