Heads up to anyone that might not know, but you shouldn’t say “the Congo”, because referring to it that was is a remnant of colonialism. Instead, just say Congo. E.g. “there’s a war in Congo”.
I realise that I’m being peak buzzkill politically correct leftie here, but I only learned this relatively recently, and I want to help out others like me. It still sounds weird to me to say “Congo” rather than “the Congo”, but that’s part of why it feels important to make the effort to change
For those wondering, Xinjiang, the province controlled by China where the Uyghurs are is named similarly. It literally means “new frontier” in Mandarin.
Many Uyghurs prefer the name East Turkestan. (But ofc thats heavily repressed by the CCP).
There’s no such thing as “The” in both Russian and Ukrainian, but what I’ve seen happen is pro-russian people intentionally saying “on (the) Ukraine” (as if “on the edge”) instead of “in Ukraine” to piss people off.
Someone has already replied to you clarifying that the war is in DR Congo, so I’m going to take a different angle in my reply.
It is true that the full names of the countries include the word “the”, for both the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Republic of the Congo. However, this doesn’t mean that including “the” when shortening it is inoffensive. Context is a part of how words carry meaning, and connotations are a part of that.
For many, “the Congo” evokes the period when it was a Belgian colony, where the Congolese faced horrific treatment, even compared to other colonialist regimes of the past. Arguably, it’s still suffering from the effects of colonialism, given that there are many powers extracting the country’s abundant natural resources, leading to ongoing economic exploitation of the Congolese.
To put it simply, “the Congo” has bad vibes attached to it, in a way that “Democratic Republic of Congo” doesn’t. This is just how language works. Taking a phrase and adding new words to it doesn’t just modify the meaning of the existing phrase; it can create an entirely new phrase that is able to exist independently of its starting point (especially if it goes on to be used regularly in a particular context, such as with a country’s official name). Meaning being built up like this also means that shortening a phrase may require more than just straightforwardly chopping it up into parts. It wouldn’t make sense to short the “United Kingdom” to just “Kingdom”, because that’s not one of the accepted shortened names for that country.
I stopped using “the Congo” when a Congolese person told me that just “Congo” was preferred. Obviously they don’t speak for the entirety of their country, but I didn’t see any purpose in digging my heels in against a reasonable preference from the only Congolese person I’ve met— certainly their word weighs more than my habits. Since then, I’ve seen it mentioned a few times “Congo” is the preferred term for the shortened country name. Convention can take a while to solidify when a country is enduring war and various kinds of economic exploitation, so this isn’t universal yet. However, if we’re able to recognise which way the wind is blowing in this respect, then we have the opportunity to be courteous and respect people’s self determination.
Firstly, I assumed we were talking about the Republic of the Congo because I’ve never seen someone refer to the DRC as “the Congo.” So my bad for that. If people from either Congo consider “the Congo” problematic, then fair enough, I understand what you’re saying and I can try to change. I had always thought it was different from Ukraine in that “the” was intentionally left in the official name, similarly to the Gambia - which is also named after a river.
Heads up to anyone that might not know, but you shouldn’t say “the Congo”, because referring to it that was is a remnant of colonialism. Instead, just say Congo. E.g. “there’s a war in Congo”.
I realise that I’m being peak buzzkill politically correct leftie here, but I only learned this relatively recently, and I want to help out others like me. It still sounds weird to me to say “Congo” rather than “the Congo”, but that’s part of why it feels important to make the effort to change
i personally say:
The Congo/Congo/Congo Republic 🇨🇬
DRC/The DRC/Democratic Congo 🇨🇩
Is this why it’s referred to as Ukraine now and not “the Ukraine”?
Yep, same idea.
Similar for
The Ukrainewhich means “the frontier” in Russian and evokes the history of Muscovite imperialism over their frontier statesThe word “Ukraine” itself doesn’t mean anything in russian nor ukrainian, it’s just a name for a state
The Ukrainian embassy says that
The Ukraineis both grammatically and politically incorrect. 🤷🏻♀️but of course. I never said otherwise. it’s your words about it meaning “frontier” in russian is what i was debating, please read my comment again.
For those wondering, Xinjiang, the province controlled by China where the Uyghurs are is named similarly. It literally means “new frontier” in Mandarin.
Many Uyghurs prefer the name East Turkestan. (But ofc thats heavily repressed by the CCP).
There’s no such thing as “The” in both Russian and Ukrainian, but what I’ve seen happen is pro-russian people intentionally saying “on (the) Ukraine” (as if “on the edge”) instead of “in Ukraine” to piss people off.
Huh. TIL Slavic languages don’t have a definite article.
So it’s this grammatical mess of Germanic definite articles attached to a Slavic word and the outcome is politically fraught
I can’t speak to all Slavic languages but in mine it’s concatenated to the subject rather than being its own word
The official name of the country is “Republic of the Congo.” It is fine to shorten that to “The Congo.”
Someone has already replied to you clarifying that the war is in DR Congo, so I’m going to take a different angle in my reply.
It is true that the full names of the countries include the word “the”, for both the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Republic of the Congo. However, this doesn’t mean that including “the” when shortening it is inoffensive. Context is a part of how words carry meaning, and connotations are a part of that.
For many, “the Congo” evokes the period when it was a Belgian colony, where the Congolese faced horrific treatment, even compared to other colonialist regimes of the past. Arguably, it’s still suffering from the effects of colonialism, given that there are many powers extracting the country’s abundant natural resources, leading to ongoing economic exploitation of the Congolese.
To put it simply, “the Congo” has bad vibes attached to it, in a way that “Democratic Republic of Congo” doesn’t. This is just how language works. Taking a phrase and adding new words to it doesn’t just modify the meaning of the existing phrase; it can create an entirely new phrase that is able to exist independently of its starting point (especially if it goes on to be used regularly in a particular context, such as with a country’s official name). Meaning being built up like this also means that shortening a phrase may require more than just straightforwardly chopping it up into parts. It wouldn’t make sense to short the “United Kingdom” to just “Kingdom”, because that’s not one of the accepted shortened names for that country.
I stopped using “the Congo” when a Congolese person told me that just “Congo” was preferred. Obviously they don’t speak for the entirety of their country, but I didn’t see any purpose in digging my heels in against a reasonable preference from the only Congolese person I’ve met— certainly their word weighs more than my habits. Since then, I’ve seen it mentioned a few times “Congo” is the preferred term for the shortened country name. Convention can take a while to solidify when a country is enduring war and various kinds of economic exploitation, so this isn’t universal yet. However, if we’re able to recognise which way the wind is blowing in this respect, then we have the opportunity to be courteous and respect people’s self determination.
Firstly, I assumed we were talking about the Republic of the Congo because I’ve never seen someone refer to the DRC as “the Congo.” So my bad for that. If people from either Congo consider “the Congo” problematic, then fair enough, I understand what you’re saying and I can try to change. I had always thought it was different from Ukraine in that “the” was intentionally left in the official name, similarly to the Gambia - which is also named after a river.
No. The war is going on in the DRC. Democratic republic of the congo.
The republic of Congo is on the other side of the Congo and Ubangi river.
(Yes there are two Congos).
My bad, I’ve never seen someone call the DRC “the Congo” and I missed the broader context there.
Which one though?