diff --git a/src/pEp/__init__.py b/src/pEp/__init__.py
index fb51859..b35067f 100755
--- a/src/pEp/__init__.py
+++ b/src/pEp/__init__.py
@@ -30,7 +30,7 @@ from ._pEp import *
 
 # import the native module into the current namespace because we also need to access the names beginning
 # with an underscore (of _pEp), but we dont want to import them into this module
-import pEp._pEp
+from . import _pEp
 
 # 3rd party imports
 from threading import Thread, Barrier