An enunciative and rhetorical study of the "diplomatic 'we'" based on the case of Denis Sassou N'Guesso: Major speeches from the first seven-year term (2002–2009) Claudia Lemboumba Sassou N'Guesso

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.55595/dbv29v70CAR2026

Keywords:

This article analyzes the diplomatic

Abstract

This article analyzes the diplomatic "we" in speeches delivered by President Denis Sassou Nguesso (hereinafter DSN) during his first seven-year term (2002–2009). The study examines the use of the pronoun "we" and the possessives "our" (notre/nos), through which the individual speaker (the President) effaces himself in favor of one or more collective entities such as the Congolese people, Central Africa, the African continent, or the international community the contours of which vary depending on the speaking context. Adopting an enunciative approach, the text explores how the pronoun "we" constructs DSN’s ethos.

 

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Author Biography

  • Ngamountsika Edouard, University Marien Ngouabi

    Édouard Ngamountsika is a Full Professor (Professeur titulaire) accredited by CAMES in French Grammar and Linguistics, a teacher-researcher at Marien Ngouabi University (Republic of Congo), and holds the Habilitation to Direct Research (HDR) from Sorbonne Nouvelle University – Paris 3 (CNU 7). Born on November 10, 1976, in Kingoué, Congo-Brazzaville, he earned his doctorate in French language studies in 2007, with a dissertation on the morphosyntactic features of spoken French in the Republic of Congo. He serves as Head of the Master's Department at the Faculty of Letters, Arts and Human Sciences of his university, and has also headed the Francophone Digital Campus of the Agence Universitaire de la Francophonie (AUF) in Brazzaville, of which he is now the director. His research focuses on language sciences, French language didactics, and the compilation of oral and written corpora. A prolific author, his publications include Le discours rapporté dans l'oral spontané. L'exemple du français parlé en République du Congo (Presses universitaires de Bordeaux, 2013), and the edited volume La langue française dans l'espace francophone : pratiques, représentations, dynamique et didactique au XXIe siècle, co-edited with Venant Eloundou Eloundou and Claude Frey, in tribute to Professor Ambroise Jean-Marc Queffélec (Éditions des Archives contemporaines, 2016). He regularly directs and chairs doctoral thesis committees at Marien Ngouabi University, particularly in linguistics and stylistics applied to Congolese literature, and frequently takes part in literary and scholarly events in Brazzaville.

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References

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Published

2026-07-30

Conference Proceedings Volume

Vol. 5 No. 1 (2026): The rhetorical techniques of diplomatic language

Section

Articles

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How to Cite

An enunciative and rhetorical study of the "diplomatic ’we’" based on the case of Denis Sassou N’Guesso: Major speeches from the first seven-year term (2002–2009) Claudia Lemboumba Sassou N’Guesso. (2026). African Notebooks of Rhetoric , 5(1), 54-66. https://doi.org/10.55595/dbv29v70CAR2026

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