Talk:Authenticité (Zaire)

Does anyone else find the translation "Invincible warrior: cock who leaves no chick contact" incedibly funny?

Well, of course it turned into a cult of personality, that's what the whole charade was to begin with.

Renaming

As stated, personal names had to be authentic - foreign names were banned. The interesting thing was the development of "ex-names" - an almost underground movement. During the two years I spent in Shaba (once and again Katanga), everyone had an ex-name, even those born after the authenticity campaign was put into effect. Mail for my students would be addressed "Ilunga Mpanga (ex-Werner)", or "Kabedi Kapinga (ex-Yvette)". Among friends the ex-names were used as one might use a nickname, though never on formal occasions. I was amused to note the extension in a few cases of ex-names to geographical features.

The geographical authenticity campaign was done in a fanatical manner. Not only did major towns and cities receive "authentic names": Stanleyville became Kisangani; Luluabourg, Kananga; Jadotville, Likasi; Baudouinville, Moba; Cocquihatville, Mbandaka; and so on. Even minor placenames. But there were a few features that did not have authentic names - or one could not be found or agreed on. In late 1984, a couple of months before I left Zaire, I was in the Zone Commissioner's office for the Haut-Lomami Sous-Région, in Kamina, and while awaiting my turn to see the gentleman, noted a brand new official large scale map of Zaire covering much of one wall. Being a map freak, I pored over it. Some 150km west of where I lived was a low range of hills formerly known as "Les Monts Hakonssen". Apparently no authentic name had been found in the 11 years since authenticity was mandated, and since it was illegal for them to bear a foreign name, this official map labelled them "Les Monts ex-Hakonssen"! Ptilinopus (talk) 13:18, 7 April 2010 (UTC)