Eugénie Ntumba
Kinshasa RTVS1 Anchor and Reporter
“That fuckwhat whore who just called me…” (MP Yves Kisombe)
Photo: Facebook Page of Eugénie Ntumba
Red Eye Removal with Adobe PSE by Alex Engwete
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Context:
MP Yves Kisombe was kicked out of the MLC a few years ago for not toeing the party line at the National Assembly. Since then, though tagged as an independent MP at the National Assembly, Yves Kisombe has been very close to the ruling Presidential Majority (MP). Kisombe is from an old big and rich trading family of Kinshasa, originally from the Bas-Congo Province. Handsome and quick-witted (he’s a lawyer), Kisombe is a darling of Kinshasa radio and TV political shows where he’s often featured at the center of the constant media crossfires between the ruling Presidential Majority and opposition representatives. Radio Télévision Station 1 (RTVS1) is owned by Prime Minister Adolphe Muzito.
On Wednesday, August 17, 2011, RTVS1 Anchor and Reporter Eugénie Ntumba called MP Yves Kisombe to get his reaction to a statement made by unspecified opposition politicians. Kisombe didn’t like the aggressive and “impolite” manners of Eugénie Ntumba, and started to give her lessons of etiquette. Ntumba then hanged up on Kisombe. Angry at being hung up on the phone, Kisombe, whose phone has an incoming call reader display, found out that the phone call originated from the editorial offices of RTVS1. He then dialed back RTVS1 but couldn’t get through to Eugénie Ntumba. His call was instead picked up by another woman, whom I refer to in the transcript as a “Receptionist.” Unbeknownst to Kisombe, his phone call was being recorded by RTVS1.
The phone conversation below is important at many levels. It illustrates the fact that patriarchal attitudes (or male dominance) and sexism are still well entrenched in Congolese society even among the elite who’ve been educated in the West: Kisombe was educated in Belgium. (Anecdotally, the current Deputy Prime Minister Adolphe Lumanu, then Kabila’s chief of staff, was accused in 2010 of fondling Canadian Ambassador Sigrid Anna Johnson in his office. When confronted, Lumanu said it was the Ambassador who had attempted to turn him on! He soon was dismissed as the president’s chief of staff.) It also shows that “injurologie” (see Vocabulary below) is the defining character of Congolese politicians (it could actually be a cultural trait, as Congolese, particularly Lingala-speakers, are quarrelsome and quick to insult people). And, lastly, the audio is a mine of data for Linguistic Anthropology. In the transcription of the phone conversation, I was made aware of the way we, Congolese, switch from French to Lingala (or any other Congolese languages for that matter) and vice versa, often in the short span of one sentence. To help the reader grasp this phenomenon, I put in the transcript at the beginning of every utterance in these two languages either (L) or (F) to indicate that the utterance was in Lingala or French.
Below is the original audio of the phone conversation, followed by my transcript of the conversation.
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Vocabulary:Injurologue: “A Congolese neologism to describe politicians and TV pundits specialized in heaping [insults] and other verbal abuses upon each other”--African Cities Reader I
Maman: Mom or Lady or Ma'am (here the latter)
Papa: Dad or Sir (here, the latter)
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AUDIO:
Honorable Yves Kisombe, 17 août 2011 by gabas1090
TRANSCRIPT:
YK: ... (F) This isn’t the postal service of the Prime Minister, do you understand, huh? (L) You understand? (F) I’ll come down there and throw you out of there like… (L) I’d even come out there and beat the shit out of you! (F) I’m not buddy buddy with you people. (L) I’m not your comrade.
RECEPTIONIST: Hmm!
YK: (F) Do you understand? (L) I’m not your comrade. (F) I’m an authority of the country, (L) you hear? (F) That fuckwhat whore who just called me, (L) who’d been picked up God knows from what trash, (F) she talks to me in… Instead of first addressing me properly, by telling me what she wants, she goes like, (mimicking the tone of Eugénie Ntumba), “Hello, Honorable,” (L) she starts right away, (F) “the opposition had issued a statement…” (L) I tell her, “But hold on, Maman, how can you start asking me questions just like that? (F) without first telling me why you’re calling me, what you want, huh? ” (L) She tells me, “Huh, sorry, huh…” I ask her… She starts out, (F) “In fact, I called you because I wanted to ask you a few questions… So, the opposition…” (L) I say, (F), “But, Maman, you want to ask me questions, (L) you are a journalist…,” are you following me?
RECEPTIONIST: (L) I’m following, Papa… I’m following…
YK: (F) Listen, it’s in your best interest to follow me… Because I’m coming down there; if you’re covering up for this girl, you’ll have to deal with me. (L) You hear? (F) Enough is enough! (L) I’m not your pal. There’s another girl who dissed me a while back… (F) I’m not a friend of you people! (L) You hear? I got younger siblings, baby brothers, and my pals who’d not wink at fuckwhat harlots lacking respect (L) for me! You hear? Huh?... (F) That girl hangs up in my face! (L) Does that phone belong to her father or her mother?
RECEPTIONIST: Sorry, Honorable…
YK: (F) Listen to me! Imbecile! (L) You hear? I’m coming down there to show you (F) that I’m a Kisombe, you understand? (F) You and the other fuckwhat, you’re no longer going to work there! You hear, huh? Imbecile! She’s calling, asking me questions… I’m coming down there, I’ll find out her name. You hear? Imbecile! (L) Her mother’s cunt! Animal! (F) Imbecile! Are you kidding with me? Huh?
RECEPTIONIST: (Undecipherable)
YK: (F) Find that girl for me, I’m telling you! It’s an order! Imbecile! (L) Animal!
RECEPTIONIST: (Undecipherable)
YK: (F) Then I call back to point that out to her, (L) she doesn’t answer the phone. (F) Imbecile! (L) You people think I’m your friend?
RECEPTIONIST: (Undecipherable)
YK: (L) Did I call her?
RECEPTIONIST: (Undecipherable)
YK: Huh? Huh? (F) I see here the number of the editorial offices of RTVS1 that she called from. She got the balls of hanging up in my face! From the phone of the editorial offices! Do you understand that? Hullo?
RECEPTIONIST: Hullo, Papa. (F) I’m listening to you…
YK: (F) Tell me the name of that whore! (L) You hear?
RECEPTIONIST: (Undecipherable)
YK: (F) Who?
RECEPTIONIST: (F) I just got in...
YK: (F) Imbecile! (L) I’m coming down there to… You’re the one who’d feel the pain on your body. You hear? (F) I tell you… what’s the name of that bitch who’d dared to disrespect me like that on the phone?
RECEPTIONIST: (Undecipherable)
YK: Huh?
RECEPTIONIST: (Undecipherable)
YK: (F) Listen, if you want to feel my wrath when I come down over there, (L) you’ll find out, (F) and I’ll track her down, that fuckwhat imbecile! She calls me, she asks me questions on the phone, and she has the gall of hanging up in my face. And when I call back, she doesn’t pick up the phone. And she called from the office phone line!... (L) Are you listening? … Hullo?
RECEPTIONIST: (Noises of footsteps)
YK: Hullo?
RECEPTIONIST: Hullo...
RECEPTIONIST: (Background conversation)
YK: (F) No! What the fuck is this?
RECEPTIONIST: (F) But I’m listening to you, don’t I? (Undecipherable background conversation)
YK: (F) And I hope you’re not playing wise-ass with me by recording me, huh?
RECEPTIONIST: I…
YK: Hullo?
RECEPTIONIST: (Undecipherable)
YK: No, no!
RECEPTIONIST: (Undecipherable)… (F) You’re an Honorable … (Indecipherable)
YK: (F) Oh, yeah!... Can you hear the girls who are around me here?
RECEPTIONIST: (Undecipherable)
YK: (L) I’m coming down there.
RECEPTIONIST: (Undecipherable)
YK: (L) This girl who calls me and starts right away by asking me questions...
RECEPTIONIST: (Undecipherable)
YK: (F) Imbecile! (L) Animal! (F) You’re impolite!
RECEPTIONIST: (Undecipherable)
YK: Huh?
RECEPTIONIST: (Undecipherable)
YK: (L) I am saying, huh? Hullo!
RECEPTIONIST: (F) Yes.
YK: (F) Are you listening? I’m talking right now to young ladies who works in the cabinet of the Prime Minister, (L) are you listening?, (F) and who are shocked that someone from RSTV1 without… and who goes about right away asking me questions…
RECEPTIONIST: (Undecipherable)
YK: (L) Are you listening?
RECEPTIONIST: (Undecipherable)
YK: Huh? (F) Tell me, who is the girl who called me?
RECEPTIONIST: (Bursts of laughter)
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