Paper short abstract:

Lingala is originally exogenous to the city of Goma yet has acquired a role of importance -- even to the point of life-saving -- in the militarised region of the city. This is due to indexicalizations of the language in the context of struggles over 'autochtony' and belonging.

Paper long abstract:

Lingala, spoken in the western and northern DRCongo, is originally exogenous to the area of Goma, a city in the extreme eastern parts. Over the last decades the language has assumed a place and role of importance in the city. Yet, this 'place and role' cannot simply be accounted for mechanically, i.e. by reference to migrations of Lingala-speaking Congolese to the east. Rather, attention must be devoted to indexical appropriations of Lingala by Goma residents, which are to be understood in the context of ideologies of "autochthony," intertwined with the military-political volatility of the Rwandan-Congolese borderland. "True" Congolese are pit against "Rwandese intruders". In the military-political ecology the cross-border language (Kiswahili) is no longer suitable for symbolizing one's national, Congolese origins. The emergence of autochthony as the primary frame of reference results in a form of indexicality centered around a language originally exogenous to the area, i.e. Lingala. For Goma residents, being able to speak a few words in Lingala indicates that you are connected to the interior and to the capital Kinshasa in particular, and as such it eliminates uncertainty concerning your Congolité. The form of indexical appropriation sketched here is specific to the Rwandan-Congolese borderland, but interacts with, and reinforces, other second-order reinterpretations of Lingala found elsewhere on Congolese territory, such as the indexing of toughness (based on Lingala's close association with the military) and the indexing of urban sophistication and modernity (based on its association with the capital Kinshasa).