Kimbanguism 100 Years On: Interdisciplinary Essays on a Socio-Cultural Movement (African Histories and Modernities) 3031370309, 9783031370304

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AFRICAN HISTORIES AND MODERNITIES

Kimbanguism 100 Years On

Interdisciplinary Essays on a Socio-Cultural Movement Adrien Nginamau Ngudiankama

African Histories and Modernities Series Editors

Toyin Falola The University of Texas at Austin Austin, TX, USA Matthew M. Heaton Virginia Tech Blacksburg, VA, USA

This book series serves as a scholarly forum on African contributions to and negotiations of diverse modernities over time and space, with a particular emphasis on historical developments. Specifically, it aims to refute the hegemonic conception of a singular modernity, Western in origin, spreading out to encompass the globe over the last several decades. Indeed, rather than reinforcing conceptual boundaries or parameters, the series instead looks to receive and respond to changing perspectives on an important but inherently nebulous idea, deliberately creating a space in which multiple modernities can interact, overlap, and conflict. While privileging works that emphasize historical change over time, the series will also feature scholarship that blurs the lines between the historical and the contemporary, recognizing the ways in which our changing understandings of modernity in the present have the capacity to affect the way we think about African and global histories. Editorial Board Akintunde Akinyemi, Literature, University of Florida, Gainesville, USA Malami Buba, African Studies, Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, Yongin, South Korea Emmanuel Mbah, History, CUNY, College of Staten Island, USA Insa Nolte, History, University of Birmingham, USA Shadrack Wanjala Nasong’o, International Studies, Rhodes College, USA Samuel Oloruntoba, Political Science, TMALI, University of South Africa, South Africa Bridget Teboh, History, University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, USA

Adrien Nginamau Ngudiankama Editor

Kimbanguism 100 Years On Interdisciplinary Essays on a Socio-Cultural Movement

Editor Adrien Nginamau Ngudiankama Kongo Academy Silver Spring, MD, USA

ISSN 2634-5773     ISSN 2634-5781 (electronic) African Histories and Modernities ISBN 978-3-031-37030-4    ISBN 978-3-031-37031-1 (eBook) https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-37031-1 © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors, and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, expressed or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Switzerland AG. The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland Paper in this product is recyclable.

Foreword

Simon Kimbangu is inextricably linked to Kongo studies and the Kongo cultural space. Further, the name sheds light on the history of African political and cultural resistance, both long term and contemporary. Since 1921, several studies have been published every year about the church that grew out of his movement. Researchers are attracted to its theological dimension, on the one hand, and its social and political achievements, on the other. With its modest form, this book adds a novelty to this magnificent library. This publication commemorates the birth of Kimbanguism and presents the reflections of those now recognized as icons in Kongo studies since the twentieth century. This book is the result of a dialogue between scholars, experts, and thinkers of several generations. Each chapter attests to this exchange of experiences, and their coming together offers a vivid glimpse of how Kongo studies continue to thrive and fertilize the understanding of African history. This book, written in a pleasant and precise style, opens up stimulating perspectives through the evocation of Simon Kimbangu, a vibrant tribute to Kongo culture. It also invites readers to delve into a well-documented, enjoyable, and enlightening investigation of this critical socio-religious movement in the world’s history. Aubervilliers, France

Remy Bazenguissa-Ganga

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Acknowledgments

The idea to organize this symposium about Simon Kimbangu came to me after talking with MacGaffey and Janzen, who told me how important it is for Kongo youth to become familiar with Kongo studies. Scholars have demonstrated beyond a doubt that Kongo is historically one of the major chapters of African history. The centennial of Simon Kimbangu’s arrest seemed like the ideal time to launch such a project. Kongo Academy was established as a virtual global scholarly village for students of Kongo cultures, and those interested in Kongo cultures, to promote solidarity and mutual intellectual enrichment. As a result, this book is a testament to common interests as it brings together scholars from different disciplines to discuss Kongo sociocultural movements and phenomena. The book is the outcome of the Kongo Academy’s first symposium, which took place from May 28 to May 29, 2021, commemorating Simon Kimbangu’s arrest centennial. Thank you to all contributors. They include Mr. Diansangu Lukengo (UK), Professor Ramon Sarro (UK), Professor C. Didier Gondola (USA), Dr. Aurelien Mukoko (France), Professor Ruy L. Blanes (Sweden), Rev. Daniel Diakanwa (USA), Professor Bernard Coyault (Belgium), Dr. Benjamin Simon (Switzerland), Emeritus Professor Wyatt MacGaffey (USA), Mr. Federico Carducci (Switzerland), Professor Tata Nkisi Katuvanjesi (Bresil), Mr. Jose Lusende (USA), Dr. Sarah Demart (Belgium), Dr. Joana Santos (Portugal), Dr. Ana Stela Cunha (Portugal), Ms. Danielle Diakanwa (USA), Professor John K. Thornton (USA), and Emeritus Professor John M. Janzen (USA). vii

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

A symposium like this would not have been possible without the contributions of those who worked behind the scenes. I am grateful to One Diez, a Congolese firm that handled the technical aspects of the symposium. Also extending my gratitude is my wife Gloria Mangoni, who helped me plan and coordinate the event. Kongo Academy is a river that people swim in as they share, build, and foster their interest in Kongo studies. All of us are needed for Kongo Academy to flourish. For we say: Maza makumba nga, matadi mena mo—A river with beautiful waves indicates that it is full of stones or rocks. Yenge (Peace) Kongo Academy, Founder & Coordinator

Adrien Nginamau Ngudiankama, MPhil., PhD.

Contents

Introduction  1 Ramon Sarró Part I The Cultural Background of the Kimbanguist Movement   5 Rethinking D. Beatriz Kimpa Vita for Contemporary Times  7 John K. Thornton Part II A Religious Movement Trajectory  27  Personal Experiences of Kimbanguism as It Was (1964–1980) 29 Wyatt MacGaffey  The Influence of the Salvation Army on the Followers of Simon Kimbangu 41 Daniel Diakanwa  The Relations Between the Kimbanguist and the World Council of Churches: Past and Present 47 Benjamin Simon

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 Kimbanguist Diaspora in the West 73 Aurélien Mokoko Gampiot  Blackness Politics in Congolese Churches: On the Genealogy of Simon Kimbangu Prophetism Within the Congolese Revival Movement 85 Sarah Demart Part III Some Contemporary Political Religious Appropriations  99  “Sung Resistance” in Simon Kimbangu’s Movement (1921) and Some of Its Contemporary Legacies101 Bernard Coyault  The Appropriation of Simon Kimbangu in Current African Religious and Political Discourses131 Adrien Nginamau Ngudiankama Part IV Kongo Prophetism and the Legacy of Slavery: A Thought 147 The Kongo Tradition of Renewal: Thoughts on Future Research149 John M. Janzen Index165

Notes on Contributors

Bernard Coyault  is Professor of Anthropology of Religion and Global Christianity at Faculté Universitaire de Théologie Protestante in Brussels and Al Mowafaqa Institute in Rabat (Morocco). He is an anthropologist with a PhD from the École des hautes études en sciences sociales (EHESS, Paris) and a researcher affiliated with the Institut des mondes africains (IMAF), Paris. He has conducted research since 2002 in Congo Brazzaville on a protestant prophetic movement (1947s Nsikumusu movement) and other contemporary Kongo prophetisms (like the Nsilulu Movement of Rev Pastor Ntumi, or Louzolo Amour). His other research fields were in Morocco (2012–2018) among Migrant church networks and also Ethiopia (2019–2020) where he studied religious pluralism in a popular neighborhood of Addis Abeba. He published various articles and chapters (with two forthcoming monographs) on these subjects including also Congolese religious networks in France, and recently two critical biographies on the Swedish missionary-­orientated scholars in Kongo culture, Karl Edvard Laman and Efraim Andersson. Sarah  Demart holds a PhD in Sociology from the universities of Toulouse-le Mirail, France and Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium. Originally, her field of expertise was African migration and diasporas that are racialized as “Black” in Belgium. She has extensively published on issues related to religious transnationalism, political activism, and postcolonial identities and societies in Francophone Europe. xi

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In 2017, her book Les territoires de la délivrance- Le Réveil congolais en situation postcoloniale, RDC et diaspora resulting from her thesis approaches the Congolese Revival in a multidimensional and socio-historical perspective. In particular, she questions the relationship of continuity and rupture of the revival movements with anti-colonial prophecies. Her current research focuses on the intersection of race, gender, and HIV. In this context, she is conducting action research with Congoleseled churches that focuses on the conditions of possibility for the implementation of a sexual health promotion program within Afro-Belgian churches. Daniel Diakanwa  worked for The Salvation Army for over 35 years in different capacities. He has served as the pastor of two Salvation Army multicultural churches in New Rochelle, NY (2008–2019) and Brooklyn, NY (2001–2004). He has served as an African Heritage Consultant and as the Cross-cultural Ministries Bureau Director at the Salvation Army Eastern Regional Headquarters (1991–2002). He has served as a Chaplain for The Salvation Army Family Shelter in Brooklyn, New  York (2004–2006), as a Salvation Army Social Worker in Harlem and Queens, New York (1984–1991), and as a part-time counselor for The Salvation Army Adult Rehabilitation Centers in the Bronx, New York (1991), and Mount Vernon, New York (2000–2001). Daniel has a B.A. from Nyack College, an M.P.S. from Alliance Theological Seminary, an M.P.A. from CUNY-Bernard Baruch College, and a D.Min. from North Central Theological Seminary. John M. Janzen  is Professor Emeritus in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Kansas. He has been a leading figure on issues of health, illness, and healing in Southern and Central Africa since the 1960s and has dedicated much of his career to providing a better understanding of African society. Janzen’s knowledge of the Kikongo language and his intermittent visits to the lower Congo region between 1964 and 2013 have paved the way for a contextual understanding of the roots of Western Equatorial African approaches to sickness and healing, combining African and Western derived biomedical therapies. Some of his publications include:Anthology of Kongo Religion: Primary Texts from Lower Zaire;The Quest for Therapy in Lower Zaire; Lemba (1650–1930): A Drum of Affliction in Africa and the New World;Mennonite Furniture: A Migrant Tradition 1766–1910;Ngoma: Discourses of Healing in Central and

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Southern Africa;Health in a Fragile State: Science, Sorcery, and Spirit in the Lower Congo. Wyatt MacGaffey  is a distinguished anthropologist with a lifelong scholarly interest in the Congo. His work has influenced generations of scholars on Kongo cultures. His publications include:Religion and Society in Central Africa: The BaKongo of Lower Zaire; Custom and Government in the Lower-Congo;Kongo Political Culture; Astonishment and Power: The Eyes of Understanding:Kongo Minkisi; Modern Kongo Prophets: Religion in a Plural Society;Kongo and the King of the Americans;The Implantation of Kimbanguism in Kisangani; Kongo Slavery Remembered by Themselves: Texts;Cultural Roots of Kongo Prophetism. Aurélien  Mokoko  Gampiot obtained a doctoral degree in Sociology summa cum laude in 2003 at the University of Rennes 2  in Brittany, France. His research discusses the intersection between religion and race in the African diaspora in France. It contributes to the observation of African prophetic religions, particularly contemporary Kimbanguism, by studying it from the perspective of the articulation of religion and ethnicité—this approach was developed in his first book, Kimbanguisme et Identité noire, published in France by L’Harmattan in 2004. His second book, released in 2010 by the same publishing house, focused on the expressions of messianism displayed in this African Initiated Church in its diasporic communities in France, analyzing its relations with the broader French society. His latest book, Kimbanguism, An African Understanding of the Bible, was published in 2017. It explores the various modes of appropriation of the Bible by Kimbanguist believers in a comparative approach including other African Initiated Churches with different readings of the Bible, leading them to distinct theologies of Black liberation. His other fieldwork is among Black Jews (whether converts or native Jews) in France. He has published several articles on the topic, among which “The Color of Judaism: Black Jews in France,” in The Shadow of Moses: New Jewish movements in Africa and The Diaspora, in Daniel Lis, William Miles, Tudor Parfitt, eds., Los Angeles: TSEHAI/Loyola Marymount University, 2016, and most recently, “Black Judaism in France: An Example of the Intersection Between Religion and Ethnicity,” in Contemporary Jewry, Vol 36, Special Issue No. 3, “Transformation and Evolution in the Jewish World: Judaisms and Judaicities in Contemporary Societies,” edited by Joëlle Allouche and Harriet Hartman, 2017 (http://

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rdcu.be/tGYG), where he offers a comparative study of Black Jews in France and in the USA. Aurélien Mokoko Gampiot is also affiliated with research programs in France, the United Kingdom, and the USA. Adrien  Nginamau  Ngudiankama  is originally from the Democratic Republic of Congo. He is the founder of Kongo Academy, Inc, (www. kongoacademy.org) and Le Forum Des Intellectuels Chretiens Africains Francophones (FICAF). He has a Philosophia Masters in Systematic Theology from King’s College and a Ph.D. in Health Education and Health Promotion from the Institute of Education, London University. He did his post-doctoral research in medical anthropology at the University of Kansas and in the sociology of health at Princeton University. His interests include religions in Africa and the diaspora, Kongo cultures, health promotion, peace and conflict resolution, and African postcolonial discourses. Some of his publications include:The End of Marriage: A Pastoral Ethnography Within Some African and Caribbean Diasporas in the West;From Kongo Central to the Americas Via Europe: A Cultural Overview;“Palaver (Kinzonzi) in Kongo Life”; in, Peek, P.M & Yankah, K (eds). African Folklore: An Encyclopedia;“Divination: Household Divination Among the Kongo,” in, Peek, P.  M. & Yankah, K (eds). African Folklore: An Encyclopedia;“Religious Healing Among Wartraumatized African Immigrants” (With Janzen, J.M & Filippi-Franz), M., in, Barnes, L.L & Sered, S.S (eds). Religion and Healing in America. Ramon  Sarró  studied anthropology at UCL (MSc 1989, PhD 1999) and worked at UCL and the LSE before being the Ioma Evans-Prichard Junior Research Fellow at St Anne’s College in 2000–2002. Between 2002 and 2012, Sarró was Senior Researcher at the Institute of Social Sciences of the University of Lisbon, as well as Lecturer in Anthropology at the Humanities Department of University Pompeu Fabra of Barcelona. He was Fellow of the Program for Agrarian Studies at Yale in 2010–11, before joining Oxford in 2012. Since 2009 he has also been a member of the French network REASOPO (Réseau européen d’analyse de sociétés politiques). Sarró has conducted field research in Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Portugal (among African diasporas), Angola, and the Democratic Republic of Congo. He is the author of the award-winning The Politics of Religious Change on the Upper Guinea Coast: Iconoclasm Done and Undone (2009) and co-editor, with A.  Pedroso de Lima, of Terrenos Metropolitanos:

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Desafios Metodológicos (2007), with D.  Berliner of Learning Religion: Anthropological Approaches (2007), and with R. Blanes and M. Balkenhol of Atlantic Perspectives: Places, Memories and Spirits (2020). He has directed the EU (NORFACE) program “Recognizing Christianity: How African Migrants Redefine the European Religious Heritage” (2007–2010), and has been the British PI of the program “Currents of Faith, Places of Memory,” an EU (HERA) consortium (2013–1016), for which he conducted nine months of fieldwork in Angola. In 2010, together with Simon Coleman (Toronto), he created the annual review Religion and Society: Advances in Research. Sarró has worked on the religious and political dimensions of social change in Africa and the diaspora, as well as on the manifestations of prophetic imagination and on material culture (including its iconoclastic destruction). His interest in the creative aspects of prophetic imagination led to a decade of research on the invention of the Kongo prophetic alphabet known as “Mandombe” and collaborations with its inventor, the late Wabeladio Payi. A book on Wabeladio Payi and his invention of Mandombe (The Invention of an Africa Alphabet) is currently under production at Cambridge University Press. Benjamin  Simon  studied Theology and Social Sciences in Heidelberg, Marburg and Pietermaritzburg/RSA. He did his Doctorate in Theology at the University of Heidelberg and his habilitation at the University of Mainz. Simon has lived, taught, and researched many years in African contexts, has been a pastor of a parish and an ecumenical officer in his church as well as Professor of Ecumenical Missiology at the Ecumenical Institute Bossey/WCC. Since 2020 he is in charge of the Church Relations at the World Council of Churches/ Geneva. He has published extensively on African Christianity and its Diaspora and on ecclesiological questions in intercultural settings. John K. Thornton  held various history faculty positions in the USA and Africa during the 1980s including the University of Zambia, Allegheny College, and the University of Virginia. He joined the faculty at Millersville University in 1986 and joined the Boston University faculty in the fall of 2003. Thornton focused initially on the history of the Kingdom of Kongo. From the start of this work, Thornton became convinced that the status of Kongo as a Christian country had not been fully recognized through his work on missionary baptismal statistics which he sought to show reflected

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large-scale baptism and used this material to write a treatise on Kongo demography. His work on baptismal records resulted in the publication of the article “Demography and History in the Kingdom of Kongo” (1977),[3] and a contribution on another baptismal document in the First Edinburgh Conference on African Historical Demography (1978). Thornton’s thesis, published as The Kingdom of Kongo: Civil War and Transition, 1641–1718 (1983) advanced the idea that Kongo’s centralization was the result of a massive buildup of slave-worked plantations in the vicinity of its capital during the fifteenth through seventeenth centuries, and allowed kings to be overwhelmingly powerful. However, he argued, the persistent civil wars of the seventeenth century and the rise of a new population center in the coastal province of Soyo led to the depopulation of São Salvador and the loss of its centralization. In addition to this larger theme, Thornton also tried to integrate a history from below description of daily life and culture in the country by mining carefully the extensive documentation of the Capuchin missionaries in the country. In this work, he deliberately ignored using either earlier or later materials and much of the ethnographic materials so as to determine continuity and change in the kingdom. Thornton would return to this theme in writing the biography of D Beatriz Kimpa Vita in showing the daily life of Kongo in her times (1684–1706).[5] He shared the 2008 Herskovits Prize for his book (co-authored with Linda Heywood) Central Africans, Atlantic Creoles, and the Foundation of the Americas, 1585–1660.[6] In 2012, he was awarded the World History Association’s annual prize for the best book in world history. His book The Kongolese Saint Anthony: Dona Beatriz Kimpa Vita and the Antonian Movement, 1684-1706 is a work of great academic splendor that tells the story of the Kongo prophetess, Dona Kimpa Vita, who many have named as the African version of Joan of Arc.

List of Figures

The Kongo Tradition of Renewal: Thoughts on Future Research Fig. 1 Mama Marie Kukunda receives clients at her home village of Kikungu Fig. 2 Mama Marie Kukunda divines with a Bible, as she reads a relevant passage to the client before her Fig. 3 Circle gathering (lukongolo) before Kimbanga men’s lodge in Buyala village. Kimbanga on right, Kikwimba on left. Suffering individual third from left. Kikwimba orator is addressing the crowd Fig. 4 Orators of disputing clans join in celebrating achievement of reconciliation with a well-known song

151 152

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Introduction Ramon Sarró

1   One Hundred Years of Prophecy Prophets, I have argued elsewhere, are good to think with. This sounds like Levi-Strauss’s famous formula for totemic thinking. Claude Lévi-­ Strauss, the anthropologist of the mind, discovered that humans use animals as metaphors and as cognitive devices with which to think and talk about both the perceived sensorial reality that surrounds us and our identity. This gives rise, he argued, to totemic belief systems, where one individual belongs to the clan of the bear while their friend belongs to the clan of the koala. However, despite the Levi-Straussian halo of my pronouncement, I am less concerned with prophets as cognitive devices (and even less so with prophets as totems) than with the ‘with’ of the formula. I stress the existence of prophets as ‘good to think with’ because I believe that they can be good co-thinkers and interlocutors. They are courageous, often rebellious individuals who force us to question received wisdom and to critically rethink how wrong the religious, political, and human encounters that constitute recent African history have been. They can also act as

R. Sarró (*) University of Oxford, Oxford, UK e-mail: [email protected] © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023 A. N. Ngudiankama (ed.), Kimbanguism 100 Years On, African Histories and Modernities, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-37031-1_1

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triggers for imagining together possible ways to undo harm willingly or unwillingly inflicted. One simply does not feel the same after having listened to what Edwin Ardener famously called ‘the voice of prophecy’, whether pronounced by the prophet in person, found in written sources, or reported by their disciples. Much has been written about the conditions that make the rise of prophetic movements possible, and each movement is different; there is no general law of prophecy that can explain all the cases known in the literature. While generalizing is difficult, it is clear that most of the time, starting with the Biblical cases, those individuals who are named (for good or bad reasons) ‘prophets’ emerge in critical situations, often fighting for spiritual independence, freedom, and dignity, and denouncing situations of oppression. Indeed, it is more often than not the denouncing rather than the prophetic announcing that makes a prophet a problematic figure for the powers that be. Colonial Africa has witnessed a massive number of prophets, and for reasons that are not easily explained, the Kongo and Congolese Simon Kimbangu (1887–1951) has become the paradigm of prophetic movements in colonized Africa, in European and North-African African studies at any rate. There have been many other prophetic movements in the colonies, and sometimes I feel it unfair that we keep finding Kimbanguism so fascinating when other churches and movements are no doubt as fascinating, full, and rich. I can only hope that by offering such detailed studies of Kimbangu and of Kimbanguism as African and Western scholars have offered over the last 60 years, we are also providing models and ideas to those studying other prophets and movements, and encouraging cross-religious comparison. In fact, as Wyatt MacGaffey argued in his milestone Modern Kongo Prophets (1983), isolating one single movement is something we do at our own epistemological peril. The reality is very complex. More often than not, churches coexist, whether in Africa or in the diaspora, and we should pay attention to this plural coexistence and not only to the inner theology, history, or ethnography of one single institution. The question of why Kimbangu and his movement have become paradigmatic, or at least the most widely studied prophetic movement in Africa, is not one I am going to answer here. You would probably not agree with my interpretation anyway, as answers to such general questions have a very subjective dimension. It is, however, one I would like to submit to you, the reader. It could just as well be a question for a university student’s essay in a department of history, theology, comparative religion,

 INTRODUCTION 

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political science, or anthropology. Obviously, it is the scientific imagination of the scholar that will lead them to hold this or that opinion, and it will be her or his command of the sources that will make such an opinion more or less plausible. In this book, which Adrien Ngudiankama has put together following an impressive conference organized (rather heroically, one must remember) to commemorate the 100th year of the imprisonment of Simon Kimbangu in September 1921, the scholar, student, or curious reader will find enough material, written by the most prominent and creative scholars of Kongo religion, to start drafting a possible answer. Here too, they will find many scholarly hints as to where to search for sources beyond these very erudite chapters, which have embellished, improved, and updated the already huge body of literature on Simon Kimbangu, his time and his church. Let me add that absolutely every single aspect that could be studied in a prophetic movement is found and very well-documented in Kimbanguism. To name a few: the charisma and the beruf of the founder of the movement; the prophetic chains (biographical or theological) between different prophets in different times; the ‘routinization’ of charisma and the politics of bureaucratization of office once the founder passes away; the remapping of the world around a particular sacred place linked to a prophet’s spiritual presence (or absence); the reconfiguration of time and historicity; the political prosecution of prophets and their followers; the importance of prophetic diasporas; the relationship, friendly or violent, between the church founded by the prophet and other churches; the importance of the colonial situation at the moment of the prophetic emergence; the invention of prophetic alphabets and artistic forms linked to the charismatic movement; the dynamics of gender in the structure of the church and in the prophetic announcements; and the emergence of new ethical outlooks towards self, others, and labour. However, above all these aspects, and many others that researchers might come up with, there hangs some very difficult questions: How do we define a prophet? Who can define a prophet? What defines a prophet? How can we compare prophets? Because if you ask a Kimbanguist the question we were asking above (why has Kimbanguism become the paradigmatic study of prophetic movements?), the answer will most likely be counterintuitive: ‘because Kimbangu was not a prophet’. The issues around the difficulty, positionality, and legitimacy of defining who is and who is not a ‘prophet’ and identifying what are we comparing when we engage in comparative exercises around prophets are something that I personally find epistemologically, theologically,

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and ethically fascinating. This book shows the unique complexities of Kimbangu and his church, and I can agree with my Kimbanguist friends when they warn me about the potential reductionism in considering Kimbangu a prophet, no matter how well intentioned such categorization may be. Yet, after reading this innovative volume, I am sure the reader will agree with me that Kimbangu was a prophet, but also so much more.

PART I

The Cultural Background of the Kimbanguist Movement

Rethinking D. Beatriz Kimpa Vita for Contemporary Times John K. Thornton

D Beatriz Kimpa Vita (c. 1684–1706) is certainly one of Sub-Saharan Africa’s most famous prophets. Her life was well-documented by contemporary though hostile witnesses, and even her likeness, painted from life by the Capuchin missionary Bernardo da Gallo, has survived. Few African figures from the eighteenth century are so thoroughly documented by contemporary witnesses.1 It is not surprising that people today should take an interest in her, although it is also clear that there are a number of misconceptions about her life that should be addressed. The most important of these is that somehow the Kingdom of Kongo was a colony or semi-colony of Portugal in her time. In fact, Kongo was not beholden to Portugal in any way during the period of her prophecy. In this regard, it is undoubtedly wrong to think of her as being anti-colonial. But is correct to say that Kongo did have hostile relations with the Portuguese colony in Angola, which had

J. K. Thornton (*) Boston University, Boston, MA, USA e-mail: [email protected] © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023 A. N. Ngudiankama (ed.), Kimbanguism 100 Years On, African Histories and Modernities, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-37031-1_2

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made war on Kongo as recently as 1670 (though the Portuguese had been totally defeated and their army annihilated by the forces of the Grand Prince of Soyo). A peace treaty with Soyo was only hammered out in 1690, and Portugal, while not in open enmity, was certainly not on favorable terms.2 However, the terms of peace with Portugal did not extend to Europeans in general, and among those Europeans who were generally favored in Kongo were the Capuchin missionaries, all from Italy and not entirely sympathetic to Kongo’s understandings of the Christian religion. While, as we shall see, Kongo’s Christian and Catholic Church was born in the time of the Medieval Church, the Capuchins were in Kongo as a part of the Counter-Reformation, a movement that intended to eliminate many of the practices that were widely accepted before the sixteenth century. In their attempts to criticize and reform Kongo’s Catholic Church, the Capuchins were not always favorably perceived in Kongo, and the fact that many of them harbored proto-racist views of Africans that were occasionally revealed often harmed their image and reception.3 The question of the church and the Capuchins is important because it is critical for us in the modern era to realize that the Kongo church was also not a missionary church, the kind that people who lived in the modern colonial period understood very well. The model of the colonial missionary church was that it was led by European missionaries, who worked to convert the people through careful teaching and were intent on spreading not only Christianity but also a particular and very exclusive type of Christianity. It was this modern approach which has caused so many of the African independent churches, formed in colonial Congo or Angola, to turn away from the missionary Christianity to found their own. The Capuchin missionaries did see their role to some extent in the way that the colonial missionaries did, in that their attempts to reform the existing church, in Europe or in Africa, was harsh and denunciatory. Beyond that, however, they were the authors of much of what we know about not just D Beatriz, but about Kongo in general in the late seventeenth century. The volume and detail of their documentation give us ample information on life, ways, and events in Kongo, making it one of the best known pre-colonial African kingdoms, but was written from the Capuchin perspective. It is easy to assume, from the way they write about their activities, that they were in charge of the church and that they were working as if in a colonial situation. Historians of Africa who use such materials have to read it “against the grain” by seeing the facts behind the conscious and unconscious bias of the authors.

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1   Origins of the Kongo Catholic Church The Kongo church was created by Kongo intellectuals and leaders, who took charge of the way it developed and propagated. The independence of the church in Kongo was a product of the way in which it developed from literally its first contact with Portugal in 1482. From their earliest beginnings, people from Kongo took the lead in determining how it would work in their kingdom. After a series of meetings and encounters, in which one Kongo noble, named Kala ka Mfusu, spent a year in Portugal, returning in 1485, King Nzinga a Nkuwu decided he would explore the Portuguese connection thoroughly including elements of material culture, like bread-making and stone architecture, as well as literacy and finally Christianity. In 1486, a high-level and fairly large mission departed from Kongo for nearly four years of study in Portugal, led by Kala ka Mfusu himself.4 While in Lisbon, they lodged in the monastery of the Order of São João Baptista, nicknamed the Lóios, in Lisbon. Vicente dos Anjos, a choirmaster, was assigned the task of developing their understanding of the Portugal. He learnt to speak Kikongo (he was subsequently known as Vicente de Manicongo from his mastery of that language) and instructed them in religion. It was in this extended period that the Kongo embassy probably developed a full understanding of European life and culture, and in their linguistic exchanges with dos Anjos, probably developed a language to understand their religion. Given the way in which Kikongo terminology infiltrated into the earliest known catechism of Kikongo (1624) the surviving remnant of at least one earlier one (1557) we can see that they worked to harmonize rather than replace Kongo’s religion with Christianity.5 The only correlation we know for sure was that Nzambi a Mpungu was equated with the Portuguese Deus as a term for God, but there were certainly more.6 The group finally left to return to Kongo at the end of 1490 and arrived in Soyo in April 1491. It is quite clear that Nzinga a Nkuwu was prepared from before the mission was sent to adopt Christianity, and as the contemporary sources tell us, the baptism of the upper nobles and the king took place with dizzying speed and consistency with no hint of any resistance and with scarcely any extended catechism. Most of the work that was done was surely done by those members of the party who had mastered both languages, which included many who were born in Kongo as well as Portuguese, of which the only one known to be capable of translating was

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a Franciscan named João da Costa, who had accompanied Cão on his African voyages.7 These early adventures are described in Portuguese chronicles, most notably written by Rui de Pina, the archivist to the Portuguese crown, but at this point almost all we know about the subsequent decades comes not from the Portuguese, but from Kongo sources.8 João Nzinga a Nkuwu’s first two letters by a Kongo monarch were written by one of the now bi-­ lingual young men before the party left for Lisbon. Most of what happened next was described by the pen of Afonso Mvemba a Nzinga, João’s son and successor. Afonso wrote many letters, more than the 22 that have survived to the present, but it is clear that Afonso framed his life and work in terms of Christianity, at least when writing to Portugal. Among his earliest letters are those describing is ascent to power.9 In his communication with Europe, Afonso presented himself as a perfect Christian, battling resistance from a recalcitrant nobility which he overcame through a miraculous intervention of Divine forces.10 An older historiography took the basic story at face value, while generally discounting the Divine intervention in his rise to power. There is, however, substantial evidence that Christianity was not seriously at risk in Kongo and Afonso’s correspondence was largely for a European audience. For example, we learn from another Portuguese source that a mission of 1504 was received joyfully and carried on their work with little resistance, just two years before João’s death.11 Although other sources suggest that resistance to monogamy among the aristocrats of the kingdom led to challenges, it is unlikely that this challenge was problematic, since the idea of elite polygamy (with the sinful, but accepted practice of concubinage) was widely practiced in Europe at the time. Afonso’s battle with his brother was the first documented example of what would be common in the subsequent history of Kongo: that few if any successions took place without resistance from other members of the royal family. It is unlikely that Afonso took power with any help from Portugal, although a military mission led by Gonçalo Rodrigues did arrive in Kongo shortly after his succession.12 In any case, Afonso’s account of the battle does not mention Portuguese help, even in gratitude, but only the help of the Virgin Mary and the Heavenly Horsemen of Saint James the Greater. Even before Kongo was formerly colonized by Portugal, imperialist forces claimed that Kongo was a vassal of Portugal—José Joaquim Lopes de Lima, one of the earliest champions of this thinking—declaring that

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this had been achieved by 1516 at least, based on the appointment of Portuguese judge to administer affairs of the Portuguese community in Kongo.13 The wider picture, however, shows that Afonso was always in change of his country, as were his successors; it is difficult to read the documentation and make it appear otherwise. Nevertheless, the idea that somehow the Portuguese had promoted Afonso to power is widely claimed in secondary literature up to the present and contributes to the understanding of Kongo’s Christianity.14 Whatever the value the Portuguese had for Afonso, he was certainly the moving force behind the formalization of Kongo’s church. It was perhaps no surprise that when the Lóios, the priests who had taught the original Kongo embassy in the 1480s, came to Kongo in 1509, including the linguist Vicente dos Anjos, it was Afonso who delivered a condensed catechism to the throngs that met them, and not the priests.15 More to the point, however, Afonso established a network of schools that would stretch across the country by the middle of his reign. These schools, conducted by young nobles who were literate, were probably only catechism classes, but they brought the Kongo version of Christianity across the country and deep into the villages of the common people.16 There were already schoolteachers in some of the more remote provinces in the 1510s, and 1000 students were studying in Afonso’s school in the capital in 1516. By around 1530 it seems the system was in all the provinces. In 1584, testifying at a hearing of the Portuguese Inquisition, one of the priests told the inquisitors that it was not necessary for priests to teach the catechism anywhere in Kongo, as this was handled by the schools.17 The fullest testimony to the success of Kongo’s system of schools was that it required no foreign input. This is the only way to explain the surprise that many later missionaries expressed, when visiting regions that had not been visited by a priest in decades, to discover that the people knew the principles of the faith, had kept a chapel well provided and clean, and knew prayers and hymns. In 1782, Raphael de Castello de Vide encountered this religious devotion “with tears in my eyes” when he visited areas which had not had a priest in many years.18 Colonies of Kongo people from Soyo who left Kongo to reside in the hinterland of non-Christian Kakongo maintained the same knowledge when visited by French priests in 1776.19 No missionaries were required to teach, but in fact their principle role was to perform the sacraments, because Kongo had great difficulties in getting its own ordained priests.

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2  The Struggle for Self-Governing Kongo Catholic Church Afonso intended his church to move swiftly to full recognition within the Catholic community of nations, with its own bishop and clergy. He attempted, unsuccessfully as it happened, to have one of his diplomats make a formal submission to Rome, first in 1513 and again in 1535; Portugal made this submission on his behalf. He also wanted to get his own clergy, as the new faith required that only ordained priests perform the critical sacraments. But here too he was thwarted. It is quite likely that no one in Europe or in Portugal imagined that Christianity would be so deeply rooted in Kongo as fast as it was. But when that became obvious that it had, Portuguese kings, especially João III, who came to the throne in 1522, saw that the possibility of gaining traction and influence in Kongo could be achieved by controlling the church. Thus, while encouraging Afonso to push for his own bishop, Portuguese also sought to control it. In 1518, when the prospect of an independent Kongo church was still new, Portuguese king Manuel had assisted Afonso in getting his own son, Henrique, to be ordained as a priest and then a bishop, with eventually full powers to ordain clergy.20 Kongo was not yet an independent diocese, so Henrique was made bishop of Utica, a vacant diocese “in the hands of the infidels” in North Africa, a sort of roving bishop. But Afonso was gearing up for full independence. In 1526, he sought to create an elaborate system with two or three bishops and at least 50 priests, which initially had to come from Portugal until local men could be ordained. He asked for teachers of Latin, and even used a captured French priest to learn Latin himself, in order to prepare his own subjects for ordination. He went so far as to arrange for one of his favorite Portuguese priests, Master Gil, to bring his nine-year-old nephew to Kongo, so that he could become bi-lingual and have a formation in Kongo, but was subsequently to go to study higher theology at the University of Paris. But then the plan came to naught. Henrique died in 1531, and when he was replaced, João III had used his connections in the Vatican to claim that Kongo was under Portugal tutelage and that the Papacy should create a new diocese on the Portuguese colonial island of São Tomé with Kongo under its jurisdiction. And in 1534 the Pope wrote to Afonso to tell him that his church that he wanted for Kongo was ultimately under the authority of a Portuguese bishop residing on Portuguese territory.21

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Neither Afonso nor his successors gave up on creating a separate diocese in Kongo under its own bishops. But the Portuguese interest prevailed. Their desire to use the church for their own ends intensified after they built their colony in Angola in 1575, and when relations with Kongo soured after ambitious governors made inroads in the southern vassals of Kongo in the 1590s. After a successful diplomatic mission to Rome, Alvaro II (1578–1586) managed to get the Vatican to create a new diocese with its headquarters in the church of São Salvador in Kongo’s capital in 1596.22 But again, the mission was sidetracked by Portuguese influence, for they claimed the right of patronage. The bishops they chose for Kongo worked against the kings, and further missions to Rome were full of complaints about the deportment of bishops and the incursions into Kongo’s territory. In 1622, the governor of Angola launched a full-scale attack on Kongo with a larger army, but it was thoroughly defeated by Kongo’s forces at the Battle of Mbanda Kasi early in 1623. There was now only hostility between Kongo and Portugal. The bishops were put under pressure and abandoned Kongo for Luanda.23 The bishops were very reluctant to ordain any clergy for Kongo. A few Kongo were chosen, but the country was in terribly short supply. Thanks to the work of Dominicans, a fair number of Kongo did learn the requisite Latin and other higher subjects, but ordination was difficult and even in Angola clergy were relatively few. An assessment of 1624 reported only 6 or 7 priests in the whole of Kongo, overwhelmed by the work of performing 40,000 baptisms a year.24 In spite of the problems that Kongo had in obtaining ordained clergy, the leadership rejected forming an independent or Reformed church. When priests in Alvaro I’s court advised him that a king was allowed to be “vicar in his kingdom” and could thus appoint bishops, Alvaro refused to undertake this.25 During the Dutch War (1641–1648), Kongo made an alliance with the Dutch in order to fight the Portuguese in Angola, but demanded in their treaty that the Dutch not seek to teach the Reform. When they sent Reformed ministers and literature anyway, Garcia II had the literature burned, expelled the minister, and wrote an angry letter to the Dutch West India Company denouncing them for it.

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3  The Capuchins and Kongo: The Counter-­Reformation in Action To obtain more priests, the seventeenth-century kings appealed directly to Rome with the idea of at least getting priests in the form of missionaries. Carmelites who came in 1584 provided an example, as did the Jesuits who came in 1619, building a school and college and teaching theology. But the ultimate success in finding priests came through long negotiation for Capuchins. The war between Portugal and the Netherlands, waged in Angola as well as in Europe, gave an opportunity and the first Capuchins landed in 1645 when Portugal could not stop them. They were chosen from mostly Italian territories that were not under the influence of either Portugal or Spain.26 Garcia II, who was king when they arrived, was interested primarily in their capacity to perform the sacraments and to augment the small number of parochial clergy that he had. But the Capuchins had different ideas. They were an important wing of the Counter-Reformation who were foot soldiers in instituting the reforms created by the Council of Trent to the rank and file of Catholics around the world. They took this mission with them to Kongo; while they did perform the sacraments, many of them baptized literally thousands and even tens of thousands of children; they also insisted that Kongo fall in line with the new Catholic thinking. Kongo’s church had been born in the medieval period of Christianity, in which the church generally tolerated many spiritual practices, such as divination and augury, and even accepted the benign existence of various spiritual entities that had no particular Christian component. But the Reform strictly forbade such practices, claiming that they only worked because the Devil assisted them and so amounted to witchcraft. The Catholic and Protestant Reforms merged in Europe in this approach with the famous witch-hunts of the seventeenth century to force change, often violently, on their countries. Kongo’s Catholic Church had its own varieties of local spirits, and with the capacity to control and use them, often inviting them to enter physical items (iteke or zinkisi). They acknowledged the validity of spirit possession as a way to gain knowledge from spiritual entities. All of these fell into what the Capuchins, following European practice, called variously idolatry, fetishism, and superstition, and linked them, again as in Europe, with the Devil and thus as witchcraft.27

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Kongo’s traditional religion recognized a concept of witchcraft (kindoki), which focused on the intentions of the user of spiritual forces rather than the spiritual entities employed. Thus, any form of traditional healing, prediction, or luck would be tolerated as long as the participant used it for positive benefits and not for selfish or harmful motives. Therefore, they might be willing to accept Capuchin claims that one or another person engaging in spiritual practices might be doing witchcraft if their intentions were bad, but they would be less willing to do so in the event that there was no harmful intent. Much of the early Capuchin practice focused on the kimpasi, a social healing practice that involved possession and death and resurrection of initiates. Given that kimpasis were always organized by social groups and not individuals, and were often to relieve social tensions, it seemed extremely unlikely that they would be used for selfish or evil purposes. They therefore resisted attacks by Capuchins on kimpasi meetings and in one instance initiates killed the missionary Joris van Gheel for disrupting one in 1652. Capuchins had the support of the kings, who wanted them for the sacraments, but kings were reluctant to take violent measures against those the priests denounced unless as they were convinced they were engaging in activities that would be recognized as witchcraft. Missionaries complained of their lot, but were in no position to use violent force to achieve their goals on their own. They sought instead to divert practices, for example, by distributing blessed religious medals as substitutes for the various kitekes, a practice that was widely accepted in Kongo. While generally the Capuchins were widely accepted in Kongo, being constantly greeted by throngs of people, and perhaps being challenged as being overzealous in their accusations of witchcraft, they did at times grate on their hosts. They were sometimes suspected of being complicit with the Portuguese of Angola, and they were certainly subject to pressure by the Portuguese. But their records show that they resisted this pressure even in Angola itself, and they served well as ambassadors on behalf of various Kongo kings. They had a reputation for even-handedness, and thus served as brokers when civil war disrupted Kongo following 1665. Some of the missionaries also stepped on Kongo’s pride, by making subtle claims of Eurocentrism and perhaps even condescension. Certainly, the attitudes they had about Africans in general, and the Kongo in particular, revealed in their private writing and sometimes in publications did reveal negative attitudes, although they varied widely.28 Even at their

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worst, they were never as bad as the average nineteenth-century European travelers, who reveled in White Supremacy then in its heyday.

4  The Kongo Civil War In the aftermath of the disastrous defeat at Mbwila in 1665, Kongo descended into what would become a long and indecisive civil war. Civil wars had been common in Kongo’s history; almost every reign was forcefully contested by disappointed candidates. Such civil wars were usually short, a year perhaps two of tension, then a short sharp battle, and things settled into normal. At times, such as the aftermath of the death of Alvaro II in 1614, several crisis years followed quickly (Alvaro III’s reign from 1615 to 1622 had many plots and diplomatic shifts), and the succession was settled by Alvaro VI in 1636, while he and his brother Garcia II and Garcia’s son Antonio I had uncontested successions until Antonio’s death in 1665.29 Two great royal factions, the Kimpanzu and the Kinlaza that had formed during the early seventeenth century, came to head over the election of Alvaro VII in 1666 and continued sporadically thereafter, resulting in the gradual partition of the country into hostile factions. This was a new development; there had never been a dissention so strong that the followers took over and held territory, and the factionalism had three or four players at the end of the century. In the process, the capital city of São Salvador was sacked and abandoned in 1678.30 When Beatriz Kimpa Vita was born, the country was divided into several factions: two kings, Pedro IV and João III, divided the country, but the former Counts, now Grand Princes, of Soyo constantly interfered in their conflicts without taking over themselves.31 Two other factions led by queens, Suzana de Nóbrega in the southwest and Ana Afonso de Leão in the southeast, also held territory more or less as rulers, while not claiming the throne themselves. Wars, both desultory affairs, waged along the borders of the territories controlled by the factions, and larger-scale conflicts were nearly continuous. The byproducts of these wars—violent death, famine, and disease—and the export of thousands as slaves to the Americas wracked the country. The time seemed ripe for some substantial renovation, and this is what Beatriz Kimpa Vita offered. Born into a high noble family in the land controlled by Pedro IV’s faction in about 1684, Beatriz had served as a nganga marinda and in that capacity had perhaps participated in a kimpasi meeting. The background is

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not surprising, since kimpasi was precisely the sort of institution that would heal wounded societies. Beatriz, however, added another dimension to this background by being permanently possessed by Saint Anthony. In this guise she could easily do the many miracles she was claimed to have performed, and had Divine permission to spend the weekends with God discussing the fate of Kongo. Irritated by her claims to meetings with God, da Gallo, recalling the question of Black saints, asked her if there were people from Kongo in Heaven to which she replied that there were no colors in Heaven. Capuchins from the very start rejected Beatriz’ claims, if for no other reason than Europeans had never accepted spirit possession as ever being anything other than demonic, even in the Medieval Church. She made other claims they disliked, not the least of which were that many, if not all, of the saints were Black, and she retold the Nativity story to take place in Kongo with Kongo actors playing the roles of Mary and other saints. The idea that Kongo had a significant place in Biblical history was not new to Beatriz or Kongo. Already in the sixteenth century, Carmelite missionaries shared with Kongo the idea that the Garden of Eden (or the Terrestrial Paradise) was located at the source of the Congo River that was said to flow from a lake that mapmakers put in Central Africa just east of Kongo, easily identified as Mai Ndombe in today’s DRC.32 Alvaro I told the Carmelites that when Adam and Eve covered themselves with “fig leaves” after the Fall that the leaves were naturally enough from this place, and so the large leaves of the misafo tree, a local fig, served to cover them.33 Once the Garden was located in Africa, it would not be hard to see why; by the seventeenth century at the latest, many believed that when God created the earth he sent his angels to create the rest of humanity so he could devote special attention to Africa and particularly to Kongo.34 Beyond the question of Creation being located in Central Africa, the idea of Black saints was afoot long before Beatriz Kimpa Vita. In 1555, Diogo I of Kongo had donated a lamp with an endowment at the shrine of Our Lady of Guadeloupe in Spain, a church which hosted a “Black Madonna” based on a painting that was claimed to have been executed by the Apostle Luke and thus an authentic life portrait.35 Alvaro I had asked Duarte Lopes to secure a copy of another of Luke’s paintings of the Madonna in Italy to bring to Kongo in 1583 (however, unbeknownst to Alvaro, this one was white).36 When the army of the Duke of Mbamba lined up to fight the Portuguese at the battle of Mbumbi in 1622,

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according to the Portuguese chronicler, Antonio de Oliveira de Cadornega, “[O]ur Portuguese in the main conflict of the battle called on Santiago, and the Muxicongos also, seeing this the enemies said that if ours was white theirs was black.”37 It would not be too hard to imagine an African Mary and her son, a no less African Jesus, along with the African Saint James (Santiago). The Capuchins dismissed all manner of claims that Kongo made on the Biblical story, with its contentions for an African place in it. For them, the saints were White as were all the Holy Family, and such dismissals hit on Kongo’s pride; more to the point, they had made it clear in a disputed case that they would side with Whites against charges of malfeasance, supporting the defamed Spanish lay assistant, Juan de Rosa, in spite of serious charges against him.38 Beatriz’s also had more theological issues with the Capuchins, and perhaps even with the church, even as she protested that she believed the Pope was Vicar of Christ on earth and that the priests were righteous and honest.39 But she made important changes, based on her revelations, in key parts of the liturgy. She changed the words of several prayers, though only one of them, the “Salve Antoniana,” was recorded, an alteration of “Hail Holy Queen.” The prayer places Saint Anthony in the highest part of the cosmos, hailing him as the second God and bearer of the keys of Heaven. But more to the point, she also claimed that the sacraments had no specific value, as “God will know the intention” and it “is the intention that God takes.” These changed the concept of salvation, removing the sacraments as critical to the afterlife and thus the priests’ critical role in performing the sacraments. By claiming that God was interested only in intentions, she was reaffirming the idea that accusation of witchcraft should revolve only around the intentions of the actor and not the spiritual entity who carries out the act. It is a firm and definite assertion of the reality of the way Kongo viewed the church.40 While she sparred with Capuchins over these questions, her message was far more about restoring order to Kongo, about ending the terrors of the war, and re-establishing Kongo to an ideal form of Christianity. Claiming the authority she did, she sought to get the rival royal candidates to agree to a peace. Pedro IV was uncertain, not willing to denounce her in spite of threats by the resident Capuchin, Bernardo da Gallo, and vacillated about how to deal with her. She then went to João II’s court and found him suffering mental health issues while his sister Elana conducted

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the kingdom’s business, and that included expelling Beatriz, whose reputation had preceded her. In the end, Beatriz took the re-establishment of the kingdom on herself. Going directly to the abandoned capital, she seated herself in the cathedral and found tens of thousands of followers from all over the country flocking to rebuild Kongo from its ancient capital.41 As her presence in the capital and popularity grew, opportunists looked for the chance to use this to their advantage. The role of opportunist fell to Pedro Constantinho da Silva, also known as Kibenga. A general who had already served more than one master took it upon himself to move his troops from Pedro IV’s forward camps to the capital and put Beatriz and her movement under this protection. This in itself was enough to give Pedro IV the resolution to turn decisively against her. Then disasters brought her down. She became pregnant by one of her followers, and fearing that this would discredit her, she left the capital for rural areas to have the baby. While there, she fell into the hands of troops loyal to Ana Afonso de Leão, who turned her over to Pedro. With Beatriz in his hands, Pedro still vacillated, not wishing to offend her thousands of followers by executing her nor the priests by trying to defend her position (and not wishing for the moment to attack Constantinho da Silva in the capital). To avoid the problems of freeing her, he proposed sending her off to Luanda to be tried (or more likely to be freed along the road). The Capuchins did not wish to be responsible for punishing her. The most important of these priests was Bernardo da Gallo who was high-­ handed and unpopular anyway; his closest companion, Lorenzo da Lucca, was newly arrived at Pedro’s capital and so they made it clear they would not execute her. Pedro IV was therefore forced to either let her return to his enemies or execute her, and finally resolved to execute her. He tried and convicted Beatriz and several of her closest followers to be executed under Kongo’s own anti-witchcraft laws. She was burned alive on 2 July 1706 at Pedro IV’s headquarters at Evululu.42 The Antonian movement that Beatriz started did not die when she did. During her reign in São Salvador, Beatriz had dispatched her followers, “Little Anthonies,” to the countryside. Capuchins reported Antonians, traveling in pairs in Soyo and in the lands of Suzana de Nóbrega; no doubt they were elsewhere, and São Salvador was still in the hands of her followers, protected at least for a time by soldiers of Pedro Constantinho da

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Silva. The documentary record that has supported the remarkable detail with which we know about Beatriz then ends, just as Pedro IV’s troops recaptured São Salvador in 1709 and then repelled a counterattack from his rival João IV. Several decades would pass before even fairly weak testimony appears, not likely to give details of the life of the country.

5  D Beatriz Kimpa Vita’s Afterlife When last documented, however, the movement was strong and not just confined to the principal actors around São Salvador. It had spread across the country and the Little Anthonies surely had an interest in continuing it. But at some point, it must have died out. Or did it? Shortly after I published my biography of Beatriz in 1998, Simon Bockie wrote a critical review of it, claiming that I told the story only from the mouths of her enemies. He recounted that he had heard stories of Kimpa Vita growing up as a child and that her tale was well known to tradition in his day.43 At that point, I had never been to northern Angola, and although I had consulted traditions in Kikongo collected by the Belgian priest Jean Cuvelier from the 1920s, I had not encountered any reference to her in them. On 27 September 2002, I paid my first visit to Mbanza Kongo, a city that war and politics had prevented me from seeing for my whole career of over 30 years up to that point. I participated in some interviews with local traditionalists, but in particular, on my second day there, I was introduced to António Afonso, who was regarded as an expert on Kimpa Vita, at his home on the side of the mountain of Kongo. I listened to him as he spoke in Kikongo to me, and I constantly heard him refer to “ngudi andi Kimpa Vita,” or the mother of Kimpa Vita. At every turn in the interview it seemed that it was Beatriz’s mother who played a critical role, and, indeed, she seemed to be teaching her daughter rather than learning from her and, moreover, she carried the teaching forward to this day. I was not sure what to make of this, but retuning to the original sources I discovered that I had in fact missed a critical point in the testimony of Lorenzo da Lucca—he noted after her death that “immediately another lady came forward, who presented herself as the Mother of the false S. Antonio, comforting the people not to fear; even if the Daughter was dead, the Mother remains; and made herself to be the Mother of Virtue.” Father Luca noted that because of her he feared that the “[f]aith would be lost in these parts.”44 It was a comment almost in passing, but I had missed

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it, and now I was reminded that this link to a longer lasting movement just might have a basis in fact. However, as I look back on that situation and the fact that many of the various new churches and prophetic movements among Kongo living in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Angola now regularly claim that Beatriz (or rather Kimpa Vita as a fair number reject that she was Christian or had a Christian name) founded these movements. I had deliberately asked Afonso after the interview to tell me his sources, since I noticed that while speaking in Kikongo he gave all the personal names and dates of events in French. He said some came from his parents (and ancestors) while other information came from “Radio Zaire.” He also mentioned Bundu dia Kongo as among the institutions that followed Beatriz’s mother’s teaching. So, tempted as I was to see the movement as continuing, I doubted it for several reasons. The first and most important is that she seems to have escaped Jean Cuvelier’s notice when he collected traditions systematically in the 1920s along the southern border of Belgian Congo and even into northern Angola. None of the clan traditions that he published in Nkutama a mvila za makanda in 1934 made any notice of her either.45 I had also studied Cuvelier’s field notes in Leuven, Belgium, and found nothing there either, nor in his published writings.46 Not until 1950, that is. In 1950, Cuvelier read Lorenzo da Lucca’s letters in the Capuchin archive in Florence, and there came across the story of Beatriz, including the interesting account of her mother and the ashes. One could have expected that he might not have wished to publish the story, although it seemed unlikely that he would not have had it among his unpublished field notes. However, another curious turn was that when the da Lucca diary was first discovered, and Cuvelier published a French translation in 1953, it immediately entered into the historical Kongo as the Redemptorist missionaries presented it.47 In 1956, Cuvelier’s close associate and eventual continuator, Joseph de Munk, included the story of Beatriz when he wrote his “official” Kikongo version of Kongo’s history, Kinkulu kia nsi eto a Kongo.48 It was fairly short, and certainly not favorable to Beatriz’s work, but he did not hesitate to relate it in a short book specifically directed to a Kongo audience. It was not based on any tradition, for he did include any reference to Beatriz in traditions when he published the 4th revised edition of Nkutama a mvila za makanda in 1971.

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Perhaps even more interesting in this regard was the historical writing of Rafael Batsîkama ba Mampiya Ndwala, the nationalist and advocate of Kongo’s unique place in history. He also did not refer to traditional accounts in his pamphlet dedicated to Dona Beatrice in 1970.49 Batsîkama certainly made ample use of tradition; both published and unpublished in his work and the absence of at least some quotation of traditional stories about the prophet would seem warranted.50 I am conscious of the major lacuna in the written historical record over the decades following Beatriz’s execution and the relative weakness of the record even for the following period. There may well have been a local evolution that made the presence of the Antonian movement less visible, and there is always the chance that additional evidence may emerge. There were priests in the country during much of the time; one or another of their reports might surface. The archives in Angola itself, both the ecclesiastical ones and the secular ones, might yet yield some clues, and here and there private archives are noted. However, given the attention that the new churches have given to the events of Kimpa Vita’s life, I would regard any traditions newly emerging (post 1956) about her to be subject to what David Henige called “feedback.”51 Oral reports, whether recorded by church leaders or not, are now likely to have been influenced by the written, oral, and broadcast opinions of the various churches to the point where they seem less credible. Perhaps if written evidence of tradition from within Cuvelier’s as yet explored papers emerges, or those of other missionaries or perhaps even private persons, it might still shed light on the problem.

Notes 1. A detailed biography is Thornton (1998). A color image of da Gallo’s painting is on the cover of the paperback edition. 2. On these wars, see Thornton (2020, pp. 183–186; 204–205). 3. A thorough study of Capuchins’ attitudes is found in Carlos Almeida, “Uma infelicidade feliz. A imagem de África e dos Africanos na Literatura Missionária sobre o Kongo e a região mbundu (meados do séc. XVI –primeiro quartel do séc. XVIII)),” (Ph.D. Dissertation, Universidade Nova de Lisboa, 2008). 4. The earliest text on this mission, an untitled Italian translation of a description by the Portuguese chronicler Rui de Pina, published in Radulet (1992), fol. 87ra (foliation of the original MS), calls him “Crachanfusus”

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which I have tried to render into Kikongo as Kala ka Mfusu. De Pina spelled his name “Caçuta” in a formally written version of the chronicle in 1515 (also in Radulet, Cronista, “Crónica delRei João II,” cap. 58). 5. Cardoso (1624), a modern critical edition and history of translation is in Bontinck and Ndembe Nsasi (1978). 6. De Pina, “Cronica,” cap. 60. 7. Full documentation of his sequence of events in Thornton (2020, pp. 36–37, 43–48). 8. These include two versions of a chronicle of Rui de Pina [1491 and 1515], both published in Radulet, Cronista Rui de Pina. Additional information from the same underlying sources is in de Resende (1545), excerpts relevant to Kongo published in Brásio, Monumenta, vol 1. 9. A thorough review of these letters, along with French translations of all known letters and other supporting documentation, is in Jadin and Dicorati (1974). A biography and English translation of his letters is Thornton (2023). 10. The account of Afonso’s victory over his brother is only briefly discussed in letters he wrote in 1512 and 1514; a very full account, probably based on a lost letter of 1507, was given by the historian João de Barros, archivist of the House of Mina (1552), Decade I, book 3, chapter 10, also in Brásio, Monumenta, 1: 141–147. 11. de Góis (1556), Part 1, chapter 76, excerpted in Brásio, Monumenta 1: 195–195. 12. Afonso to King Manuel I, 5 October 1514, Brásio, Monumenta 1: 295. 13. José Joaquim Lopes de Lima (1844, Book 3, pp.  2–4); José Joaquim Lopes de Lima (1845). 14. Both Anne Hilton and W. G. L. Randles, whose work is regarded as important and regularly cited, made this claim; see Hilton (1985, pp. 53–54); W. G. L. Randles, L’ancien Congo, pp. 97–98. 15. Afonso to Manuel I, 5 October 1514, Brásio, Monumenta 1: 298–299. 16. For a similar argument, see Brinkman (2016, pp. 255–276). 17. Thornton (2020, pp. 43–44). 18. Academia das Cienças de Lisboa, MS Vermelho 396, Rafael de Castello de Vide, “Viagem do Congo do missionario fra Raphael Castello de Vide …,” pp. 29–30. 19. Proyart (1776, pp. 315–319). 20. Bontinck (1979, pp. 149–169). 21. Paulo III to Afonso, 17 March 1535, Brásio, Monumenta 2: 41–43. 22. Filesi (1968). 23. Thornton (2020, pp. 102–103; 128–132).

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24. Instituto da História e Geografia Brasileiro, DL848,16, anonymous, “Descrição das necessidades do reino do Congo sobre assuntos religiosos…,” fols 1 and 2. 25. Arquivo Nacional de Torre de Tombo, Inquisção de Lisboa, Processo 2522; the trial was primarily concerned with this question. 26. Saccardo (1983–1984, 3 vols.) vol. 1 has the complete story of the ecclesiastical history of the region. 27. Thornton (2013, pp. 40–58). 28. Carlos Almeida, “Infelicidade feliz.” 29. Thornton (2020, pp. 109–113; 124–136; 148–150; 153–154; 159–161). 30. Thornton (1983), for the background and details of the development in this period. 31. For a study of the movement and publication of the relevant documents in the original language, Filesi (1971, pp. 663–508); and a continuation in 27 (1972, pp. 645–668). 32. Biblioteca Nacional de España, MS MS 2711, pp.  100/119–101/120, Diego de Santissimo Sacramento, “Relation del viage de Gvinea,” c. 1586. 33. Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale di Firenze, Manoscritti Panciatichiani 200, fol. 165, untitled MS written probably by Diego de la Encarnación in late 1586 or 1587. On line at https://archive.org/details/panc.-­200/page/ n329/mode/2up?view=theater. 34. Giovanni Antonio Cavazzi da Montecuccolo (1687, Book 1, number 56). 35. The lamp was first noticed by Barreiros (1561, fol. 35v). The date of his trip (1543) would suggest the initial donation was by Afonso; for details of Diogo’s donation, see Libro de Bienhechores Antiguos del Monasterio (Códice- 90 A.M:G.), published in Revista Guadalupe, 16 (1917) p. 88. For background on Black Madonnas, see Rowe (2019). 36. Royal instructions to Duarte Lopes MMA 3: 234. 37. António de Oliveira de Cadornega (1972, 3 vols.) [reprint of original edition, 1940–42], ed José Delgado]) 1: 105. 38. Thornton (1998, pp. 88–90). 39. Thornton (1998, pp. 120–121). 40. Thornton (1998, pp. 114–118). For an attempt to render it in the original Kikongo, pp. 215–220. 41. Thornton (1998, pp. 130–139). 42. Thornton (1998, pp 166–186). 43. Bockie (1998, pp. 645–647). 44. The passage is in Archivio Provinciale dei Cappuccini, Florence, “Carte di P. Lorenzo da Lucca,” p. 274, published in Filesi, “Nazionalismo e religione,” (continuation section) p. 655. 45. Cuvelier (1934). There is a searchable copy of this edition on line at h t t p : / / w i z i -­k o n g o . c o m / n k u t a m a -­a -­m v i l a -­z a -­m a k a n d a -­j e a n -­

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cuvelier-­1934-­tuku/ (attributing it to Petelo Boka as well) There are several other “editions” mostly updates rather than remakes in the newspaper Kukiele. A fourth edition, revised and to some extent reorganized, appeared in 1972 (Matadi) edited by Joseph de Munck. 46. Cuvelier’s papers are extensive, located in the Documentation and Research Centre on Religion, Culture and Society (KADOC) at the University of Leuven, 7.2. These also include de Munck’s papers in 4.8. During a brief visit I was able to look through the de Munck’s papers, but the Cuvelier ones were so vast that I could only sample the texts which are mostly written in Kikongo so that the staff there is unable to organize them or create any metadata. The notebook was at the Redemptorist archive at Jette and my copy was made there; I do not know if they were sent to KADOC. 47. Cuvelier (1953). 48. de Munck (1956; 2nd ed, 1971, pp. 41–42). 49. Raphaël Batsîkama ba Mampuya ma Ndâwla, “Ndona Beatrice: Serait-­elle temoin du Christ et de la Foi du Vieux Congo?...” (Kinshasa, 1970) reissued in Monier (1999). On page 33, he quoted from Lorenzo da Lucca the passage about the mother without mentioning any further survival of the movement. Around 2008, Patrício Batsîkama, his grandson, wrote an extensive but as far as I know unpublished account of Kimpa Vita, “Dona Beatriz Ñsîmba Vita” (whose name he respells), but the traditions he cites in this work, from Nkutama a mvila za makanda, are hardly clear-cut references to the movement and require accepting his sometimes elaborate reworking and interpretation of their content. 50. He quoted from Nkutama a mvila za makanda regularly in “Voici les Jagas,” also published in Monier’s reprint edition. 51. Henige (1973, pp. 223–235).

References António de Oliveira de Cadornega. 1972. História geral das guerras angolanas (3 vols.). Lisbon. Barreiros, Gaspar. 1561. Corographia de alguns lugares … Coimbra: João Alvares. Bockie, Simon. 1998. Review in Canadian Journal of African Studies 32. Bontinck, François. 1979. “Ndoadidiki Ne-Kinu a Mubemba, premier évêque du Kongo (c. 1495–c. 1531)” Revue africaine de théologie 3: 149–169. Bontinck, François and Ndembe Nsasi, D. 1978. Le catéchisme Kikongo de 1624: réédition critique. Brussels. Brinkman, Inge. 2016. “Kongo Interpreters, Traveling Priests, and Political Leaders in the Kongo Kingdom (15th–19th Century),” International Journal of African Historical Studies 49: 255–276.

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Cardoso, Mateus, ed. 1624. Doutrina Christãa ... acrescentado pelo Padre I. Martinz ... De novo traduzida na lingoa do Reyno de Congo. Lisbon. Cuvelier, Jean. 1934. Nkutama a mvila za makanda. Tumba [Democratic Republic of Congo]. Cuvelier, Jean, ed. 1953. Relations sur le Congo du père Laurent de Lucques (1700–1717). Brussels. Filesi, Teobaldo. 1968. Le relazioni tra il regno del Congo e la Sede Apostolica nel XVI secolo. Como. Filesi, Teobaldo. 1971. “Nazionalismo e religione nell’ Congo al inizio del 1700: La setta degli Antoniani,” Africa (Rome) 26: 663–508. Giovanni Antonio Cavazzi da Montecuccolo. 1687. Istorica descrizione de tre regni Congo, Matamba ed Angola. Bologna. de Góis, Damião. 1556. “Chronica de Feliçisssimos Rei Dom Emanuel.” Lisbon. Henige, David. 1973. “The Problem of Feedback in Oral Tradition: Four Examples from the Fante Coastlands,” Journal of African History 14: 223–235. Hilton. 1985. The Kingdom of Kongo. Oxford. House of Mina. 1552. Decadas de Asia. Lisbon. Jadin, Louis and Dicorati, Mirelle. 1974. Correspondance de Dom Afonso; roi du Congo, 1506–1543. Brussels. José Joaquim Lopes de Lima. 1844. Ensayos sobre a statistica das possessões portuguezas… Lisbon. José Joaquim Lopes de Lima. 1845. Descobrimento e posse do Reino do Congo. Lisbon. Monier, Laurent, (ed.). 1999. L’Ancien Royaume du Congo (Ndona Béatrice & Voici les Jagas): séquences d’histoire populaire. Paris. de Munck, Joseph. 1956. Kinkulu kia nsi eto a Kongo. Matadi. Proyart, Liévin-Bonaventure. 1776. Histoire de Loango, Kakongo et autres royaumes d’Afrique. Paris. Radulet, Carmen. 1992. O Cronista Rui de Pina e a “Relação do Reino do Congo”: Manuscrito inédito do “Códice Riccardiano 1910”. Lisbon. de Resende, Garcia. 1545. Crónica de D. João II. Lisbon. Rowe, Erin. 2019. Black Saints in Early Modern Global Catholicism. Cambridge. Saccardo, Graziano. 1983–1984. Congo e Angola con la storia dell’Missione dei Cappuccini (3 vols.). Genoa. Thornton, John K. 1983. The Kingdom of Kongo: Civil War and Transition. Madison. Thornton, John K. 1998. The Kongolese Saint Anthony: Dona Beatriz Kimpa Vita and the Antonian Movement, 1684–1706. Cambridge. Thornton, John K. 2013. “The Kingdom of Kongo and the Counter-Reformation,” Social Sciences and Missions 26: 40–58. Thornton, John K. 2020. A History of West Central African to 1850. Cambridge. Thornton, John K. 2023. Afonso I, Mvemba a Nzinga,King of Kongo, His Life and Correspodence. Indianapolis/Cambridge.

PART II

A Religious Movement Trajectory

Personal Experiences of Kimbanguism as It Was (1964–1980) Wyatt MacGaffey

The Belgian anthropologist, A. Doutreloux, reporting his experiences in Lower Congo (Mayombe) in the early 1960s, described relations between Europeans and Africans as a “dialogue of the deaf,” despite five centuries of interaction between them. Congolese thought of everything about Whites in magical terms; they treated both as fetishes elements of Christian cult, pharmaceutical drugs, letters of recommendation, official papers, and certificates of all kinds. European things adopted as magic replaced traditional devices, but as the power of Whites faded after independence so did the appeal of their magic, and people returned to the traditions of their ancestors (Doutreloux 1967, p. 262). In this “dialogue,” the misunderstanding of Europeans by Congolese was matched by the failure of Europeans, despite the pretensions of la science coloniale, to understand Africans (MacGaffey 1969, pp.  259–63). The present chapter describes some of my own observations of followers of the prophet Simon Kimbangu as they negotiated dialogues of the deaf.

W. MacGaffey (*) Haverford College, Haverford, PA, USA e-mail: [email protected] © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023 A. N. Ngudiankama (ed.), Kimbanguism 100 Years On, African Histories and Modernities, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-37031-1_3

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Between 1964 and 1980 I spent time with Kimbanguist and other religious congregations of all denominations in Mbanza Manteke, Kasangulu, Nkamba, Matadi; and Kisangani. On several occasions I met with Mfumu a Nlongo Diangienda Joseph, head of the L’Église De Jésus-christ Sur La Terre Par Le Prophète Simon Kimbangu (EJCSK), and with its secretary-­ general, Luntadila Lucien. I collected Kimbanguist documents, of which the most important are translated in Janzen and MacGaffey, Anthology of Kongo Religion (1974; cited hereafter as Anthology). Since 1980 the Kimbanguist church has split into two branches. In December 1964, the anthropologist John Janzen and I recently arrived in the Democratic Republic of Congo and visited Nkamba, birthplace of Kimbangu and spiritual center of the church. We were rebuffed at first, but when we returned with a letter of introduction from Diangienda we were hospitably received. In 1965, I participated in the feast of 6 April in Nkamba with Janzen, who has kept notes of these visits. In January 1965 I settled in the village of Mbanza Manteke, which has a special place in the history of religious movements in Kongo. In 1896, after years without a convert, the pioneering English missionary Henry Richards changed his preaching style. Whereas at first he had tried to teach an Old Testament Christianity based on the Law, he preached instead “Christ and Him crucified” and was soon rewarded by a mass conversion that became famous in missionary annals as “the Pentecost of the Congo,” the first big Protestant success in the country that had only just become King Leopold’s Congo (Guinness 1890, pp. 432–32). In 1921, as news of Kimbangu’s teaching and healing practices spread, the Manteke district was drawn into the universal excitement and produced “prophets” of its own. One of them was Mabwaaka Mpaka, whose return from exile had caused great excitement in 1959. When I went to stay with Mabwaaka not long before his death in 1965, he told me his life story, which I translated and published in Kinshasa (Anthology, pp. 60–62). Retrospectively, Manteke people held that Richards, too, had been a prophet (ngunza), and mentioned the powers of healing and control of the weather that they attributed to him. In 1965 the village had a small Kimbanguist congregation whose services I sometimes attended. In 1966 I moved to Kasangulu, an urban environment with a large congregation of the Eglise de Jésus Christ, also the Dibundu dia Mpeve a Nlongo (Church of the Holy Spirit) and several other groups claiming to be Kimbanguist, including the Eglise Chrétienne of Bamba Emmanuel, whom I met on occasion. I had opportunities to visit the headquarters of

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the EJCSK in Kinshasa, Diangienda having given me a general letter of introduction, and was able to collect documents circulating among the leadership at that time. In 1969 I published “The Beloved City,” my translation of Zolanga Yelusalemi dya Mpa, the most important Kimbanguist document of the period (MacGaffey 1963). In 1970 I lived in the cité indigène in the port of Matadi, where I frequented Kimbanguist and other congregations, about a dozen in all. Followers of Mpadi Simon arranged for me to visit him at his headquarters at Ntendesi, near Kasangulu. I was also able to visit Nkamba again and to present a copy of “The Beloved City” to Dialungana Kiangani Salomon, eldest son of the Prophet, who was in charge of Nkamba. In 1979 as a visiting professor in Kisangani I spent time with the Kimbanguists there, whose situation was quite different in that the multi-ethnic composition of the city included few Kikongo speakers and the language of worship was Lingala. Several of the founders of the congregation had been confined at Lowa, further up the Congo River, and could tell me about the miraculous visit of the prophet himself to the faithful there in 1952 (Anthology, pp. 63–65). At this time I sent Diangienda a copy of “Kimbanguism: An African Christianity,” a brief summary, published in 1976, of my thoughts concerning Kimbanguism which I set forth in more detail in my later book, Modern Kongo Prophets (1983). Diangienda’s reply, in a mixture of Kikongo and French, thanked me for my article and politely disagreed with my interpretation. Chef de Cabinet Bena Silu wrote to me in good English, roundly denouncing my views without specifying what his objections were. In 1980, back in Kinshasa, I had discussions with Diangienda, Bena Silu, and Luntadila who were always cordial. They did not identify any specific issue of fact or interpretation in what I had written. I believe that any discomfort they felt was partly due to the fact that any church or other large organization describes itself and its own virtues in a style that observers would not use. A more important source of discomfort was that I mentioned elements of traditional Kongo culture embedded in Kimbanguism that the church was reluctant to talk about. This reluctance can be read in the documents of the time, as I will show. Let me begin by describing the life situation of Congolese at the time. Belgian Congo was a regime not only repressive but schizophrenogenic, constantly reminding its subjects that they were primitive and infantile while at the same time frustrating their every effort to advance, a contradiction that psychiatrists call a double bind. The autobiographies of a

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number of prophets, notably Nkindu Guillaume, whom I knew in Kasangulu, testify to the psychic stress of colonial rule. Nkindu, beautifully dressed in prophetic white, sat in my living room and described what it was like constantly to hear voices, which he said were like different channels on a radio; he had to be able to distinguish the voices of angels from those of evil spirits. From time to time he felt compelled to deliver to his congregation a powerful sermon, in call-and-response form interspersed with hymns, in which he interwove his degrading experience of Belgian rule with the story of the prophets (Anthology, pp.  148–50). Nkindu exemplified Lévi-Strauss’s generalization that in every society a certain percentage of individuals will be located outside the system or between two systems not reducible to one another. “Of such individuals the group asks or even requires them to represent certain forms of compromise that cannot be achieved on the collective level, to feign imaginary transitions, to incarnate incompatible syntheses. In all these apparently aberrant behaviors the ‘sick’ do nothing but transcribe a state of the group and make manifest one or other of its constants” (Lévi-Strauss 1968, pp. xx–xxi). After Congo became independent in 1960, not much changed. Congolese still faced an oppressive government in the form of a bureaucracy, now drained of its Belgian efficiency, that addressed itself to the public in an incomprehensible vocabulary based on mysterious premises. Here, in my translation, is part of a letter from the mayor of Matadi: With reference to your letter No.11/020/Off.Gov. Prov. /02573/LA/04 of 30 November, in re the topic cited in the margin hereof, and basing myself on my decision No.16/AK/No.6/NG/66 of 26 November 1966, forwarded to you in my letter No.2533/AK/NG/66 of 3 October last, I have the honor etc.

This is not normal language. In the Introduction to our Anthology Janzen wrote: “The gnostic use of language, particularly in its written form, is deliberately intended to convey a meaning only to the initiated and to embody in the printed word itself an alien mystery.” Small wonder that throughout the colonial period Congolese regarded all kinds of official paper as magical devices, minkisi, able to open doors or to close them, to permit and to forbid, and imitated them as best they could in their search for countervailing power. Prophets issued their own kalite mazulu, heavenly identity cards, and when possessed by the Holy Spirit might mix words from French and English into a stream of Kikongo gibberish.

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Speaking in tongues, the prophet Gonda André imitated the pretentious diction of French-speaking announcers on Kinshasa radio. The identity cards of the Universal Church of the Twelve Apostles showed the mysterious letters KCC, which the founder had originally seen like a billboard in the sky. The extreme form of this irrational response to unintelligible oppression was manifested by clearly demented individuals who would approach the window at an office or a bank with a scribbled piece of paper to which the clerk, accustomed to such submissions, would respond with another meaningless paper, completing an illusory transaction. Replying to glossolalia with more glossolalia is of limited use as a liberation strategy and bespeaks desperation. It is noteworthy that among the prophets the only one with a rational political goal was Mpadi Simon, who did not speak in tongues, was not called ngunza by himself or his followers, and said simply: “We want our own religion, our own government, and our own science.” Only Mpadi was aware of Kongo history and of earlier movements such as that of Kimpa Vita in 1704, which he cited as a precedent. But Mpadi had problems of his own. To legitimate itself in the eyes of government, any would-be church was obliged to submit petitions in which its founder, often with pathetically incoherent results, attempted to reconcile French-speaking bureaucratic expectations with his own Kongo sense of his mission to heal the world under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. In this context Diangienda was uniquely successful, in part because he and his immediate associates had been initiated into the bureaucracy and knew how to deal with it. He told me that as early as 1948 he had met with other educated men, including Emmanuel Bamba, Luntadila, and Simao Toko, to plan for a future church. In the 1960s the Eglise made enormous progress, spreading all over the country, building temples, schools, and clinics. At the same time, the Eglise had to deal with a double challenge: it needed to seek foreign approval and support, but it also struggled to retain the support of its Kikongo-speaking base and to recapture the energy of the thousands who had flocked to Nkamba in 1921. To some extent these aims were contradictory. In those days Europeans were inclined to suspect that any independent African church was probably syncretic, that is, that it was contaminated by elements of African belief and folklore and was therefore not truly Christian. Popular support, on the other hand, was motivated partly by just such belief and folklore, as the church well understood. The Eglise felt the need for a formal statement of its beliefs. Between 1960 and 1979 it produced no less than five editions of the Essence de la

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Théologie Kimbanguiste. This work in progress, probably the product of discussions led by Diangienda, was not really a theological exercise. It picked its way carefully between Protestant and Catholic tenets, indicating which ones the Eglise accepted and which it did not. For example, it accepted communion but rejected the mass, without saying why. In the 1960s two catechisms were in use, those of Christ and Kimbangu, respectively. The first was an orthodox Baptist catechism. The second was published in three versions, Kikongo, French, and Lingala; the three versions differing in content. The French version omitted the remarkable story of Kimbangu’s early life, of Nzangamani (Cameron) and Ma Kinzembo, and the prophet’s epiphany, which the Kikongo version included (Anthology, pp.  123–27). The church’s evident unease about the reception of this material among Europeans was justified. Marie-Louise Martin, who read the French version, testified in her book, An African Prophet and his Church (1975), that although the so-called ngounziste sects were syncretic, Diangienda’s church was authentically Christian. On the other hand, H.W.  Turner (1967), who had access to the Kikongo version, declared that Kimbanguism was clearly prophet-centered and showed almost no concern with Christian belief or behavior. All culture is syncretic and Christianity itself, from the beginning, has always incorporated nearby cultural elements. In any case it is not my job to pass theological judgments. What interests me is the daily experience of Kongolese and the deep cultural resources with which they have responded to it. After an initial mass outpouring of enthusiasm, popular support for the Eglise declined. Already in 1960 it faced competition from followers of Masamba Esaie’s Dibundu dia Mpeve a Nlongo in Manianga, Thomas Ntualani’s Church of Two Witnesses in Mbanza Ngoyo, and others. In Nkamba in 1966, in conversation with the professor of theology at the school there, I asked why so many people were leaving the church. He explained that there are two kinds of disease, those caused by God (or as I would say, natural) and those caused by kindoki, witchcraft. People wanted divination and exorcism, mfyedolo, mbikudulu. They were complaining that the church was merely another Protestant denomination. Many zealous supporters believed that true faith rendered Kimbanguist schools and clinics unnecessary. It’s all very well praying and singing hymns but you have to do something about the witches. In the words of a popular song, Mu mbandu yayi makangama se makutuka, maswekama se masoluka, ntangu bu ilungane, “In this generation issues that have been blocked will

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be released and those that have been hidden will be exposed, when the time is ripe.” There is more at stake here than the provision of pastoral services. The newspaper Kimbanguisme on 15 May 1960, celebrating the return of Kimbangu’s body to Nkamba, declared: “The works of God are neither old or new. Whatever things of God were in ancient time, the same are found in the present age and shall be in the age which is to come.” The newspaper was asserting much more than an analogy or that history repeats itself. Modern events are identical with those that have gone before and must inevitably recur. The cycle of the ages has once again established a kingdom of God on earth, this time in Africa: a new and total liberation. European thought since the Enlightenment has been committed to a linear concept of time, in which history is progressive and the past is definitely past. In Kongo religious thought the movement of time is cyclical. The past recurs in each age in new form, but remains absolutely the same. There is no standard, authoritative version of this repetitive history; I found several versions in texts and heard others in sermons and conversations, all of them conforming to the Kongo sense that, as Mpadi Simon once said to me, “[e]verything comes in threes and fours.” The common idea is that there have been three ages, each one divided into four generations. Ours is the fourth and last generation of the third and last age. An early edition of Essence de la Théologie Kimbanguiste, after the theological tiptoeing between Protestant and Catholic that I have mentioned, asserts: “Kimbanguism is not tied to any political party. Its horizons are unlimited and extend to the entire world. It has its faults but it is nevertheless a force in the midst of this our fourth generation.” When I asked Luntadila and Diangienda about this fourth generation both of them were notably evasive; in our discussions this was the only question Diangienda refused to answer. In a document of 1960, Tufimpulu l’esono kia Nkand’a Nzambi (“Let us examine what is written in the Bible”), Jerusalem is rebuilt four times, by Solomon, Nehemiah, the Jews, and the Bakongo. In other accounts there are three salvific events, benefiting respectively the Jews, Europe, and Africa; or four prophets, Moses, David, Jesus, and Kimbangu. The most sustained effort to find in the Bible developments foreordained to recur in the present age is Zolanga Yelusalemi dia Mpa (“The Beloved City”) in which Nkamba is the new Jerusalem, the prophet’s coffin is the Ark of the Covenant (nkel’a luwawunu), and the feast of 6 April replaces Easter but has a similar redemptive function. These are not resemblances,

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they are re-enactments. There is nothing very unusual about this kind of thinking; it resembles, for example, that of Joachim of Fiore in the European Middle Ages. Kongo ideas may well have been influenced by the work of H.  Grattan Guinness, whose book The Approaching End of the Age (8th. edition published in 1894) predicted the end of the world in 1900 and urged the conversion of as many of the heathen as possible before that time. Guinness was the single most influential figure behind the expansion of Protestant missions in Kongo, an area in which he took a special interest. His ideas must have been in circulation among Protestant missionaries. The popular expectation in the 1960s was that the great events of 1921 would be repeated: the blind would see, the lame would walk, and the dead would be raised. These hopes went far beyond spiritual renewal and cures for individual ailments. They expressed in the Kongo idiom a demand for total liberation, a world turned upside-down, a reappropriation of power by Africans. As the newspaper Kongo Dieto put it, “Our children will be healthy, our villages crowded. All the people will have intelligence, foresight and wisdom, and we will reproduce the age of our ancestors, who knew how to make iron tools, guns and many other things, and could cross rivers on clever devices. When our freedom was stolen from us, none of this remained.” The same early edition of Essence de la Théologie Kimbanguiste that I have already cited said that Kimbangu entrusted the direction of the Church to Diangienda. “Recipient of a spiritual power, His Eminence Joseph Diangienda raises the dead, restores sight to the blind, causes the paralyzed to walk, and performs all kinds of miraculous healing.” When I asked Luntadila in 1966 whether Diangienda in fact did these things, he hesitated and then said, “Whatever he once did, he still does.” All this is of course relates to the difficult question of Kimbangu’s status as messenger or messiah, and Diangienda’s status as his successor. I will say no more about that. It was precisely the Kongo cultural elements in Kimbanguism that Bamba Emanuel objected to as distortions of Kimbangu’s legacy: specifically the status of the zimvwala, the sons of Kimbangu, as bearers of preternatural power. Bamba founded his own Eglise Congolaise in 1961. In 1966, having participated in a clumsy attempt to overthrow Mobutu, he was brutally and publicly executed. Diangienda’s church distanced itself from Bamba with a haste that my neighbors in Kasangulu found distasteful.

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Besides the grand cosmological ideas about three ages and four generations, Kimbanguism was infused with traditional Kongo beliefs that it shares with the movement of renewal led by Kimpa Vita in 1704, and indeed with rest of Kongo history. I have discussed these beliefs in my “Cultural roots of Kongo prophetism” (1977), but here I will mention just two rather trivial examples. In the document Nsadulu ye Ntwadusulu za Dibundu, originally written in French, probably in 1959 and probably by Luntadila, the church required the faithful to observe, in addition to the Ten Commandments, twelve supplementary rules. Most of these rules can be understood in one sense if you are thinking in French and in another sense if you are thinking in Kikongo. For example, you are forbidden to bathe or sleep naked. This seems like commonsense—what if the house catches fire?—but why make commonsense a rule of the church? Answer: in traditional belief the surface of a pool of water is a mirror that can expose you to the inhabitants of the other world, nsi a bafwa, the land of the dead. Likewise, at night you are asleep but the dead are awake and may visit you, so you should be decent. I asked Diangienda about another rule that forbids eating pork and monkey. He replied, “We may eat wild pig but not domestic pig, and there are two kinds of monkey, one of which we may eat.” He gave no explanation, but bisi Kongo used to think that witches converted their victims into domestic pigs. They also thought that nsengi monkeys, which mate for life and thus resemble married couples, were transformed human beings, bankituzi. So much for the 1960s. The 5th edition of Essence de la Théologie Kimbanguiste (1979) shows a clear evolution of the church’s official doctrine toward a more orthodox Protestant theology, eliminating the elements Bamba had found objectionable. It still wavers between Protestant and Catholic beliefs with respect to the sacraments, and the feast of 6 April still takes the place of Easter, but an annex to this edition replaced the Nsadulu of 1959 and made three important changes. It portrays the church as a purely administrative hierarchy, making no mention of the special powers formerly attributed to the zimvwala. The power of the Mfumu a Nlongo to raise the dead is not mentioned. Nor is there any mention of the role of the basadisi in Nkamba as priests of the temple containing the Ark of the Covenant. Secondly, a single catechism replaced the two catechisms of Christ and Kimbangu, respectively, that were still in use in 1966. The replacement downplays the story of Kimbangu’s early life, Ma Kinzembo, and the prophet’s epiphany, a story already omitted, as we have seen, from the French version of the catechism published in 1959.

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Lastly, the supplemental rules disappeared, though not necessarily from the lives of the faithful. In Kisangani in 1980, Kimbanguists who were natives of the region observed the rules with respect to pigs and to local species of monkey, having confirmed, they said, that what the Bakongo told them about these animals was true. It is my impression that Diangienda himself, an educated man raised in a Catholic environment from the age of three, was always uncomfortable with the traditional beliefs and with the naive reading of the Bible that the church he built gradually abandoned. Diangienda died in 1992. The “incompatible synthesis” he tried to incarnate, between African and European concepts of power, healing, and revelation, eventually failed. In 2021 the World Council of Churches withdrew the affiliation of the Eglise Kimbanguist “on doctrinal grounds.” I have not been in Congo since 1980; I know nothing about developments there since that time. Kimbanguism has undergone tremendous changes since 1980 and there is now a whole library of work on the movement. Looking back, I am struck by how much Belgian policy had limited the horizons, both geographical and intellectual, of literate Congolese, for whom the Bible was the most interesting book they were likely to encounter. Things are now very different, as modern media of communication spread modern ideological currents, but I leave it to others to describe them.

References Doutreloux, A. L’Ombre des fétiches. Louvain: Nauwelaerts, 1967. Guinness, F. E. 1890. The New World of Central Africa. London: Hodder and Stoughton. Janzen, J. M. and W. MacGaffey, 1974. An Anthology of Kongo Religion. Lawrence, Kansas: University of Kansas Press. Lévi-Strauss, C. 1968. “Introduction à l’oeuvre de Marcel Mauss,” in M. Mauss, Sociologie et Anthropologie, 4th ed. Paris: Presses Universitaires de France. MacGaffey, W. 1963. Custom and Government in the Lower Congo. Berkeley: University of California Press. MacGaffey, W. 1969. “The beloved city: commentary on a Kimbanguist text,” Journal of Religion in Africa 2:129–147. MacGaffey, W. 1977. “Cultural roots of Kongo prophetism,” History of Religions 17, 2: 177–93. MacGaffey, W. 1983. Modern Kongo Prophets. Bloomington, Indiana: Indiana University Press.

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Martin, M.-L. 1975. Kimbangu: An African Prophet and his Church. London: Heffer. Turner, H.  W. 1967. History of an African Independent Church. Oxford: Clarendon.

The Influence of the Salvation Army on the Followers of Simon Kimbangu Daniel Diakanwa

1   Simon Kimbangu and His Followers Simon Kimbangu was born in the province of Bas-Congo in Nkamba (Democratic Republic of Congo) in 1887. During his marriage, he had three children: Charles Kisolekele Lukelo, Salomon Dialungana-Kiangani, and Joseph Diangenda. He aspired to be a teacher and evangelist, but due to his reading problems, he was unable to teach. In 1918, Simon began to have dreams encouraging him to seek a career as a healer. In 1921 he began his healing ministry. The Belgian colonialists had accused Kimbangu of sedition and had condemned him to death because he had garnered broad support from the Congolese people, which worried the Belgian Government because such support could easily translate1 into anti-­colonial nationalist action. Kimbangu was apprehended on September 14, 1921, in Nkamba, where he had returned willingly to await arrest. Simon Kimbangu was sentenced to death before a court-martial at Thysville (now

D. Diakanwa (*) Salvation Army Eastern Region, New York City, NY, USA © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023 A. N. Ngudiankama (ed.), Kimbanguism 100 Years On, African Histories and Modernities, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-37031-1_4

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Mbanza-Ngungu), presided over by a single judge, Commander Rossi, for “having disrupted the security of the State and the public peace.” While he was waiting for his imprisonment, he was kept in one of the rooms at a marketplace in the Barumbu area called “Magazin ya Makayabu,” meaning “Fish Market.” It was in that location where Simon Kimbangu prophesized that “[a] great Christian ministry will be born in this place of my arrest and will bring many souls to Christ.” This is also the location where Henri Becquet built the first Salvation Army Central Hall. King Albert of Belgium (reigned 1909–1934) reduced Kimbangu’s death sentence to life in jail, despite pressure from whites’ people in the colony. Kimbangu was sent to Elisabethville (now Lubumbashi) prison, where he stayed until his death on October 12, 1951. For his battle against injustice and people’s emancipation, Kimbangu was the only African leader to have spent more time in jail than Nelson Mandela.2 Perhaps his most famous prophecy, “The Black Man Will Become White, and the White Man Will Become Black,” was the major reason for his incarceration. The Belgian authorities attempted to disband the Kimbanguists by expelling them to various regions of the nation while Simon remained in prison. This strategy backfired on the government since it helped elevate the church’s prominence and broaden its influence beyond the Kongo ethnic community. Muilu Marie, Kimbangu’s wife, carried on her husband’s ministry after seeing his healing ministry. She was the Kimbanguist Church’s first spiritual leader, and she claims to have heard Simon Kimbangu talking with Jesus Christ. She was an active participant in her husband’s ministry and provided advice on a variety of issues. Muilu Marie will labor in her late husband’s ministry from 1921 till his death in April 1959. Many people traveled in secret from Belgium, Congo Brazzaville, and northern Angola to visit Muilu Marie. Even though she did not perform miracles like her husband, she was an incredible teacher who carried on Simon Kimbangu’s lessons and moral ideals. She also baptized others and taught them songs and prayers in Nkamba. The absence of Prophet Simon Kimbangu brought hundreds of followers into the Salvation Army, despite Marie Muilu’s efforts to keep Kimbangu’s followers united.3

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2   The Influence of the Salvation Army on Kimbangu Followers In September 1934, Adjutant Henry Becquet of Belgium Salvation Army and his wife Paula came to Léopoldville. Many Kimbanguists thought he was the reincarnation of Simon Kimbangu. “Before Henry Becquet and the Salvation Army moved in, there was a swarm of locusts with red marks on their wings.” The crimson emblems or epaulets on Henry Becquet’s tunic have been linked by several Kimbanguists to read patterns on grasshopper wings. Thus, the locusts announced the return of the reincarnated Simon Kimbangu in the body of Henry Becquet, according to his followers. Moreover, the Salvation Army “S” on the collar of their uniforms was also interpreted to herald the return of Simon Kimbangu. Furthermore, Simon Kimbangu’s prophetic statement at Barumbu’s “Magazin ya Makayabu,” in which he said, “A big Christian ministry will be at this place of my arrest and will lead many souls to Christ Jesus,” reinforced Kimbangu followers’ decision to join the Salvation Army. Nearly 7000 Kimbanguists joined the Salvation Army, according to Commissioner John Ludiazo, a former National Leader of the Salvation Army and many elder Salvation Army officers who lived during Simon Kimbangu’s period. Hundreds of people reported that Henri Becket conducted miraculous healings in La Salle Centrale Hall, which was erected on the site where Simon Kimbangu was held before his final prison cell in Lubumbashi. Several others traveled for days to get to Kinshasa to be healed by him. Captivated by the activism of the association in its fight against evil and sins, and supported by the wearing of uniforms and badges, news about Becquet and the Salvation Army spread like wildfire in the regions of Léopoldville, Bateke, and Bas-Congo. The Salvation Army has attracted a significant number of supporters of Simon Kimbangu. At the time, “the Congolese saw The Salvation Army act as a war on witchcraft.”4 My grandfather, a disciple of Simon Kimbangu, became a member of the Salvation Army, as well as Sergeant Major or (deacon). He built a Salvation Army church in the village of Mafunvu, where he was the village chief. He told me that several Congolese sorcerers brought their fetishes before Becquet to be delivered from the satanic grip and to accept Jesus Christ as their master and savior. My grandfather also told me that Henry Becquet’s ministry resulted in many healings. Another influential follower of Simon Kimbangu was Simon Mpadi, a former member of “The American Society of Baptist Missionaries Abroad.”

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My Father, Commissioner Diakanwa, former Commander of the Salvation Army, indicated that Becquet entrusted Mpadi with the task of evangelizing Kasangulu rural areas. He worked mostly as an officer and preacher in Kasangulu and Ngufu’s eastern regions. Unfortunately, Mpadi misused the confidence put in him by formulating beliefs that were contrary to the Salvation Army’s convictions. “Every once in a while the director of the training school would allow the cadets to go to certain villages, he was telling people that upon graduation from Training College he would start a Black People’s Church. Mpadi has said that he began prophesying when he was 12 years old, at the same time that Kimbangu began performing miracles. Around 150 communities in the Madimba and Kibambi areas had written to Governor-General Pierre Ryckmans in September 1939, asking formal permission to establish a distinct African Church. They were denied permission. Mpadi was arrested and transported to Befale in Equateur province, then to Elisabethville in Katanga province, when the “Black Mission” was disbanded. In 1956, many followers of Simon Kimbangu joined the Kimbanguist Church, officially known as “The Church of Jesus Christ on Earth via the Prophet Simon Kimbangu.” The Kimbanguists have adopted two key features of the Salvation Army: the marching band and the uniform. Salvationists dress in white, whereas Kimbanguists dress in green and white. (The women are dressed in a white shirt with a green skirt and a green headdress.) Salvationists are not allowed to drink any intoxicating beverage just as Kimbanguist abstain from drinking an alcoholic beverage. The militancy of the Salvation Army troops in their struggle against evil has been followed by the Kimbanguists. It should be noted that the Salvation Army and the Kimbanguist Church disagree theologically on the interpretation of John 14: 15–17. The Salvation Army, like the Catholic and Protestant churches, believes in the Trinity (God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit). The Kimbanguist Church believes in God the Father, God the Son, and Simon Kimbangu as the Holy Spirit according to their interpretation of John 14: 15–17. Kimbanguists are found in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Congo Brazzaville, Angola, Zambia, Burundi, Kenya, Belgium, France, and the United States; the Kimbanguist Church presently has over 17  million adherents.

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Notes 1. “Kimbangu, Simon, Zaire, The Church of Jesus Christ on Earth.” Dacb. org. 1 January 2014. Archived from the original on 11 December 2009. Retrieved 20 October 2016. 2. Ofosu-Appiah (1979). All rights reserved. 3. L’Armée du Salut et la naissance de la Mission des Noirs au Congo belge, 1934–1940. Mathieu Zana Etambala, PhD. (Professeur d’histoire au Musée royal de l’Afrique centrale; KU Leuven). 4. Boahen (1990, p. 223).

References Ofosu-Appiah, L.  H. 1979. The Encyclopaedia Africana Dictionary of African Biography (In 20 Volumes). Volume Two: Sierra Leone-Zaire. New  York: Reference Publications Inc. Boahen, A. Adu. 1990. Africa Under Colonial Domination, 1880–1935 which is Vol. VII of General History of Africa. Paris: UNESCO.

The Relations Between the Kimbanguist and the World Council of Churches: Past and Present Benjamin Simon

1   First Contacts The beginnings of the correspondence with the World Council of Churches (WCC) can be dated as early as 1962. The then–general secretary of the Kimbanguists, Lucien Luntadila, approached the general secretary of the WCC, W. A. Visser’t Hooft, to inquire about the possibility of becoming a member of the WCC.1 The first personal contact between the WCC and the Kimbanguists took place on September 19, 1966, when a delegation led by Lucien Luntadila arrived in Geneva. During these years, there were repeated assessments from different organizations or church institutions that the Kimbanguist Church was developing positively and “was turning more and more towards Protestantism.”2 However, it should also be emphasized that in numerous

B. Simon (*) World Council of Churches, Geneva, Switzerland e-mail: [email protected] © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023 A. N. Ngudiankama (ed.), Kimbanguism 100 Years On, African Histories and Modernities, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-37031-1_5

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correspondences it is mentioned that for the Conseil Protestant au Congo (CPC), the predecessor organization of the Eglise du Christ au Zaire (ECZ) and later of the Eglise du Christ au Congo (ECC), the Kimbanguists represent a red rag with whom no contacts should be maintained. Put diplomatically, the “Protestant Congolese Council of Churches was at no time very sympathetic to the Kimbanguists.”3 Intensifying contacts with the Kimbanguists certainly offered an ecclesiological opportunity for the WCC: a multitude of African-initiated churches were developing at this time, with a spirituality hitherto unfamiliar in the ecumenical movement. This new theological and spiritual movement aroused the interest of the WCC.4 According to former general secretary Konrad Raiser, “the WCC was aware at the time that the approach to Kimbanguism was a path into uncharted territory, but it confidently pursued this path of ecumenical cooperation.”5

2  The Application for Membership On June 10, 1968, the WCC received a short letter signed by Joseph Diangienda, then Chef Spirituel, asking for membership in the WCC. It was thanks to his “outstanding personality that he was admitted to the WCC,” summarizes Konrad Raiser.6 Two expert reports were obtained from the WCC: one written by Willy Béguin on May 15, 1968, entitled the “Historical Survey of the ‘Church of Jesus Christ on Earth by the Prophet Simon Kimbangu.’”7 In eight paragraphs on six pages, Béguin gives a general overview of the church. He begins by reviewing the antecedents of Kimbanguism and makes three important points: first, that the people longed for liberation from the political as well as missionary side; as another historical incident, he discusses the life of Kimpa Vita, who was burned alive in 1706 with the name of Jesus on her lips. Third, he discussed the meaning of the name Kimbangu, which means in Kikongo “the one who reveals hidden things.” The second report is entitled “An Attempt to Interpret in Theological Terms the Life and Teaching of the Eglise de Jésus Christ sur la terre par le prophète Simon Kimbangu’” and is signed by Marie Louise Martin on May 11, 1968. During those years Martin was still teaching at the university in Lesotho. She divided the six-page report into six sections. In her first section, Martin explores the normative question of whether it is a “church or a sect.” In her closing argument, she cites “a good number of services she has attended at the Kimbanguist Church, each translated for

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her by a trusted person, and a large number of recorded sermons and prayers that place the biblical message with the crucified and risen Lord”8 at the centre of their preaching. She stresses, however, that during the years of persecution, groups were also formed that still existed, sometimes causing a degree of confusion in the intentions of Protestant and Catholic investigators. Nevertheless, there are 40 groups that have now found each other and made the request to the WCC. However, she also points out that these groups are only “on the way to finding their doctrinal unity, which has not yet been formulated.”9 She also addresses the criticism already heard in her time: “It is said in some circles outside Kimbanguism that Simon Kimbangu is considered a third person of the Trinity.” Already in 1968, during the application process for membership in the WCC, this position of the Kimbanguists has been raised, but “in the same breath” it has been debunked by Martin, who continues that “this assumption is based on misunderstandings as well as statements of Kimbanguists for whom Simon Kimbangu became the only person on whom the Holy Spirit descended in all his fullness.” She attributes this theological position to the fact that the church is only in its process of discovery and is slow to formulate its doctrine. The conviction that Simon Kimbangu is one with the Holy Spirit is not held by the superiors of the Church. After all, a few in the WCC did criticize the fact that the reports of Martin and Béguin were unreservedly positive: “Both identify so closely with the Kimbanguist vision, history and witness that they come dangerously close to the idea that this can be the only interpretation of the deeds of Jesus Christ in the Congo.”10 These remarks did not receive enough attention, so the theology of the Kimbanguists was not explored in greater depth. In the decade that followed, Susan Asch’s insightful work analysed and underscored this early emerging theological dichotomy in the church, that there was a belief of the church leadership and a popular belief.11 It seems that the process of “carefully formulating” her theology was far from complete—or rather, was moving in an opposite direction from what Martin had hoped. There were, however, numerous critical voices in this early phase of rapprochement that analysed the theology of the Kimbanguists less positively than the two expert opinions of Béguin and Martin did. From the Centre Medical Evangelique in Kimpese there is also a four-­page report from 1968, in which the three authors, Peter Manicom and Charles and Rhoda Couldridge, comment on this and critically state:

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We can only hope that Kimbanguism will converge with Christianity and become a Christian denomination. But it would be premature to say that this moment has already arrived. Meanwhile, it makes no sense to minimize, as the World Council of Churches document did, the differences that exist between Kimbanguism and Congolese denominations.12

From January 27–30, 1969, the WCC Executive Committee met in Tulsa, Oklahoma (USA), and considered Kimbanguism and their application for membership. The report makes clear that there were different assessments on the Kimbanguists. However, it makes clear to the members of the Executive Committee that “there is more at stake than admitting its other church to membership in the WCC.” Numerous other African Independent Churches are ready to become members of the WCC in order to gain acceptance by the West, among others, because “international recognition confers a certain status that is usually more important than national recognition, especially if it also involves aid payments to the movement.”13 A few weeks later, at its first meeting in Canterbury in August 1969, the newly elected central committee decided positively on the application for Kimbanguist membership in the World Council of Churches. Already on August 18, 1969, the Chef Spirituel, papa Diangienda expressed in his letter of thanks that the admission of his church to the WCC was “an enormous encouragement” and that only in unity “we can effectively face the problems facing our world.”14 For the Kimbanguists, the new international and ecumenical approaches are a fulfilment of Kimbangu’s prophecy, since he had spoken many years earlier that “Christians of all races and nations will come from the ends of the earth to celebrate (worship) with them.”15 Nevertheless, critical voices were also heard. In long remarks, Crane explains in his report the reasons why, for the established churches in Congo (especially the Catholics and the Protestants), the acceptance of the Kimbanguists has caused resentment. He traces this to the colonial period when “thousands of Christians left the established churches as well as the Salvation Army to join the growing Kimbanguist church. In doing so, they were attracted by the irresistible thought that they would belong to a church founded and led by a Congolese….”16 While Crane can report a very warm welcome from the Kimbanguists at Diangienda’s private home, his encounters with representatives of other Kinshasa churches had a disturbing effect on him. In a cover letter, he summarizes the critical

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remarks he encountered: The Kimbanguists are subject to error, and therefore there can be no fellowship with them unless they turn back to the true church. The Kimbanguists believe in Simon Kimbangu, but not in Jesus Christ. They are only a political movement, or at most a sect, but not a church. We Congolese understand them better than you, because we are Congolese. They deceive you by pretending what they are not. The massive criticism culminated in the accusation that Kimbanguism is a movement in which leadership positions are hereditary and no spiritual leadership is crucial.

3  The Years of the 1970s and 1980s Regarding the first years of membership, the 1970s, the files do not show many correspondences that are of relevance. An invitation to the general secretary, Philip Potter, to Nkamba was expressed for 1977. The purpose of the trip was to visit the new temple that the Kimbanguists had built in their holy city. After the visit to Congo and Nkamba, Potter was extremely emotionally touched in his letter of thanks: It is difficult for me to express my feelings about the Kimbanguists. I remember that Henry Crane felt similarly, when he visited them again in 1968. All I can say is that I certainly felt the presence of the Holy Spirit among us and in all the meetings we had in Nkamba. Of course, Nkamba is a holy place.17

The secretary general expressed his boundless enthusiasm and was deeply impressed by the Kimbanguists. Certain concerns about their theology did not play any role or were not present at that time. Karl-Ludwig Simon, a professor in Lutendele at the Kimbanguist faculty, sums up this attitude in 1979, namely that “in a kind of wave of nostalgia […] at the moment everywhere the Kimbanguists are held up as a model.”18 In the early 1980s, Konrad Raiser was appointed acting general secretary (GS). He already knew the Kimbanguists well from one of his earlier visits in 1972. In his new capacity, he now approached the Chef Spirituel to renew contacts: “I would very much like to take another opportunity to renew our contacts.”19 He apologizes that a visit will not be possible in the near future, as he is to be less absent from Geneva as interim GS. Philip Potter retired in 1984. On this occasion, the Chef Spirituel wrote a very kind and flattering letter emphasizing that “all Kimbanguists will

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always remember their visit together with Bishop Mkhulu. Our ecumenical vision has been greatly influenced by their rich experience.”20 The Kimbanguists invited the Executive Committee to Kinshasa. The meeting took place in March 1986 (March 9–15).

4  The Passing of Papa Diangienda The intensive and more fruitful ecumenical contacts on the part of the Kimbanguists can be traced back to the work of papa Diangienda. With his passing away on July 8, 1992 (in Geneva), also the constructive ecumenical cooperation and the ecumenical-theological phase, in which a Trinitarian theology—at least from the official side—was represented, came to an end. In his letter of condolence, the WCC General Secretary Emilio Castro emphasizes the great gratitude that the ecumenical movement feels for all that he has done “in the service of his church and the ecumenical movement.”21 On September 28, 1992, the general secretary of the Kimbanguists, Luntadila Ndala za Fwa, informs the WCC about the election of the new Chef Spirituel papa Dialungana Kiangani Salomon on September 12. Already in the following January, Luntadila approaches the general secretary to pay a visit to the WCC before the end of the year. His request, expressed in a letter, was for “the resumption of contacts with the World Council of Churches after the tragic disappearance of our Chef Spirituel, His Eminence Diangienda.”22 The Kimbanguist church leadership was very concerned not to break off contact with the worldwide ecumenical movement, but to intensify it. Huibert van Beek, who was responsible for the cooperation of the churches, sent greetings of the new general secretary Konrad Raiser in his reply and he confirmed that a visit seemed to be useful in order to strengthen the mutual relations (and to consider together how to deal, among other things, with the Kimbanguist communities in Europe and especially their (financial) requests, which in the meantime reached the WCC from all over Europe). Despite proper plans, the visit was cancelled on short notice by the Kimbanguists. On October 7, 1993, Konrad Raiser already reacted in writing to this visit and addressed papa Dialungana. He makes no secret of his astonishment and refers to the letter that Luntadila had sent earlier. He clarifies that Luntadila had announced his official visit almost since the beginning of the year and that he was in close contact with the WCC. It was a “totally unexpected situation”23 for him as general secretary as well

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as the WCC.  Raiser, however, insisted on clarifying the circumstances, finding clear words “in the hope they may help me understand this situation better and tell me how we can approach the future.” At the end of his letter, Raiser again emphasized how much he cares about cooperation between the WCC and the Kimbanguists.

5  Papa Dialungana and His Ecumenical Contacts In a circular letter dated January 12, 1995, papa Dialungana addressed the difficult ecumenical contacts, some of which had already been broken off. He states that since the death of his brother on July 8, 1992, “practically all relations between the Kimbanguists and most other churches and organizations have ended.”24 In order to bring back this collaboration, the Chef Spirituel informs, he has introduced Rev. Bena Nsilu as “Directeur de Cabinet du Chef Spirituel” on December 24, 1994. He praises and extols Bena Nsilu in the highest terms, mentioning his long-standing participation in the central committee of the WCC as well as his extensive travel and communication skills. He has full confidence in him. In 1994 during Raiser’s visit, he described in his speech to his Kimbanguist auditorium that the “spiritualité Kimbanguiste” is a special one, from which he believes comes “this source of energy that can transform not only the Congolese people and the people of the Grands Lacs region, but also all those who inhabit Africa.”25 These are very hopeful words that Raiser addresses to the Kimbanguists. This hope, when asked by a journalist, he emphasizes the importance of the dialogue that must be deepened between all “and to break down the walls of separation that have often been our own cathedrals.”26 He further emphasized his words with his closing statement: he admonished all the participants that it would be of great danger if they (note: Kimbanguists and ecumenists) remained in separation, because in this way “we risk betraying our faith and crucifying Christ a second time.”27 Despite the clear words from Geneva, the Kimbanguists decided very soon to declare their popular theology as the official doctrine of the Church.

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6  Postponement of the Christmas Feast and Its Consequences On May 25, 2000, the Kimbanguists published a four-page announcement entitled “Célébration de la fête du 25. Mai 2000—déclaration du Collège National de l’Eglise”:28 first, the reader is given a brief biography of the officiating Chef Spirituel Dialungana Kiangani Salomon. In the year 2000 after the birth of Jesus, the Kimbanguist Church gives a double meaning (double signification) to the birth of its Chef Spirituel. After some theological explanations about Jesus Christ and his person within the Trinity as well as his work on earth, he promises that he will send the Holy Spirit on earth (Il avait promis d’envoyer sur terre le Saint-Esprit). This promise comes true at the end of the twentieth century: papa Simon Kimbangu is none other than God the Holy Spirit. This statement is further enhanced in the “Declaration” as the section on the birth of Simon Kimbangu’s three sons ends with the words “the Holy Trinity has now become flesh”!29 The authors draw from these findings that papa Dialungana, being the second born, is accordingly the second person of the Trinity. In a follow-up discussion between van Beek from WCC and the new general secretary of the Kimbanguists, Rev. Loso Mukoko, Mukoko confirmed the rescheduling of the Christmas feast and justified this with “serious research done by Kimbanguist theologians and historians.” When asked if this had not caused difficulties with the other churches in Congo, Mukoko replied that “each church is free to design its own liturgical calendar.” Van Beek did try to steer the continuing conversation towards the doctrine of the Trinity, but Mukoko “rejected the accusations of confusion with the doctrine of the Trinity.”30 The postponement of Christmas has led to turbulent discussions and disputes among the other churches surrounding the Kimbanguists. These led, among other things, to the “Ecumenical Council of Christian Churches in Congo” (Conseil Oecuménique des Eglises Chrétiennes du Congo, COECC) in Congo-Brazzaville, excluding the Kimbanguists from their midst as early as January 15, 2001. However, they speak of an “auto-exclusion”: “le COECC prend acte de cette auto-exclusion de l’Eglise Kimbanguiste du COECC.”31 The Congolese Council of Churches thus wants to convey unequivocally that it is not they who have excluded the Kimbanguists, but “that it is due to the new situation of these (note: the Kimbanguists) that they no longer have a place in the Council.” In his

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information letter to the general secretary of the WCC, about the exclusion of the Kimbanguists, the president of the COECC stresses again that they have had extensive discussions with the Kimbanguist Church, but the latter has “continué à réaffirmer avec force et ténacité que Simon Kimbangu est le Saint-Esprit et que Dialungana-Kiangani Salomon est Jésus-Christ.”32 They therefore also expect the reaction of the WCC (a more detailed specification of what this reaction should look like, however, is left out) in order to calm the “esprits et consciences troublés.” The actual exclusion of the Kimbanguists was made by the Comité Exécutif National during their meeting of August 20–26, 2001. The same reaction was with ECC, they recommend all believers of the ECC member churches to keep their distance from the Kimbanguists. They designate the Kimbanguists as a non-Christian religious community and communicate that, accordingly, they will no longer celebrate common worship services. After the clear and unequivocal decisions of the ECC and previously of the Congolese Christian Council, van Beek’s moderate and conciliatory style seems somewhat surprising. The two church representatives agree that a delegation of Kimbanguists, together with Bena Nsilu should come to Geneva so that the Kimbanguists could explain the “revelations” and the “new insights they had gained” to the WCC.33 The second half of the year was targeted. However, before they want the WCC to comment on this publicly, they are keen to seek theological dialogue with the Kimbanguists. It is important for them to “listen to those responsible and start a dialogue.”34 Only then could the WCC possibly take a position. Van Beek also does not want to “speculate” about what the position of the WCC would be afterwards. It is clear from his concluding sentences that he is extremely displeased with the uncompromising decisions of the Congolese (Brazzaville and Kinshasa) councils of churches. When criticism was levelled at van Beek that the WCC had not yet taken action, he replied unequivocally that the WCC is a fellowship that has a “pastoral responsibility, of one for the other,” so member churches have a mandate to make each other aware of deviations. Fears that such a theology would sideline them did not exist for Bena Nsilu. On the contrary, for him a rejection by the other churches means an approach to the fate that also befell Jesus, who was also misunderstood and accordingly denied and nailed to the cross. Even if the WCC would decide that the Kimbanguist Church could no longer be a member, this would not change “the current teaching of the church”!35

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During this challenging time for the Kimbangu church leadership, the WCC made no less serious requests to meet and discuss contentious theological issues. On November 7, 2002, the WCC received a promise from the Chef Spirituel that another meeting would be held. The letter, written by the Président du Conseil National, Rev. Luntadila, already mentions the names of the delegation members. Almost three years after the Christmas feast was moved to May 25, the birthday of papa Dialungana, 13 representatives of the Kimbanguists and 11 representatives of the WCC and its member churches met (finally) from January 18 to 21, 2003, for a dialogue meeting. In this first round of talks, some of the Kimbanguist delegates stated unequivocally that Simon Kimbangu is the Holy Spirit. Not that the Holy Spirit had taken possession of him, but that Simon Kimbangu incarnates this third person of the Trinity. In the dialogue session with the WCC, the questions focused on the person of Simon Kimbangu and his closeness to the Holy Spirit. The Kimbanguist representatives clearly positioned themselves in favour of the two understandings of the Holy Spirit described above, in which the Paraclete is understood physically and can thus be identified in Kimbanguism with Simon Kimbangu. Van Beek ends his report with the recognition that “this implies that Simon Kimbangu has divine attributes within him.”36 When asked by WCC delegates whether the Kimbanguist Church does not adhere to the teachings presented in the so-called green book,37 for example, chapter six, Kimbanguist representatives replied, “Nothing officially written down exists as yet. The Chief Spiritual wants to set up a commission to synthesize the teachings of the three previous Chefs Spirituels and the teachings of the Bible.” In an explanatory letter, the Chef Spirituel commented on the decisions:38 “We believe in the one triune God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit, source of all life, creator of the universe and of all that is visible and invisible.” However, he further stated that with regard to the second and third persons of the Trinity, experiences of Kimbanguists and non-Kimbanguists have shown that “Jesus Christ is Dialungana Kiangani. DIALUNGANA KIANGANI and the Holy Spirit is Simon Kimbangu.” Further on, he refers to the prophecies already made about Simon Kimbangu by Dona Béatrice in 1706. She had predicted his date of birth and, among other things, the place of his ministry.39 Further healings and predictions, which he accomplished in his childhood years as well as apparitions after his

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death. All these convictions “lead the Kimbanguists to understand Simon Kimbangu as the Comforter and the Holy Spirit promised by Jesus Christ.” At the end of his letter, the Chef Spirituel invites the “sisters and brothers of the WCC” to “join them to deepen together the spiritual as well as scientific search to reach more insights.”40 Based on the remarks of the Chef Spirituel, van Beek judges, without wanting to prejudge the decision of the Executive Committee, that “our patience to keep them on board will soon be exceeded.”41 The Executive Committee, at its meeting of August 23, 2003, recommended that a letter be written to the Chef Spirituel.42 The letter should clearly state that the Executive Committee finds it very difficult how the Kimbanguists can agree with the WCC formula and at the same time make statements that Jesus Christ is papa Dialungana and the Holy Spirit is Simon Kimbangu. This is not compatible with each other. If this is not clarified, the WCC will consider suspending their membership. The idea that Simon Kimbangu is the incarnation of the Holy Spirit and papa Dialungana is the incarnation of Jesus Christ are not contradictory statements in the African context. In one context, the Holy Spirit can only have a spiritual body, and in another, or the African context, he can also have a physical body. The Chef Spirituel explains the incarnation of Jesus Christ by saying that the African experience provides for the possibility of reincarnation. To the statement that the WCC is open to dialogue, but mindful of the integrity of its theology and dogmas, the Chef Spirituel replies that “each of us must also preserve our doctrinal characteristics, which, after all, constitute our identity.”

7  A New WCC General Secretary: Sam Kobia After the retirement of Konrad Raiser at the end of 2003, one of the first acts of service of the new WCC general secretary, Sam Kobia, was to convene a meeting on January 18, 2004, with his relevant staff and the general secretary of the All Africa Council of Churches (AACC), Mvume Dandala. A few days later, Sam Kobia sent his first letter to the Kimbanguists. He thanked for the congratulations that reached him from Nkamba on his election and for the invitation to come to Nkamba next April, which he unfortunately had to answer negatively. He said that before he would start looking for a new date together with the AACC and the Kimbanguists, it

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was necessary “that we agree on the nature, the content as well as the objectives of our talks.”43 The letter of invitation to a meeting in Nairobi was not long in coming. Dandala mentioned in passing that there was a need for discussion, since the church was apparently going through an “interpretation crisis” with regard to one of the central dogmatic positions, namely the doctrine of the Holy Trinity.44 At the same time, the Catholic Bishops’ Conference in Congo took a public position on its attitude towards the Kimbanguists. At their meeting from June 28 to July 3, 2004, they took an unequivocal stand and distanced themselves from the Kimbanguists. The Kimbanguist doctrine has led to “graves aberrations et dérapages” with respect to Christian doctrine. In their statement they clarify these “graves aberrations,” namely that some statements and pronouncements of the Kimbanguists identified the three sons of the prophet Simon Kimbangu without doubt with the three persons of the Trinity. The statement concluded: “Henceforth, we designate the Kimbanguists as a non-Christian religion and will treat them as such.” For the Catholic Church, since then, a level of conversation prevails as it is practised with other non-Christian religions.45 The planned meeting with the Kimbanguists in cooperation of the AACC with the WCC and the Organization of African Instituted Churches (OAIC) was held—after several postponements—from July 4 to 9, 2004 in Kinshasa and Nkamba. In his concluding report, van Beek notes that the discussion revealed that there were different opinions within the Kimbanguist delegation on the subject of the Holy Spirit: some who profess that Simon Kimbangu is the Holy Spirit and others who seek more of a symbolic explanation, invoking the traditional Bakongo doctrine that he who “has seen the scepter also sees the king.”46 The basic tenor of the conversation followed the request from the Kimbanguist side to be given more time and space to develop the African expression of their faith: “Africa had something to offer to the North. The ecumenical movement had much to gain from the experiences and insights of the Kimbanguist Church, which brought something new to the world.”47 During informal discussions, van Beek was able to learn from the theological representatives of the Kimbanguist commission, most of whom taught at the Faculty of Theology, that they disagreed with the dogmatic deviations. They hoped that the theological commission would find a way in which they could turn the current Chef Spirituel away from

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his popular faith. This official meeting was to be followed by an audience with the Chef Spirituel in Nkamba. However, the meeting could not take place in this form. The WCC delegation arrived on the eve of July 8, the anniversary of papa Diangienda’s death. Therefore, they were asked to give their meeting a “pastoral character” so as not to “upset the Chef Spirituel.” Since the commission agreed, they were reduced to greeters and could not address the actual theological issues that would have been urgent to discuss. Without comment, van Beek’s report includes the incident that during the festivity the Chef Spirituel sat under a banner bearing his name, papa Simon Kimbangu Kiangani, subtitled “Molimu Santo” (Holy Spirit on Lingala). Delegates from the three organizations represented on the trip, AACC, OAIC and WCC, agreed that “some kind of action” must follow to send a signal. Agreement on content with the two sister organizations was always important to the WCC. No decision should be made without them. The suspension of membership was mentioned, but it should be noted positively that a theological commission has been established. This could lead to an annual exchange. Nevertheless, a time limit of three years should be set for the work of the commission, after which the situation should be evaluated again. Following this meeting, the preparatory committee of the WCC Executive Committee made the following proposal at its meeting following the rather unsuccessful discussion tour: The World Council of Churches is quite agreeable to continuing the talks within the framework of the Theological Commission. However, it cannot endlessly postpone the question of membership. Therefore, the Executive Committee will make a final decision in September 2005.48

The general secretary, Sam Kobia, informed the Chef Spirituel on August 30, 2004, of the decisions taken by the Executive Committee. He recalled that the current teachings of Kimbanguism were such that they could lead to expulsion from the WCC. (They had already been informed of this in a letter dated August 18, 2003.) Although the Executive Committee welcomed the formation of the Theological Commission and wanted to be supportive as far as possible, the next meeting in September 2005 was to make a final decision on the continuation as a WCC member of the Kimbanguist Church.49

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In 2005, the WCC made good on its intentions by conducting another delegation trip between July 21 and 22, together with representatives of the AACC and the OAIC.  A visit to Nkamba, the Kimbanguist Holy Place, and discussions in Kinshasa with members of the Theological Commission were on the agenda. The meeting with the Theological Commission was considered very positive after the rather subdued experience of 2000–2004. The Commission presented a paper, which outlined the state of the discussion. Among the particular “highlights” listed in the WCC report were the following:50 • The Kimbanguist Church still subscribes to the ecumenical formula that they also subscribed to when they joined the WCC or the AACC. • God can be revealed through “privileged witnesses” “and Simon Kimbangu is an example of this.” • Simon Kimbangu is understood “only” as a special messenger and witness of Jesus Christ. “He is one of our ancestors who intercedes for us with the Son, and he himself is dependent on Jesus Christ.” In particular, the following insight seems important: • “They confirmed that the three sons of Simon Kimbangu did not replace the Trinity.” Rather, the three sons are seen as the “sceptres” that serve as symbols of the Holy Trinity: according to a traditional Bakongo wisdom, “He who sees the chief’s sceptre sees the chief.” However, the sceptre never replaces the chief himself.51 “The Spiritual Chief confirmed that the position as spelled out by the Theological Commission is indeed the position of the church.” Both sides parted with the intention to continue to move forward on this good path and to remain in dialogue. In his letter of August 17, 2005, the general secretary of the AACC emphasized that his organization would like to see the Kimbanguists retain their membership in the AACC as well as in the WCC. The document of the Theological Commission, he said, was convincing and made it clear that the church was back on the right track. The AACC hopes that this opinion would also be supported by the WCC.52 To the great surprise of the WCC, the leadership of the Kimbanguists dissolved the theological working group COTHEKI only three years later besides this positive development (2008).53 Their publication, “Doctrine

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de la Sainte Trinité, l’Eglise Kimbanguiste clarifie sa position,” had in some way inspired the confidence necessary for AACC and the WCC to be persuaded to engage in further discussions.54 Now, Decree No. 118 of July 24, 2008, stated: The members of this commission have written down a teaching that does not reflect the official position of the Kimbangu Church and, accordingly, does not reflect the opinion of our three “Papas”, the Chef Spirituel, the official representation and the recommendations of the International Conference on Papa Simon Kimbangu.55

For worldwide ecumenism, this publication by the Chef Spirituel represented a considerable step backwards—namely, back to the years at the beginning of the millennium when the then–Chef Spirituel, papa Dialungana had moved the celebration of Christmas to his birthday and since then has been identified with Jesus Christ. Three days after the dissolution of the COTHEKI, the Chef Spirituel announced in his letter of July 27, 2008, that a new commission would be created: The “Commission sur la Doctrine de l’Eglise Kimbanguiste” (C.E.DO.KI). It would be directly subordinate to the Chef Spirituel. All the results of the commission must be submitted to him, since he is the “guarantor of the unity of the Church and ensures the correctness of doctrine.”56 The results of its critical reading would be presented in a further step to the General Assembly of the Kimbanguists for their approval. The publication of the COTHEKI “Doctrine de la Sainte Trinité, L’Eglise Kimbanguiste clarifie sa position,” which represented a moderate and ecumenically oriented Kimbanguist theology and which caused hope to flare up again among the partner organizations, was replaced by “Doctrine de l’Eglise Kimbanguiste.” This scripture now contains the doctrine that the church actually wants to spread as its doctrine. In 2009, another meeting with the three general secretaries of the WCC, AACC and OAIC took place at short notice in Nkamba. The trip was part of the WCC’s “Living Letters” campaign, which first visited the ECC member churches, followed by a visit to the Kimbanguists. In preparation, it was made clear to the Kimbanguists (once again) that they risked their membership in the WCC “if they did not reconsider the step of dissolving the theological commission and discarding its publication.”57 In all, the high-level delegation was allotted a modest 15 minutes on July 11, 2009. In these they were allowed to present their concerns and make it

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clear to the Chef Spirituel that they would report to the Central Committee in August, that they expected a written statement from him. They would be in Kinshasa until July 15 if he felt the need for further discussion. In the four-hour service that followed, the three general secretaries experienced how rooted Kimbanguist Trinity theology is and that the Chef Spirituel is unmistakably seen as the Holy Spirit. Moreover, this conviction was officially called for in the documents of the international conference held in Kinshasa the same year: “That the whole world, especially the Christian world, recognize Simon Kimbangu as the messenger of Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit.”58 Accordingly, the WCC report soberly states: The fact that in our presence they affirmed and reaffirmed the Kimbangu Trinitarian theology and recognized the Chef Spirituel as the Holy Spirit, and moreover their understanding of Christmas, were clear indications that the practice of the church has not changed in light of the document published in 2006.59

It became clear to the delegation that the church had excluded itself from the ecumenical fellowship and that the WCC, AACC and OAIC should have taken the necessary steps. Nevertheless, a few days after the return from Nkamba, the delegation received a letter from the Chef Spirituel stating that he and his church were very much interested in further ecumenical cooperation and that the church had no intention of breaking its fraternal relations with the WCC, the AACC and the OAIC. This conciliatory and conciliar statement of the Chef Spirituel has now again persuaded the central committee of the WCC at its meeting in September 2009 to keep its word and implement its original proposal of accompanying the Kimbanguists in one way or another. They are all ready to support the Kimbanguists “in clarifying their Trinitarian position by accompanying them theologically, until the next central committee.”60

8   Conclusion: The Last Decade, Since Busan61 The results of the meeting at the WCC-Assembly in Busan had not been conducive to further relations between Kimbanguists and the WCC: The General Secretary invited the Chef Spirituel (again) to Nairobi for a meeting; This was to be held on March 15, 2014. The purpose of this meeting is “to reach a final position on whether the doctrine of Kimbanguism is

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still compatible with the theological basis on which our ecumenical organization is founded and constituted.”62 For the WCC, this one seems to be finally cast and further cooperation or membership of the Kimbanguists is no longer conceivable. On April 26, 2014, representatives of the WCC, AACC, OAIC and the Kimbanguists finally met.63 At the meeting, which took place in Kinshasa, it was not possible for the Chef Spirituel to participate—as so often in the past years. Finally, the participants agreed on an accompanying commission. There is a common hope that such a commission will be helpful for the whole ecumenical movement. Overall, a more positive mood can be gleaned from these April 2014 minutes than after the 2013 Busan meeting, yet nothing happened, and the requested names of commission members were not provided from the Kimbanguist side. With a lot of patience and full of hope that the monitoring commission would come about, the General Secretary Olav Fykse Tveit again suggested a possible meeting with joint talks in 2015. His declared goal was not to lose any member church of the WCC. If the monitoring commission did not meet for the first time, Buda explained, and no results could be presented to the central committee in June 2016, the “reactions would be unpredictable.”64 Zeyi always tried to wriggle out of it by arguing that more time was needed for internal clarifications. Because of the conversation, papa Zeyi only settled that it was the “will of God whether the meeting should take place” or not. Contrary to the promises of papa Zeyi, the Chef Spirituel in his letter of November 28, 2015, did not name the persons to be appointed, but invited the general secretary of the WCC to come to Nkamba-Jerusalem, July 12–16, 2016, for a conference under the theme: “Conférence Internationale sur Papa Simon KIMBANGU à la lumière des témoignages des ses contemporains: Les Arrêtés et Relégués.” Thus, the laborious and well-planned first meeting of the Accompanying Commission was cancelled (the files contain an already detailed programme of the five days of meetings). Olav Fykse Tveit cannot hide his disappointment and articulates it in his letter of March 9, 2016, informing the Chef Spirituel that the Central Committee would receive a report from him next June, which would have no significant content about the progress of the talks. Thus, in 2016, after several years of patient discussion, the central committee in Trondheim decided that the membership of the Kimbanguists in the WCC was suspended until further notice. In spite of every effort for

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reconciliation and unity, including the efforts of the All Africa Conference of Churches, there were no possibilities for a constructive solution. Hence, the Central Committee at its meeting, June 23–29, 2021,65 applied, for the first time in the history of the WCC, the WCC Rule I.6.c. that “the central committee may suspend the membership of a church (ii) because the basis of, or the theological criteria for, membership has not been maintained by that church,”66 and decided that the period of suspension and continuing efforts has concluded and will not be renewed. The Church of Jesus Christ on Earth by His Special Envoy Simon Kimbangu (Kimbanguist Church) is no longer to be considered a member church of the WCC.

Notes 1. Letter of L. Luntadila of 19 October 1962 to the GS of WCC. Unfortunately, we do not find a letter of answer by the GS in the archives. All letters and documents referred to in this chapter are found in the archives of the World Council of Churches. 2. Letter of P.C. Toureille, The Leprosy Mission of 24 August 1966 to the GC Visser’t Hooft. 3. Letter of F. A. Evans. Lieutenant Commissioner, The Salvation Army of 28 November 1966 to J. Fischer, Co-Secretary for Africa, WCC. 4. As a general information on the Kimbanguist cf.: Simon, Benjamin, Leadership and Ministry in the Kimbanguist Church, in: Church Ministry in African Christianity. Ed. by Ronilick E.K. Mchami and Benjamin Simon. Kenia: Acton, 2006. 126–142. 5. Interview with Konrad Raiser, former GS of WCC, on 7 September 2019 in Berlin with the author. 6. Raiser, Interview, ibid. 7. Willy Béguin was a pastor and presiding board member of the Swiss Committee of EIRENE and helped organise the first visit of the Kimbanguist delegation to WCC in 1966. In the year 1968 he has been amongst the WCC delegation travelling to the Kimbanguist. 8. Martin, Marie-Louise, An attempt to interpret in theological terms the Life and Teaching of the Eglise de Jesus Christ sur Terre par le prophète Simon Kimbangu. Appendix B of 11 May 1968. p. 1. 9. Ibid., 2. 10. Letter by Henry W.  Crane of 28 March 1969 to Dr Ernest A.  Payne, England. 11. Asch, Susan, L’Eglise du Prophète Kimbangu. De ses origines à son rôle actuel au Zaire. (1921–1981). Paris, Karthala, 1983.

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12. Letter by Peter Manicom, Charles A. Couldridge and Rhoda Couldridge by 12 March 1968 to “Faith and Order,” WCC. In the same year, the director of the “Ecole de Théologie Evangelique de Kinshasa,” Duncan McIntosh, in his letter to Lucas Vischer, points out the facts that in Kimbanguism, on the one hand, a hidden faith and a revealed faith are lived and, on the other hand, in the available studies, there are interpretations of language and culture that reveal certain biases: whatever changes have taken place, they have not reached the masses. Needless to say, public and non-public expressions of the Kimbanguists need not be identical. A second aspect we want to emphasize is that studies depend on the interpretation of language and cultural practices must not lead to hasty conclusions.In his critical 12-page opinion piece on the Kimbanguists, which McIntosh signed with John Marshall and Wesly Brown, he goes into detail about Kimbanguist idiosyncrasies. He vehemently denies the argument that Kimbanguists have not yet developed a theology—rather, they have a “theology that goes hand in hand with a representation of reality as it is understood among Bantu.” From his conversations and interviews it emerged, among other things, that “nothing contradicts Kimbangu’s identity as the Holy Spirit” and that he had repeatedly encountered believers turning to Simon Kimbangu during prayers. 13. Cf. William H.  Crane, Background information on Agenda item n. 13. The Kimbanguist Church and the World Council of Churches. Executive Committee, Tulsa/OK. January 27–30, 1969. 14. Letter by the Chef Spirituel of 18 August 1969 to the President of the Central Committee. The official welcome letter was written on March 2, 1970, and informed the Kimbanguists that “all constitutional requirements” had now been met. 15. William H. Crane, Report on a Visit to the Kimbanguist Church.1. 16. Ibid., 3. 17. Letter by Philip Potter dated 11 May 1978 to the Chef Spirituel Diangienda. 18. Simon, Karl-Ludwig, in: Le Messager Evangelique. No. 36 of 9 September 1979. 19. Letter by Konrad Raiser dated 17 November 1980 to the Chef Spirituel Diangienda. 20. Memorandum by William (Bill) Perkins dated 8 May 1985 to the General Secretary. 21. Letter by Emilio Castro dated 15 July 1992 to M. Bena Nsilu, Directeur du Cabinet. 22. Ndala Z. F. Luntadila, letter to the General Secretary of WCC dated 20 January 1993. 23. Konrad Raiser, letter dated 7 October 1993 to the Chef Spirituel. 24. Letter of the Chef Spirituel dated 12 January 2015.

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25. Konrad Raiser, cit. in: Simon Kavombo, Réflexions, in: Le soleil apparaîtra, vol. 1, Kimbanguiste (ed.). Kinshasa. 1999, 7–9. 26. Ibid., 8. 27. Ibid. 28. “Célébration de la fête du 25. Mai 2000 – déclaration du Collège National de l’Eglise,” Archives WCC. (Also published: in: Le Journal Chemin n. 96. Juni, 2001.) 29. Ibid. 30. Memorandum of 24. June 2000 by Huibert van Beek. 31. Le Chemin n. 103, Brazzaville, January 2001, 4. 32. Letter by Albert P. Sambou of 17 January 2001 to Konrad Raiser. 33. Note on conversations with Likutu Litchoke by Huibert van Beek from 6 July 2001. 34. Ibid. 35. Ibid., 2. 36. Report 3. 37. Diangienda, L´histoire du Kimbanguisme. Kinshasa, 1984, 191–253. 38. Letter by Simon Kimbangu Kiangani from 14 June 2003 to Konrad Raiser. 39. Cf.: Baba Kake Ibrahima, Dona Beatrice. La Jeanne d´Arc congolaise, Paris, 1976. 40. Letter by Simon Kimbangu Kiangani dated 14 June 2003 to Konrad Raiser. 41. Email by van Beek from 15 July 2003 to Heinrich Balz. 42. Excerpt of the report to the WCC Executive Committee—August 2003. 43. Letter by Sam Kobia dated 20 January 2004 to the Chef Spirituel. 44. Letter by Dandala dated 17 March 2004 to the Chef Spirituel. 45. Déclaration de la conférence épiscopale nationale du Congo sur les relations de l’Eglise Catholique avec le Kimbanguisme of 3 July 2004, Kinshasa. 46. Cf. on this, Simon, B., Genese einer Religion. Leipzig, 2022. Chapter 2–4. Soziokulturelle Vielfalt im afrikanischen Kontext—7. Der heilige Stab “Mvuala.” 47. Report, 4. 48. Recommendations of the sub-committee to the Executive Committee, August 2004. 49. At its meeting in Seoul on August 24–27, 2004, the Executive Committee was to decide on this. One of the agreements was that the Chef Spirituel would send a letter to the WCC before the Executive Committee, taking a position on the theological developments. His statement, written in response to the agreements, is dated August 6. In it, the Chef Spirituel revisits the delegation’s visit, which was very “fraternel.” Basically, he noted, the talks were very fruitful (fructueux) and this has led to the fact that “now we all understand each other better than before.” He empha-

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sized that the recently established Theological Commission had been given the task of collecting all previously published documents and manuscripts, especially those of Kimbangu’s three sons, and to analyse them systematically so that “progressivement” would result in a “doctrine kimbanguiste.” For this, he asked for time, for a sincere cooperation and for the support of all Christian brothers and sisters. Furthermore, the Chef Spirituel underlined in his letter that the Kimbanguists always adhered to the WCC formula: faith in the Triune God. In the closing formula of the letter, he cited the hope that the ecumenical dialogue would be brought to a happy conclusion. In a very strongly worded letter, the general secretary, Sam Kobia, informed the Chef Spirituel on August 30, 2004, of the decisions taken by the Executive Committee. He recalled that the current teachings of Kimbanguism were such that they could lead to expulsion from the WCC. They had already been informed of this in a letter dated August 18, 2003. Although the Executive Committee welcomed the formation of the Theological Commission and wanted to be supportive as far as possible, the next meeting in September 2005 was to make a final decision on the continued existence of the Kimbanguist Church. 50. Summary of Visit of AACC, OAIC and WCC Delegation to Kimbanguist Church, 21–22 July 2005 (Report by David Owen, AACC). 51. Troisième Dialogue Théologique entre COE, CETA, OEIA et COTHEKI, Eglise de Jésus Christ sur la Terre par son Envoyé Special Simon Kimbangu (ed.), Commission Théologique Kimbanguiste “COTHEKI,” July 2005, 4f. Cf. also chapters 2–4. Soziokulturelle Vielfalt im afrikanischen Kontext—7. Der heilige Stab “Mvuala,” in: B. Simon, Genese, idem. 52. Email by Bischof Dandala from 17 August 2005 to Sam Kobia. A year earlier the AACC has already declared that “no one wants to push out the Kimbanguist Church. They, themselves are the ones who can shoose (sic!) to remain inside the Ecumenical Movement or to leave it.” Email by André Karamaga, AACC to Sam Kobia, WCC on 12 February 2004. 53. The written findings of the COTHEKI had been approved by the Chef Spirituel shortly before and found to be correct and good. 54. Email by Bishop Dandala dated 17 August 2005 to Sam Kobia. Already a year before the AACC had shared that “no one wants to push out the Kimbanguist Church. They, themselves are the ones who can shoose (sic!) to remain inside the Ecumenical Movement or to leave it.” Email from André Karamaga, AACC to Sam Kobia, WCC dated 12 February 2004. 55. Official Decree of the Chef Spirituel nr. 118 dated 24 July 2008 “Portant dissolution de la Commission Théologique Kimbanguiste.” 56. Letter by the Chef Spirituel from 27 July 2008 to the members of the Kimbanguist Community. 57. Email from Martin Robra, dated 7 July 2009 to Daniel Buda.

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58. Surbens Swalenge, Témoignage-message des familles arrêtés et rélégués kimbanguistes (FAREKI) in: Simon Kimbangu. Le Prophète de la Libération de l’homme noir. Tome 1, Elikia M’Bokolo und Kivilu Sabakinu (Hg.), Paris 2014, 349–360, 360. 59. Report—The WCC, AACC, OAIC Delegation to the Kimbanguist Church at Nkamba: Democratic Republic of Congo, Juli 2009, 6. 60. Central Committee meeting September 2009, quoted in: Letter by Sam Kobia from 17 December 2009 to the Chef Spirituel. 61. In Busan, the  question was  raised whether Kimbangu delegates had all the rights of delegates at all, since the Executive Committee defined their membership as  “in abeyance.” The  problem was  that the  current basic rules of the WCC did not provide a legal basis for such a case. This would have to be clarified urgently with legal advisors. 62. Letter of the General Secretary dated 7 November 2013 to the Chef Spirituel. 63. The following four topics were to guide the course of the talks: • The nature and place of the “popular theology” of the Church of Jesus Christ on Earth by his Special Envoy Simon Kimbangu: with presentation of documents. • The possible gap between the official teaching of the Church of Jesus Christ on earth by his Special Envoy Simon Kimbangu and the practice and liturgical life of this church. • The attitude of the Church of Jesus Christ on earth by his Special Envoy Simon Kimbangu regarding the concern of the ecumenical fellowship concerning the doctrine of the Kimbanguist Church. • Concrete steps of dialogue for the future. 64. Daniel Buda, Minutes of the meeting with the WCC, AACC, OAIC and Congolese church members of these three ecumenical organisations with the church of Jesus Christ on Earth by his Special Envoy Simon Kimbangu (Kimbanguist Church). 65. WCC shares overview of June central committee meeting | World Council of Churches (oikoumene.org). 66. Constitution and Rules of WCC. Geneva, 2018.

References Literature Asch, Susan, L’Eglise du Prophète Kimbangu. De ses origines à son rôle actuel au Zaire. (1921–1981). Paris, Karthala, 1983. Constitution and Rules of WCC. Geneva, 2018.

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Diangienda, Kuntima, L’histoire du Kimbanguisme. Kinshasa, 1984. Ibrahima, Baba Kake, Dona Beatrice. La Jeanne d´Arc congolaise, Paris, 1976. Kavombo, Simon, Réflexions, in: Le soleil apparaîtra, vol. 1, Kimbanguiste (ed.). Kinshasa. 1999, 7–9. Le Chemin n. 103, Brazzaville, January 2001. Martin, Marie-Louise, An attempt to interpret in theological terms the Life and Teaching of the Eglise de Jesus Christ sur Terre par le prophète Simon Kimbangu. Appendix B of 11 May 1968. Simon, Benjamin, Leadership and Ministry in the Kimbanguist Church, in: Church Ministry in African Christianity. Ed. by Ronilick E.K. Mchami and Benjamin Simon. Kenia: Acton, 2006. 126–142. Simon, Benjamin, Genese einer Religion. Der Kimbanguismus und sein Abschied von der Ökumene. Leipzig, 2022. Simon, Karl-Ludwig, in: Le Messager Evangelique. No. 36 of 9 September 1979. Surbens Swalenge, Témoignage-message des familles arrêtés et relégués kimbanguistes (FAREKI) in: Simon Kimbangu. Le Prophète de la Libération de l´homme noir. Tome 1, Elikia M´Bokolo und Kivilu Sabakinu (eds.), Paris 2014, 349–360.

Archive Material (WCC-Archive) “Célébration de la fête du 25. Mai 2000  – déclaration du Collège National de l´Eglise”. (Also published: in: Le Journal Chemin n. 96. Juni, 2000.) Crane, William H., Background information on Agenda item n. 13. The Kimbanguist Church and the World Council of Churches. Executive Committee, Tulsa/OK. January 27–30 1969. Crane, William H., Report on a Visit to the Kimbanguist Church. Déclaration de la conférence épiscopale nationale du Congo sur les relations de l´Eglise Catholique avec le Kimbanguisme of 3 July 2004, Kinshasa. Email from Dandala (Bischop) to Sam Kobia dated 17 August 2005. Email from Karamaga, André, AACC to Sam Kobia, WCC dated 12 February 2004. Email from Robra, Martin to Daniel Buda dated 7 July 2009. Email from van Beek to Heinrich Balz dated 15 July 2003. Excerpt of the report to the WCC Executive Committee – August 2003. Letter from Castro, Emilio by 15 July 1992 to M.  Bena Nsilu, Directeur du Cabinet. Letter from the Chef Spirituel of 18 August 1969 to the President of the Central Committee.

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Letter from the Chef Spirituel to the members of the Kimbanguist Community dated 27 July 2008. Letter from the Chef Spirituel dated 12 January 2015. Letter from Crane, Henry W. to Dr Ernest A.  Payne, England dated 28 March 1969. Letter from Dandala (Bishop) to the Chef Spirituel dated 17 March 2004. Letter from Evans. F.  A., Lieutenant Commissioner, The Salvation Army to J. Fischer, Co-Secretary for Africa, WCC dated 28 November 1966. Letter from the General Secretary to the Chef Spirituel dated 7 November 2013. Letter from Kobia, Sam to the Chef Spirituel dated 20 January 2004. Letter from Kobia, Sam to the Chef Spirituel dated 17 December 2009. Letter from Luntadila, L. to the GS of WCC dated 19 October 1962. Letter from Luntadila, Ndala Z.  F. to the General Secretary of WCC dated 20 January 1993. Letter from Manicom, P., Charles A. Couldridge and Rhoda Couldridge to “Faith and Order”, WCC dated 12 March 1968. Letter: Official welcome letter dated 2 March 1970. Letter from Potter, Philip to the Chef Spirituel Diangienda dated 11 May 1978. Letter from Raiser, Konrad to the Chef Spirituel Diangienda dated 17 November 1980. Letter from Raiser, Konrad to the Chef Spirituel dated 7 October 1993. Letter from Simon Kimbangu Kiangani to Konrad Raiser dated 14 June 2003. Letter from Sambou, Albert P. to Konrad Raiser dated 17 January 2001. Letter from Toureille, P. C., The Leprosy Mission to the GC Visser´t Hooft dated 24 August 1966. Memorandum by William (Bill) Perkins to the General Secretary dated 8 May 1985. Memorandum by Huibert van Beek dated 24 June 2000. Note on conversations with Mr. Likutu Litchoke by Huibert van Beek dated 6th July 2001. Official Decree of the Chef Spirituel nr. 118 dated 24 July 2008 “Portant dissolution de la Commission Théologique Kimbanguiste”. Report  – The WCC, AACC, OAIC Delegation to the Kimbanguist Church at Nkamba: Democratic Republic of Congo, Juli 2009. Summary of Visit of AACC, OAIC and WCC Delegation to Kimbanguist Church, 21–22 July 2005 (Report by David Owen, AACC). Troisième Dialogue Théologique entre COE, CETA, OEIA et COTHEKI, Eglise de Jésus Christ sur la Terre par son Envoyé Special Simon Kimbangu (ed.), Commission Théologique Kimbanguiste “COTHEKI”, July 2005.

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Interview Interview with Konrad Raiser, former GS of WCC on 7 September 2019 in Berlin with the author.

Internet WCC shares overview of June central committee meeting | World Council of Churches (oikoumene.org).

Kimbanguist Diaspora in the West Aurélien Mokoko Gampiot

Kimbangu passed away in October 1951, after spending 30 years in jail. But the movement he initiated was kept alive and expanding under the leadership of his wife Muilu Marie until it obtained official recognition by the Belgian government in 1959, which placed it on an equal footing with the Roman Catholic and Protestant mother churches. The Kimbanguist church nonetheless evidences a unique structure, especially as regards its theology, which continues to be shaped by the quest for an answer to the oppression suffered by the Congolese and Black people around the world (Balandier 1970; Mokoko Gampiot 2004, 2017). This particular theology of Black liberation led the first Kimbanguist immigrants to the West organize in the 1970s. Having recently left the newly independent Republics of Congo, Congo DRC, and war-torn Angola to study in French universities, these students worshiped in Catholic or Protestant churches, but felt a nagging need to meet in a space

A. Mokoko Gampiot (*) University of York, York, UK University of Leeds, Leeds, UK GSRL-CNRS, Aubervilliers, France e-mail: [email protected] © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023 A. N. Ngudiankama (ed.), Kimbanguism 100 Years On, African Histories and Modernities, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-37031-1_6

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that would be their own and provide them with a sense of continuity with the church services they knew back home. In 1975, Charles Kisolokele, Kimbangu’s eldest son and the then-deputy spiritual leader of the church, was in Switzerland for a medical check-up when Christmas came around. On his initiative, they got together to celebrate the feast and decided to create the International Kimbanguist Circle (CIK) with a double goal. First, it was meant to be a place of worship, Bible study, and exchange among the migrant Kimbanguist students living in Switzerland, Belgium, France, Portugal, and Spain. Second, its role was to liaise between these members and the church’s main headquarters, in what was then known as Zaire. Tracing parallels with their church’s rootedness in all three Congos (before colonization by the Portuguese, the French, and the Belgians), Kimbanguists today contend that the birth of their community in Europe also took place simultaneously in three countries—Switzerland, France, and Belgium. With the expansion of the community in France, the Kimbanguist church eventually secured official recognition by the French Republic as a faith-based organization, separate from the state (Mokoko Gampiot 2010). Yet this did not bring an answer to the question of acceptance and integration of the Kimbanguist community in the West.

1   Kimbanguist Integration in the West In its home countries, the Kimbanguist church enjoys not only official recognition, but a certain degree of prestige and consideration from the broader society and the heads of state (Asch 1983), if only as a result of the iconic nature of Simon Kimbangu, who is now revered as a national hero in the Democratic Republic of Congo. It also bears mentioning that the church band is regularly asked to play on such occasions as Independence Day—whether in the DRC, Congo-Brazzaville, or Angola—or national worship services set up by the political authorities when the country’s social fabric is disrupted by civil war. In its diasporic situation in the West, the Kimbanguist community suffers from a lack of recognition, although it is registered as a religious organization. The Kimbanguist community in its diasporic situation in the West comprises three national origins (the two Congos and Angola) but functions as a coherent micro-society, where mutual help is an essential value. As natives of the three countries which make up the cradle of their church, members are forced to adjust to a new environment where their religion is

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completely unknown and elicits nothing but indifference at best and suspicion at worst. As a result, they find a response to all the barriers raised by the host society by working on their individual integration to the micro-­ society of the church community. Like other African migrants, Kimbanguists are confronted with social issues such as the absence of immigration documents and work permits, housing problems, or institutional race-based discrimination. But their migratory situation has an impact on their religious experience as well: having been socialized in the value system of their home countries, they feel maladjusted in the individualistic, secular atmosphere of the West society. The first culture shock lies in the absence of Kimbanguist temples, which are a common sight in their home countries. In its diasporic situation in the West, they have to either rent warehouses in the outskirts of metropolitan areas to hold worship services, or depend on the generosity of Catholic or Protestant clergy members who sometimes offer to lend them churches for ceremonies. The second type of culture shock is apparent in the gap between the two value systems. In their home countries, the church exerts a relatively tight form of moral control, which is reinforced by the familiarity of their fellow Congolese or Angolans with the commandments and recommendations of the Kimbanguist faith; whereas in its diasporic situation in the West, the cardinal value is individual liberty and the dominant attitude, a certain impatience with moral codes and constraints. After several years of residence in Europe, the feeling of maladjustment morphs into an identity crisis for believers, who are torn between opting for a Western-style social life (which entails a loss of personal cultural bearings) and persevering in abiding by the Kimbanguist moral code on a purely individual basis (which entails constant misunderstandings with the locals). The lack of information on and interest in this African independent church in Western societies is what not only triggers this identity crisis among Kimbanguist believers, but also bears on their social integration. The obstacles to it are all the more daunting as these highly secularized socieiesy no longer value, and tend to openly criticize, religions with a strong communal dimension (Mokoko Gampiot 2008b). Consequently, the Kimbanguist diaspora in the West does not adjust seamlessly to the customs of Western societies, shunning even participation in trade unions and political parties; and this attitude leads them to stay among themselves to express their faith and support one another even more actively. This increased commitment to mutual help is grounded in

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their racial consciousness, which is at the root of their religious worldview in the first place, but is also heightened by their situation as racially Othered migrants in formerly imperial nations (in the case of diasporic communities living in Europe and the U.K.)  The reference to Africa is therefore constant because it is not only central to Kimbanguist dogma, but also essential to building and retaining their sense of identity. As residents in Europe, the U.K. or North America, their sense of belonging is split between two continents, for they maintain strong links with their home countries, both thanks to new technologies and by means of regular trips. Under such circumstances, the only possible form of integration in Western societies takes place on an individual basis, by attending schools and universities, earning degrees, holding normative types of jobs, obtaining citizenship in the host country, or marrying a local, including across racial lines. Members of the community who do not have access to these resources organize into informal networks, helping one another find employment opportunities or housing, as well as solutions for day care or handling paperwork. While in the home countries, the Kimbanguist church has its own schools from elementary level to the university, along with temples, agricultural production units, or hospitals (Asch 1983), in a diasporic situation its members have none of these communal resources. In such a context, urban ministry is put to the task to build the church and maintain its messianic dimension.

2   Kimbanguist Messianism in a Diasporic Context Even if the Kimbanguist faith extols the African continent, their migration to other continents is understood as a response to a call to mission. The latter is found in one of Kimbangu’s prophecies. Indeed Simon Kimbangu prophesied that young people would climb over the mountains and posthumously encouraged his followers, in inspired songs attributed to him, to spread his name around the world for all to know that he is the Holy Spirit. Indeed, it is important to stress that Kimbanguist hymns are not just songs, but represent instructions from above which are given through the canal of intermediaries by means of visions and dreams.  The hymn quoted below shows how Simon Kimbangu himself, speaking in the first person in a prophetic tone, urging his followers to cross boundaries:

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You shall prevail (three times) And lead all nations here on Earth! You shall prevail Africa, Asia, and Europe America, Oceania You shall preach everywhere in those parts! You shall lead All nations here on Earth, Wherever you go, By the power of my name: “Kimbangu”

In the diasporic communities I observed in Europe and North America, members feel responsible for propagating the name of Kimbangu. Most of the church members residing in Western societies emigrated with other purposes than religious missionizing; but once they arrived in Western society, they organized into communities whose collective values tend to prevail over individual aspirations, as explained above. Communal ties are still rooted in the same traditional model as in the beginnings of the church in the 1920s, with a value system known as Kintwadi, a Kikongo term designating a sense of unity which is expressed by communal actions. The communal logic undergirding the Kimbanguist church is perceptible both in its organization and in its clergy. It has a distinct hierarchy which comprises, on the one hand, the descendants of the founder Simon Kimbangu, and on the other hand, the ordained clergy, which is made up of pastors, deacons and deaconesses, and catechists. These two hierarchies coexist in the management of the church and the definition of its orientation and polity (Asch 1983; Mokoko Gampiot 2017). The religious life of the Kimbanguist diaspora in the West is informed by worship services, religious ceremonies, memorial services celebrating historical landmarks in Kimbangu’s life or his sons’, as well as weddings, and funerals. All of these gatherings have kept enough structure and consistency to replicate their original formats from the home countries. Church members often travel across Europe or America or to other European or American cities to celebrate these events and, just as importantly, join their kin or friends (fellow church members) for the organization of weddings and funeral wakes. If they are documented, some Kimbanguists even fly back home for feasts they consider particularly meaningful. Worship services are both the ferment of their unity and the locus of their identity reconstruction as a unique religious group, as they have their

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own theological sources besides the Christian Bible to define their beliefs. As in any Christian church, the Bible is read as the book of reference, but the Kimbanguist message derives from a new interpretation of the Scriptures, which is provided by the other two theological sources of the church doctrine. Pertaining to oral tradition, these two sources are the “inspired songs,” mentioned earlier in this chapter, and the prophetic messages of the church’s spiritual leaders, particularly Joseph Diangienda, whose sermons and speeches are actual dogma in the Kimbanguist church. These three sources of Kimbanguist faith powerfully shape the believers’ psyche (Mokoko Gampiot 2017), thus conditioning their understanding of the metaphysical and material worlds. Mutual help in the Kimbanguist diaspora consists in providing the children from poorer families with the necessaries for school, encouraging the graduates from schools and universities, helping struggling students with free tutoring and mentoring, visiting the sick at home or at the hospital, and raising funds within the community for grieving families, which often need to fund the repatriation of their departed loved ones, or for members’ weddings. Migrant Kimbanguist families generally comply with the traditions of their home societies with respect to engagements and weddings, and they are encouraged to do so by the church, insofar as this sacrament implicitly entails the payment of the dowry to the bride’s family, which conditions all traditional weddings in Central African countries. The religious ceremony cannot be organized unless this traditional arrangement has taken place. The close-knit nature of the diasporic community allows the members to remain focused on their motivations and the reasons for their presence in the West. Their socialization is facilitated by the church’s insistence— through hymns, speeches, and sermons—on reflecting and meditating on the racial oppression experienced globally  by Black men and women— who play a significant role in the Church (Mokoko Gampiot 2018a). Faced with cultural rejection and institutional racism in Western societies, they find meaning, solace, and protection in the ideology and spiritual message of Kimbanguism. Indeed, this church offers a highly organized system of analysis and beliefs on racial domination and the material and metaphysical status of Blacks (Aurélien Mokoko Gampiot 2004). Indeed, among the parameters defining contemporary Kimbanguist messianism, the outstanding feature is a double—Black and Kimbanguist—identity. In the Kimbanguist representation of Black identity, two types of awareness are observable.

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The first is positive, insofar as this representation goes back in time up to Adam and Eve. In the eyes of the Kimbanguist believers, the Biblical forebears of humankind were Black, which implies that Blacks are the ancestors of humankind. The second is a negative and stems from a re-­ interpretation of the falling from grace of Adam and Eve: they are said to have inherited witchcraft from Satan, for the Original Sin is none other than witchcraft, according to the church’s first spiritual leader, Joseph Diangienda Kuntima. The tenets of Kimbanguist faith include first Simon Kimbangu himself, who is perceived as the incarnation of the Holy Spirit in a black body, who came on Earth to save or liberate Blacks from both White oppression and spiritual enslavement by Satan. Second, they include the quest for a new status for Blacks, who will be classified higher in the social stratification patterns, so that the Black person, or the Kimbanguist believer, will enjoy a nobler status. This theology of races leads church members to consider themselves to be entrusted with the mission of working for the spiritual liberation of all Black people. Kimbanguist identity is inscribed in the continuity and appropriation of Biblical models, from Genesis to Revelation. As a result, in their collective self-representations, members of the diasporic community have a deeply embedded racial consciousness, with a strong prevalence of the chosenness of Black people and the urgent need for their divine redemption. Among this chosen race, Kimbanguists see themselves as a sacred community of elects, like the Biblical Chosen People, entrusted with the mission of bringing about Black people’s redemption thanks to their testimonies on Simon Kimbangu’s prophetic and messianic action. To prove the forthcoming advent of this redemption, Kimbanguist leaders prophesy the participation of Black geniuses in totally novel, unheard-of inventions in the technological and scientific fields (Mokoko Gampiot 2017). In the West as in the home countries, although the Kimbanguist community’s unity is threatened by tensions, inner strife resulting from the church’s succession crisis, and its doctrinal conflict with the World Council of Churches, Kimbanguists’ need for recognition and missionizing remains strong. They regularly organize marches on the streets of Paris, Brussels or Westbrook, Maine (U.S.A.) holding placards commemorating the deportation of the 37,000 families of supporters of Simon Kimbangu by colonial authorities, or preaching in public about their understanding of the Trinitarian dogma or Christ’s identity as redefined by their system of beliefs. In this way, the general ignorance of the European or American

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public about Kimbanguist faith is challenged by church members’ quest for social visibility on the streets of capital cities, particularly on religious feasts, but also on the Day of Music in France (June 21) where the band is sure to draw the attention of passers-by and bloggers (David Garbin 2012; Mokoko Gampiot 2010). They have no doubt that their distinctive attire and the tragic history of their founder will kindle interest in their message, ultimately playing a role in the redemption process by starting a conversation with other Blacks and receptive Whites. In this context, two ways of performing Kimbanguist identity may be distinguished. The first one is inscribed in an individual frame, which combines the person’s religious quest with their migratory experience. The other one is communal and embedded in a missionary dynamics, whereby the community is consciously centered on the roots and history of their religious traditions, cultivating a memory of the Kimbanguist epic which also includes a meditation on the Transatlantic Slave Trade and the colonization of African countries. This is documented by the existence of active Kimbanguist publishing houses, which regularly print church members’ research and sermons on aspects of Kimbanguist faith. In addition to the marches and publications, the Kimbanguist diaspora’s quest for visibility and empowerment also involves two forms of excellence which hold a significant place in their messianic theology, as the end of racial domination is supposed to be announced by African inventions. The first one is the acquisition of a new system of writing, called the Mandombe script, which was invented—following a mystical experience under the inspiration of Simon Kimbangu—by a Catholic who later converted to Kimbanguism. The other domain where Kimbanguists excel is music; besides the Day of Music, the band never misses an opportunity to be associated with events organized by city councils, such as the commemoration of the abolition of slavery in the French Caribbean (May 10). In this respect, the documentary film Kinshasa Symphony (Martin Baer and Claus Wischmann 2010) also helped the church band gain wider recognition. The diasporic community follows the church’s three cardinal principles—Love, Commandments, and Work—and puts them in practice, thanks to church fundraising (known as nsinsani in Kikongo). An essential source of funding for the church, it is organized by means of competitions between the choirs and men’s, women’s, or youth groups of which every man, woman, and teenager is a member. In the home countries (Martin 1975;  Diangienda Kuntima 1984) and in the diaspora alike, an entire

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section of the Sunday worship services is dedicated to the collection of offerings in a festive atmosphere where each group marches to the sound of the band, which plays the hymns of the church. (Mokoko Gampiot 2019) From its inception, the Kimbanguist church has relied on self-­ financing in order to complete each of its great projects—namely, the building of temples, hospitals, schools, a university, studio apartments for foreign visitors in Nkamba, a lecture room, a television and radio station, and recently the Museum which was inaugurated by Felix Tshisekedi, the president of the Democratic Republic of Congo. By this means, the church also purchases second-hand buses, music instruments, computers and printers, and educational and medical material from charities or partner institutions in Western countries. The contrast is striking between this uncommon effectiveness of the church in achieving grand projects in Congo and the lack of geographical stability of its diasporic communities in the West. Indeed, church members worship only in inadequate locales which they have to rent in industrial environments where fires occasionally break out, as well as accidental poisoning by carbon monoxide. Their leases may be terminated by landlords or city councils within short notice, and many of them have to travel long distances to attend services that last five hours on average. Of course, the Kimbanguist church is not the only one experiencing a minority situation in the West. Many other African denominations, including Evangelical, Pentecostal, or prophetic churches, are migrant communities that share similarly unstable situations; they too strive to develop adjustment or integration strategies. Consequently, these churches work toward a better integration of their members by offering them a form of relief from systemic racism. Within the safe spaces they provide, members can find healing and coping strategies. Out of awareness of their common need for a durably safe space, several communities of the Kimbanguist diaspora in the West have been planning to purchase plots of land and secure authorizations for the building of temples. The priority of Kimbanguist ministry thus appears to be a material and symbolical appropriation of the church’s presence on Western soil as a religious group, even if their future temples would not be endowed with the same sacred value as the various sites the church has been able to purchase in the home countries, as the guardian of Simon Kimbangu’s memory and legacy.

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3  Conclusion Under such circumstances, Kimbanguist ministry in Western societies is constrained by a variety of obstacles to integration and is forced to implement strategies pertaining to adjustment rather than insertion. These are also migrant communities which consider their mission to be inscribed in a continuum with the priorities of the Kimbanguist church in the home countries, and with its focus on maintaining a strong national and racial identity, even if the church is quite accepting of interracial marriages. The future of Kimbanguist ministry in the West will therefore be shaped by the younger generations, born and raised in Europe or America, whose understanding of Kimbanguism is distinct from their parents’ (Mokoko Gampiot 2010; Benjamin Simon 2001).

References Asch, Susan. L’Église du prophète Kimbangu, de ses origines à son rôle actuel au Zaïre. Paris: Karthala, 1983. Balandier, Georges. Sociology of Black Africa: Social Dynamics in Central Africa. Translated by Douglas Garman. London: Andre Deutsch Ltd, [1955] 1970. Baer, Martin and Claus Wischmann, Kinshasa Symphony, 2010. Diangienda Kuntima, L’histoire du Kimbanguisme. Kinshasa: Éditions Kimbanguistes, 1984. Garbin, David. “Marching for God in the global city: Public space, religion and diasporic identities in a transnational African church”, Culture and Religion, Vol. 13, No. 4, December 2012, 425–447. Martin, Marie-Louise. Kimbangu: An African Prophet and His Church. Translated by D. M. Moore. Oxford, UK: Basil Blackwell, 1975. Mokoko Gampiot, Aurélien. Kimbanguisme et Identité noire. Paris, L’Harmattan, 2004. Mokoko Gampiot, Aurélien. “Kimbanguism as a migrants’ religion in Europe”, in Christianity in Africa and the African Diaspora. The Appropriation of a Scattered Heritage, edited by Afe Adogame, Roswith Gerloff, Klaus Hock, London/New York: Continuum international, 2008a, pp. 304–313. Mokoko Gampiot, Aurélien. “Les Kimbanguistes en Europe: d’une génération à l’autre”, in Archives des Sciences sociales des Religions n°143, July–September 2008b, pp. 111–128. Mokoko Gampiot, Aurélien. Les Kimbanguistes en France. Expression messianique d’une Eglise afro-chrétienne en contexte migratoire, Paris: L’Harmattan, coll. “Théologie et Vie politique de la terre”, 2010.

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Mokoko Gampiot, Aurélien. Kimbanguism: An African understanding of the Bible, in the Signifying (on) Scriptures series, Penn State University Press, 2017. http://www.oapen.org/search?identifier=627658 Mokoko Gampiot, Aurélien. “Être kimbanguiste et agir au féminin au sein de la diaspora kimbanguiste”, in “Penser, créer, agir les féminismes dans le champ religieux” Religiologiques, no 36, printemps 2018a, 13–37, http://www.religiologiques.uqam.ca/no36/36_013-­037_Mokoko-­Gampiot.pdf. Mokoko Gampiot, Aurélien. “Approaches to Ministry in Kimbanguism, an African prophetic church in France”, Urban Ministry Reconsidered, Contexts and Approaches, Editor(s): R.  Drew Smith, Stephanie Boddie, Ronald E.  Peters, Westminster John Knox Press, 2018b. Mokoko Gampiot, Aurélien. “Le Kimbanguisme”, in Les minorités religieuses en France. Panorama de la diversité contemporaine, ed. Anne-Laure Zwilling, Paris, Bayard, 2019. Simon, Benjamin. “Christian Pluralism and the Quest for Identity in African Initiated Churches in Germany.” Paper given at the CESNUR conference “The Spiritual Supermarket: Religious Pluralism in the 21st Century,” April 19–22, 2001, http://www.cesnur.org/2001/london2001/simon.htm.

Blackness Politics in Congolese Churches: On the Genealogy of Simon Kimbangu Prophetism Within the Congolese Revival Movement Sarah Demart

This contribution could be described as an attempt at a genealogy of the Great Congolese Revival (the Pentecostal renewal of the 1970s), aiming to question the way in which this movement (impulse by international, Western evangelical figures) has inherited the different revivals and prophetisms that preceded it throughout the twentieth century. To what extent can this Great Revival takes up the politico-religious emancipation project carried by the prophetic revivals that rose up against the colonial occupation and well before that, against the destruction of the Kongo Kingdom that transatlantic trade had brought about? This chapter seeks to shed light on this question by looking back at Kimbangu and, to a lesser extent, Kimpa Vita, who, two centuries earlier,

S. Demart (*) Université libre de Bruxelles, Brussels, Belgium e-mail: [email protected] © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023 A. N. Ngudiankama (ed.), Kimbanguism 100 Years On, African Histories and Modernities, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-37031-1_7

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had already linked the reading of the Bible to a politico-religious project of emancipation. It is now accepted that Simon Kimbangu’s prophetism played a major role in the formation of Congolese anti-colonial struggles (Asch 1983; Balandier 1953; Mokoko-Gampiot 2008; Mélice 2011; Garbin 2012; Sarró and Mélice 2012). However, if the recognition of Kimbangu as an actor in the anti-colonial struggle goes far beyond Kimbanguists and Congolese circles, it is less clear how Congolese society and other religions in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) have inherited his ‘ministry’ or his politico-religious struggle. Furthermore, Kimbangu’s own prophetic genealogy can be traced back to the XVIIè with the advent of numerous prophetic movements that have been extensively documented (Mélice 2011). I will look at the links that can be woven between the Congolese Revival (from the end of 1960 to the 2010s) and Kimbangu’s prophetism (1920–21). More specifically, I will explore the extent to which the Congolese Revival has inherited Kimbangu’s prophetism and more generally the Kongo prophetisms that were formed and rose up against the colonial occupation. The aim is to examine the politics of blackness that emerges from these Congolese/black re-readings of the Bible and attempts to universalize or decolonize evangelization. The colonial project is understood here in a broad way, which exceeds the restricted temporality of a legal-political definition that would be limited to the period 1885–60, with the creation of the “Independent state of Congo” (1885–1908) under Leopold II and the Belgian state, the Belgian Congo (1908–60). The “colonial” began at the end of the fifteenth century with the arrival of various European missionaries and traders (notably Portuguese), who quickly mixed evangelization with the trade in black bodies. With the development of transatlantic trade, the entry of the Congolese into European modernity took place through colonial violence, the logic of extraction and capitalist accumulation, and the European invention of race. A number of studies have shown how, in this encounter, the demonstration of material (technological, material) power by the Europeans is apprehended in terms of spiritual power that predisposes to conversion. The conversion waves that take place from the outset (from the 1480s onwards) in the form of an appropriation and an interweaving with local beliefs elude the missionary project. The implementation of Christianity in

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the area that was to become Congo was therefore carried out from the outset by, with, and against the project of white European missionaries. With the advent of transatlantic trade and then colonization, which transformed the local economy, social organization, and systems of power and belief, prophets and prophetesses rose up and, with the support of the Bible, proposed a new order. They will call for the restoration of an old order and for the advent of liberation, they will perform miracles, and so on. Their reading of the Bible articulates the possibility of emancipation and deliverance of territories and of bodies, from various perspectives. This appropriation of the Christian text appeared to be a heresy to the missionaries who, in varying degrees, distanced themselves from it or even fought against it in the manner of an inquisition, first against these Kongo prophets and then against the Congolese. This dynamic is a constant in the Congolese religio-political space, but it will show important variations in space and especially in time. For this purpose, we will examine the discourse on origins, traditions, ancestors, and race that emerges from the discourses of deliverance that these prophets elaborate. Indeed, the dialectical opposition between the Bible and witchcraft (Corten and Mary 2000) that characterizes the new Pentecostalism and the Congolese Rand Revival, which developed at the end of the 1960s on the fringes of the missionary, Protestant and Catholic churches, does not come out of nowhere. It is possible to trace its genealogy through the archives concerning these prophecies. Among this large scope of revival movements, Kimpa Vita (1684–1706) and Kimbangu (1887–1951) remain as two emblematic figures. Not only do they remain iconic figures, but also their narrative and practices of deliverance have been well documented. It allows for an attempt at socio-­ historical “comparison” with the Pentecostal Revival. It is not to provide a definitive or exhaustive genealogy of Kimbangu’s prophetism within the Congolese Revival movement but rather to shed new light on the political-religious continuity and bifurcation in the long-­ time history of Congolese revivals in terms of blackness. This contribution is grounded on a long-term ethnography conducted in revival churches in Kinshasa and especially in the diaspora (France, Belgium, and to a lesser extent Canada). Conducted between 2004 and 2011, this sociological research focused on the socio-history of the Congolese Revival, its spatio-temporal reconfigurations (late 1960s–2010), its intrinsic plurality (Kinshasa, Brussels, Paris), and its various

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political-­ religious expressions (in DRC and in diaspora, during the Conférence Nationale Souveraine and the 2011 Congolese election). That is in this context, I have been considering the prophetism of Simon Kimbangu and then the place of the Kimbanguist church in the postcolonial politico-­religious landscape of Congo. It is therefore from a position of relative outsider vis-à-vis “Kimbanguism studies” that this contribution is made. The first part addresses the rejection of the Eurocentric reading of the Bible shared by Kimbangu and the post-colonial revival movement. The second comes back to the emergence of the Revival as a result of the churches and state competitions for an African and Christian authenticity. The third part questions the racial inversion proposed by Kimbangu and taken up to some extent by the Revival churches. Finally, the fourth part addresses the radical break of the Revival churches with the ancestor worship claimed by Kimbangu and the anti-colonial prophetisms.

1   The Refusal of the Eurocentric Reading of the Bible: An Anti-colonial Heritage It is today well established that the prophetic insurrection against European oppression in the political space of what is today the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) did not begin with Kimbangu. It goes back to the pre-colonial period, as early as the seventeenth century, against the backdrop of the deportation of the Congolese across the Atlantic, and in particular the Bakongos, and the destructuring of the Kongo Kingdom (Thornton 1998). These anti-colonial prophetisms have in common to articulate, through their reading of biblical narratives, a language of emancipation that has created mass movements and rendered the colonial power anxious. By announcing the possibility of total deliverance, the prophetic insurrection affirms the intrinsically spiritual and material power of the Bible. The performativity of this reading of the Bible is such that the European powers, missionary, administrative, and military felt threatened. In reaction, they repressed with extreme brutality these religious movements (Balandier 1953; Asch 1983; Mélice 2011; Gampiot 2017; Bonhomme 2021). In the early eighteenth century, Kimpa Vita died in a fire perished by fire under European law while Kimbangu died in prison after 30 years of confinement a few years before Congo gained independence.

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As a member of the English Baptist mission, Simon Kimbangu began to preach after resisting the prophetic call for a few months. His preaching started to be accompanied by trances and miracles, performed in the name of the Holy Spirit and with holy water. He baptized by immersion those who follow him. Colonial decadent mores (tobacco, alcohol, dancing, theft, or adultery) were rejected and ancestor worship was preserved. All practices associated with witchcraft or fetishes were prohibited, as were polygamy and drumming. Just as with Kimpa Vita, Kimbangu’s reinterpretation and “congolization” (Gampiot, op.cit.) of the Bible is concomitant with a dispute of the missionary Eurocentrism that has hidden the possibilities of liberation offered by the Bible. This made the Christian power accessible, through the intermediary of the Holy Spirit (just as Kimpa Vita was in relation with Saint Anthony). The liberation was concerning the bodies through healings, and miracles as well as the territories and political community (the Kongo Kingdom in Kimpa Vita, Congo in Kimbangu). The same occurred for revival churches. Following Kimpa Vita and Kimbangu (but also Simon Mpadi or the Kitawalists), the revival churches will accuse missionaries of monopolizing the charismatic gifts, when in the 1980s the Catholic and Protestant clergy demanded that born-again Christians return to the right path. The accusation was mainly, but not only, levelled at Catholics, whose hierarchical and centralized organization left little room for the charismatic experience of the Bible, unregulated by the clergy. It is based on the role played by the Catholic Church in the colonial project in terms of the civilizing mission. Not only is the Catholic Church national, whereas the Protestant churches are all of foreign origin, but it is a pillar of the colonial state to which the whole question of educating the natives is delegated (Makiobo 2004; Kabongo-Mbaya 1992). Belgian colonization, it should be remembered, was particular in that it thought of the Congolese only in terms of subalterns, limiting the formation of an intellectual and socio-professional elite to a minimum. Finally, as with Kimbangu, the descent of the Holy Spirit that the born-­ again Christians experienced, in revival groups, from the 1960s and 1970s onwards is expressed in prophecies, visions, healings, and miracles. The Revival “democratizes” the charismatic gifts (Corten and Mary 2000) and leads to open conflict with Catholic and, to a lesser extent, Protestant missionaries. Born-again Christians who claim a direct relationship with the Holy Spirit will also be sanctioned by the clergy. In response, they will

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accuse the missionary churches, especially the Catholic ones, of persecution and remind them of their historical and active complicity in the colonial project.

2   The Revival as a Result of the Churches and State Competitions for an African and Christian Authenticity The post-colonial context in which the revival groups developed was marked by a project of decolonization of society and minds through the politics of “recourse to authenticity” (from 1971 onwards). As stated, this political project is however not so much “decolonial”—addressed as a return to pre-colonial origins and to a cosmogony that would preside over the arrival of Europeans (Quijano 2007; Lugones 2008). It is rather “postcolonial,” in the sense of appropriating certain “traditions” and sorting out the colonial legacy (Mbembe 2013). The politics of authenticity is defined as a “recourse” to certain pre-colonial traditions that can lead the newly “independent” and “sovereign” people to true liberation. Developed on the occasion of the N’sele Manifesto (April 17, 1967), two years after Mobutu’s coup d’état, the authenticity is deeply intricated with a state project. This manifesto consecrated the birth of the Popular Movement of the Revolution (MPR). A sort of national pact, the MPR, a single party, declared that it would ensure the liberation of the Congolese from “all servitude” by building a social and democratic republic. This “cultural revolution,” however, led to the national glory of a leader and a theocracy whose symbolic blurring would be lasting. In addition to the “invention of traditions” (Hobsbawm and Ranger 2006), from which this “recourse to authenticity” proceeds, it is the “identity illusion” (Bayart 1996) of an Afrocentrism politically subjugated to the neoliberal economy of the West, that was developed in a dictatorial mode (Kambayi 2007). Finally, this cultural revolution immediately operated in the mode of enchantment and terror (coup d’état, assassinations, restriction of freedoms). In this context, and in the wake of Zairianization (1974)—which nationalized institutions, public and private enterprises, and universities— the state proceeded to a reorganization of the politico-religious landscape. Here again, power was developed in two interdependent ways: repression on the one hand and co-option of the elites on the other. As soon as they

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assume their role as “apostles of the ideology of the MPR” (Asch 1983, p. 132), churches could benefit from the favours of the state. While the Catholic Church ostentatiously spoke out against government measures (Makiobo 2004; Mpisi 2005), the Kimbanguist (Asch, op. cit.; Gampiot 2004; Mélice 2009) and Protestant churches collaborated (KabongoMbaya 1992; Kapuku 2014) to gain a social legitimacy that the colonial order had deprived them of for a long time. In practice, however, the division was not so clearly established. The concern for defending and the seduction of “Africanness” came to coalesce actors with institutional positions and ideological aims that were in principle incompatible (Tonda 2017). This was the case even before Mobutu’s acceded to power. The unwavering support of the Catholic Church, through Bishop Malula, for Colonel Mobutu’s plan to eliminate Lumumba is exemplary in this respect (Chomé 1979) as he will then become one of the fiercest opponents to Mobutu’s politics. Against the backdrop of this disputed and blurred Congolese “authenticity,” the Revival emerges (Demart 2017). The descent of the Holy Spirit experienced by Christians on the margins of missionary churches transcends religious affiliations and their various political compromises. The “baptism” or “outpouring” of the Spirit offers each one the possibility of experiencing charismatic gifts: glossolalia or speaking in tongues, prophecies, and miraculous healing of diseases. It also and above all allows for the infinite realization of miracles: “Nothing is impossible to the one who believes”; “the miracles that Jesus did yesterday he can do again today.” The superiority of Jesus over fetishes and other magic is reaffirmed. No “blockage” can resist him. Thus, while Kimbanguism was institutionalizing and proceeding to control the manifestations of the Holy Spirit, the “tremors” (Asch, op.cit.; Gampiot 2004, 2017; Mélice 2011), the Christians born-again claimed on the contrary the popular and massive experimentation of the descent of the Holy Spirit.

3   Racial Emancipation and the Paradigm of Inversion The prophecy of Kimbangu that immediately comes to mind, and which will decide his death sentence (Gampiot 2017, p. 74), is this announcement of a racial inversion: “the white man will become black and the black

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man will become white.” It synthesizes, or at least symbolizes, how Kimbangu’s prophetism will be expressed and/or interpreted by his relatives and followers. This paradigm of inversion will also be at the heart of the authenticity politics of the churches, in particular the Catholic Church, which in many ways foreshadows the “Pentecostal revolution” of the revival churches that will call in the 2000s to evangelize Europe. Thus, at the Synod of Bishops in Rome at the end of 1974, the new Archbishop of Kinshasa Malula announced: “Yesterday, foreign missionaries Christianized Africa, today Africans are invited to Africanize Christianity” (Mpisi 2005, p. 44). This inversion must also take place within the churches themselves, with the Congolese taking power over the Western missionaries. The same applies to the Protestant missions (Kabongo-Mbaya 1992). Blacks must take the place of whites. This claim was already articulated before 1900. The paradigm of inversion was to be found again in the 2000s with the project of reverse or reverse evangelization announced by the revival churches (Demart 2019) and, to a lesser extent, Protestant churches (Way-Way 2007). The inversion of places and missionary routes, to which this evangelization of whites and Europe calls, suggests a continuity of Kimbangu’s prophetism, in his intention to universalize Christianity. However, it would be too quick to conclude that there is a “Kimbanguist genealogy” of the Revival. The multiple influences of “Afro-Christian Pentecostal authenticity” call for a consideration of Kimbangu’s legacy in the revivalist movement as a discontinuous and multilateral process. This invites us to think “in the plural” about how the revival churches, but also the Protestant and Catholic churches and of course the “theological state,” have inherited Kimbangu. And how this inheritance may have been in conversation, more or less explicitly, in the definition of an “authenticity” that liberates from the bondage inherited from colonization. Finally, while revival churches may mobilize the paradigm of inversion, in practice they do not speak so much of inversion as they do of “conquest,” “access,” and, in some contexts, “integration” into this white world (Demart 2008; Mossière 2006). There is a major rupture here. For the revival churches, “reverse evangelism” aims above all at widening the space of possibilities by bringing the gospel “in return,” being the giver and not the eternal receiver. It is to break with the inferiority status linked to the status of the “receiver.” From a Fanonian perspective (1952), one could say that the evangelization of whites aims at performing one’s

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humanity. And proving one’s humanity is intrinsically linked to humanizing “the Europeans,” who continue to cling to the idea of their racial superiority. A comparison of kimbanguist, olanguist and revival churches shows that migrations to Belgium, the former colonial metropole has an effect on deliverance practices and discourses and these spiritual reconfigurations differ strongly along the religious differences. The articulation between colonialism, blackness, migration and Europe might be an avenue to explore further questions related to religious transnationalism and Black prophestisms in diaspora (Demart et al. 2013).

4   The Cult of the Ancestors: The Radical Breaking Point The relationship with the ancestors constitutes not only a new path but also, above all, the point of radical rupture between the revival churches and Kimbangu’s prophetism. If, like all anti-colonial prophetism, Kimbangu rejects witchcraft, he does not associate witchcraft with the “traditions” as a whole and retains the cult of ancestors. For the revival churches, on the other hand, the rejection of witchcraft will imply the rejection of customs handed down by the ancestors. The born-again Christians will urge a break with everything that can promote the transmission of fetishes, demons, curses, and witchcraft. Customs, ancestors, kinship, and the village are declared to be responsible for the transmission of witchcraft and therefore to produce “blockages” (misfortune, illness, poverty, sterility, etc.). The traditions of which the ancestors are the guardians appear to be incompatible with happiness, success, and, more generally, “evolution.” The result is a territorialized pattern of deliverance that locates the origin of curses in the family and in the village. The mission of evangelization calls for the conquest of new territories, to constitute the kingdom of God on a global, planetary scale. This religious geography of revival churches contrasts with the one of Kimbangu which was delimited by the borders of the colony. It also contrasts with the centrality of Nkamba, Holy city and pilgrimage place (in the Province of Central Kongo) where Kimbangu deployed his spiritual work and where the Kimbanguists built their main church.

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The demonization of “origins” and the resulting village-witchcraft-­ paganism-ancestors continuum that is characteristic of the Revival is however not unique to Congo (Democratic Republic of Congo). It is part of a broader dynamic in Africa where the resurgence of witchcraft since the 1990s is entangled with a widespread and multilayered insecurity affecting the realm of institutions, politics, economics and representations (Geschiere 1995; Bernault and Tonda 2000; Marshall 2009; MarshallFratani 2001; Mbembe 2000). Over the time, the engagement of Evangelical-­Pentecostal churches in a witchcraft eradication project has contributed to the resurgence of witchcraft in Africa and Congo (Tonda 2000). Many pastors do not simply deliver believers from a curse or spell, as in the early days of revival. They identify and name witches and sorcerers and support their expulsion from the family, from the neighbourhood (De Boeck 2000). However, the slow historical recomposition of the basis of magical beliefs remains insufficiently known (Bernault 2005). We know that the “work of God” of the colonial missionaries extended the territory of the sorcerer and brought magic out of its pre-colonial neutrality (Tonda 2005). The neutrality that the diversity of appellations (“witchdoctor,” “fetisher,” or “sorcerer”) could translate, according to the contexts and uses of witchcraft, is seen, not only under the pressures and missionary convictions, reduced to “fetishism,” but also it assigned witchcraft to negativity (Mac Gaffey 1977).

5  Conclusion If the Kimbanguist church “functions as a (re)affirmation of black identity as well as a process of constructing a new identity” (Gampiot 2016, p. 145), the revival churches, on the other hand, work to transcend particular identities and to deny, if need be, anything that might bring them face to face with a limiting black identity and the hopeless impasses of anti-­black racism (Demart 2019). This may be contradicted in the coming year with the advent of the second generation of diaspora-born and raised pastors. Similarly, it is possible that in the daily practices of the Kimbanguist faithful, one can detect a distancing from the ancestors like that of the revival churches. The aim of this chapter wasn’t about comparing two churches, but rather examining what the transformation of a politico-­ religious space, in the long term, can say about the politics of blackness

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carried by prophetic movements driven by a project of deliverance and emancipation. Although today’s revival churches are quite distinct from the Kimbanguist church, the pastors of the revival churches recognize Kimbangu’s founding legacy. However, it would be interesting to examine more systematically the relationship that the revival churches have with Papa Simon Kimbangu. While in the Pentecostal reading, the fetishism of the Kimbanguist church is immediately apparent (since in theory revival churches reject any mediation such as holy water or holy images), Kimbangu can also be seen as one of the “fathers” of Revival. A more systematic exploration of this filiation would include addressing ancestor worship not only on the continent but also in the diaspora, particularly among generations born and raised in Europe. In light of the decolonial movements that are increasingly mobilizing the diaspora, the Revival churches, like the Catholic and Protestant churches, are widely perceived to have failed to carry out the “decolonization of minds” (Wa Thiong’o 1998). On the other hand, the names of Kimbangu or Kimpa Vita often come up, for example, in recent proposals to decolonize the Belgian public space. In other words, one can say there is a broad avenue for reflection on Kimbangu’s legacy well beyond the Kimbanguist church and even beyond the Congo.

References Asch, S. (1983), L’Eglise du prophète Kimbangu: de ses origines à son rôle actuel au Zaïre, Paris: Karthala. Balandier G. (1953). “Messianismes et nationalismes en Afrique Noire”, Cahiers internationaux de sociologie, vol. 14, pp. 41–65. Bayart J.-F. (1996). L’illusion identitaire, Paris, ed. Fayard, 306p. Bernault F., Tonda J. (2000). “Introduction au thème Dynamiques de l’invisible en Afrique”, Politique Africaine, n°79: “Pouvoirs sorciers”: 5–16. Bernault, F. (2005). Magie, sorcellerie et politique au Gabon et au Congo-­ Brazzaville. Démocratie et mutations culturelles en Afrique noire, 21–39. Bonhomme J. (2021). “Passeport pour le Ciel. Prophétisme et bureaucratie au Congo (1921–1960)”, Gradhiva, 32 | pp. 124–143. Chomé, J. (1979). L’ascension de Mobutu: du sergent Désiré Joseph au général Sese Seko. FeniXX. Corten, A., & Mary, A. (Eds.). (2000). Imaginaires politiques et pentecôtismes: Afrique, Paris: Karthala Ed.

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De Boeck F. (2000). “Le “deuxième monde” et les “enfants-sorciers” en République démocratique du Congo”, Politique africaine, n° 80, décembre 2000, pp. 32–57. Demart, S. (2008). Le “combat pour l’intégration” des églises issues du Réveil congolais (RDC). Revue européenne des migrations internationales, 24(3), 147–165. Demart, S. (2017). Les territoires de la délivrance. Le Réveil congolais en situation postcoloniale, RDC et diaspora, Paris: Karthala. Demart, S. (2019). Convertir l’Europe: des effets contrastés de la race dans le discours évangélique afro-belge et afro-français. In Simona Tersigni, Claire Vincent-Mory, Marie-Claire Willems, Appartenances in-désirables. Le religieux au prisme de l’ethnicisation et de la racisation, Ed Petra. Demart, S., Meiers, B., & Mélice, A. (2013). Géographies religieuses et migrations postcoloniales: déclinaisons kimbanguistes, pentecôtistes, et olangistes en Belgique. African Diaspora, 6(1), 122–149. Garbin, D. (2012). Marching for God in the global city: Public space, religion and diasporic identities in a transnational African church. Culture and Religion, 13(4), 425–447 Geschiere P. (1995). Sorcellerie et politique en Afrique, Paris, Karthala, 300 p. Gampiot A. M. (2004). Kimbanguisme et identité noire, Paris, L’Harmattan. Gampiot, A. M. (2016). Reading Black Identity: Kimbanguism and the Bible. In Refractions of the Scriptural (pp. 153–162). Routledge. Gampiot, A.  M. (2017). Kimbanguism: An African Understanding of the Bible (Vol. 5). Penn State Press, p.74. Hobsbawm E. et T. Ranger. (2006). L’invention de la tradition, éditions Amsterdam, Paris, 370p. Kabongo-Mbaya, P. B. (1992). L’Église du Christ au Zaïre: formation et adaptation d’un protestantisme en situation de dictature. Paris: Karthala Ed. Kambayi B. (2007). L’illusion tragique du pouvoir au Congo-Zaïre, Paris, 256p. Kapuku, S. K. (2014). La pentecôtisation du protestantisme à Kinshasa. Afrique contemporaine, (4), 51–71. Lugones, M. (2008). Coloniality and gender. Tabula rasa, (9), 73–102. Makiobo, C. (2004). Eglise catholique et mutations socio-politiques au Congo-Zaïre: la contestation du régime Mobutu. l’Harmattan. Marshall-Fratani, R. (2001). Prospérité miraculeuse. Politique africaine, (2), 24–44. Marshall, R. (2009). Political spiritualities. University of Chicago Press. Mbembe A. (2000). “À propos des écritures africaines de soi”, Politique africaine 1: n° 77, pp. 16–43. Mbembe, A. (2013). Sortir de la grande nuit: Essai sur l’Afrique décolonisée. La Découverte.

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Mélice A. (2009). “Le kimbanguisme et le pouvoir en RDC”, Civilisations, 58–2, pp.59–80. Mélice, A. (2011). Prophétisme, hétérodoxie et dissidence. L’imaginaire kimbanguiste en mouvement (Doctoral dissertation, Université de Liège, Liège, Belgique). Mokoko-Gampiot, A. (2008). Les kimbanguistes en Europe. D’une génération à l’autre. Archives de sciences sociales des religions, (143), 111–128. Mossière G. (2006), “Former un citoyen utile au Québec et qui reçoit de ce pays. Le rôle d’une communauté religieuse montréalaise dans la trajectoire migratoire de ses membres”, Les Cahiers du GRES/Diversité Urbaine, vol. 6, n° 1, pp. 45–61. Mpisi J. (2005). Le cardinal Malula et Jean-Paul II: dialogue difficile entre l’église africaine et le Saint-Siège, Paris, l’Harmattan. Mac Gaffey W. (1977). “Fetichism Revisited: Kongo Nkisi in Sociological Perspective”, Africa, vol. 47, n° 2, p. 180. Quijano, A. (2007). Coloniality and modernity/rationality. Cultural studies, 21(2–3), 168–178. Sarró, R., & Mélice, A. (2012). Kongo–Lisbonne: la dialectique du centre et de la périphérie dans l’Église kimbanguiste. Canadian Journal of African Studies/La Revue canadienne des études africaines, 46(3), 411–427. Tonda, J. (2000). Capital sorcier et travail de Dieu. Politique africaine, (3), 48–65. Tonda, J. (2005). Le Souverain moderne: le corps du pouvoir en Afrique centrale (Congo, Gabon). Karthala Editions. Tonda, J. (2017). Préface In Demart Sarah. Les territoires de la délivrance. Le Réveil congolais en situation postcoloniale, RDC et diaspora, Paris: Karthala. Thornton, J. (1998). The Kongolese Saint Anthony: Dona Beatriz Kimpa Vita and the Antonian Movement, 1684–1706. Cambridge University Press. Wa Thiong’o, N. (1998). Decolonising the mind. Diogenes, 46(184), 101–104. Way-Way P. (2007). “Mission en retour, mission réciproque: la diaspora africaine chrétienne en Europe. Le cas de la Belgique”, Thèse de doctorat, Faculté université de théologie protestante, Bruxelles.

PART III

Some Contemporary Political Religious Appropriations

“Sung Resistance” in Simon Kimbangu’s Movement (1921) and Some of Its Contemporary Legacies Bernard Coyault

My research field for my PhD in anthropology focused on one of the movements that appeared in the continuity of the inaugural prophetic gesture of Simon Kimbangu. That movement, called the Nsikumusu, led by the prophet-pastor Daniel Ndoundou (1911–1986), was unleashed in 1947 at Ngouedi not far from Kingoyie, the site of the Swedish mission, in the border zone of the two Congos, in the district of the cataracts (Coyault 2015). I was interested in a particular “marker” of this Nsikumusu movement, namely its bilombo (singular kilombo) choirs, which sing a specific repertoire of “revealed songs,” so called because they are not considered to have been composed by their human author, but to have been received, melodies and words, by divine revelation, in a vision or dream. This prophetic modality gives its identity and its signature to the

B. Coyault (*) Centre for Afro-European and Religious Studies (CARES), Faculté Universitaire de Théologie Protestante, Brussels, Belgium e-mail: [email protected] © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023 A. N. Ngudiankama (ed.), Kimbanguism 100 Years On, African Histories and Modernities, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-37031-1_8

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Nsikumusu movement. It is part of the heritage of the “captured songs” [les chants captés]—or “songs of the angels”—by Kimbangu himself and his disciples, which, four generations later, still carry the identity of the Kimbanguist movement.1 I later realized that several prophetic movements that appeared late in the Kongo area, and up to the contemporary period, and in particular in the south of Congo Brazzaville, each had a specific body of revealed songs associated with particular arrangements, received by each founding prophet and by the followers of their movements. Downstream from “my” movement, I was led to document other prophetic movements such as the Nsilulu movement of Pastor Ntumi, or the Luzolo Amour Church (Coyault 2014, 2018). In each case, I found that these revealed songs are a central element of identification and rallying of the movement. An alternative way to understand Congolese prophetic movements is to imagine them as consisting of three interdependent dimensions that intersect to varying degrees in each movement: healing, aesthetic and political. Adherence to a religious system does not just depend on what the system can offer those in unfortunate circumstances (healing, protection, solutions) [=  healing] but also depends on the creativity of its universe of beliefs and rites inventiveness of mythologies and founding stories of biblical inspiration) [= aesthetic] (including visual and sound devices) and on the community or societal ideal that it builds or fosters [= political]. And from this founding moment of 1921 until today, I think the songs repertoires are at the junction of these three registers: (1) therapeutic because they serve, as in the time of Kimbangu, in prayers for healing and deliverance; (2) they contribute to the aesthetic of each movement carrying beliefs and serving rituals; and (3) political, expressing the community and societal ideals that the movement constructs (Coyault 2018, p. 27). Based on all these observations, I went back to the historical sources concerning these songs revealed (or captured) at the time of Simon Kimbangu and to the way they functioned as catalysts of this great popular uprising between April and September 1921. This rereading, under the prism of music and songs, of the sources relating to Kongo prophetisms brings to light data that are usually neglected and that carry new interpretative potentials.

1

 See for example, Molyneux (1990), Mokoko Gampiot (2014).

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After having presented an overview of this “sung resistance” in the early 1920s in the wake of Kimbangu, I will then propose as a long conclusion three more contemporary echoes, where the revealed songs played this same role of catalysts and amplifiers of socio-religious movements, at the junction of the spiritual and political registers: one at the time of the independence of the Belgian Congo in 1960; the other at the time of a great mass movement in 2003  in Linzolo in the Pool Department in Congo Brazzaville in the aftermath of ten years of civil wars; and finally, the politico-religious resistance of singer and prophet Alain Moloto (1961–2013) in Congo DRC who died in 2013 probably poisoned by the authorities. From these historical sources of 1921 and the following years, which refer to the songs, I have exploited indigenous sources, like the accounts of Kimbangu’s secretaries, Nfinangani and Nzungu (Raymaekers 1971 = R), and the rich data collected in the 1930s (10 or 15 years after the events) from direct witnesses by Efraim Andersson, a Swedish missionary and anthropologist, and published in his Messianic Popular Movements in the Lower Congo (Andersson 1958).2 One of these witnesses was Paul Nuyvudi from the French Congo who wrote “Nsamu Miangunza” (The Story of the Prophets) (Mackay and Ntoni-Nzinga 1993). Concerning the archives of the colonial administration, I used the documentary research of Raymaekers and Desroche (1983 = RD), and concerning the missionary, Protestant and Catholic archives, I referred to the three volumes of Vellut’s documentary research (Vellut 2005, 2010, 2015).3

1   The Songs, a Place of Rallying and Confrontation In the seventeenth century, Kimpa Vita’s prophetic activity (I refer here to the previous chapter by Professor Thornton) was carried by a rallying hymn—the canticle Salve Antonina, inspired by the Catholic Salve Regina. Bernardo de Gallo, Kimpa Vita’s missionary opponent and persecutor, was astonished—and indignant—at the freedom with which the young woman had seized an available liturgical material in order to subvert it and  For Andersson’s ethnographic career and missionary context, see our contribution: Coyault 2019. 3  Vellut 2005 = Va; Vellut 2010 = Vb; Vellut 2015 = Vc. 2

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at the popularity of this Salve Antonina hymn among all strata of the population.4 It was a remarkable thing to see the ease with which the Blacks, young and old, men and women, learned (this song) and in the very tone in which the diabolical saint sang it; they went off singing in the roads and in the countryside and everywhere. (507)

Simon Kimbangu’s activity is also organized through songs. The interactions that took place around his person and his prophetic activity during his short public career, between April and October 1921 (from the beginning of his public activity to his trial and relegation), seem to have crystallized around the creation, appropriation or rejection of an original corpus of songs. As in the case of the prophetess, these songs constitute both a rallying point for new followers and a place of confrontation with the oppressive colonial and religious authorities. The first contact with the colonial authorities occurred on 11 and 12 May 1921, when the territorial administrator of Thysville, Léon-George Morel, visited the prophet’s village of Nkamba. The official report that followed marked the beginning of colonial repression against Kimbangu and his followers. The converging accounts of the administrator and Congolese witnesses show the omnipresence of songs during these two days of confrontation. On his arrival in Nkamba, Morel, assisted by two soldiers, found about 500 people, including many sick people, gathered around the enclosure where Kimbangu carried out his activity, at the entrance to the village. In this enclosure, a “choir” of about 40 people sang “protestant hymns” continuously. Kimbangu, dressed in a white shirt and red pants and equipped with his prophet’s cane, came to meet the administrator, accompanied by four other people—two of them women who were in a state of trance (speaking in tongues, singing, dancing, pronouncing prophetic messages and biblical quotations)—and read the biblical story of David and Goliath to the visitor. The administrator pitched his tent near the enclosure where Kimbangu had resumed his activity. The songs were delivered all night without interruption. At 10:00 p.m., the 4  Its history is reported in the accounts of two Italian Capuchin missionary priests: Bernardo da Gallo (?–1717) and Lorenzo da Lucca (1666–1723). The former in a report he wrote in 1710, after his return to Rome, to the Propaganda Fide; the latter in letters written in 1705 and 1707 to the Capuchin province of Tuscany and in 1710 to Pope Clement XI. Bernardo de Gallo’s report has been translated and edited by L. Jadin (Jadin 1961). About the Salve Antonina hymn, see pp. 507, 516–517.

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administrator asked for silence, but was told that “God has ordered that the singing must continue without interruption for ten consecutive days and nights.”5 The indigenous version of the event6 specifies the quite unequivocal title of one of the songs sung: Soldiers of Yesu, go to battle at once (song 207). The intensive use of songs at Nkamba in May 1921 was linked to the therapeutic practice instituted by Simon Kimbangu. The testimony of the catechist Jacques Bahelele, collected by Andersson ten years after the events, makes it possible to reconstruct the Nkamba ritual. Bahelele mentions in particular the incessant activity of the group of singers (the minyimbi) whose importance was such that in their absence the prophet could not provide any treatment (Va 63).7 Andersson, relying on the words of other eyewitnesses, also reports the prophet’s point of view: Kimbangu said that the songs had to be sung loudly and enthusiastically in order for him to receive healing power. The louder the song, the stronger the spirit became.8 5  The report of the territorial administrator Morel dated May 17, 1921 and addressed to the District Chief is published in extenso in Ryckmans, 1970 (annex 2). For a synthesized version see RD 51–55. 6  Kimbangu’s diary written by Nfinangani and Nzungu and typed by Nduma, which was confiscated in Nkamba in June 1921 (R 33). 7  “After the meeting [the service or Bible study led by a mission catechist] everyone heads to the prophet’s house and enters one by one to be saved. The singers begin to sing. Then the prophet begins his work. The singers stop singing when at noon the prophet says he wants to rest a little. After his rest, he continues his work until 5 or 6 o’clock in the evening. The singers also continue until that time every day (...) The singers sometimes go back to their villages to sleep. But sometimes they find a place to sleep in the village of the prophet. They stay there until the end of all the prophet’s work. Their wives bring them food every day because they are not paid in any way, neither in money nor in food ration, they work without being paid.” (Va 61, 63). 8  Andersson, 1958: 58. Here we can quote the etymology of the word ngunza (prophet) put forward by the Congolese Fu Kiau Kia Bunseki-Lumanisa, who links the activity of Kimbangu to traditional therapeutic practices associated with the use of songs and musical instruments: “This word derives from the name of a tree called Lungunzi (ngunzi). This tree was used to make stringed instruments. This musical instrument, “nsambi”, was also called “lungunzi” or “lungungungu”, which later became “ngunza” (enlivener, exciter, which puts one in a trance). It was not used for dancing, but only to cheer up and console those who were sad or in mourning. The ngunzi was a powerful, clever man, because very often he had to chase away evil spirits and heal the sick with his songs. The lungunzi player was like a comforter and great healer of psychic disorders. Finally, any man who fell into a trance, either through the action of the hymns or through preaching, etc., was called ngunza, that is, singer, entertainer, comforter, hero and healer. Kingunza is the work (religion) of ngunza and kikingunza is the message of bangunza. The history of kingunza begins with Simon Kimbangu.” (Fu Kiau Kia Bunseki-Lumanisa, 1969: 149).

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According to Bahelele, “the most sung song” by Kimbangu’s singers was Zimpasi zingi vava nsi, a song from the missionary collection (it corresponds to no. 462 of the NMK—1959). Zimpâsi zîngi vâva nsi,     It is too much suffering on earth Mayêla twêti monânga,      We are sick Mansângaza madâdanga     The tears are flowing O wîza kutusadîsa.        So come and help us Ref. O Mpêve, wîza, wîza, O Holy Spirit, come, come / O wiza kutusâdisa, O come and rescue us.9

It was during the performance of this song that the prophet would enter into a trance and then begin his therapeutic work (Va 63).10 The “deluge of songs” suffered by Administrator Morel during his visit cannot be only explained by these therapeutic rituals usually practised at Nkamba. It also falls under the register of “spiritual combat”—as a form of “deliverance praise” by which Kimbangu and his disciples “spiritually” stand up to their adversary. As for the religious authorities, the only visit of the Protestant missionary Robert L. Jennings to Nkamba, on 18 and 19 May 1921, that is, six days after that of Administrator Morel, is also—according to one of the versions reported (see Coyault 2015, pp. 43–55)—part of a confrontation over the songs. This visit, which was also about the prophet’s ability to heal the sick, consecrated Kimbangu’s break with the Baptist mission of Wathen in which he had grown up. In the “official” Kimbanguist version, transmitted by Diangienda Kuntima, one of Kimbangu’s sons, Pastor Jennings, noting that Kimbangu’s choir only sang missionary hymns, would have mocked the prophet thus: “Jesus, who gave you the power to raise the dead, has deprived you of hymns to the point of resorting to ours?” It is on this occasion that Simon Kimbangu, having withdrawn for a while, is said to have received the first Kimbanguist hymn (Diangienda Kuntima 1984, pp. 44–45). Jennings, claiming ownership of the European hymn heritage, would have thus caused the first Kimbanguist hymn to “descend.”

9  A sign of the pervasiveness of the missionary habitus is that this same song, nearly a century later, is still frequently used in Église Évangélique du Congo worship services and known by heart by all members (field observations 2008, 2012). 10  “Within the church, nkunga (hymns) were regarded as a channel between this world and the spirit world, through which the power of the Spirit could be poured out on Christians” (MacKay 1987: 138).

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Hymnological Autonomy and Diffusion of the Movement This etiological account of the origin of Kimbanguist “captured songs” is significant: the constitution of a specific corpus of songs distinct from European missionary hymnology is one of the steps in the emancipation of the prophetic movement. A slightly different version of the same story is told in the booklet by Pastor Nsambu (1926–2013), who was director of the Kimbanguist Song Department (Nsambu 1992, p. 5).11 The only purpose of Jennings’ visit to Nkamba is said to have been to claim the “sacred books”—the Bible and the missionary hymnbook—that Kimbangu routinely used for his healing sessions.12 The story makes two points: (1) it was when Kimbangu had briefly withdrawn that God entrusted him with his great mission— ”Since the missionaries distrust you, you will not ask them for anything more, and I entrust to you the entire mission of evangelizing the people”; (2) the first song “captured” (received) would have been by Jean Mukoko, Simon Kimbangu’s assistant “priest,” in the presence of Jennings. Here is the first stanza, with a warlike tone: A makêssa ma ndûngidi / Luvwâta binwanu  =  soldiers of victory, put on the weapons Kwa Yisu nasâmbulwa / Nuvwat enuaninwa = Through Jesus you will be blessed Put on the weapons13

The theme of this song, close to certain missionary hymns with the same martial accents, is in fact part of the revivalist habitus, with this locus classicus of the combat of faith. The weapons mentioned are those of the Spirit—according to the biblical rhetoric of Ephesians 6:11ff. But for a colonial authority with little interest in biblical culture and worried about  About Nsambu’s itinerary and career, see Molyneux 1990: 154 ss.  Nkunga Mia Kintwadi (last revised edition in 1957). This songbook is still in use in Protestant Churches of both Congos. 13  The complete text can be found in the bilingual collection (Kikongo/French) « Chants captés kimbanguistes de 1921 – Chants de la Pentecôte de Nkamba » published in 1995 by the Kimbanguist Church in Switzerland, and including the first 24 songs recorded in Nkamba, according to the official list of Pastor Nsambu Twasilwa, director of the Department of Kimbanguist Songs in Kinshasa. (Heintze-Flad & Ndofunsu, 1995: 24 – also Heintze-Flad 1978: 5ss.). The song is also found in Recueil des cantiques kimbanguistes. Livre 1, Kinshasa-Bongolo, Département des chants, Direction générale, n.d. [published in the early nineties], p. I. 11 12

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the dazzling success of the movement, this song and others like it were quickly interpreted as a call to armed insurrection. Thus, a correspondence between Thysville and Boma district chiefs, dated 2 July 1921, reporting suspicious movements of people along the railway line (in connection with the failed arrest of Kimbangu), quotes the lyrics of the song A makessa ma ndungidi / Soldiers of Victory in extenso, in Kikongo and French, which can be heard in this area (RD 74-75). In the report, the Kikongo original of the second verse—Muwata enuaninwa—instead of being translated as “Put on your weapons” with a biblical tone, becomes “Dress up and take up arms” with a quasi-­insurrectionary tone. This initial confusion between the religious and political meanings of the songs quickly led the colonial authorities to repress any public manifestation of singing songs; it also fuelled rumours, spread by Catholic missionaries and the colonial press, of “songs of war against the white man”14 that would spread among the blacks and prelude an alleged indigenous insurrection. This controversy was at the very heart of Kimbangu’s trial. Commander Rossi, the presiding judge of the Council of War, questioned him in these terms during the first hearing on 29 September 1921: You deny having incited the population to revolt against the authorities, but yet the typed songs sung by the people you fanaticized, copies of which were seized in Nkamba, invite people to take up arms. What do you have to say? And Kimbangu answers: No song invites people to revolt against the government. There are also songs in the (Baptist) Church in which Christians are called “soldiers of Christ,” but the government did not stop the whites who taught them to us.15

Two months after its “reception” in Nkamba, this first prophetic song is now circulating throughout the Bas-Congo region. The same administrative source mentions the impact of another “warlike” song composed by Daniel Diansangu, one of the teachers at the Wathen mission. It also reproduces the lyrics (French + Kikongo): Ambassadors, join us—Ambasi nutu yikama / In our present war—Munzingu mieto wawu /

14  In L’Avenir colonial belge dated 16/10/1921 reporting the trial of Kimbangu. See Irvine 1974: 58, 60. 15  Doc. 885, folio 4/A of the Council of War, quoted by Diangienda Kuntima (1984: 97).

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We are waiting for the war—Evita etutalanga / Raise your voices—Endinga zangula / God help us—Enzambi utu sadisa / etc.

The report mentions the popularity of this song among “indigenous people contaminated by Kimbanguism. Some of them hide a version in their beds. When asked about the content of the song.” Diansangu, the author of the song, says that he was inspired by God when he composed the song, but that he does not know how other indigenous people interpreted the song, for good or for bad.16 The lightning spread of Kimbangu’s movement was matched by the equally immediate constitution of a repertoire of these new captured songs. Together with a small number of missionary hymns, they constituted a powerful support of identification and publicity of the movement. These songs were transmitted orally, but also copied on paper or typed, which further accelerated their propagation. On 4 July 1921, again according to administrative sources, Thomas Nduma, a literate Congolese and disciple of Kimbangu, admitted during an interrogation that he had typed up (in five copies) and distributed the “songs of the prophets” that he had heard in Thysville. The report states that “other Blacks made copies in turn” (RD 79).17 The songs also circulate westward towards the sea. A report from the territorial administrator of Tshela (Matadi region) in July 1921 mentions the distribution of typewritten songs along with the sale of photographs of Kimbangu along the railroad.18 Reinforced by this repertoire, which contributed to the popularization of their prophet (when he went underground and after his arrest), the Congolese generalized a posture of “sung resistance” vis-à-vis the colonial 16  Letter of 29/6/21 from the Territorial Administrator of Thysville to the District Chief of Boma (RD 74). 17  Thomas Nduma, a forester and farmer from the Baptist mission, was close to Kimbangu whom he had met in Kinshasa, working like him at the Huileries du Congo Belge (Pemberton 1993: 196). Nduma had typed the document entitled ‘L’Histoire de l’apparition du prophète Simon Kimbangu’, written by the prophet’s secretaries Nfinangani and N’Zungu (published by Rayemekers in 1971 and Pemberton in 1993)—See also Vb 67,147. 18  “Letter of 24/7/1921 from the territorial administrator of Tshela to the district chief in Boma, attesting that “a certain Kiangudi Charles, originally from Kivianga (chiefdom of Gombe Matadi), photographer, had photographed Kimbangu and sold the photos at 1.50 frs each. He also distributed the song kunga mia basi (Song for the future) in Kasangulu and along the railroad” (RD 84).

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authorities. In this exacerbated situation, the simple fact of singing a song of the prophets, humming the tune or holding a copy, is now a reason for arrest: it is then invoked as an attack on the security of the state (art. 76 ter of the penal code).19 The songs, composed in Kikongo, identity markers and channels of propagation of the movement are then the target of the repression. Among these new songs, one seems to have played a major role: Ku Zulu Mbangi / In Heaven, a Witness. Ku zulu mbangi, the “Marseillaise” of the Prophetic Movement: Escalating Repression Colonial and missionary chronicles of the time often refer to it. Missionary R.H.C.  Graham (1865–1933) of the Baptist Missionary Society (BMS) recalls in his autobiography published in 1930, the place that this song held, a true rallying hymn, and which he qualifies as “the Marseillaise [the French triumphant national anthem] of the movement.” He writes: The authorities came to regard [The Prophets’ song] as treasonable, so that anyone who sang it, or even hummed the tune, would be liable to arrest and imprisonment. The song contained nothing whatever against the Government but was directed solely against the evil customs of the country (Vb 91). Graham gives some excerpts from it, which he translates from Kikongo into English:  N. Cornet, the deputy public prosecutor of Boma, in charge of investigating the responsibility of the Protestant missionaries in the movement, recognizes in his report of 21/8/1921 addressed to the public prosecutor, the great lightness of this musical offence reproached to the Blacks: “In Kamba, the offence only became noticeable as a result of the attitude of the perpetrators in relation to the circumstances in which they acted (sic). There they sang religious songs with a warlike tone, songs that they usually sang in the temple, but which became bad and hostile songs as a result of the presence of the white man in front of whom they were singing, the repeated prohibition to continue singing, and other elements of the same nature. In Matadi I was able to interview mostly blacks, all of them n’gunza tremblers. I had to hand them over to the territorial authorities (…) Their attitude had been exclusively religious. It is strange to see how badly these people, detained by virtue of the above-mentioned decree, endure incarceration (…) I believe I know that several have already died in Thysville.” (Vb 149). Vellut points out that on several occasions, the judges expressed reservations about the repressive policies of the colonial administration (Vb 152). 19

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Chorus: (repeated after each verse)    Ntambulwa. Ku Zûlu Mbângi; Ova nza Mbângi; Mawônsono tuvânga, Nzambi ozêye-mo    In Heaven a Witness; On Earth a Witness; God knows altogether, Everything we do. 1. “The chiefs of Congo perish, They are by drink enslaved: The chiefs of Congo perish, They are by drink enslaved: Let us go and teach them, That so they may be saved.” 2. “The common people perish, In ignorance enslaved: (repeat two lines). Let us go and teach them, That so they may be saved.” 11. “The market people perish, By frauds and tricks depraved: (repeat two lines). Let us go and teach them, That so they may be saved.” 17. “And all the people perish, Through lack of faith, unsaved: (repeat two lines). Let us go and teach them, That so they may be saved.” (Vb 92)

Did the missing verses (3–10 and 12–16) carry a more explicit “anti-­ white” discourse? The fact remains that this song, considered so subversive by the authorities, is in fact only an appropriation of the missionary mandate, calling for a reform of hearts and social morals based on biblical morality, without any real political contestation. After various searches, I was able to find the original (in Kikongo and French translation) under the title Zimfumu zeti Vila / the leaders go to their loss. It is part of the official collection of Kimbanguist songs from 1921, edited and distributed by the Kimbanguist Church (Heintze-Flad & Ndofunsu 1995), along with the previously mentioned song A makessa ma ndungidi / Soldiers of victory. Here again, one cannot help but be surprised by the permanence of these songs over time, which carry the entire history of the movement.20 On the morning of 19 September, protesting Kimbangu’s arrest (on 13 September) and escorting the prisoner, a “band of natives singing and shouting their songs” entered Thysville (RD 94). They were led by Twalani (one of the prophets appointed by Kimbangu). Refusing to stop singing in spite of the summonses, they collectively constituted themselves prisoners (RD 94). 20  This kimbanguist version, supposed to be the original since it was divinely captured in 1921, has in fact undergone some modifications compared to the version reported by the missionary Graham (word order, number of stanzas, variants). Only six verses remain and one of them has an “anti-white” content (n 5): Mindele mieti vila, Mu Diambu dia mbakulu White people get lost, because of profit / Ebika twa balonga, Empasi bavuluzwa Let us teach them, that they may be saved (Heintze-Flad & Ndofunsu 1995: 6).

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Commander Rossi, president of the military tribunal that condemned Kimbangu a few weeks later, reported a galvanized crowd that escorted the imprisoned prophet while singing “their famous hymn” Ku zulu mbangi. He wrote: You should have seen the arrival of the prophet in Thysville. It was imposing. A huge crowd followed him singing their famous hymn. He too was singing with all the other prisoners. I went to the meeting and immediately stopped the singing.21

Commander Rossi will brutally repress this crowd by using military force.22 What is not emphasized by the few sources that mention the overwhelming success of this popular hymn is the probable play on words and the assonance that it contains—Ku zulu mbangi (witness) with the name of Kimbangu, from the same root. The witness is then Kimbangu himself: he is the mediator between heaven [he bears witness to the tragic situation of the Congolese in heaven] and earth [he bears witness to God’s intervention on earth and acts as his spokesman]. Each stanza invites to action: go and teach. The song contains its own dynamic of diffusion, since by singing it, one accomplishes it. A month later, the song, along with the new religion—and it is not clear which one carries the other—was still spreading among other populations. In a report in Congo Mission News (CMN) in January 1922, missionary Katheryn A. Metzger, from the Tshumbiri station of the American Baptist Foreign Mission Society (ABFMS), upriver north of Leopoldville/ Kinshasa, recalls how the prophetic movement had come to this remote area and spread through this Ku Zulu Mbangi song. The anecdote is astonishing: a steamship had called at Tshumbiri (in October/November) with prisoners on board who were followers of Kimbangu and who had been tried and sentenced to relegation. The villagers who heard them  Report of 13/9: Vb 152—see also Irvine 1974: 58.  Catholic missionaries witnessed the events and approved of the repression, like Father De Donder: “Commander de Rossi had to threaten to fire the machine gun if the singing of the ngunza and the English national anthem did not stop immediately” (Zana, 1994: 174), or Father A. Braeckman: “When Kibangu arrived in Thysville, there was almost a battle. A good sixty of them came singing songs that were clearly hostile to the state. Mr. De Rossi had them all tied up and held them like that for 24 or even 48 hours until they were subdued” (Vb 152). L’Avenir colonial belge of 2 October 1921 mentions 125 prisoners who accompanied Kibangu: all of them sang the hymns which were also taken up by the crowd present (p.7). 21 22

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singing were not allowed to approach them, but during the night some of the indigenous soldiers guarding the prisoners distributed copies of the song. The villagers immediately appropriated it, to the point—the missionary lamented—that they did not stop singing it from that day on and that those of them who did not sing it were cursed by the others. Missionary Paul C. Metzger, in charge of the station, called a meeting of catechists to try to stop the spreading of the song: “Mr Metzger called a meeting of the deacons and warned them against the singing of the hymn, and they promised not to sing it themselves and to do their best to keep others from singing it” (CMN n°38 1/1922). The reason for the missionary ban is not the content of the words—which is not very subversive—but rather the triggering effect of the song with the collective interactions that its performance produces: “There is nothing wrong in the hymn itself, but they sing it over and over again and work themselves up into a frenzy and then talk against the white people.” Catholic Exacerbation and Colonial Pragmatism Noting the extraordinary impact of the Ku zulu mbangi song, the colonial press and the Catholic authorities polemicized against these Protestant missionaries, whom they accused of complacency with the prophetic movement and whose hidden goal was to destabilize the colony. Thus, the newspaper L’Avenir Colonial Belge of 4 December 1921, reporting on the incidents surrounding the song that arrived by river at Tshumbiri (which shows, by the way, the impact of the affair), vilified the “political-­Protestant missions” on this occasion (Vb 221).23 The publication of this article will trigger an investigation by the colonial administration, resulting in the arrest of 35 men, including the village chief and several members of the Protestant mission. Imprisoned in Leopoldville for several months, some of them will die in prison according to the report of missionary Metzger of 3/1/1923 (Vb 224). 23  “It is our understanding that 35 followers of the Prophet recently boarded the s/s Kitambo for the Eastern Province, where they are going to reside ad vitam aeternam [relegation]. It is also reported that the steamer stopped at a certain post called Tchumbiri, where a Protestant mission is established (...) The followers of this mission having learned that Kibangists were on board formed a procession around 7½ o’clock in the evening and sang the songs of the Prophet. The procession sang the Kibangist hymns until 10 o’clock in the evening. On the following day the steamer was to leave at 4½h: a quarter of an hour before departure, about thirty of these good friends, students of the political-Protestant missions, came to address their condolences to the condemned... singing the same hymns until the ship was out of sight”.

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Such severe repression of mere hymns will not fail to accelerate the mutation in the reception of these songs of the prophets from an initial purely “spiritual” meaning to a political, anti-colonial and anti-white meaning. In his report on 1921 (sent to the mother mission ABFMS at the beginning of 1922), missionary Metzger notes the political “slippage” that occurred in his sector of Tshumbiri, following the events of the song of the prophets, the publishing of the article in L’Avenir Colonial Belge and the arrests that followed. The missionary, who admits to losing control of his faithful who were previously very submissive, draws an interesting parallel with the black American movements.24 The subversive potential of the songs is therefore not related to their content as such (war metaphors have great semantic plasticity) but rather related to their context of production and reception. Another polemic, again around the same Ku zulu mbangi, began in early 1922 with Father Van Wing, a Jesuit missionary from the Kisantu station, famous for his ethnographic work (notably his Bakongo Studies). In the monthly Kikongo magazine Ntetembo Eto (Our Star) published by the Kisantu mission and intended for the Congolese, Van Wing published a series of articles (in Kikongo) in which he accused missionary Moody of the Sona Bata station (ABFMS) not far from Kisantu of having encouraged the Protestant faithful to sing the forbidden song. And he added: It is not worth saying that you do not know the stories of the prophet (…) You yourself, from the very beginning, have sung in person the hymns of the prophet (…) Last July, you passed through Kibweta and you sang the hymn ‘Ga noto mbangi, mu zulu mbangi’ / ‘Witness on earth, witness in heaven’. In the village of Mfumu Makaku you sang the hymn; you taught the people this hymn. (Vb 259)25 24  “Though our people knew of the arrests in the Bas Congo they began singing the prophet songs (…) parading through the town (…) Thirty arrests were made including the chief and twelve Christians besides some who were out of fellowship for gross immoralities. (…) I had kindly warned all not to have anything to do with the movement, a brick through my front window by some insolent fellow was the reply. It is claimed by some that the movement is not political. This I believe, at least in our district is an error for it is decidedly anti-white, every means being used to breed race hatred. (…) All white men will be compelled to walk home in the dried ocean bed. Black men from America will come to fight for us (…) In many ways which I cannot quote there is evidence of connection with the race movement in America and the whole of Africa” (Vb 219). 25  In 1925, in a report written for the Prosecutor (dated 15/1), Van Wing again charges protestant missionary Moody with hidden political intentions. He accused him of protecting Kibangist followers, registering them as members within his mission to avoid being hunted down and relegated. As evidence of this collusion, Van Wing repeats, in exactly the same terms, this 1921 controversy over the “official song” of the rebellion that Moody himself is said to have sung and encouraged to sing (Vb 260–261).

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The confrontation between Catholic and Protestant missionaries is played out before the Congolese. At stake is the preponderant position on the religious field, while a third competing religious way is emerging: an endogenous prophetism whose new hymns serve as a catalyst.

2   Between Tolerance and Persecution, Resisting with Songs After the first wave of repression and the thousands of relegations ordered by the colonial authority, the prophetic movement settled into a semi-­ clandestinity and its sympathizers, watched over by the local authorities— chefferies and civil servants—adopted a posture of submission (real or simulated). The colonial authority then became less pressing, at least until 1925. In this uncertain situation, between repression and tolerance, the corpus of songs of the prophets—which the Kimbanguists called “inspired songs” or “songs from heaven” (Molyneux 1990) and which grew over the years26—constituted the structuring element that made it possible to perpetuate the dynamics of the movement and to maintain its identity and its memory.27 The mention of the songs occurs in all the administrative reports and constitutes a sort of thermometer measuring the vitality of the movement. Thus, these few examples: • Those condemned to relegation and awaiting execution of their judgement are officially offered to return to their village on condition that they renounce their Kimbanguist faith. They refuse categorically, and while they show a willingness to pay taxes and obey the agents of the state, they defend themselves against the subversive meaning that the authorities attribute to their songs (PV of 11/6/1924 of the District Commissioner of Bas-Congo):

26  The trauma of the relegation of thousands of families gave rise to the composition of new hymns, such as this Kimbanguist hymn: Mukumba a Yisu bateleka—For having announced the name of Jesus / I bayendela mu Yin’e nsi—They were exiled far from their country / Bakwanga ke mu konso bi - Put in chains for no other crime / Mu nkumbu a Yisu I basamuna—That for having announced the name of Jesus / Mpasi Zau—Desolations (no. 37, stanza 2—in Boka & Raymaekers, 1960: 19). 27  Marie Mwilu, Simon Kimbangu’s wife, who had not been relegated but remained on site under “house arrest,” ensured the continuity of the movement: she baptized the followers clandestinely in the Nkamba spring and taught them songs and prayers (Asch, 1983: 29).

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If perhaps the Mpeve28 and other Kimbanguist hymns are still sung, it is only because they are made in praise of God, and not to insult men, whether Europeans or natives. (RD 132) • In the villages of Bas-Congo, the prophetic “fevers,” always in the form of songs, were the subject of an administrative visit and report, generally following a denunciation by the nearest Catholic mission. Thus, in January 1924, the superior of the mission of Tumba complained to the administrator of the territory of the Southern Cataracts (Thysville) about a “band of 200 men, women and children [who] arrived at nightfall and sang religious songs.” The villagers were taken, without restraint, to Thysville and questioned by the Administrator: We want to sing our songs; we are neither Catholics nor Protestants, we sing for our own God and if the Administrator wants to take us to Upper Congo, we don’t care, we are willing to go.

• During another series of questionings carried out by the District Commissioner of Bas-Congo, a woman named Madibu (wife of the relegated Lubiku), testifies: Listen to White man. If your child has grown up, do you still have to serve him food? Can’t he get it himself? (…) We do not run away from the missionaries, otherwise we would not keep these books they left us (…) and sold us. In the past, our elders and catechists, who had only prayed and sung in the Protestant books, were relegated by the state. The missionaries said that they had done wrong, that they were fools. Now they would like us to go back to them to pray and sing (no different than our elders and catechists did). We don’t want to go there anymore, but we want to pray and sing to God without their intervention. At present, we are not doing anything contrary or reprehensible.29 28  It is the missionary hymn Zimpasi zingi vava nsi (from the missionary songbook Nkunga Mia Kintwadi no. 462) not one of the new songs of the prophets, that Kimbangu used in his therapeutic ritual (cf. above)—with the refrain: O Mpeve wiza kutusakisa / O Holy Spirit, come and help us. 29  This testimony is part of an interesting series of interrogations carried out by the District Commissioner of Bas-Congo from 10/1/1924 and included in a report addressed to the Governor of the Congo-Kasai Province, followed by an exchange of correspondence (RD 116–125).

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Despite Catholic pressure, colonial officials were inclined to a tolerant attitude until 1924. The Governor of the Province even wrote on 14/1/1924: It is important that the people be advised that they have the right to assemble in their villages to pray and to sing provided that their songs do not constitute excitements to disorder or disobedience to the laws. Consider for the moment that not all the songs that appear in the Protestant collections are seditious. We shall proceed later to a careful examination of these (…). (RD 125-126)

The following year, however, the general policy of the colony was radically changed as a result of the campaign orchestrated by a Catholic priest, Father Dufonteny (in the Belgian Congo and in Belgium). Any manifestation of the religion, called “of the country” or “of the prophets,” will then be prohibited and those in charge will again be arrested and relegated. The same Governor of the Province, who had been understanding the previous year, now adopted a repressive stance, notably in this instruction of 6 February 1925, when he wrote: I forbid Kimbanguist meetings or others of the same nature whose purpose is to pray and sing in common or to attend the preaching and instructions of catechists of the autonomous religion or of any other essence than those directed by missionaries of the white race. (RD 188)

3   The Repression of Songs in the French Congo From 1921 onwards, and for the next two decades, the French colonial authorities adopted the same repressive posture as in the Belgian Congo against Ngunzist songs. There too, the new songs of the prophets crystallized the whole controversy. Their use was forbidden by the colonial authorities because of their allegedly subversive or anti-white character. As in the Belgian Congo, the mere fact of humming these songs or having copies of them in one’s home was sufficient grounds for arrest or even deportation (Andersson 1958, pp.  83–95). On 27 December 1921, 20 indigenous catechists from the Protestant mission were arrested and imprisoned by the district administrator of Boko for singing Ngunzist

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songs. The majority were released after a fortnight, but four remained in prison. On 13 January 1922, Södergreen, the representative of the Swedish mission in Brazzaville, was summoned by the mayor for an interview. The teachers/catechists of the Musana station were accused of (1) singing Ngunzist hymns, (2) crossing the river to visit the Prophet Kimbangu and (3) encouraging people to desert their jobs at the construction site of the new railway line (compulsory work). The Swedish missionary was ordered to make a tour of inspection in the river district (Boko) “in order to forbid the singing of Ngunzist hymns and to expel some of the teachers.” In June 1922, after much harassment, the missionaries were forced by the colonial administration to dismiss all 77 Congolese catechists in Musana (Andersson, 1958, pp. 85–86; Va 113). In the meantime, other teachers had been arrested and some even sentenced to deportation, such as Paul Nyuvudi (exiled in Chad between 1922 and 1925), future pastor of the Swedish mission and key player in the 1947 Nsikumusu (Coyault 2015, pp. 57, 375–376). The repression was increased by the discovery of copies of Ngunzist songs in the home of one of the arrested teachers (Andersson 1958, p. 86). In harsh interrogations, Boko’s administrator Servel forced villagers to sing by heart a clandestine Ngunzist hymn (Nzambi wabukila nza) as “proof” of their membership in the banned movement. The blows rained down and some of the women present were also raped by the administrator’s troops (ibid., p. 92). The subversive charge attributed to these songs was quite excessive and irrelevant to their content. It was only in the prophetic waves of the following decade (1930s) that some explicitly anti-white songs appeared. The pressure of the colonial administration on the Swedish missionaries was constant. Thus, in 1924, the Governor General addressed a succession of reproaches to them—ignoring the injunctions of the authorities, not teaching the people in French, not even the catechists, but using a dialect of the Belgian Congo and the like—the main one being to allow the singing of Ngunza songs, which he describes as a “scary mishmash of religion, politics and popular tradition” (ibid., p. 93). The colonial official was right in a way: the songs are indeed at the crossroads of the religious, the political and the cultural—this is the very reason for their societal impact.

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4  Contemporary Legacies of Sung Resistance: Between Spiritual and Political Registers We must now conclude on the contemporary legacies of sung resistance. From Kimpa Vita to Kimbangu, up to their contemporary prophetic heirs, each corpus of revealed songs constitutes the signature of the prophetic movement that generated it. They are each marked by this triple dimension: therapeutic (they catalyse divine power, bring God down to the earth and to the bodies), aesthetic (they touch the emotion, stimulate the imagination, revive cultural values damaged by colonial acculturation) and political. Received through the intermediary of the founding prophets and then their followers, they are the very expression of a cultural, linguistic taking up of the initiative: the songs are received in  local languages, often by ordinary people with little education and in particular by women—the mbikudi mamas. These “inspired hymns” are not seen as human compositions: they are “received” (both words and music) in dreams or visions and are treated as divine revelations. This divine origin is seen as proof to the faithful that God has spoken in a particular way. The rhetoric and action of prophets and their acolytes are based on this threefold conviction of having been chosen by God, of being the recipient of revelations concerning God’s plan for the individual (his community, church or ethnic group, the country, the world, etc.) and finally of being able to participate in the realization of this plan by entering into the “work of the Lord” [kisalu ya Mfumu]. If the revealed songs are such a rallying and recruiting pole, situated precisely at this junction between spiritual and political, it is because they are built, from Kimbangu’s time, on the same biblical pattern of the chosen people, with this parallel established between the Kongo people and biblical Israel. This is one of the recurring themes in the message of each prophet (as for Pastor Ndoundou, leader of the Nsikumusu movement of 1947  in Congo Brazzaville, which I mentioned at the beginning of my presentation). This theme is also found in many revealed songs. The nostalgia of the reunification of the old Kongo kingdom is not far behind when the cultural lever is activated. It can also be the political lever. In that sense, these songs carry a prophetic culture shared by the entire population, well beyond denominational affiliations. When the songs begin to “vibrate” on the scale of the whole society, they are like the “sung

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springs” of a collective soul that appropriates the (biblical) theme of the election, of the chosen people. I will give three examples, which can be considered as Kimbangu’s legacy. The Nsikumusu Movement in Congo Brazzaville The first two examples come from the Nsikumusu of 1947. Before independence, this movement had been integrated “under control,” into the Swedish missionary church, which made it possible to avoid the repression of the colonial authorities (Coyault 2015, 2019). The prophets were forced to keep their distance from any explicit political claims. However, the repertoire of revealed songs, especially those evoking the destiny of the Congo, the object of divine favour, frequently resonated with the political and social news of the country (Congo Brazzaville). On several occasions, in the decades following independence, a particular song used in the spiritual retreats of the movement was collectively appropriated on a larger scale, not only in Congo Brazzaville, but also in the DRC/Zaire. One of these revealed songs from the first generation of Nsikumusu, Ngîna bûndisa Kôngo / I will reunite the Congo (in Kikongo) received in the 1950s by the evangelist Enoch Matondo, from the Swedish mission of Ngouedi, became very popular. In it, God spoke in the first person to announce the reunification of the Congo/Kongo. The popularity of this song quickly spread to the Belgian Congo, first in the border region of Manianga—one of the strongholds of the Kongo nationalists of Kasavubu’s ABAKO—and then to Kinshasa. In the effervescence of independence, many people gave this song, all impregnated with fervour and prophetic urgency, a more political than spiritual meaning. They found in it the imminent promise of the reconstruction of the ancient Kongo kingdom. [It should be reminded that the ultimate goal of the ABAKO association, whose leader Kasavubu would become the first president of Congo-­ Zaire, was to “rebuild the ancient Kongo Kingdom”.] 1- Ngina bundisa Kongo va kimosi Ngina bundisa Kongo ntangu yi Ngina bunda bikaku bia yantantu Ngina bundisa Kongo ntangu yi

1- I will (make) reunite the Congo (in one) / I will reunite the Congo now I will reunite (fold) the barriers of the enemy / I will reunite the Congo now

Chorus Ngina bundisa Kongo ngina bunda/Ngina bundisa Kongo va kimosi Ngina bundisa Kongo ntangu yi

Chorus I will reunite the Congo, I will unite I will (make) unite the Congo (into one) I will reunite the Congo now

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2- Ngina bunda kuntandu ye kubanda Ngina bundisa Kongo ntangu yi Ngina bunda zindinga ye zindinga Ngina bundisa Kongo ntangu yi

2- I will reunite the rising and the setting / I will reunite the Congo now I will reunite all languages. I will reunite the Congo now

3- Nkumbu tatu zangolo zena lendo Ngina bundisa Kongo ntangu yi Se ye mwana ye Mpeve ya nlongo Ngina bundisa Kongo ntangu yi

3- The 3 strong names have the power I’m going to reunite the Congo now Father, Son and Holy Spirit I will reunite the Congo now

4- Ngina bunda zinkazi ye bibusi Ngina bundisa Kongo ntangu yi Ngina bunda banuna ye bafioti Ngina bunda Kongo ntangu yi

4- I will reunite the brothers and sisters I will reunite the Congo now I will reunite the old and the young I will reunite the Congo now

5- Ngina mwanga milongi nsi ya Kongo/ Ngina bundisa Kongo ntangu yi Ngina zaikisa zola nsi ya Kongo Ngina bundisa Kongo ntangu yi

5- I will plant teachers on the land of the Congo / I will reunite the Congo now I will bring love to the land of the Congo I will reunite the Congo now

6- Ngina tuka ku Este ye ku Oeste Ngina bundisa Kongo ntangu yi Ngina tuka ku Node ye ku Sude Ngina bundisa Kongo ntangu yi

6- I will come from the East and the West I will reunite the Congo now I will come from the North and the South / I will reunite the Congo now

We can highlight two points in passing: This mystique of the unity of the Congo has multiple dimensions: spiritual, cultural, political, that are expressed through the verbal root bunda and the noun dibûndu/bûndu (community, society). It is worth noting that the very controversial separatist movement Bundu dia Kongo, currently active in the DRC, carries this cultural and political claim of the reunification of the ancient Kongo kingdom. The sentence in stanza 1—Ngîna bûnda bikâku bia-(ya)ntântu / I will reunite/fold the barriers of the enemy—is polysemous with a double meaning. The “barriers” may be spiritual in nature, or they may refer more directly to colonial borders. The same applies to the “enemy” which refers to the devil, but who can, in turn, embody any unjust political authority (colonial or post-colonial). Several testimonies from missionaries and Congolese confirm the frequent use of this song in the 1960s, both in Congo Brazzaville and in the Republic of Congo-Leopoldville (Nsumbu 1995, p. 74). This same song, which has since become a “classic” of Protestant spiritual retreats, will always remain relevant in the decades of political unrest and civil wars.

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This song is very well known and much used until today in the Protestant Church of Congo Brazzaville. “We, the Congolese, are in a country where there is ethnic conflict, tribalism. Even in the Church, we don’t get away with it… So, here it is God himself who speaks. When we sing it, it’s like a promise that we remind ourselves: that God himself is going to make this unity that we can’t manage to make among ourselves” (interview with R.-A. M., Paris, Sept. 2005). Other songs received later in the 1990s, the decade of the civil wars, transmitted orally from choir to choir (kilombo to kilombo), then circulated in families, neighbourhoods and so on, also met with a large audience, who still found in them the support to express their misfortune and their prayer for deliverance. The second example I want to cite here concerns the giant “prophetic initiative” gathering that was organized in Linzolo on the outskirts of Brazzaville in August 2003. It was called Croisade pour la Paix (Crusade for Peace) initiated by prophets and prophetesses of the Pool region (Boko) under the leadership of a prophet-pastor René Makoundika, in the aftermath of the ravages of war (Coyault 2015, 149 ss.; 2018: 40 ss.). From June to August 2003, during the dry season, thousands, then tens of thousands, of pilgrims travelled through the destroyed villages of the Pool, according to a programme divinely dictated to certain local prophets. From 23 to 25 August 2003, this crusade culminated in a huge gathering in Linzolo, at the gates of Brazzaville, bringing together nearly one million people, or at least a quarter of the country’s population. The March on Washington on 28 August 1963, where Martin Luther King gave his historic speech “I Have a Dream,” only brought together 200,000–300,000 people. The Linzolo epic gathered two or three times more. Biblical-theological speeches with societal significance were proclaimed, prophecies were received and transmitted by local prophetesses, and revealed songs were sung. All this has never been documented. Several songs were revealed and circulated on this occasion. Their popular impact was immense. They were taken up by tens and even hundreds of thousands of participants. The lasting memorization of these songs and their propagation was all the more rapid—as in Kimbangu’s time—because their initial spreading had taken place in an exceptional context where the distinction between the people of God (believers and their churches) and the nation (all citizens) was almost abolished.

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I mention here one of these revealed songs: Luwawanu wasila / You have made a covenant. In this song we find the theme of the election of the nation (the Congolese are “the second mountain of Israel”), the privileges of the election that the people have the right to expect, and given the trials they have been through, the urgency of the reparative mission. The power of evocation and capture of the song is due to the fact that the divinity is expressed directly in the first person, the Son (Jesus) addressing the Father: Moni ngwidi bisi kongo beti nionga. Mwendo ami ngina kwenda mu ku basadisa

“I have heard the Congolese who are groaning and I am going to help them” (chorus). The fourth stanza even places the urgency of rebuilding the country and the individuals in a discussion between Jesus and God the Father. Here is the translation of the lyrics: 1- You made a covenant with the people of the Congo and you promised that you would raise it up. Now Father, I will go because I have seen the sufferings [kiadi] of the people of the Congo Chorus: I have heard the people of the Congo who are groaning and I will go to help them.      2- The promise you made to the people of the Congo is to make them the second Israel, Father, I will go because I have seen their suffering [mpassi].      3- There are many deaths among the children of the people, and many diseases among the children of the people / Now Father I will go because I have seen their sufferings [maniongo]      4- Father give an answer to the people of the Congo who moan and pray with strength, Now Father I will go because I have seen their death [mfuilu].

[The limited format of this contribution doesn’t allow us to detail the subtlety of the construction of the song in Kikongo. We will only point out there is a different word in each stanza to designate sufferings with a gradation in meaning.] 1- Luwawanu wasila tata Kwa bisi kongo Kongo di wa dila ndefi Wuna zangula Tata muendo ami kaka ngina kwenda

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Kiadi kia bisi kongo / Mono mueni kio     [1- Tu as fait une alliance, Père, avec le peuple du Kongo et tu as promis que tu allais élever le Kongo. Père, Je dois partir, La douleur (tristesse) [kiadi] du peuple du Congo, je l’ai sentie. Refrain Mono ngwidi bisi kongo beti nionga. Mwendo ami ngina kwenda mu ku basadisa     Refrain (2x): Moi, j’ai entendu le peuple du Congo en train de se plaindre. Je vais aller (vers eux) pour les aider.] 2- Nsilulu ya sila tata kwa bisi kongo Kongo ni disaeli dia nzole nge wa kubika Tata muendo ami kaka ngina kwenda Kadi mpasi za bisi kongo Mono mueni zo [2- La promesse que tu as faite au peuple du Congo c’est d’en faire le 2ème Israël Père je dois absolument partir Car j’ai vu les souffrances [mpasi] du peuple du Congo.] 3- Mfuilu za nsi si zeka zingi Mu bala ba ba ntoto Bi bevo bia nsinsi bieka bingi Mu bala ba ba ntoto Tata mwendo ami kaka ngina kwenda Kadi ma niongo ma bisi Kongo mono mueni mo [3- les morts qui font peur sont nombreuses Parmi les enfants des gens Les maladies qui font peur Père, je vais absolument partir Car j’ai vu les souffrances [maniongo] du peuple du Congo] 4- tata butu lendi butukwa bisi kongo Beti lomba ya sambila mu kibakala Tata muendo ani kaka Ngina kwenda Kadi mfuilu za bisi kongo Mono mueni zo [4- Père si nous pouvons naître en peuple du Congo, qui demande et prie avec force Père, je dois absolument partir, car j’ai vu leur mort [mfuilu], celle du peuple du Congo.]

One can see the protest dimension of such a song and the popular support it could arouse: the “I will go” pronounced by God is a form of response

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to the absence of any government action to restore a region (the Pool) and a population ravaged by war, with thousands of victims. Here is a contemporary expression of this “sung resistance” evoked in this contribution. It is part of the heritage of Kimbangu’s initial gesture. The song carried the impatience of the people of the Pool who had also risen up, in their thousands, to “go” (like Jesus in the song: “I will go”). This movement in Linzolo, of prophetic initiative, unplanned and uncontrolled by the Church as an institution and unauthorized by the state authorities, aroused great concern on the part of the authorities, who (in all likelihood) secretly summoned the Church authorities to stifle the movement. One journalist commented five years later: “Overwhelmed by the magnitude of the movement, the (Church) authorities had difficulty understanding it, controlling it and accompanying it (…) the movement has no political demands. The divine prophecies and the crowds that accompany it, however, have at one time worried the country’s authorities who were even afraid of being destabilized by a wave comparable to that of the messianic movements fought by the French colonizers in the Pool.30

5  Alain Moloto, a Contemporary Prophet-Singer and “Fire Songs” Finally, this “sung resistance,” a posture of protest catalysed by song, which is specific to the history of Congolese prophetism, can be found in the career of the Congolese “prophet-singer” Alain Moloto (1961–2013), whom many of the participants in this colloquium, perhaps all of them, know well. This is the third and final example. Alain Moloto had stood up “spiritually” against the power of President Joseph Kabila with preaching that drew thousands of listeners, as part of his movement called EDEN (Ensemble pour la Délivrance de la Nation). He died on 2 August 2013 as a result of poisoning attributed by many to the president’s entourage. His life trajectory is emblematic of this shift from religious song to the political sphere. On the presidential and legislative elections of November 2011, Moloto decided to enter into a “political-spiritual” opposition to the government of President Joseph Kabila (described by a good part of Kinshasa’s opinion as “a Rwandan Tutsi imposter in power in Kinshasa”). At the beginning of 2012, the singer initiated his movement EDEN in which the practice of worship and prayer “in the name of Jesus” should  R. Bitemo, Le Chemin 189-2008: 10.

30

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enable the country to be freed from the occult powers that enslaved it. Strengthened by his reputation as “worshipper and singer of the Lord” and assuming the role of teacher and prophet, Moloto attracted thousands of people to the monthly public meetings that he organized in Kinshasa. The messages he delivered, based on biblical references and prophetic visions that he received, contained a never direct but nevertheless very violent criticism of the ruling power. Under the figure of the “devil and his compatriots” whom he claimed to “hunt down” through prayer and whose imminent fall he announced, everyone understands that Moloto was in fact referring to the power of President Kabila. His songs of adoration, known to all and written in a purely “spiritual” register, took on a new meaning in this context of spiritual resistance. In the 11th edition of EDEN of 28 January 2013, Moloto stated: There is no area in this country that we will leave without THE FIRE coming down. We have a fire song here, that makes the enemy tremble! The following excerpts from Alain Moloto’s message given at the EDEN meeting on 28 January 2013 clearly demonstrate his affiliation with the great Kongo prophetic tradition:31 It has been ten months since we have been disturbing the darkness in this country. Ten months that the devil has been on the loose… Ten months that the angels have descended among us to take control of this country. What God has begun with us, he will continue until we come to experience the deliverance of this nation. (…) Read these letters: Jesus Christ R-D-C, ROI-­ DU-­CONGO!32 Jesus comes to establish his kingdom in our country (…)

The tragic destiny of the singer-prophet and the dazzling social and political impact of his spiritual message are in many ways reminiscent of Simon Kimbangu and his successors. Moloto’s participation in this Kongo prophetic heritage is also due to a few significant details, such as the beard he decided not to shave as a sign of the “burden” he said he carried in his heart or the “prophetic gestures” he made:

31  The entire message of Alain Moloto can be viewed at the following link: http://youtu. be/gompbMPSV3Q. 32  Moloto makes a word play here between RDC—République Démocratique du Congo (DRC) and RDC Roi du Congo, designating Jesus Christ to whom the whole nation is dedicated, in accordance with the biblical theme of the chosen people.

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In the context of my relationship with God, there are things I have told him that I want to see accomplished. I let my beard grow until I see the glory of God in this country (…) Soon I will go to Israel with the flag of the DRC, I will spend the night at Golgotha interceding for the DRC, this is my commitment for this country, as a patriot.

All of this prophetic posture of resistance of Alain Moloto was activated by the songs of praise that he composed in Lingala. They were sung everywhere in the churches and in the street, and their recordings were circulated throughout Kinshasa. Until today. With the same potential for mobilization as the captured songs of Kimbangu, 90 years before Moloto. Thus, he was embodying most clearly the symbolic heritage of S. Kimbangu, with a kind of politico-religious radicalization, with an immense popular impact, and contesting in the name of a divine inspiration translated in his prophecies, his sermons and his songs, the legitimacy of the then ruling power of President Kabila.

References Andersson E. (1958), Messianic Popular Movements in the Lower Congo (Studia Ethnographica Upsaliensia XIV), Upsala, Almqvist and Wiksells. Asch S. (1983), L’Église du Prophète Kimbangu – De ses origines à son rôle actuel au Zaïre, Paris, Karthala. Boka S. & Raymaekers P. (1960), 250 chants de l’Église de Jésus-Christ sur la Terre par le Prophète Simon Kimbangu (EJCSJ) in Notes et documents, Institut de recherches économiques et sociales, Léopoldville, pp. 1–43. Coyault, B (2014), “Innovation religieuse et esthétique prophétique au Congo. L’émergence du mouvement Louzolo Amour”, Afrique contemporaine 4, n°252, pp. 109–129. Coyault B. (2015), Figures prophétiques et chants révélés dans le réveil évangélique du Congo. Doctoral thesis in social anthropology and sociology, Paris, EHESS. Coyault, B. (2018), “The warrior prophetism of the Reverend Pastor Ntumi: The origin and development of the Nsilulu movement in the Republic of the Congo (1998–2019)”, Afrique contemporaine 3–4, n°267–268, pp. 11–45 Coyault B. (2019), “Efraïm Andersson (1896–1989), un missionnaire suédois en terrain prophétique Kongo”, Carnets de Bérose n°9 (ethnologie en situation missionnaire), pp. 136–177. Diangienda Kuntima, J. (1984). L’histoire du Kimbanguisme, Kinshasa, Editions kimbanguistes / Lausanne, Ed. du Soc.

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Fu Kiau Kia Bunseki-Lumanisa A. (1969) Le Mukongo et le monde qui l’entourait. Cosmogonie Kôngo, Kinshasa, Office national de la Recherche et du Développement. Heintze-Flad W. (1978), L’Église kimbanguiste. Une Église qui chante et qui prie – Les “chants captés” kimbanguistes, expression authentique de la foi de l’Afrique, Leiden, Institut inter-universitaire pour la Recherche missiologique et œcuménique. Heintze-Flad W. & Ndofunsu D. (1995), Chants captés kimbanguistes de 1921 – Chants de la Pentecôte de Nkamba (Première partie SM 1 à 24) (d’après la liste de Nsambu T., traduction Heintze-Flad & Ndofunsu), Eglise kimbanguiste en Suisse. Irvine C. (1974), “The Birth of the Kimbanguist Movement in the Bas-Zaire 1921”, Journal of Religion in Africa, 6-1, pp. 23–76. Jadin L. (1961), Le Congo et la secte des Antoniens. Restauration du royaume sous Pedro IV et la ‘Saint Antoine’ congolaise (1694–1718), Bulletin de l’Institut Historique Belge de Rome 33, pp. 411–615. MacKay D. (1987), “Simon Kimbangu and the B.M.S.  Tradition”, Journal of Religion in Africa, 17(2), pp. 113–171. Mackay D. & Ntoni-Nzinga D. (1993), “Kimbangu’s Interlocutor: Nyuvudi’s ‘Nsamu Miangunza’ (The Story of the Prophets)”, Journal of Religion in Africa, Vol. 23–3, pp. 232–265. Mokoko Gampiot, A. (2014), Inspired Hymns as a Belief System in the Kimbanguist Church: A Revelation of the Meanings of Blackness in R. Drew Smith, William Ackah, Anthony G.  Reddie (eds), Churches, Blackness, and Contested Multiculturalism, Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 217–233. Molyneux G. (1990), “The Place and Function of Hymns in the EJCSK (Église de Jésus-Christ sur la Terre par le Prophète Simon Kimbangu)”, Journal of Religion in Africa 20(2), pp. 153–187. Nsambu Twasilua A. (1992), Historique du Département des Chants kimbanguistes, Kinshasa, Département des chants kimbanguistes, 34 p. Nsumbu J. (1995), Culte et Société – Le culte chrétien comme réflexion critique d’une société moderne africaine: cas du chant dans la Communauté Evangélique du Zaïre (Studia Missionalia Upsaliensia LXII), thèse de doctorat, Université d’Uppsala. Pemberton J. (1993), “The History of Simon Kimbangu, Prophet, by the writers Nfinangani and Nzungu, 1921: an introduction and annotated translation”, Journal of Religion in Africa XXIII-3, pp. 194–231. Raymaekers P. (1971), Histoire de Simon Kimbangu, prophète, d’après les écrivains Nfinangani et Nzungu (1921), Archives des Sciences sociales des Religions, XVI, 31, pp. 15–42. Raymaekers P. & Desroche H. (1983), L’administration et le sacré: discours religieux et parcours politiques en Afrique centrale (1921–1957), Bruxelles, Académie royale des Sciences d’Outre-Mer.

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Ryckmans A. (1970) Les mouvements prophétiques Kongo en 1958 – Contribution à l’étude de l’histoire du Congo, Kinshasa, Université Lovanium  – Bureau d’Organisation des Programmes ruraux, annexe 2, Vellut J.-L. (2005), Simon Kimbangu – 1921: de la prédication à la déportation. Les sources. Vol. I. Fonds missionnaires protestants (1) (Alliance missionnaire suédoise). Bruxelles, Académie royale des Sciences d’Outre-mer. Vellut J.-L. (2010), Simon Kimbangu – 1921: de la prédication à la déportation. Les sources. Vol. I. Fonds missionnaires protestants (2) (Missions baptistes et autres traditions évangéliques). Bruxelles, Académie royale des Sciences d’Outre-mer. Vellut J.-L. (2015), Simon Kimbangu – 1921: de la prédication à la déportation. Les sources. Vol. II.  Fonds missionnaires catholiques, Bruxelles, Académie royale des Sciences d’Outre-mer. Zana Etambala M. (1994), Les missionnaires rédemptoristes face au mouvement kimbanguiste: 1921–1925, Bulletin de l’Institut historique belge de Rome, LXIV, pp. 149–221.

The Appropriation of Simon Kimbangu in Current African Religious and Political Discourses Adrien Nginamau Ngudiankama

1   Introduction Two things I would like to discuss in my remarks in the context of one hundred years after Simon Kimbangu’s arrest. First a synoptic review of the appropriation of Simon Kimbangu’s name in some religious, cultural, and political discourses and groups. Second, I explore the translatability of Simon Kimbangu’s ideological identity within the Congolese context. This context is twofold: the Kimbanguist church context on one hand, and the Congolese context on the other. Here, the question is simple: what would Simon Kimbangu say in the current Congolese dehumanizing conditions? I propose to use Michel Foucault’s “concepts of power and panopticon” as a hermeneutical tool.

A. N. Ngudiankama (*) Kongo Academy, Silver Spring, MD, USA e-mail: [email protected] © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023 A. N. Ngudiankama (ed.), Kimbanguism 100 Years On, African Histories and Modernities, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-37031-1_9

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2   A Synoptic Review of Simon Kimbangu’s Name in Some Religious, Cultural, and Political Discourses Religions’ scholars have for long argued the two functions of any religious system. The temporal and the spiritual fulfillment. J. S. Mbiti is one of the African theologians who have remarkably discussed these questions in the African context.1 Anthropologists, more than sociologists, have been more interested in the symbolic meanings of religious practices.2 Thus, they often propose by virtue of their hermeneutic power, socio-cultural paradigms for societal transformations. Their expertise is used by governments, and they are consulted by businessmen and corporations on various projects ranging from health, education, conflict resolution, religions, development, etc. Theologians on the other hand, often use the language of faith and its dogmas as epistemological basis for social transformation and, the ethical grounds for spiritual fulfillment.3 Yet, more than ever, theologians or representatives of different faith institutions are also being approached by various institutions to provide insights on socio-economic and political questions concerning their countries. The South African and the Democratic Republic of Congo are paramount illustrations in these matters. The post-apartheid era entailed interventions of theological thinking in what was described as the Truth and Reconciliation Commission which was led by Desmond Tutu, the Nobel peace laureate and former archbishop of Cape Town. The Democratic Republic of Congo’s context is that in which since the eruption of the democratic wind in Africa, I mean the perestroika, government’s institutions, such as the Sovereign Conference and the Independent National Electoral Commission, have been led and being still run by religious figures that are either Catholics or protestants. I sustain the view that regardless of their religious sensibilities, prevalent theological discourses struggle with two fundamental issues: the here and now and the then and the not yet. I, thus, dare to say that in the Christian context, Luther and liberation theologians, liberal and evangelical theologians, traditional, Pentecostals and neo-Pentecostals, have much in common as far as caring about the here and now of human beings4 is concerned. This argument has a meaning for my chapter. From an anthropological and theological background, I argue that Simon Kimbangu has been used consciously and unconsciously, individually and

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collectively, in religious and political platforms, for both temporal and spiritual fulfillment. I sustain my logic with an ethnographic examination of four different groups. My approach in studying these groups has been, to use Claude Levi-Strauus’ term, that of a bricoleur.5 African Independent Churches African independent churches are religious institutions whose founders are Africans. While some of them came into existence in the colonial era, many of them are religious institutions that came into being in the postcolonial time. In the Democratic Republic of Congo, mainly in the Kongoland or the Kongo cultural space, African independent churches whose performance precedes the postcolonial include, the Church of Christ on Earth through the Prophet Simon Kimbangu (The Kimbanguist), the Church of our Lord Jesus Christ on Earth Remembered on July 25, 1949 by His Holiness the Prophet Simao Concalves Toko (known also as the Tokoist Church), and many other prophetic movements such as Dibundu Dia Mpeve A Nlongo, and Eglise Chretienne Union Saint Esprit (E-Gonda). However, the most prominent of these is the Kimbanguist, for which according to Janzen (1978) and MacGaffey (1983), Simon Kimbangu remains  the most prominent Kongo prophets of the modern time. The Tokoist Church (the Church of our Lord Jesus Christon Earth Remembered on July 25, 1949 by His Holiness the Prophet Simao Concalves Toko), is one of the largest African independent in the Kongo cultural space, mainly in Angola where it is viewed by many as the second largest Angolan church after the Catholics. Its founder, like Simon Kimbangu, came from the Baptist church run by the British Christian organization known as the Baptist Missionary Society. Like Simon Kimbangu and its followers, Simao Consalves Toko, the leader and founder of the Tokoist church and his followers, faced atrocities from colonial powers from whose yoke they longed for liberation. Acquainted to multiple arrests by Belgian and Portuguese colonial powers, Simao Toko often spent years in prison either within or outside Angola. Yet, with his followers with whom he was deported from Congo-­ Leopoldville, in 1949, he endured the colonial treatment of being placed in a context far from his cultural or natal space to weaken the continuity of his religious activity.

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Simao Toko was three years old and in Angola when Simon Kimbangu was arrested by the Belgian colonial power in Nkamba, Lower-Congo. However, it is often reported that during his time in Leopoldville, Simao Toko often met with Simon Kimbangu’s children, mainly Joseph Diangienda who was as older as him. Furthermore, it is mentioned in several dialogues with Tokoists that some of the Kimbanguists in Leopoldville joined the Tokoist movement in the 1940s. Many of them returned to the Kimbanguist church when Simao Toko and some of his fellows were deported to Angola by Belgians. One of the first persons who lived in the Tokoist holy city of Ntaya, Uige, Angola, is said to be from Simon Kimbangu’s family. Needless to say, that as far back as 1921, the Kimbanguist movement was already present in Angola, mainly in the Northwest part which is one of the Kongo people’s cultural regions. My immersion into the Tokoist milieu began in 2018. I was the guest of Bishop Nunez, the current spiritual leader of the Tokoist church. I was entrusted with academic and development projects as a consultant. This relationship led to three more long trips during which I led African American faith-based leaders and academics for partnerships with the Tokoist church. This relational dynamic was a special entree for my ethnography within the Tokoist church. Needless to mention that my belonging to the Kongo culture has greatly contributed to accessing ethnographic treasures regarding the history, sociology, and spirituality of the church. My key informants included people from the church leadership among whom were the bishop himself and ordinary church members. About the appropriation of Simon Kimbangu’s name in African independent churches, the following needs to be said about the Tokoists. In my first encounter with Bishop Nunes which took place in his pastoral house, I was marvelously surprised to see the picture of Simon Kimbangu widely displayed in his living room. This in fact should not have been a surprise given the fact that Simon Kimbangu’s picture is displayed in different places. What intrigued me was the fact that the picture was displayed on a special wall where it attracted the eyes of every visitor. The positioning of Simon Kimbangu’s picture in the pastoral house of a leader of one of the largest African independent churches is theologically even philosophically appealing. It conveys a clear positive message on the consideration given to the person. After this fact, I was amazed by the multiple mentions of Simon Kimbangu’s name in the prayers said by the tokoists at various prayer gatherings. Holding my hands as he prayed for my return to the United

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States, Bishop Afonso Nunez concluded his prayer in the name of the God of Abraham, Simon Kimbangu, and Mayamona. Mayamona is the affectionate name used for the founder and leader of their church. The fact that Simon Kimbangu’s name was spoken before Mayamona’s is spiritually profound in terms of Tokoistic theology. Like the Kimbanguists, they also have a daily concern for the liberation of the black people from the socio-­ economic and political stranglehold inherited from the colonial powers. The name of Simon Kimbangu cited before that of Mayamona in prayer is not only a respectful expression of seniority in the relational framework of Kongo culture but also of anteriority in the spiritual work of liberation of the black people. On July 2019, I spent over a month in Luanda where I led another group of African Americans as guests of Bishop Afonso Nunes to celebrate the 70th anniversary since the arrival of the spirit on Simao Toko in Leopoldville in 1949. More than a million people gathered in Catete, another spiritual site for the Tokoists, to celebrate the event. Among the guest speakers was Paul Kisolokele, one of Simon Kimbangu’s grandchildren, and the head of the Kimbanguist church in Angola. His talk, which lasted less than ten minutes, brought the crowd to their knees in a totally religious atmosphere as he spoke about the passion of Simon Kimbangu and the fact that God is “ndombe.” The reverence given by Tokoists to the mention of Simon Kimbangu’s name during this meeting is indicative of his position in the theological taxonomy of African spiritual leaders among the Tokoists. The quintessence of my questioning of Simon Kimbangu within Tokoist theology is revealed in one of my correspondences with Bishop Nunes, in the reply I received a week before writing this article. Asking for his opinion on Simon Kimbangu, His Holiness wrote to me that for us tokoists, Simon Kimbangu is a “ntumwa a Nzambi,” which means “one sent by God.” He referred me to the text of Isaiah 22:20-22 which says: In that day I will summon my servant, Eliakim son of Hilkiah. 21 I will clothe him with your robe and fasten your sash around him and hand your authority over to him. He will be a father to those who live in Jerusalem and to the people of Judah. 22 I will place on his shoulder the key to the house of David; what he opens no one can shut, and what he shuts no one can open.6

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The second African independent church to be examined on the appropriation of Simon Kimbangu’s name in religious discourse is the Eglise Lumière du Christ au Congo. It is also known as Masambukidism. Founded by the late Reverend Samuel Masambukidi, the church officially exists since July 30, 1988. It is currently headed by his son H.E Samuel Mitufidi Masambukidi. My ethnographic investigations of this church were made possible by two main assets which are the Kongo Academy, a research platform dedicated to the promotion of Kongo studies, and a social capital based on a deep childhood relationship. These two assets provided me with key informants, including the chief of staff of H.E. Masambukidi. Note that an attractive visual proximity of the Church of Light to Kimbanguism can be quickly discerned through their accoutrement or paraphernalia which is green and white. These are the symbolic colors of Kimbanguism. Two things sum up their appropriation of Simon Kimbangu’s name in their performances or religious speeches. In his media address to the world to celebrate the centenary of Simon Kimbangu’s speech on April 6, 2021, H.E. Masambukidi spoke of Simon Kimbangu as the African liberator whose mission was twofold: to liberate black people from the colonial political yoke and also to liberate them from the religious yoke. Thus, for H.E. Masambukidi, Simon Kimbangu’s unique redemptive role for black people implies the global importance of people of African descent adopting April 6, the date on which Simon Kimbangu began his ministry in Nkamba, Bas-Congo, as the official world day for the liberation of black people. It is radically affirmed in their theology that Simon Kimbangu has no equal in the history of the liberation of the black people. He is the universal religious and political redeemer of the Black people. In reference to the DRC, a major group among what is known as AICs are the Church of Holy Spirit. They were so numerous and popular in the 1980s. Known as the church of Mpeve A Nlongo, a Kikongo word for Holy Spirit, they are distinguished by their emphasis on visions and theophanies. These are neo-African independent or indigenous churches quasi different from precolonial African churches. Yet, though many of these churches are led by people from other ethnic groups than Kongo, the Kongo language is paramount in their religious performances. Simon Kimbangu is viewed as the mediator between black people and Christ. He is the healer, the liberator, and the fighter. Very often, the earth of Nkamba and the water of the River Nkamba, the village and native place of Simon Kimbangu are

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regularly used in their religious healing performances. They are sought and ordered from those who travel to Nkamba. The last group of African Independent Churches to be mentioned here in terms of appropriating the name Simon Kimbangu  in  their religious performance is a neo-Pentecostal church known as “Le Ministere de Combats Spirituel” to be translated into English as the Christian Spiritual Warfare Ministry. It is commonly known by the Congolese as “L’eglise de mama Olangi”. It is one of the largest and fastest growing Congolese neo-­ Pentecostal churches. It was founded by the late Mama and Papa Olangi in the 1990s. The church is known for its emphasis on spiritual deliverance from spiritual bonds and the 21-day fast. Although Simon  Kimbangu’s name is never mentioned in their meetings, one of the leaders of the church, who is none other than one of the children of the founders of the church, has views on Simon Kimbangu that can certainly have an impact on their members. It is reported that a few days before the Kimbanguist centennial, on April 6, 2021, Paul David Olangi approached Kimbanguist leaders with a special message about Simon Kimbangu. His message to Kimbanguist leaders is summarized in his book “Christ crucifie: la faveur absolue de la RD Congo,” in which Paul David Olangi, with whom I spoke twice, writes: …We would like our Church to be imbued with the prophetic call of Simon Kimbangu, that great son of our heavenly father. Indeed, the Devil wanted to hide his spiritual heritage so that the Church and the Congolese nation could not enter their destiny.

The prophet Simon Kimbangu was the first son of our heavenly father mandated from heaven to make his fellow men understand that we are a people known by God and that we have his mission to celebrate his glory throughout the world. When he discovered through revelation that God also loves us and has a plan with us, the prophet no longer had an inferiority complex and so he began to speak with faith and trust in God. Today we understand that he has truly been visited by the Lord and that soon his prophecy will enter into full and complete manifestation.7 This statement is clear as to the theological position that is, perhaps, tacitly expressed by the church faithful  members. Kimbangu is seen by Paul Olangi as a prophet with divine courage who confronted the colonial human and social stratification structure. The colonial inferiority complex imposed on black people was challenged by Simon Kimbangu. He spoke

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of the love of God who treats blacks and whites as his creatures. In view of this advance in relation  to Simon Kimbangu within some Congolese churches, one of the Kimbanguist leaders told to me: “Who could have imagined, a few years ago, that the leaders of this Congolese neo-­ Pentecostal church could approach the Kimbanguists?” Political Groups from Kongo Religious Inspiration  he Bundu Dia Mayala T Bundu Dia Kongo, a politico-religious group associated with Ne Muanda Nsemi, its founder and leader.  It is  one of the most heard political and cultural groups in the Democratic Republic of Congo for the last twenty-­ five years. Rooted in Kongo cultural traditions and history, the group is primarily concerned for the recovery of the Kongo people’s socio-cultural as well as economic and political rights. It is unimaginable for members of this group that the Kongo people, whose history and socio-economic assets have largely contributed, and still do, to the socio-economic and political history of the country, to be alienated in their own cultural setting. This explains their multiple revendications. As a cultural religious political entity, the group has two main components. The Ki Mayala which is the political office of the movement dealing with political issues. The other component is Bundu Dia Kongo, the name by which the group is widely known. It is in fact the religious branch of the group. There is no shred of doubt that those operating for political activities are also the ones who promote the religious systems on which the organization operates. The religious inspiration or basis of the Bundu Dia Kongo is the principles on which their political struggles are undertaken. I had the opportunity to speak to the group leader and founder on various issues related to Kongo people including that of the language and knowledge. Some of the main characteristics of the group include their allegiance to Kongo history, their militancy, and their resilience. In my dialogue with Ne Muanda Nsemi, he spoke of Simon Kimbangu as one of God’s envoys “ntumwa” for the liberation of Black people, mainly the Kongo. Many people, he insisted, including those who claim to be Kimbanguists do not know much about Simon Kimbangu. He added that people should not forget that God’s envoys are not eternal. Each one of them like “Simon Kimbangu” operates in a particular temporal time to

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achieve their mission. Therefore, though Kimbangu is one of the most important figures in the history of Black liberation, he is not the first and the last. Another political group of Kongo religious inspiration that I came to know is called the “Bana Bilaka Ya Mvuluzi Mfumu Kimbangu” whose English translation would be “The children of promise of Savior Lord Kimbangu.” Based in Europe, Ntinu Papa Tuzolana, the group group leader, with whom I had many conversations, told me to have had several visitations from Simon Kimbangu since 1992. The first one was physical at Kinshasa airport in 1992 while he was on his way back to Brussels. He was instructed by Simon Kimbangu “to liberate black people worldwide from the Western colonial yoke.” However, like the disciples in the Acts of apostles, his ministry must begin from the Kongoland, mainly the Lower-Congo. The famous mountain of Mangenge in Kinshasa has been chosen as their holy city from where spiritual activities need to be enhanced to speed up the worldwide process of the liberation of Black people. A symbolic gesture for the liberation of African people in the diaspora was conducted in 1996 when he visited Guadeloupe. Members of this group, as disclosed in the name of their group, view Simon Kimbangu as the “Savior of Black People.” More interestingly for this group, their leader is knwn as “Ntinu,” the Kikongo word for “king.” He asserts to belong to the Kongo royal dynasty. Artists from Kongo Cultural Background The name of Simon Kimbangu has been sung by many famous African artists. Among them are Franklin Boukaka, Ntesa Dalienst, and Peter Kimbangu. Franklin Boukaka is from Congo-Brazzaville where he was born on October 10, 1940. Assassinated during the ousting that toppled Ange Diawara on February 24, 1972, Boukaka belongs to the Kongo ethnic group. His strong political consciousness was unique among African artists of the African postcolonial first years. He denounced any form of political injustices. His political philosophy can be discerned through many songs some of which he sung alongside the late famous Cameroonian saxophonist Manu Dibango. His most popular songs would include Aye Africa, les immortels, and Tala munua wudia ngombe.

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The latter was a direct critique of the socialist affluent political leaders of his country. Sung in the three country’s vernaculars, Kikongo (kilari), kituba and lingala, the song, which only had one sentence, reached all the Congolese social classes. With unambigous terms, Boukaka challenges upfront his country’s leaders whose mouths he said ate beef (ngombe) while the population had nothing else to eat but vegetables (bikole). It is, however, in his “Les immortels,” which he dedicated to the Moroccan leader Mehdi Ben Barka who suspiciously vanished in France on October 29, 1965, that Boukaka mentions Simon Kimbangu. The chorus of the song declares: Oh O Mehdi Ben Barka Oh Mehdi Ben Barka Mehdi nzela na yo ya bato nyonso, Mehdi nzela na yo ya Lumumba, Mehdi nzela na yo ya Che Guevara, Mehdi nzela na yo ya Malcolm X, Mehdi nzela na yo ya Um Nyobe, Mehdi nzela na yo ya Nguyen Van Choi, Mehdi nzela na yo ya Hoji Ya Henda, Mehdi nzela na yo ya Camilo Torres, Mehdi nzela na yo ya André Matsoua, Mehdi nzela na yo ya Simon Kimbangu, Mehdi nzela na yo ya Albert Luthuli, Oh ya Tiers-monde, Oh Tiers-Monde Oh ya libération ya ba peuple oh.

The words of the chorus simply mean that Mehdi Ben Barka shared the fatal destiny of human right fighters such as Lumumba, Che Guevara, Andre Matshoua, and Simon Kimbangu. It is, therefore, clear for Boukaka that Simon Kimbangu was a human rights fighter like many others around the world. From the same generation than Boukaka and from the Democratic Republic of Congo was Daniel Ntesa Dalienst. He was born in 1946 and died in 1996. Like Boukaka, he is from the Kongo ethnic group. Though he left the Kimbanguist church in which he grew up to become a secular musician, he, nevertheless, devoted a song to Simon Kimbangu. Sung in Kikongo, his song “Nkamba Mbanza Velela,” speaks of Simon Kimbangu as the prophet, in Kikongo Ngunza, the one who blesses, the one to whom he would like to talk. It speaks also of Nkamba river where he needs to take bath for his purification. The “mvuala,” the three sons of Simon Kimbangu, are said to be those who will lead him to the prophet (ngunza). Dalienst, contrary to Boukaka, was in a spiritual quest for a spiritual comfort or quietude which he could find only in Simon Kimbangu. He views Simon Kimbangu as the spiritual comforter.

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The youngest of these artists is Peter Kimbangu. He is an Angolan Congolese from the Mbanza Kongo region. He spent his youth in Kinshasa, and is culturally from Mbanza Kongo, the province that used to be the capital of the kingdom of Kongo. As a reggae singer, he wrote a song called “Ndolo ku Nkamba” whose English translation would be, “let us go to Nkamba.” The song speaks of the holy city of Nkamba as the place of hidden secret for black people (Mbanza masuekama). For Peter Kimbangu, Simon Kimbangu is the hermeneutic key to understand mysteries surrounding black people. Nkamba, the native and the place where Kimbangu is buried, is the redemptive place for mankind. Simon Kimbangu as the hermeneutic key is fundamentally associated to his name Kimbangu whose English meaning is “the one who unveils.” Popular Political Unstructured Groups and the Name of Simon Kimbangu To challenge various political regimes of Kinshasa, an informal multiethnic movement known as “les combattants” has come into existence for the last twenty years or more. It has neither a leader nor a structure. It is sporadic and operates outside the Democratic Republic of Congo mainly in Europe and North America. To make their revendications, those who belong to this movement often gather in public places and embassies whenever the need arises to protest Congolese political leadership and their allies. Though informal or unstructured, they often make their vindications using the name of Kimbangu and the Kikongo word “Ingeta” which means Yes, or we confirm. Kimbangu is viewed by those who adhere to this group as the authentic Congolese challenger of human rights abuse. He is a liberator not only from colonial and spiritual yoke but from naivety or docility. Multiple sporadic conversions to Kimbanguism are reported among Congolese within and outside Africa. Some people are reported to have had visions through which Simon Kimbangu has appeared to them. One of the recent such persons who converted to Kimbanguism is the famous Congolese wrestler Edingwe Mutu Na Ngenge. Prominent not only because of his sportive skills but mainly because of his addiction to fetish. He is said to have provided or bestowed and sold fetish to several Congolese pastors, sportsmen, and politicians to obtain success in their career.

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It came as a surprise at the eve of the Kimbanguist centenary that Edingwe publicly converted to the Kimbanguism and went to Nkamba as a  special guest of the Kimbanguist spiritual leader, Simon Kimbangu Kiangani, to confess his sins. For Edingwe, Simon Kimbangu is the redeemer and the liberator of the black people. He came to redeem black people for their spiritual enslavement from colonial powers.

3  The Translatability of Simon Kimbangu in the Congolese Context More than imaginary, as the sections above have unveiled, Simon Kimbangu has entered the individual and collective memory of individuals to become the model for their temporal and the spiritual liberation. This has been stressed by the Congolese President, Felix Tshisekedi, in his address to the nation on April 6, 2021, from the holy city of the Kimbanguists, during the church centenary celebration. Not only did he evoke Simon Kimbangu’s spiritual gifts and courage to face the colonial power, he, in fact, called the Congolese senators to make of April 6, the day Simon Kimbangu officially began his ministry, as a national holiday. In his work “the birth of the clinic “and “Discipline and Punish,” Michel Foucault uses the concept of “docile bodies8” to speak of the inability of one person to contest the effects of power through acquired knowledge. An acquisition of knowledge or any power relationship implies the reality of one being mechanically and psychologically formed and shaped by the acquired knowledge. Yet, one is voluntarily and involuntarily shaped by different social, cultural, and political dynamics. In this sense one accepts to conform to the demands of an existing power structured institution. This was not the case of Simon Kimbangu. He was neither intimidated nor complaisant to abdicate his beliefs. In Foucault’s term, Kimbangu was not a “docile body/un corps docile.” His religious discourse was “indocile” and uncompliant that a life sentence in prison was imposed upon him. A translatability of Simon Kimbangu into the current Congolese context might disclose some deep ideological gaps in terms of religious and political performances. What would Simon Kimbangu’s discourses or actions be vis a vis the Congolese political leaderships and allies that condemn most Congolese to inhuman conditions? Moreover, what would his discourse be vis a vis the Kimbanguist leadership religious attitudes and

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positions toward national political issues that are making people to describe the Kimbanguist church as a partner of Congolese dehumanizing regimes? To illustrate, accusations are being made about their partnership with the current government on the politization of the Independent National Electoral Commission, an institution that is supposed to be neutral. Rightly or not, the Kimbanguist silence over issues regarding the abuse of human rights by Congolese succeeding governments since 1965 has, unfortunately, been interpreted not as naivety but an expression of collaboration. In this sense, the Kimbanguist church can be seen as a “docile body” vis a vis the Congolese political structures. Yet, the concept of “Panopticon,”9 a pathological condition, which implies a self-­ psychological control for fear of being caught up by the supposedly custodian in the control tower might explain the docility of Kimbanguists vis a vis their leaders. There seems to be a collective inability from Kimbanguists to either question their leaders’ political positions or question some religious attributes that are given to them. Some of these fundamental theological and doctrinal issues have unfortunately marginalized the church from the Christian body. There is no doubt as it has already been indicated that Simon Kimbangu’s religious performances and resilient spirit contested politics that dehumanized his fellow human beings. As a matter of fact, such is the spirit that can be discerned through the religious performances of Kongo figures like Ndona Kimpa Vita and Simao Toko. They were far from being docile bodies. Thus, to borrow Tillich’s expression, “Courage d’etre”, Kimbangu is a paradigm for holistic salvation. He challenged not only social and political forces, but he called his fellows to abandon witchcraft and fetish. Like any other religious institution, the Kimbanguist church is going through a severe challenging process raising various theological, doctrinal, social, and political questions. However, whether it represents or differs from the beliefs and actions of the person who once healed and performed miracles in the name of Jesus Christ, and who fearlessly confronted the colonial power, is a subject of great scholarly interest. This question, many assume, is the theological thermometer on which the loyalty of the Kimbanguists to Simon Kimbangu should be measured.10

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Notes 1. I refer to Mbiti’s books such as: Concepts of God in Africa (1970), African Religions and Philosophy, & Introduction to African Religions (n.d.). 2. Ngambu, N (1981) Initiation dans les sociétés traditionelles africaines: le cas Kongo. Kinshasa: Presses Universitaires du Zaire. Buakasa, G (1973) L’Impense du Discours: Kindoki et Nkisi en Pays Kongo du Zaire. Kinshasa: Presses Universitaire du Zaire. Devisch, R & Brodeur, C. (1996). Forces et signes: regards croises d’un anthropologue et d’un psychanalyste sur les Yaka. France: editions des archives contemporaines. 3. Ansaldi, J (1989). Anthropologie et Fecondation in  vitro, in Etudes Theologiques et Religieuses, Vol 1, p. 45. 4. Luther, M.  Two kinds of righteousness (translated by Lowel J.  Sartre, 1957). Luther’s works, Vol 31, USA, Philadelphia. Luther, M.  The Disputation concerning Justification (translated by Lewits W. Spitz, 1960), Luther’s works, Vol 34, USA: Philadelphia. Cone, J (1950). God of the Oppressed, New York: The Seabury Press. 5. Coffey, A. & Atkinson, P. (1996). Making sense of a qualitative data: complementary research strategies. London: Sage publications, p. 24. 6. The Holy Bible (n.d.), New International Version, London: Zondervan. 7. Olangi, P (2021) Christ crucifie: la faveur absolue de la RD Congo, Tome 2. Kinshasa: Edition Gloire a l’agneau, p. 161. 8. Foucault, M (1975). Surveiller et Punir: naissance de la prison. Paris: Gallimard, p. 161. 9. Foucault, M (1977). Disciplines & Punishment: the birth of the prison. Translated by Alan Sheridan. London: Allen Lane, p. 195. 10. Ngudiankama, A (2021). From Kongo Central to the Americas Via Europe: a cultural overview. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, p. 101.

References African Religions and Philosophy, & Introduction to African Religions. Buakasa, G. (1973). L’Impense du Discours: Kindoki et Nkisi en Pays Kongo du Zaire. Kinshasa: Presses Universitaire du Zaire. Coffey, A. & Atkinson, P. (1996). Making sense of qualitative data: complementary research strategies. London: Sage publications. Cone, J. (1950). God of the Oppressed, New York: The Seabury Press. Devisch, R & Brodeur, C. (1996). Forces et signes: regards croises d’un anthropologue et d’un psychanalyste sur les Yaka. France: editions des archives contemporaines. Foucault, M. (1975). Surveiller et Punir: naissance de la prison. Paris: Gallimard.

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Foucault, M. (1977). Disciplines & Punishment: the birth of the prison. Translated by Alan Sheridan. London: Allen Lane. Janzen, J. M. (1978). The Quest for Therapy in Lower-Zaire. Berkeley: University of California Press. Luther, M.  Two kinds of righteousness (translated by Lowel J.  Sartre, 1957), Luther’s works, Vol 31, USA, Philadelphia. Luther, M.  The Disputation concerning Justification (translated by Lewits W. Spitz, 1960), Luther’s Works, Vol 34, USA: Philadelphia. MacGaffey, W. (1983). Modern Kongo Prophets: Religion in a plural society. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. Mbiti, J. S. (1970) Concepts of God in Africa. London: SPCK. Ngambu, N. (1981). Initiation dans les sociétés traditionelles africaines: le cas Kongo. Kinshasa: Presses Universitaires du Zaire. Ngudiankama, A. (2021). From Kongo Central to the Americas Via Europe: a cultural overview. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The Holy Bible, New International Version, London: Zondervan.

PART IV

Kongo Prophetism and the Legacy of Slavery: A Thought

The Kongo Tradition of Renewal: Thoughts on Future Research John M. Janzen

Although I have researched Kongo prophetism, visited Nkamba and other holy sites, my more focused interest has been on the cultural, social, and historical settings, and conditions, within which prophets—bangunza— arise, what I have called the “tradition of renewal” (Janzen 1964, 1971, 1977, 2013, 2021). This chapter focuses on a single event—the Buyala reconciliation—in which prophetess Mama Marie Kukunda intervenes to help resolve a recalcitrant conflict between two clans. In this chapter I will exercise the ethnographer’s prerogative and focus on the 1965 Buyala Reconciliation with prophetess Mama Marie Kukunda—presented in five acts. From this event, presented in five ethnographic acts, I will identify six

Revised from a presentation to the May 28–29, 2021 Kongo Academy Zoom Conference commemorating the 100th anniversary of prophet Simon Kimbangu’s arrest by Belgian Congo authorities.

J. M. Janzen (*) University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS, USA e-mail: [email protected] © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023 A. N. Ngudiankama (ed.), Kimbanguism 100 Years On, African Histories and Modernities, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-37031-1_10

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themes of wider relevance to the tradition of renewal in Kongo history, and to the wider literature. The themes are: (1) the movement becomes self-conscious, is named, and prophetic figure(s) emerge(s); (2) hallmarks of the movements such as exposing the minkisi and cleansing the cemetery; (3) cosmic dualism, ritual inversions; embracing the “other” to gain power over it; (4) restoring moral harmony to society; (5) constructing a new identity—nativist and/or cosmopolitan; (6) identifying precipitating factors of movements. Each theme section will interpret an aspect of the Buyala event, and then offer brief comments on relevant antecedents or parallels in Kongo prophetic history. Each section will close with a research question for the student or independent scholar who wants to explore the circumstances and persons of such movements. These themes echo the literature on many twentiethcentury movements worldwide that have been called “revitalization,” “millenarian,” or “messianic” (Andersson 1958; Burridge 1969; Sinda 1972).

1   Act I. Prophetess-ngunza Mama Marie Kukunda Comes to Buyala to Arbitrate a Recalcitrant Conflict Bantu beti kuluka, beti kwenda ku makulu mau, people are growing up, living, and heading toward their clan cemeteries, i.e., dying. With these words the elder Bilumbu described the purpose of this gathering that was to be the hoped-for reconciliation between the Kimbanga matriclan of Buyala and their former slaves, a Kikwimba matriclan remnant descended from their parent clan at Nseke Mbanza. The Kimbanga had suffered the deaths of several women, and were down to just one of reproductive age; the clan feared its extinction. The Kikwimba group, tightly intermarried with the Kimbanga over several generations, were accused of witchcraft, of cursing their masters and wanting to take over their land. In 1959 the Kikwimba group had fled Buyala (or been expelled) without paying the “pig” of ransom or receiving their master/father’s blessing. Now, in late 1965, André, one of Kikwimba’s prominent educated members, living in Point Noire, Congo Brazzaville, was suffering from diabetes and chronic diarrhea. He had come home to resolve the inter-family conflict in order to recover, or to die in peace.

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The date for the meeting was set and ngunza-prophetess Marie Kukunda was engaged to arbitrate the affair. On Friday, December 3, 1965 André was brought to Buyala by landrover. Marie failed to show up on Saturday, as expected, because she had stopped in a neighboring village to wait for further guidance of the spirit. During the night, she later told me, she finally saw the entire problem of the two families as a film [sic] during a dream, and took this as a sign that she should continue to Buyala. Theme 1: Movement Becomes Self-Conscious; Prophetic Figure Emerges Mama Marie Kukunda traced her kingunza prophetic calling back to the 1950s when she twice overcame death. The first time was when she recovered from a life-threatening illness; the second time she overcame death was in her early ministry, when she raised a child from the dead. She acquired a reputation for spiritual power, astute diagnostic and therapeutic skill and wisdom. Her days were filled seeing clients who came to her home to consult her over their troubles, and receive her blessing and healing (Fig. 1). She was also frequently called to preside over corporate cases like the one being considered here. She was one of numerous ngunza prophet figures in the region, many of whom traced their calling to the

Fig. 1  Mama Marie Kukunda receives clients at her home village of Kikungu

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larger revival movement (nsikumusu, “awakening”) of the mid-1950s that swept through the Christian churches of the Lower Congo. The movement featured widespread ecstatic trance in worship services, especially during newly composed revival hymns sung with drum accompaniment; the return of investigative divination, this time within a Christian context (see Fig. 2). Mama Marie, a highly reputed ngunza, was a deaconess in the local Protestant church. The nsikumusu of the 1950s in effect brought the ngunzist movement into the mission-derived churches. Research question: Can one identify a name given to a reform movement—e.g., “peace of the royal throne” (1890), “Kimbanguism” (1921), “Nsikumusu” (1956), and the names of individuals whose persona are associated with the movement, as its ngunza prophets? How do individuals come to represent movements?

Fig. 2  Mama Marie Kukunda divines with a Bible, as she reads a relevant passage to the client before her

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2   Act II. Addressing the Conflict in Church, mu kinzambi

People—relatives of the two clan families, friends, spectators—began to arrive at Buyala early on Sunday morning, December 5, 1965. By 10:00 o’clock the contingent from Nseke-Mbanza arrived, led by Tata Katula Davidi, former nganga Lemba, career school teacher, and noted orator. Mama Marie showed up soon thereafter. Everyone assembled in a large lukongolo circle before the Kimbanga mbongi lodge, or in the shade of overhanging roofs of the houses on either side of the village square. After a brief conferral of the principals, Tata Katula announced that the meeting would first continue in the village church, mu kinzambi, and after that back in the lukongolo outside, in the traditional manner (mu bifu bia nsi). When everyone had entered the church Kayuma’s group (of the Kimbanga, Buyala) were seated on the right side of the podium; André, with the Kikwimba, Nseke-Mbanza group, were seated on the left. Mama Marie was seated behind the podium. The service opened with the congregational singing of a well-known hymn from the hymnal Kintwadi (# 212). Luyizeno twabundana / Ye mbasi za Dise / Ye zunda diabanunga mpe / tuyimbila babo: Mwan’a Nzambi Mvulusi / Watuzola, watufwila / Vana kulunsi / Aleluya, Aleluya, Ameni

Mama Marie then rose and read from Isaiah 2:1-5, about the Eternal’s sacred hill, that shall draw all the nations (makanda, also understood as clans) to it, where peace will prevail, all disputes will be settled, swords will be beaten into ploughshares, … no nations /clans will draw swords against each other again. Her remarks drew from the text to emphasize that the mongo hill was Jesus, who had come to Buyala on this day. She used many bikumu call and response phrases; otherwise the congregation was quiet and attentive during her exegesis of the Isaiah text. Then she turned her attention to the members of the two clans before her, with more focused remarks. Although it was possible that kindoki sorcery may have been present between the mase fathers—Kayuma’s clan—and the bana children, André’s clan, the more important issue in his illness lay in his hidden thoughts and secret intentions, the fact that he had hidden minkisi charms in his house. And other matters that might harm twins.

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She returned to general remarks about the “hill of God” where all conflicts could be resolved. She announced the singing of the popular but not yet published hymn Lutelama, lutelama (Arise, Arise). Then she announced a prayer of hope—tusambileno my vuvu—which soon provoked widespread ecstatic outbursts from the congregation, accompanied by cries of “Yesu, Yesu” and “Sonnell, Sonnell” a Swedish missionary. After the prayer she ordered the public outside, and asked André, his close family from both clans, to gather around her at the front of the church. Theme 2: Exposing the minkisi, Cleaning the Cemeteries, and Other Hallmarks of the Context of Renewal Movements Exposing and destroying minkisi charms, and cleaning the cemeteries, have been a hallmarks of Kongo and wider Western Equatorial African renewal movements for centuries. As early as 1506, with the assumption to power of Mvemba Nzinga Affonso I to the kingship, minkisi were ordered to be destroyed. Again in 1704 prophetess Dona Beatrice, Kimpa Vita, ordered minkisi to be destroyed, including Catholic relics. In 1890 a movement remembered as “peace of the royal throne” began with destruction of minkisi. Then, in 1921, the movement around Kimbangu featured destruction of minkisi. The cognate kisi, widespread throughout Western Equatorial Africa, refers to consecrated objects that embody techniques to address all kinds of challenges, from healing sicknesses, to founding chiefships and assuring the fertility of women, crops, and animals, to protecting individuals from kindoki sorcery. Each nkisi has a name, a founder-creator, a historical beginning in unique social, cultural, and environmental circumstances, and a bisimbi nature or ancestor spirit that empowers it. In many of the historic cases of nkisi iconoclasm, the charms that are destroyed are those that heightened individual advantage over the community and collective institutions. In Mama Marie’s sermon, she equated the charge of “hiding minkisi in the house” with selfish behavior. She may have been alluding to the letter that André had written earlier to his clan father Kayuma, in which he confessed a dream in which he had accompanied another clan member to the cemetery during the 1950s purification ritual Munkukusa (to cleanse, kukusa). In this ritual, personal objects, especially European goods—trinkets, books, store-bought goods, money—were discarded into the cross-shaped diyowa trenches and neutralized in the cemetery earth moistened with palm wine.

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The research question: Given the wealth of Kongo-related archives reaching back 500 years, and the extensive nineteenth–twenty-first-­ century ethnographies and reports, may the scholarly tracing of these hallmark features help identify yet undiscovered movements or moments to be identified and studied? To what degree are they all part of a continuing tradition of renewal?

3   Act III. Mama Marie “digs deep” kufimpa to Diagnose the Affair The scene shifted from public audience to clinical diagnosis with André and a few members of his father’s and mother’s (also his own) clans. She bore down on the questions she has briefly raised to the congregation. Q:

Where did he pick up his illness? A: Pointe Noire. Q: Does he drink much palmwine? A: ??? Q: Who in your clans has given birth to twins? Or are there women in the Kimbanga clan who have had twins? It is Nzuzi, yes, is there an Nzuzi in either of the two clans? A: Yes, in Kimbanga. Marie: The ill man struck Nzuzi once when he was here on a vacation. (André accepts this.) Marie: Two people have poisoned him (acknowledge by all). Yes, the root of the trouble is in your own clan, André. There are two old women, one of whom is living, the other, dead. Q: What are the names of the two women? Think, think. (Two elderly women are brought forward, as witnesses.) Marie: Only if the two persons of the clan are here will you, people, be able to katula nsoni remove the shame from your heads. Marie: God is ready to forgive you, but you have hidden minkisi in your house. After a long list of queries about hidden things and witches hiding behind relatives, Marie asks Kayuma, the Kimbanga “father,” to offer a prayer for André. Marie then lays hands on André in various places, thus blessing him. Finally Kayuma confesses to Marie that he sent André away without a blessing. Having concluded André’s diagnosis, Marie invites others to present their cases to her.

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Theme 3: Cosmic Dualism, Ritual Inversions, Embracing the “other” to Gain Power Mama Marie’s diagnostic methodology came right out of the standard Kongo ritual procedure. She framed her investigation with a series of cosmological oppositions—twins, Nzuzi and/or Nsimba; two old women, one living, one deceased; minkisi, good medicines and bad medicines; social chaos and conflict, or harmony; ultimately, life versus death. Her interrogation of André after the church opening concluded that he had engaged in bad, self-serving, malefic medicine, and needed to reveal this to the light of public moral scrutiny. A similar logic held with the two elderly women who were to have poisoned him, one in the beyond, the other in the here and now; thus, representing the two halves of the cosmos. Often the ultimate inversion is around “death” and “rebirth,” ritual resurrection from the dead, or in some Kongo prophetic narratives, the power to raise from the dead. As for twins, they are at the pivot from the visible world of disparate powers and the invisible unified spiritual power. He had offended against the spirits by striking a twin in earlier years. Marie, like many Kongo ritualists, knew how to conjure up a charged space or zone in order to gain control over it, to resolve the unrest, to restore harmony (MacGaffey 1986, 107–134). Prudently, she steered clear in her investigative divination of direct accusations of powerful living figures who might accuse her of slander in the courts. Yet she was able to identify in singular cases tropes or symbols that resonated with the broader popular consciousness including biblical texts and spiritual hymns. Research question: Can one identify specific instances of cosmological dualism, through which a marginal or “othered” figure is brought into the limelight in a ritual symbol or metaphor, to become the key “mover” embraced to harness its power? (as the twin Nzuzi that was struck, thereby offending the spirits)

4   Act IV. Treating the nsamu Affair the Customary Way, mu bifu bia nsi The lukongolo circle reconvened outside before the Kimbanga men’s lodge, to consider the affair in bifu bia nsi, the customary way (see Fig. 3). Kayuma, the clan head of the Kimbanga, wearing a rafia palm frond hat and four spiral-shaped kodia shells, led his group to meet separately ku

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Fig. 3  Circle gathering (lukongolo) before Kimbanga men’s lodge in Buyala village. Kimbanga on right, Kikwimba on left. Suffering individual third from left. Kikwimba orator is addressing the crowd

nenga. There, on his suggestion, they agreed that they would demand of the Kikwimba that they ask for pardon and withdraw the curse before any blessing could be extended. The pig of ransom had already been paid and was in a cooking pot in a kitchen nearby. Returning to the circle, Kayuma with the usual rhetorical flair for such occasions, announced the Kimbanga conditions. Kikwimba’s orator Katula responded with his best oratorical skills song-dancing these syllables: Ma me, ey ya ye, Ni bo be nsaka… The thing we wait for is forgiveness, and the blessing. Referring to his clan in the third person, he sang “If they could curse, now they could forgive.” He then forgave the Kimbanga, and a junior kinsman brought in a demijohn jug with malavu manlemvo, the wine of forgiveness (see Fig.  3; André is third from left, wearing glasses; Kayuma second from right, with rafia cap). Kimbanga’s initial response was that this was not sufficient, whereupon Kikwimba brought out another one. The Kimbanga orator responded “because it’s getting late, we accept.” At last Kayuma pronounced the blessing upon Kikwimba, that “they could go in peace.” He

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Fig. 4  Orators of disputing clans join in celebrating achievement of reconciliation with a well-known song

closed his remarks by proclaiming that kodia kulumukidi. the kodia shell representing ancestral authority and power had descended upon this gathering (see Fig. 4). Sufferer André’s brother stepped forward to amplify the forgiveness given earlier with a lavish return blessing upon their fathers, the Kimbanga of Buyala: “May your land produce bountiful crops, may the life of everyone in your clan be blessed; may the land and the women bear fruit.” Then he shook Kayuma’s hand, and broke into the prophetic song Mwelo wa zulu, wena wa zibuka… The door of the heaven opened wide… The local deacon give a long prayer of thanksgiving. A visiting elder not immediately associated with the affair, broke into a traditional song ludimba mbembo ya yami, bu lutambanga ma ta, kufula,,, you pierce my words, when you fire off your guns, meaning: do more to finish off your affair than just celebrate with your guns. At this point everyone

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gathered in small groups to enjoy the meal that had been prepared, the main course being the “pig of ransom,” the “wine of forgiveness,” and many other dishes. Theme 4: Restoring Moral Harmony in Society Kongo prophetic renewal movements and moments always promote the restoration of public morality, order, and harmony to society. The other side of the coin of calling for the destruction of secretive minkisi is the cleaning up of cemeteries and the paths leading to them. This measure requires the restoration of good relations between “fathers” and their “children,” that is the different clans that exist within a community and its affines. Since it is the children who are responsible for relations with the ancestors of their fathers’ clans, this labor of cleaning the cemeteries brings into visibility the local, sometimes regional, public order. Kayuma’s reference to the kodia shell descending from the sky proclaims the legitimacy of the gathering, a sentiment amplified by the singing of the prophetic hymn “the doors of heaven opened wide…” The tradition provided explicit logic, poetry, and substance to this recalcitrant conflict, so typical of the legacy of slavery and inequality in Kongo society. Yet the skillful encouragement of the prophet was required to publicize the affair, and to give it the moral moorings to move it off dead center toward resolution. The Nsikumusu revival and renewal movement spread across denominational lines. In one Kimbanguist service a song leader led the congregation in an open-ended call and response song-dance performance whose lyrics played on the expansiveness of the verb sika, to open, to pour forth, order and harmony upon the whole world—sikidikisa nza mvimba. Its nominative form is nsiku, law or prohibition, thus social solidarity. Prophetic movements worldwide occurring in colonial settings have commonly called for the renewal of public morality, eroded by doubt, personalistic indulgences, envy, and breakdown of social norms. Research question: In addition to calls to clean the cemeteries, resolving long-festering conflicts, what other measures suggest restoration of authority, social harmony, and institutional legitimacy? How does the tradition of prophetic renewal correlate with the history of slavery and colonialism? Theme 5: Constructing a New Identity—Nativist and/or Cosmopolitan

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Memories, symbols, projects, and personalities combine to create the identities of neo-African religious movements. Mama Marie Kukunda’s kingunza incorporated twentieth-century Kongo prophetism into the mission-derived churches, in the context of a revival-nsikumusa. But this revival movement had significant African dimensions such as spirit drumming, spirit trance-possession, investigative divination, and healing. A later, early twenty-first-century movement, Bundu dia Kongo (lit., church of Kongo), whose recognized leader was the parliamentarian Muanda Nsemi, pushed nativistic elements much more radically forward. In pamphlets and other publications he advocated returning to pre-Christian Kongo practices, including divination with the ngombo basket, and the restoration of the Kongo kingship and kingdom. His message was explicitly nationalistic, as well, in that he advocated the separation of ancient Kongo regions from their modern states—Angola, Democratic Republic of Congo, and Republic of Congo (Brazzaville)—as an independent country. Such nativistic elements in renewal movements may however be couched in, or combine with, modern methods and outside influences. Thus, all Kongo movements now are active on social media, and have members across many capitals and cities in the northern hemisphere. These techniques of meeting and communicating that herald ancient culture, may however be combined with very contemporary, foreign influences. The adoption of modern theology by the Kimbanguist church after independence is a further illustration of conscious identity construction. An influential apologist for Kimbanguism was Swiss Reformed Church theologian Marie Louise Martin, who joined the church and taught at the seminary in Nkamba for some years (Martin 1975). In 1989 Diengienda, Kimbangu’s youngest son and spiritual heir, hosted a theological conference with David A. Shank (1991), a Mennonite scholar of West African independent churches, principally the Harris Church. Shank and colleagues conducted “theological conversations” with African Initiated Churches, an effort resulting in the formation of a number of independent theological schools across the African continent, now staffed by African theologians (Krabill 2021; Krabill and Shenk 2018). Most notably, the Western theologians affirmed the AICs and paved the way for them to be admitted to the World Council of Churches, that is to gain global legitimacy. This also gave them status in their dealings with governments—e.g., Kimbanguists receiving official status in Mobutu’s Zaire.

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Research question: What are the contours and core elements of the identity pieced together by a movement’s leaders and followers? To what extent do they involve the restoration of “native” features— e.g., investigative divination in the 1950s, use of ngoma spirit drums in the churches—as well as theological and liturgical elements from the outside, from Western or Christian churches—e.g., practicing communion, the wearing of high church costumes, the use of social media to record and propagate their image?;

5   Act V. The Aftermath Some months later André died at his home at the Atlantic coast, where he had served as head of the station for the Brazzaville to Pointe Noire railway. His illness had been diagnosed as cancer. Kinsfolk in the Manianga with whom I spoke, despite their sadness at his passing, were glad that his sickness had prompted his clansmen and fathers to confront the conflict that had festered between them. This way he died in peace. Theme 6: Identifying Precipitating Factors of Renewal Movements Some analysts have explained the 1950s nsikumusa revival movement by the collapse of global fiber prices in 1951. In earlier years the colonial governments of the region had promoted the cultivation of fibers as a cash crop. Many Kongo peasants cut down forests, sold the wood, and planted sisal fibers which matured quickly and provided a good cash income. People benefited from the income to afford school for their children, new houses, general material improvements. But the market crash in 1951 unleashed not only a financial crisis, but doubts about the wisdom of having followed the government’s policies. The Munkukusa purification movement that followed focused on the neutralization of a modernized version of kundu (witchcraft substance) such as money, books, any trinket or object associated with foreign influence. Makundu stuff was brought to cross-shaped diyowa trenches and mixed with earth from ancestral tombs. The cemeteries were cleaned. The church-based revival Nsikumusa followed the Munkukusa. The timing of the outbreak of the prophetic movement of 1921, often identified with Simon Kimbangu, has received many explanations, too detailed to spell out here. Behind the general repressive nature of Belgian colonialism—the forced labor, the restrictions on movement, the head

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tax—was the growing sense that Congo society had lost its moorings. Chiefs no longer had authority, or those that had been appointed, the medallioned chiefs, were simply the lackeys of the government, good for collecting taxes and enforcing work orders. The notebooks of Karl Laman’s teachers, written between 1910 and 1918, recount stories of chiefs’ souls being stolen from their hiding places under rocks in the pools belonging to the bisimbi earth and water spirits. Banganga doctors were busy dealing with the challenging task of returning these souls to their owners or hiding places so that they could govern effectively (e.g., Lutete n.d., Notebook 225, Laman Collection, cited in Janzen 1979, 130–131). Although these accounts are opaque and mystifying to the twenty-first-century reader, they hint forcefully at a deep-seated crisis of authority that would have fueled an outbreak of a prophetic movement such as Kimbanguism, or ngunzism. These stories would also explain the importance of the pools at Nkamba in which pilgrims bathed and from which they took holy water. Research question: Can the crises or shifting perception of events prior to the rise of a renewal movement be identified in its particulars—economic downturn, prolonged conflict, institutional paralysis, colonial humiliation and exploitation, diseases, rising kindoki? How might analysis (following Burridge 1969) formulate the path of prophetic “redemption” as an inversion of the contours of the crisis?

6  Conclusion The ethnographic sketch of an event in which a Kongo prophetess assists the community in resolving a difficult conflict involving clan rivalry, the legacy of slavery, disease, curses and blessings, illuminates the analytical themes of the Kongo tradition of renewal. Yet, as I am reminded by Jacqui Alexander (2021), a number of questions remain unanswered about how this event and the prophet’s intervention relate to the deeper tradition of renewal, and to the social history in which it manifests itself. These questions have to do with the spiritual substance of that tradition, and how it comes to individuals. They have to do with the settings in which this insight or availability of power is thought to come forth. Charles Mayaki Masamba (2014), son of colonial era prophet Masamba Esaie, born in exile at Oshwe in the Belgian Congo, described the nature of prophecy kingunza as an independent line of visionary spirituality outside the institutionalized channels of chiefship (kimfumu), the healing arts (kinganga), or the exercise of power (kindoki), going back through all of

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Kongo history. He identified the ability to exercise this gift as mayembo. It comes to individuals with no training. It exists as a certain ability to see hidden things, to identify thieves, to find game, and to be visited by the spirits. It was how knowledge of minkisi used to come to healers; it is also through mayembo that the Christian holy spirit manifests itself to some people. Mayembo may come spontaneously, or it may be stimulated by drumming, dancing, or other physical stimuli. It is thought to come in dreams as well. According to Mayaki Masamba, mayembo opens access to hidden realms of knowledge and power in the face of challenges or crises. Thus there would be a certain fit, or coincidence, between intractable dilemmas and the appearance of prophetic individuals. The continuity of the tradition of renewal would exist in a certain latency or potential for mayembo-capable individuals to bring the gifts of the spirit to the fore. Mama Marie Kukunda demonstrated this concidence of visionary insight and intractable dilemma when she interrupted her journey to Buyala to wait for dreams or other spiritual guidance to deal with the case at hand. The question raised in theme 4 above about the coincidence of prophetism to slavery in a local African setting may be globalized to encompass the unfinished business of slavery’s legacy in Western societies, in particular the United States.

References Alexander, Jacqui. 2021. Personal Communications. May 31, June 10. Andersson, Efraim. 1958. Messianic Popular Movements in the Lower Congo. (Studia Ethnographica Upsaliensia VI). Uppsala. Burridge, Kenelm O. 1969. New Heaven, New Earth: A Study of Millenarian Activities. Oxford: Basil Blackwell. Janzen, John M. 1964. Towards a History of Cultural Revitalization among the Bakongo 1880–1925. University of Chicago Department of Anthropology. M.A. Thesis. ———. 1971. Kongo Religious Renewal: Iconoclastic and Iconorthostic. Canadian J. of African Studies / La Revue Canadienne des Etudes Africaines. V, ii, 135–143. ———. 1977. The Tradition of Renewal in Kongo Religion. In African Religions, A Symposium. Ed. Newell Booth. New York, London, Lagos: Nok Publishers, Ltd., 69–115. ———. 1979. Deep Thought: Structure and Intention in Kongo Prophetism, 1910–1921. Social Research, Spring, Vol 46, No.1, 106–139.

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———. 2013. Renewal and Reinterpretation in Kongo Religion. In Kongo Across the Waters. Eds. Susan Cooksey, Robin Poynor, and Hein Vanhee. Gainesville: University of Florida Press & Central African Museum Tervuren, 132–142. ———. 2021 (1993). Prophetism, Precolonial African. Encyclopedia of African Religion and Philosophy. Eds. V.Y. Mudimbe and K. Kavwahirehi. Springer B.V. Krabill, James, and Wilbert Shenk. 2018. Six Decades in the Making: A Story of Friendship and Ministry Partnership between African-Initiated Churches and North American Mennonites. Anabaptist Witness. https://www.anabaptistwitness.org/wp-­content/uploads/2018/10/AW5.2_KrabillShenk.pdf. Krabill, James, ed. 2021. Unless a Grain of Wheat…: A Story of Friendship between African Initiated Churches and North American Mennonites. London, UK: Langham. Lutete, Esaya. Notebook 225. https://kuscholarworks.ku.edu/bitstream/handle/1808/31597/Introduction_to_Laman_Collection_. MacGaffey, Wyatt. 1986. Religion and Society in Central Africa: The BaKongo of Lower Zaire. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Martin, Marie-Louise. 1975. Kimbangu: an African Prophet and his Church. Oxford: Basil Blackwell. Mayaki Masamba, Charles. 2014, Interview, Nzieta, Lower Congo. February 16–17. Shank, David A. ed. 1991. Ministry in Partnership with African Independent Churches. Elkhart, IN: Mennonite Board of Missions. Papers presented at the Conference on Ministry in Partnership with AICs, July 1989, Kinshasa, Zaire. Sinda, Martial. 1972. Le messianism congolais et ses incidences politiques. Paris: Payot.

Index1

A Afonso, 10–13, 21, 23n10, 24n35 Afonso Nunes, 135 Andersson, Efraim (1896-1989), 103, 105, 117, 118 B Bahelele Jacques, 105, 106 Bamba, Emmanuel, 30, 33, 36, 37 Becquet, Henry, 42–44 Belgian Congo, oppression by, 31 Blackness, 85–95 Boukaka, Franklin, 139, 140 Buakasa, G., 144n2 Bundu Dia Kongo, 138 Bureaucracy, effect of, 32, 33 C Catechism, Kimbanguist, 34, 37

Catholic Church, 8–14 Chef Spirituel, 48, 50–54, 56–59, 61–63, 65n14, 65n23, 65n24, 66n43, 66n44, 66n49, 67n53, 67n56, 68n60, 68n62, 67n49 Chosen People, 79 Christianity, 50 Church Kimbanguist, 159, 160 Protestant, 152 Civil wars, 15–20 Colonial (ism, istic), 159, 161, 162 D Dalienst, Ntesa, 139, 140 De Gallo, Bernardo (?-1717), 103 Diakanwa, Daniel, 44 Dialungana Kiangani, 31 Diangienda, Joseph, 30, 31, 33–38

 Note: Page numbers followed by ‘n’ refer to notes.

1

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023 A. N. Ngudiankama (ed.), Kimbanguism 100 Years On, African Histories and Modernities, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-37031-1

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INDEX

Diaspora, 87, 88, 95 Divination, 152, 156, 160, 161 E Edingwe, 142 EJCSK, see L’Église De Jésus-christ Sur La Terre Par Le Prophète Simon Kimbangu Essence de la Théologie Kimbanguiste, 33–37 F Foucault, Michel, 131, 142 France, 144n2 G Glossolalia, speaking in tongues, 33 Guinness, H. Grattan, 36 H Healing, 102, 105, 107 Historicity, 3 History, repetitive, 35 I Identity, 75–80, 82 cosmopolitan, 150, 160 nativist, 150, 160 J Janzen, John, 30, 32 Jennings, Robert L. (1874-1946), 106, 107 Jerusalem, the New, 35

K Kasangulu, 30–32, 36 Kikongo, 9, 20, 21, 23n4, 25n46 Kilombo, 101, 122 Kimbangu, Peter, 139, 141 Kimbangu, Simon (1887-1951), 41–44, 101–109, 111, 112, 118–120, 122, 125–127, 160 Kimpa Vita, D. Beatriz (1684-1706), 7–22, 103, 119 Kimpanzu, 16 Kimpasi, 15–17 Kindoki (witchcraft), 15, 34, 144n2 Kingdom of Kongo, 7 Kinlaza, 16 Kinshasa, 144n2 Kinshasa Symphony, 80 Kintwadi, 77 Kisangani, 30, 31, 38 Kongo religion, 3 Kukunda, Mama Marie, 149–152, 160, 163 L L’Église De Jésus-christ Sur La Terre Par Le Prophète Simon Kimbangu (EJCSK), 30, 31 Linzolo, 103, 122, 125 Lowa, Kimbanguists in, 31 Luntadila Lucien, 30 M Mabwaaka Mpaka, prophet, 30 Magazin ya Makayabu, 42, 43 Mandombe, 80 Masambukidi, 136 Matadi, 30–32 Mbanza Manteke, 30

 INDEX 

Migrant, 74–76, 78, 81, 82 Moloto, Alain (1961-2013), 103, 125–127 Morel, Léon-George (1892-?), 104, 106 Mpadi, Simon, 31, 33, 35, 43, 44 Muilu Marie, 73 N Ndoundou, Daniel (1911-1986), 101, 119 Nduma, Thomas, 109 Ne Muanda Nsemi, 138 Ngouedi, 101, 120 Ngunza, 1–4, 149–152, 156, 158–163 Ngunzist, 117, 118 Nkamba, 30, 31, 33–35, 37, 51, 57–62, 68n59, 104–108 Nkindu Guillaume, prophet, 32 Nkisi (mi), 150, 153–156, 159, 163 destroying, 154 Nsambu, Twasilua A (1926-2013), 107 Nsikumusu, 101, 102, 118–127, 149–163 Nsinsani, 80 Nyuvudi, Paul (v.1880-1975), 118 Nzinga A Nkuwu, João, 9, 10 O Olangi, 137

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P Paraclete, 56 Pentecostalism, 87 Postcolonial, 90 Prophet (ism, etic, ecy), see Ngunza R Renewal, 149–163 movement, tradition of (see Nsikumusu) Revealed/captured songs, 101–103, 107, 109, 119, 120, 122, 123, 127 Revival churches, 87–89, 92–95 S Salvation Army, 41–44 Simao Toko, 133–135, 143 T Theology of Black liberation, 73 Tokoist, 133–135 Trinity, 49, 54, 56, 58, 60 W World Council of Churches (WCC), 47–64 Z Zaire, 144n2