Métis/Mulâtre, Mulato, Mulatto, Negro, Moreno, Mundele Kaki, Black

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P1: GIG PB371A-06 PB371-Hintzen-v1.cls July 13, 2003 12:47 Char Count= 0 86 . Jean Muteba Rahier and the male colonizers developed relationships of sexual intimacy. These relations occurred between female “housekeepers” (the ménagères) and the male colonizers whom they were serving. These relationships developed within the context of the absence of European women—an absence legitimized by their supposed biological unsuitability for the African tropical climate (Habig 1944, 10–11; Stoler 2002). The practice of sexual relations between the male colonizers and the colonized African women was universal and widespread, particularly outside the most important urban centers of Leopoldville, Elisabethville, and Stanleyville. Once in the Congo, many agents of the state and many employees of private colonial companies looked for the companionship of African women, who provided them with housekeeping, affection, and sexual favors. Usually, Belgian men kept their ménagères with them until the end of their tour of duty. State employees and agents of private companies were contractually employed for a three-year term. They would normally leave at the end of the term, usually spending six months’ vacation in Belgium, after which they had the option of returning to the colony for another three-year tour of service. This could continue indefinitely. Upon their return to the colony, it was customary for them either to retain the same ménagère in their “employ” or to choose another from among the “available African women.” Sometimes, the ménagère would become pregnant. If she did, she was typically sent back to her village with a small “financial indemnity” and material compensation. Usually, the colonial agent would then choose a new, young African woman to replace her in his house and in his bed. The number of children born out of the widespread practice of sexual intimacy forced the colonial administration and the Belgian Parliament to debate what they termed the problème des métis, “the mulatto problem.” The issue was the treatment of the mulatto offspring of these unions: whether they should endure the same status as the rest of the Congolese population or whether they should be considered an intermediate group above the latter but beneath the Europeans. Attempts at resolving the dilemma produced a series of contradictory policies, resulting in considerable ambiguity. This ambiguity came to characterize the lives of the growing population of métis throughout the entire colonial period (Jeurissen 1999; Stoler 2002). Usually, the status of the métis depended upon the degree of recognition and acknowledgment of parenthood by their fathers. Those who were not recognized were often abandoned by their mothers because of the ostracism that they faced when returning to their native villages. The abandoned children usually ended up living in Catholic and Protestant missionary boarding schools, which were created for this purpose. So pervasive was the institution of the ménagère that it received considerable attention in Belgian colonial fiction (see, among others, Brom 1960;
P1: GIG PB371A-06 PB371-Hintzen-v1.cls July 13, 2003 12:47 Char Count= 0 Métis/Mulâtre, Mulato, Mulatto, Negro, Moreno, Mundele Kaki, Black, ... . 87 Gaillard 1935; Geeraerts 1995; Halen 1993). The sexuality of the female natives is one of the major preoccupations of these authors. A song entitled “La Négresse” (The Female Nigger), popular at the beginning of the twentieth century in the Belgian Congo, reports about the ménagères in these terms: Chacun, ici, tout haut plaisante Everybody here notoriously ridicules La noire, qu’on n’estime pas, The black woman who is not esteemed, Cependant beaucoup s’encontentent... However many are satisfiedwithher... Jeune, elle a de charmants appâts When young, she is charming bait La nuit chat blanc ou noir est gris At night, a white or black cat is grey Et l’plus malin se trouve pris. And even the smartest one swallows the bait. (...) (...) Petit à petit on s’habitue Little by little we get used to Acettefemmecouleurdejus... Thiswomanofadarkcolor... Il semble q’ell vous est connue Itseemsasifyoufinally know her Et son teint ne vous effraie plus. And her complexion stops scaring you. Vous lui trouvez même beaucoup d’chien, You even find her attractive, Le noir, en somm’ lui va fort bien. The black color, in fact, suits her well. (...) (...) Après trois ans, l’instant arrive After three years, the moment arrives Où le blanc doit s’en retourner, When the white man must go back home, Sa peine cachée est souvent vive; His hidden sorrow is often deep; Quant à la noire, sans s’étonner. As for the black woman, she is not surprised. Elle recompte dans son esprit She mentally counts and counts again L’argent don’t elleauraprofit. The money left that she’ll enjoy. (...) (...) My Mother was a Ménagère (Song “La Négresse,” in Anonymous 1922, 32–34) (My translation) The notion of the “intimate” is a descriptive marker of the familiar and the essential and of relations grounded in sex. Its Latin etymology (“innermost”), which it shares with its homograph “to intimate,” is more telling still. It is “sexual relations” and “familiarity” taken as an “indirect sign” of what is racially “innermost” that locates intimacy so strategically in imperial politics and why colonial administrations worried over its consequence and course. (Stoler 2002, 9) My father, whose first name is also Jean, is the oldest of seven children. When he was eleven years old, his father, a pharmacist in Brussels, died of cancer. This, combined with the economic crisis stemming from World War II, forced him to assume the responsibility of helping his mother to
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Métis/Mulâtre, Mulato, Mulatto, Negro, Moreno, Mundele Kaki, Black

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