avoir un deuxième bureau

To have a mistress

In Central African French, a man's 'deuxième bureau' is his mistress, a euphemism drawn from the world of offices and administration, where a 'second office' is where unofficial business happens.

Tout le quartier sait qu'il a un deuxième bureau de l'autre côté de la ville.

The whole neighbourhood knows he has a mistress on the other side of town.

One theory traces it to French military staff stationed in colonial Dakar, whose affairs with local women paralleled the secrecy of the 'Deuxième Bureau' (military intelligence). Another places it in the African bourgeoisie, where monogamous men kept an unofficial partner visited during office hours.

DRCCongoCameroonGabon