Macaca (term)

This article is about the racial slur. For the monkey, see Macaque.

Macaca is a pejorative epithet used by francophone colonialists in Central Africa's Belgian Congo for the native population. It may be derived from the name of the genus comprising macaque monkeys. The word macaque has also been used as a racial slur. The macaque's genus name, Macaca, is a latinization of the Bantu (Kongo) ma-kako, meaning "monkey".

In the United States, the term was at the center of a controversy during the 2006 United States Senate election in Virginia when it was used by the Republican incumbent, George Allen. Relating to the Allen controversy, "macaca" was named the most politically incorrect word of 2006 by Global Language Monitor, a nonprofit group that studies word usage. The word was also a finalist for the American Dialect Society "Word of the Year" that same year.

Related words

• The first European settlers in the Congo Free State derogatively referred to natives as macaques, according to an anonymous Italian account.
• Later, in the Belgian Congo, colonial whites continued to call Africans macaques and insist that they had only recently come down from trees. The term sale macaque (dirty macaque) was occasionally used as an insult.
• The word (spelled makaak in Dutch or macaque in French) is occasionally used in Belgium (both in Flanders and in Wallonia) as a racial slur, referring not to Congolese but to Moroccan or other North African immigrants or their descendants.
• In the ceremony in 1960 in which Congo gained its independence from Belgium, Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba gave a speech accusing Belgian King Baudouin of presiding over "a regime of injustice, suppression, and exploitation" before ending "We are no longer your macaques", as the Congolese in the audience rose to their feet cheering.
• In the Adventures of Tintin written by Belgian writer-artist Hergé, Captain Haddock uses the term macaque as an insult, along with other random terms.
• In a 1994 essay, literary scholar Patrick Colm Hogan discussed the racist symbolism surrounding the name Makak, the protagonist in Derek Walcott's 1967 play Dream on Monkey Mountain.
• English gossip columnist Taki Theodoracopulos referred to Bianca Jagger, who is of Nicaraguan origin, as macaca mulatta in 1996. Theodoracopulos has frequently used racial slurs in his published work.. Note that Macaca mulatta is the scientific name for the Rhesus monkey.
• Famous Brazilian cangaceiro (bandit) and folk hero Lampião used the Portuguese variant macacos (plural) to refer to government soldiers (also called volantes, see Cangaço). The volantes were called monkeys because of their brown suits and their willingness to obey their bosses.
• The photographer Marc Garanger recounts the use of Macaque as a slur against Algerian women in a 1990 issue of Aperture magazine.

2006 Virginia Senate race

File:Allentaunting.png

Former U.S. Senator George Allen points to Webb aide S.R. Sidarth, referring to him as "Macaca."

Main article: United States Senate election in Virginia, 2006 § Allen's Macaca controversy

The failed re-election campaign of Republican U.S. Senator George Allen of Virginia generated much controversy after he used the word macaca in reference to an Indian American. On August 11, 2006, at a campaign stop in Breaks, Virginia, near the Kentucky border, George Allen twice used the word macaca to refer to S. R. Sidarth, who was filming the event as a "tracker" for the opposing Jim Webb campaign. Prior to this, the term was almost completely unknown in the U.S.

This fellow here over here with the yellow shirt, Macaca, or whatever his name is. He's with my opponent... Lets give a welcome to Macaca, here. Welcome to America and the real world of Virginia.

— George Allen

Sidarth is of Indian ancestry, but was born and raised in Fairfax County, Virginia, while Allen is originally from Whittier, California. Allen's mother, born Henrietta Lumbroso, is of French Tunisian descent and some commentators have suggested that she may have learned the pejorative during her childhood and introduced it to her son. Even though Allen claimed that he made up the word and said that he did not understand its derogatory meaning, it led to a media outcry. After a two-week outpour of negative publicity, Allen publicly apologized for his statement and asserted that he in no way intended those words to be offensive. The term "Macacawitz," referring to the September 2006 discovery of Allen's Jewish heritage was coined by neo-conservative pundit John Podhoretz and was widely used afterwards. A campaign staffer for Democratic Congressional candidate Al Weed used the phrase and was fired for her comment.

Many believe that the use of this epithet was directly related to the eventual loss of a Senate seat Allen was widely expected to retain.

The impact of Allen's use of the word on his loss and the subsequent Democratic Party takeover of the U.S. Senate has been referred to by bloggers The Macacalypse. Some members of the Indian American community saw Allen's insult, and the massive backlash against him, as "a cultural turning point" demonstrating the newfound confidence of Indian-born U.S. citizens.

The racially-tinged fallout over the Macaca incident led to George Allen, once considered a leading prospect for the 2008 GOP presidential nomination, being no longer considered a viable candidate in the 2008 Presidential election, either as president or vice president. Allen later declared, after the loss of his Senate seat that he had no intention of seeking the presidency.

See also

• Macacawitz

External links

• Video of the George Allen (R) slur at YouTube
• Macaca Named Top Politically Incorrect Term of 2006 from Global Language Monitor
• Republicans try to avoid future Macaca moments from www.sajaforum.org