The linguistic taboo of poisoning in Kivu Swahili
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.18716/ojs/the_mouth.2852Abstract
One of the aftereffects of migration waves from Rwanda into the Congo was an increasing occurrence of poisoning cases in Goma, the major city and provincial capital of North Kivu. Narratives around the poison are, however, only shared among close friends or family members – and never publicly: Karuho talk is perceived as strictly taboo in eastern Congolese culture. In my paper, I am mostly interested in exploring the linguistic strategies with which speakers of Kivu Swahili (based in Goma) avoid face-loss and social stigmatization by using euphemistic strategies that are – in general only among close friends or family members – carefully employed. Moreover, I intend to show the power of taboo words, which blur the boundary between toxic substances and linguistic practices; revealing that threats and hear-say statements may also have severe psychosomatic effects on their addressees, without any actual substance being involved.
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