It was by any standards an extraordinary outburst by a wife asked for her husband’s views on an important issue.

It was perhaps also an intriguing insight into relations between Hillary and Bill Clinton, the former President, who is still basking in the success of his mercy mission to North Korea to free two imprisoned journalists.

When Mrs Clinton, at the end of a gruelling tour of Africa, was asked what her husband thought about a matter of state it was the final straw.

She said: “Wait. You want me to tell you what my husband thinks? My husband is not Secretary of State. I am.”

There was a collective intake of breath from the audience before she went on: “If you want my opinion, I will tell my opinion, I am not going to be channelling my husband.”

The outburst was later explained as a reply to a mistranslated question. It was not as diplomatically phrased as Mrs Clinton would be used to.

“What does Mr Clinton think, through the mouth of Mrs Clinton, about the weighty issue of Chinese trade in Africa?” she was asked at Kinshasa University. She stared incredulously at first, looking left and right, seeking reassurance that perhaps she had misheard before launching her furious riposte. After all her efforts to preach equality and improve the plight of women — the main purpose of her tour — here she was being asked a question by a young man as if she were a housewife.

It was claimed that the student, posing his question in French, meant to ask, or perhaps even did ask, what “Mr Obama” thought of China’s growing influence. After the session there was an effort to make amends. The young Congolese questioner was introduced to Mrs Clinton backstage, where he said that the — female — interpreter had made a mess of it. The transcript, however, appears to suggest that the translation was accurate.

Either way, Mrs Clinton’s reaction was out of character. Bill is renowned for having the temper while Hillary delivers stoicism. Her entourage suggested that she was suffering fatigue.

On this tour she has seen appalling squalor, toured refugee camps and shaken hands with vicious despots. Yesterday she was meeting rape victims among Congo’s refugees.

Speaking out

‘If I want to knock a story off the front page, I just change my hairstyle’ Newsweek, 1995

‘I don’t think they [critics] are piling on because I’m a woman. I think they’re piling on because I’m winning’ Campaigning, New Hampshire, 2007

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