The times of our lives... a community reveals its stories from the inner city

Mathilde: In our generation we weren’t allowed to love a man; marriage was just an arrangement you had 
to accept.
By The Newsroom
Published 4th Apr 2013, 01:00 BST

So it was an arranged marriage from our parents’ point of view, but we already knew each other, Pierre used to come to my place because he was my cousin’s friend.

After Pierre was a graduate he got a better job in coffee, in Ivory Coast.

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We stayed there, but after that the war started, and we moved here in 2010.

When we moved, we found it very difficult because of the language, we had to study and it is not easy to understand English. We couldn’t understand, we couldn’t integrate quickly. I go to the Lincoln Green Centre to study English language, and on one of the afternoons Amy and Pauline came to look for some participants for this programme.

My teacher said Matilda you should go, and they gave me the address.