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‘La Crise’: Lexicon and Ethos of the Second Economy in Lubumbashi

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 March 2011

Pierre Petit  and
Georges Mulumbwa Mutambwa
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Abstract

The second, or informal, economy developed later in Lubumbashi (DRC) than it had in Kinshasa. The Katanga metropolis, long protected from the process of informalization thanks to its large industrial complexes, suffered seriously from the crisis of the 1990s which led to the collapse of the mining industry and, more generally, of the whole salaried sector. After a brief history of the city and of the state of play of the informal economy, this article attempts a detailed analysis of this economy's lexicon. Expressions newly created from Swahili, French and other languages provide an excellent point of entry into the concrete practices of this sector, as well as the representations and morality on which such practices are based. Strongly associated with expressions of energy, cunning and conspiracy, the vocabulary emerging from the second economy bears witness to the appreciation of the ‘anti-hero’ and demonstrates the inception of a new moral economy in which the state and the powerful have become targets of legitimate predation based on the principle of redistribution.

Résumé

L'économie seconde ou informelle s'est développée avec quelque retard à Lubumbashi (RDC), si l'on compare cette situation à celle de Kinshasa. Longtemps protégée de ce processus grâce à la présence de grands complexes industriels, la métropole katangaise a subi de plein fouet les effets de la crise des années 1990, qui virent l'effondrement de l'industrie minière et plus généralement de tout le secteur salarié. Après un bref historique de la ville et un état des lieux de l'économie informelle, cet article entame l'analyse détaillée du lexique lié à cette dernière. Les expressions nouvellement créées au départ du swahili, du français et d'autres langues offrent un excellent mode d'accès aux pratiques concrètes de ce secteur, ainsi qu'aux représentations et à la morale qui les fondent. Fortement associé aux registres de l'énergie, de la ruse et de la complicité, le vocabulaire émergent de l'économie seconde témoigne de la valorisation du ‘héros malin’ et révèle l'apparition d'une nouvelle économie morale, dans laquelle l'Etat et les puissants sont devenus les cibles d'une prédation légitimée par le principe de redistribution.

Type
Articles
Information
Africa , Volume 75 , Issue 4 , November 2005 , pp. 467 - 487
Copyright
Copyright © International African Institute 2005

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