Essential French phrases

Hello, in Lingala. French is the official language and the language of paperwork; Lingala is the language of the street, the market, the music and the army, and opening in it changes how the next five minutes go.

'What's the news?' — the standard follow-up to mbote. The correct answer is 'sango te', no news, meaning everything is fine. Answering with actual news is a small joke everyone enjoys.

Thank you. Matondo is the Lingala word; melesi is merci worn smooth by a century of use. Both are correct, and mixing French and Lingala inside one sentence is not sloppiness here — it is how Kinshasa talks.

Good, fine, agreed. Does the work of 'okay', 'nice' and 'that's settled' all at once, and is the single most useful word to learn after mbote.

Brother or sister, extended to almost anyone — the guard, the seller, the driver, the stranger you are about to ask for directions. 'Ndeko, boni ?' is a whole opening move.

A white person, and by extension any obvious foreigner. Children shout it cheerfully; adults use it descriptively. It is not usually an insult, but it does mean you have been priced differently three seconds before you open your mouth.

The fast dance half of Congolese rumba — the part after the seben, when the guitars accelerate and everyone stands up. UNESCO inscribed Congolese rumba on its intangible heritage list in December 2021, jointly with Congo-Brazzaville.

The most famous article of a constitution that never contained it: fend for yourself. It is the national explanation for informal work, the second job, the arrangement, the workaround. When a Kinois says 'article quinze', they are telling you the state is not coming.

Literally 'to strike the stone' — to hustle, to grind out a living by whatever combination of jobs and arrangements works. The verb for what most of this city does for a living.

A rotating savings club: a group pays in every month and one member takes the whole pot, in turn. Colleagues will invite you into one. It is how large purchases get made in an economy where consumer credit barely exists.

'Let's go.' Also the useful ones around it: yaka (come), tokende (we're leaving), motuka (car), mbongo (money) and 'ekoki' — enough, that's the price, we're done haggling.

A neighbourhood open-air bar-restaurant — plastic chairs, grilled fish or chicken, crates of Primus, rumba loud enough to argue over. The nganda is the actual social institution of this city, far more than any restaurant.

Pounded cassava leaves stewed with palm oil, smoked fish and sometimes peanut. The national dish, eaten with chikwangue or fufu. Ordering pondu with your hands and no fuss reads as belonging.

Fish or meat wrapped in banana leaf with chilli and spice and steamed in the parcel. A liboke ya mbisi at a riverside nganda on a Sunday is the meal to ask for by name.