¹ See Goyvaerts, Didier L., ‘Indoubil: a Swahili hybrid in Bukavu’, in Language in Society (Cambridge), 17, 1988, pp. 231–42,Google Scholar‘Codeswitching in Bukavu’, in Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development (Clevedon, Avon), 13, 1992, pp. 71–82,Google Scholar and ‘Kibalele: form and function of a secret language in an ethnic cauldron’, in Journal of Pragmatics (Amsterdam), 12 1995, forthcoming.Google Scholar

² For example, Young, Crawford, Politics in the Congo (Princeton, 1967),Google Scholar and The Politics of Cultural Pluralism (Madison, 1976);Google ScholarBawele, Mumbanza mwa, ‘Y a-t-il des Bangala?’, in Zaïre Afrique (Kinshasa), 13, 1973, pp. 471–84;Google Scholar Gustave Hulstaert, ‘Á propos des Bangala’ in ibid. 14, 1974, p. 173–85; Knappert, Jan, ‘Origin and Development of Lingala’, in Hancock, Ian (ed.), Readings in Creole Studies (Ghent, 1979), pp. 153–64;CrossRefGoogle ScholarSamarin, W. J., ‘Official language: the case of Lingala’, in Ammon, Ulrich (ed.), Status and Function of Languages and Language Varieties (Berlin, 1989), pp. 223–48;Google Scholar and Muwoko, N. O., ‘A propos du lingala scolaire’, in Annales aequatoria (Mhandaka), II, 1990, pp. 251–62.Google Scholar

³ In Bukavu during 1945–1950 a number of football teams were founded which had a distinctly tribal character. Bushi Sport (for the Bashi), Maniema Football Club (for those from that region), Unergi (meaning‘Union des Warega’), Kivu FC (for the Bakavu), etc. Even today, and despite a change of names, the club directors, as a rule, have to belong to the ‘tribe’ originally represented: Bushi Sport = Bukavu Dawa, Maniema FC = Bande Rouge, Unerga = Muungano [wa Warega], and Kivu FC = KFC. References find that it is often extremely difficult, if not downright impossible, to remain in control of such local football games.Google Scholar

⁴ Young, , The Politics of Cultural Pluralism, pp. 166–87.Google Scholar

⁵ See, for example, Van Overbergh, Cyriel, Les Bangala (Brussels, 1907), pp. 170ff.Google Scholar

⁶ Cited in Muwoko, loc. cit. p. 261.

⁷ Samarin, ‘Official Language’, p. 244.

⁸ Cf. Greenberg, Joseph H., ‘The Measurement of Linguistic Diversity’, in Language (Washington, DC), 32, 1956, pp. 109–15.Google Scholar

⁹ Cf. Goyvaerts, Didier, Naeyaert, Diederik, and Semikenke, Muzeyi, ‘Language and Education Policy in the Multilingual City of Bukavu’, in Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, 4, 1983, pp. 47–62.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

¹⁰ Goyvaerts, ‘Kibalele’, forthcoming.

¹¹ By using ‘code’ as a neutral label for any system of communication involving language, socio-linguists avoid having to commit themselves to such terms as ‘dialect’ ‘variety’, or ‘register’, which all have a special status in their theories.

¹² The other codes in Bukavu are seen to be ‘marked’ (i.e. exceptional, less normal, unexpected). Figure 1 shows that Kibalele (a Secret language) and the tribal languages are more marked than French, Indoubil, or Lingala.

¹³ Traditionally, Kisangani (formerly Stanleyville) is a Swahili town. However, since the end of the 1964 ‘Simba’ uprising, Lingala has been imposed in an almost natural way due to (i) the stationing (some might wish to use the term ‘invasion’) of regular troops in Kisangani, as well as (ii) the special attention which Mobutu devoted to the town during the first ten years of his reign. On the ‘Simba’ uprising,Google Scholar see Reed, David, III Days in Stanleyville (New York, 1965).Google Scholar

¹⁴ Initially, Lingala was looked upon merely as the language of vagrants and villains in cities like Mbujimayi, Lubumbashi, and even Bukavu, because it was used solely to issue orders and commands. In this respect some Zaïreans, especially from Tshiluba and Kikongo-speaking regions, are keen to point out that Lingala lacks a basic ‘politeness vocabulary’, since words for ‘please’, ‘thank you’, etc. have been borrowed from other languages.

¹⁵ Since 1989 Zaïre has II Provinces, including the three created by the sub-division of Kivu, namely: South Kivu (Bukavu), North Kivu (Goma), and Maniema (Kindu). Given these administrative divisions we may say that Swahili is spoken in Upper Zaïre, Shaba, Maniema, North and South Kivu; Lingala in Kinshasa and Equator Province; Kikongo in Lower Zaïre and Bandundu; and Tshiluba in Eastern and Western Kasai.

¹⁶ After being re-elected Head of State in 1984, President Mobutu, during a speech delivered to thank the population of Kinshasa, referred to himself as somebody who also was a Kinois, even though all his biographers say that he was born in Lisala, Equator Province.

¹⁷ See, for example, Yanga, Tshimpaka, ‘A Sociolinguistic Identification of Lingala’, Ph.D. dissertation, University of Texas, Austin, 1980.Google Scholar

¹⁸ Bokamba, Eyamba G., ‘Authenticity and the Choice of a National Language: the case of Zaïre’, in Studies in the Linguistic Sciences (Urbana, IL), 14, 1976, pp. 1–35.Google Scholar

¹⁹ Laitin, David D., Language Repertoires and State Construction in Africa (Cambridge, 1992), p. 149.CrossRefGoogle Scholar