AbstractIn the Kimbanguist view and theology, "church" means "the totality of persons belonging to the Christian family". For the moment, this is an exclusively earthly community. As for the "kingdom", we define it as "the entity consisting of the heavenly beings under the government of the Holy Trinity and attained by all persons justified by Jesus Christ". As this definition of the kingdom shows, our view of the kingdom differs considerably from that of a large number of Christian churches. The church is not solely a spiritual community; it is also a human entity. The tensions that mark the community of men and women are consequently also found within it. It is in fact far from consisting of perfect human beings. A proof of this is the fact that the architects and builders of the odious system of apartheid are for the most part men and women who are regular communicants. Similarly those who persecuted my church for almost forty years did so out of concern to "safeguard, defend and propagate the values of Christian civilization". Yet in spite of all this, the church is called upon to be the sign of the kingdom that is to come. [excerpt].

AbstractAlphabetically arranged entries provide information about approximately seven hundred people prominent in Africa during all periods of history, including political and religious leaders, educators, business people, and scientists.

AbstractThe following dossier presents documents and studies relating to the death of the Congolese prophet Simon Kimbangu in 1951 after thirty years spent in prison, and his survival in the church bearing his name. The Authors' first concern is to shed light on the circumstances of S.K's death-bed "conversion" to catholicism, after he had been subjected to pressure from the prison administration. They next analyse the various aspects of the new "tolerance policy" which the Belgian administration applied after 1955 and which allowed and even encouragea the growth of the Kimbanguist Church under the leadership of one of the prophet's sons.

AbstractThis article follows the path paved by Victor Turner and elaborates on the quasi-universal presence of marginal symbols in the biographies of religious leaders. While studying the boys' initiation ritual and other rites of passage among the Wagenia (Zaire), the author discovered the recurring presence of a number of symbols that indicated the temporal marginal position of persons undergoing the ritual, and was surprised to find that some of these symbols were also used in the biographies of religious innovators. These symbols may be present in the facts, but may also be of an artificial, constructed nature. The comparison is extended to the biography of a secular innovator: Marx.

AbstractIn the spring of 1921, a young Kongo prophet named Simon Kimbangu launched a revival that won thousands of followers and posed a growing threat to Belgian rule in the Congo. This article examines the dynamic confluence of the Kimbanguist revival and the spread of Garveyism along the west coast of Africa. Scholarly treatments of Kimbanguism have not satisfactorily explained this connection, in large part because Garveyism has been traditionally miscast as an American-centered doctrine of immediate liberation rather than a malleable and portable diasporic movement that acquired a uniquely African cast as a result of its spread through the subcontinent. In the Belgian Congo, Garveyism provided an organizational spark that aided the emergence of Kimbangu's church. Perhaps more consequentially, the spread of Garveyism through the region facilitated the emergence of rumors that conditioned the manner in which both Africans and Europeans perceived and responded to the revival. Viewing Garveyism from this perspective helps us understand why it was such a vibrant politics during the interwar period. It also suggests the broader utility of diasporic identifications and ideas as potentially emancipatory materials for local politics making.

AbstractThis is the absorbing study of the rooting of the gospel in a culture, some of the by-products of that process. It is revealing of the background of the situation in Congo today. It is also revealing of how shallow is our talk of ?indigenous churches,? for few Christians can find it in their hearts to look tolerantly on a movement which is not made in their own image. This is not to say that everything in Kimbanguism is Christian. Neither is everything in Presbyterianism, Methodism, or Independent Missionism. But are there not signs that Christ has been, and remains, in some of the forms of prophetic Christianity in Congo?

AbstractThe "What" and the "How" of a theological statement are related. If the "How" is the conceptual framework of the Western literary world, then the "What" is not expressed in universal terms. The ecumenical problem of the future is not the relationship between Catholic and Protestant theology, but the relationship between conceptual and narrative, between literary and oral theology. This ecumenical problem is exemplified in the history of the basis formula of the World Council of Churches, in its function (or non-function) during the German church struggle and in its relation to the first application by an African Independent church (the Kimbanguist church) for membership of the Council. The question of alternative, narrative and parabolic confessions is raised.

AbstractThis paper draws attention to the fact that since the beginning of the 1960s white missionaries from mainline churches have become involved in the training of leaders and ordinary members of African independent churches (AICs). In many cases, however, leaders of AICs remain suspicious of missionaries who offer to come and assist them. Therefore a number of questions come to the fore: How did the relationships between mainline churches and AICs start? What were the motives on either side? What kind of programmes were elaborated? Were there specific problems in the relationships? The author deals with these questions in three case studies - Fambidzano (Zimbabwe), Mennonite Ministries all over Africa, and the Church of Jesus Christ on Earth through the Prophet Simon Kimbangu (EJCSK) - focusing on theological training. She concludes, amongst others, that the relation between the two parties remained a delicate one; that there may be a sensitiveness on the side of the AICs as to certain doctrinal and pastoral subjects in the curriculum; that all churches were positive about other subjects, like bible study and church history; that financial assistance may lead to tensions; and that the aim of bridge-building between AICs themselves or between AICs and the mainline churches was supported by all, though in practice it was not always easy. Notes, ref.

AbstractParmi les ethnies kôngo les Besingombe sont ceux dont les origines sont restées inexpliquées ou faussement appréhendées. Cet article retrace grâce à une analyse basée sur l'histoire, l'ethnographie, l'anthropologie et la linguistique l'existence et les origines des membres de cette ethnie. Contrairement à l'assertion selon laquelle ces Besingombe sont des Manianga venue de la rive nord du fleuve Congo pour élever les boeufs, cet article démontre que les origines des Besingombe se trouvent dans les guerres que les rois du Kongo dia Ntotila avec leurs guerriers Bangombe menaient contre les Manianga qui, ayant traversé le fleuve, ne voulaient pas se soumettre à leur autorité. A la fin de ces guerres meurtrières, une autre vague des Bangombe venue du sud occupa le no man's land laissé entre les combattants et ethnies Bandibu. Les Besingombe actuels sont une ethnie à part entière composée des descendants des Bangombe et des Manianga ma Ngombe. Mots clés : Besingombe, manianga, kôngo, kimbangu, ethnie, bwende, banzika

AbstractM'Vuendy Mabeki Ntu François. M'Vuendy Mabeki Ntu François. Le Kimbanguisme de sa fondation à nos jours (1921-1971). . In: École pratique des hautes études, 5e section, Sciences religieuses. Annuaire. Tomes 80-81, Fascicule II. Vie de la Section : années 1971-1972 et 1972-1973. 1971. pp. 135-137.

AbstractAchille Mbembe remarque, pour le regretter, que la réflexion qu’il a intitulée « Le fouet de Dieu » n’a guère fait l’objet de lectures critiques. C’est précisément à dégager les enjeux de ce chapitre de son livre De la postcolonie que vise mon intervention. J’avais été très impressionnée, lors de mes recherches doctorales sur le kimbanguisme, par les analyses relatives au christianisme figurant dans Afriques indociles. Ces thèses sont tout à la fois creusées et déplacées dans « Le fouet de Dieu ». L’avant-propos de la deuxième édition du livre suggère brièvement une mise en perspective stimulante de ces pages. Prenant acte de la nécessité de désormais « penser avec et contre Fanon », Mbembe y souligne qu’elles ouvrent sur une conception du rapport éthique à autrui, qui prend chez lui la forme d’une prescription inconditionnelle : « donner la mort à la mort ». Mon interrogation se resserre autour de la thématique de l’altérité. En rassemblant en gerbe les problématiques du désir, de la domination et de la liberté, elle met au jour l’articulation profonde du religieux et du politique.

AbstractL'exposé vise à cerner la spécificité du rapport que le prophétisme entretient avec le politique. Il opère en deux temps : un examen attentif de la littérature scientifique relative aux enjeux du prophétisme débouche sur l’exigence de mettre l’accent sur l’irréductibilité du prophétisme de l’époque coloniale aux conditions politiques de son émergence. Dans un deuxième temps, il interroge la pertinence d’une analyse en termes strictement politiques de la figure prophétique de Simon Kimbangu. Il s’emploie enfin à prendre la mesure des implications réelles de l’apolitisme de principe adopté par l’Église kimbanguiste depuis son institutionnalisation.

AbstractDans mon exposé, je rends compte des mouvements disruptifs ou de dispersion qui animent l’imaginaire, c’est-à-dire les croyances partagées, et les pratiques de l’Église kimbanguiste (EJCSK) depuis les années 1990. Il s’agit : premièrement, du surgissement de figures charismatiques en marge de l’Église (les Milimo), deuxièmement, de l’apparition d’une hétérodoxie doctrinale, et, troisièmement, de la dissidence à l’œuvre dans l’Église depuis 2002. Je montre que l’Église s’emploie à contenir son risque d’éclatement en multipliant les opérations de recentrages théologiques, institutionnels et charismatiques, voire politiques et cela jusqu’au sein de sa diaspora.

AbstractCette étude a été suscitée par le constat d’une apparente inconséquence. De nombreux Kimbanguistes ont pris une part active, comme candidats de différents partis ou comme militants, aux élections présidentielles de 2006 en RDC. Or, le discours doctrinal de l’Église semble incompatible avec ces engagements dans la politique effective. D’abord, parce que l’Église affirme très tôt un apolitisme de principe. Ensuite, plus fondamentalement, parce que son discours doctrinal s’inscrit dans un horizon théologico-politique indifférent, voire hostile à la démocratie. C’est cette incompatibilité entre doctrine et pratique effective que nous cernerons ici. Nous verrons que l’écart entre le projet théologico-politique kimbanguiste, d’une part, la réalité politique actuelle, d’autre part, reste provisoire, et que c’est à l’histoire, conçue sur un mode eschatologique, qu’il appartiendrait de le résorber. En fait, aujourd’hui, le millénarisme qui supporte la doctrine kimbanguiste renvoie téléologiquement à plus tard la réalisation du projet théologico-politique kimbanguiste. : The research reported in this paper was inspired by the observation of an apparent inconsistency. Many Kimbanguists took an active part in the presidential elections of 2006 in DRC, either as candidates of different parties or as militants, whereas Church doctrine seems to be incompatible with such a commitment in real politics. First, because the Kimbanguist Church affirmed from its beginnings an apolitical attitude. Second, and more fundamentally, because Kimbanguist theological-political doctrine is indifferent, if not hostile to democracy. It is this incompatibility between doctrine and real practice that I outline here. The article shows that the gap between the Kimbanguist theological-political project, on the one hand, and the current political reality, on the other hand, is temporary, and that it is up to history, conceived of in an eschatological perspective, to reduce it. In fact, the millenarianism that underlies the Kimbanguist doctrine postpones in a teleologic manner the realisation of the theological-political project.

AbstractLa thèse est divisée en trois parties et en sept chapitres. L’introduction générale contient, après la description de l’objet, un état de la question relatif aux Églises indépendantes africaines, la problématique, une discussion des concepts transversaux, la méthodologie et le plan général. Dans la perspective d’une anthropologie dynamique, le travail s’emploie à rendre compte des mouvements qui animent l’imaginaire, c’est-à-dire les croyances partagées, et les pratiques du kimbanguisme d’abord, de l’Église kimbanguiste ensuite. La première partie est consacrée au thème du prophétisme kimbanguiste de 1921 à aujourd’hui. Elle est subdivisée en deux chapitres. Le premier décrit et analyse l’intrication entre le religieux et le politique dans le prophétisme initial de Kimbangu à l’époque coloniale et dans le « prophétisme d’Église » depuis l’Indépendance. Le deuxième chapitre traite de la dimension thaumaturgique essentielle au prophétisme et en envisage les manifestations officielles mais aussi officieuses, en marge de l’Église, dans le contexte de la multiplication des Églises de guérison et des Églises de réveil. Cette partie s’achève sur un essai d’interprétation de la spécificité du prophétisme kimbanguiste aujourd’hui. La deuxième partie envisage la constitution de l’orthodoxie au sein de l’Église kimbanguiste depuis les années 1960, l’apparition d’une hétérodoxie dans les années 1990, puis la réintégration de cette hétérodoxie menant à la constitution d’une nouvelle orthodoxie depuis les années 2000. Cette partie est divisée en trois chapitres. Le premier porte sur la croyance partagée en la trinité incarnée ; le deuxième sur l’afrocentrisme et l’ethnocentrisme qui coexistent avec un universalisme déclaré ; le troisième sur la dimension millénariste fondamentale dans l’imaginaire théologico-politique de la doctrine de l’Église kimbanguiste. L’analyse diagnostique une série de recentrements : sur la figure du « chef spirituel », sur les Bakongo, sur les Africains et sur la cité sainte des Kimbanguistes, Nkamba. La troisième partie dépeint et explique un phénomène récent : la dissidence qui, depuis 2002, déchire l’Église et en particulier, la descendance de Simon Kimbangu. Comme cette dissidence est apparue à l’occasion d’une succession au titre de « chef spirituel », en 2001, un chapitre est d’abord consacré au mode de succession dans l’Église depuis 1958. Il fait en outre apparaître que depuis les années 1990, de fortes tensions concurrentielles préparaient le terrain à la dissidence. Un deuxième chapitre est centré sur la dissidence actuelle. Il en dégage les causes et les enjeux, en particulier l’appropriation des pouvoirs charismatique et économique. L’auteur constate que ces forces apparemment centrifuges ne débouchent pas sur un schisme à proprement parler, et que de part et d’autre, du côté de l’Église comme du côté des dissidents, est paradoxalement affirmée l’idée d’une Église kimbanguiste « une et indivisible ». La dissidence n’est pas l’expression d’un conflit démocratique, mais, au contraire, du privilège théologico-politique du centre. La thèse dans son ensemble montre que les mouvements qui traversent l’Église jusque dans ses diasporas sont ultimement rapportés au privilège du centre. La conclusion cherche à cerner la position de l’Église dans le Congo d’aujourd’hui. Elle met en évidence, d’une part, la position respectueuse de l’Église par rapport aux autorités politiques et, d’autre part, l’incompatibilité foncière entre le processus démocratique en cours et la conception théologico-politique de la doctrine kimbanguiste actuelle. L’extraterritorialité revendiquée pour la cité sainte des Kimbanguistes, Nkamba, reflète cette incompatibilité et constitue un élément de désaccord avec les autorités politiques.

AbstractCet article considère mon expérience de terrain sur les sites kimbanguistes au Congo et en Belgique depuis 1996. Quelques écueils relatifs à ma position personnelle et à sa réceptivité par les Kimbanguistes sont évoqués d’entrée de jeu. Ensuite, je pointe les difficultés méthodologiques résultant de la diversification des sites kimbanguistes. Le concept d’ethnoscape que l’on doit à Arjun Appadurai permet d’interroger les processus et les modes de (re)configurations identitaires de groupes dispersés sur la planète. J’en viens, enfin, à des déplacements au-delà des sites kimbanguistes, en somme aux articulations de ces sites à d’autres sites non kimbanguistes. L’ethnographie multi-située et la métaphore du « pister » théorisées par George Marcus apportent un éclairage neuf sur la spécificité que présente ce terrain de recherche. This article is based on field work in Kimbanguist research sites in Congo and Belgium since 1996. Obstacles relating to my personal position and its receptivity by Kimbanguists are discussed at the outset. Next, I focus on the methodological difficulties associated with the diversity of Kimbanguist sites. The concept of ethnoscape developed by Arjun Appadurai helps us reflect on the processes and modes of identity-related (re)configurations of groups dispersed all over the planet. The article ends with a discussion about displacements beyond the Kimbanguist sites. Multi-sited ethnography and the metaphor of ‘tracking’ theorised by George Marcus throws new light on the specificity of this research.

AbstractThe paper explores a systematic way of comparing Kimbanguism in modern Zaire (Congo), with Antonism, a religious movement that occurred among the same BaKongo people in 1704. The structure of Kongo religion is seen as a set of roles ("commissions") derived from indigenous cosmology and assumptions about power. It is shown that Antonine and Kimbanguist prophets both conform to the role of priest of a local spirit (simbi), one who uses healing powers in the public interest. The conversion of the Kono King in 1491 was a movement of the same sort, and in later centuries Capuchin missionaries themselves unwittingly played the role of simbi priest.

AbstractBased on interviews with participants and witnesses, together with some documentation, the article describes the means and conditions by which Kimbanguist doctrines were introduced to Kisangani (Stanleyville) between 1945 and 1959, before the foundation of the Church of Christ on the Earth by the Prophet Simon Kimbangu as a national and international church. The special place in the covert theology of the Church of certain events in 1952, at the camp for Kimbanguist exiles in Lowa, is described. Discussion of ethnic rivalries during and after the foundation of the Church is related to the content of the oral traditions, which represent several political tendencies. The conclusion is that Kimbanguism in Upper Zaire differs from that of its place of origin in Lower Zaire in lacking roots in local culture and politics, and in having been primarily a product of nationalist sentiment after World War II.

AbstractDuring the early 1920s in what was then known as the Belgian Congo, a Christian revival movement was initiated by an African, a Baptist catechist named Simon Kimbangu, who immediately challenged the colonial order by preaching to and healing the local population. The Kimbanguist Church, an African Independent Church born from this movement, considers itself as a tool of identity recon-struction, empowering the believers to express their suffering and challenge the racial inequalities still extant in the post-colonial context. A member of the World Council of Christian Churches since 1969, with an estimated membership of 17 million today, the Kimbanguist Church has evolved, as the American sociologist Susan Asch explained, with two parallel dimensions. The first is made up of the educated minority, which is struggling to bring about theological reform, while the second one, composed of the tradition-oriented majority, has imposed popular beliefs, throwing the church into a conflict with the World Council of Churches since the year 2000.

AbstractEn France, les Églises harriste et kimbanguiste sont constituées en associations selon la loi de 1901. Comptant un nombre réduit d'adeptes, elles doivent soit se faire adopter par des "Églises-mères" pour trouver des lieux de culte et pratiquer leurs rites, soit se justifier pour éviter d'être prises pour des sectes. Leurs fidèles forment des micro-sociétés cohérentes, qui vivent dans la continuité des pratiques du pays d'origine. Selon l'auteur, on est en présence d'un groupe de migrants qui s'adapte, plus qu'il ne s'insère.

AbstractDesde 1975, el kimbanguismo, una Iglesia independiente africana, se implantó en Europa, en principio como una asociación de estudiantes congoleños. Se vieron en la obligación de crear su propio espacio para encontrarse según los modos de creer tradicionales: culto, bautismo, fiestas religiosas, código moral de conducta y referentes identitarios. Pero luego de treinta años, la instalación lenta y siempre inacabada de esta iglesia en las sociedades europeas revela formas de integración propias del contexto migratorio: la expresión comunitaria, la integración, las dificultades de adaptación, los matrimonios mixtos, la ruptura de los sistemas de valores y la ruptura generacional en relación con el kimbanguismo tradicional.

AbstractReviewed Works: L'Église du Prophète Kimbangu. De ses origines à son rôle actuel au Zaïre by Susan Asch; Modern Kongo Prophets. Religion in a Plural Society by Wyatt MacGaffey

Abstract"Sources Imprimées Et Bibliographie Suédoises Commentées Relatives Aux Mouvements Prophétiques Du Zaire" published on 01 Jan 1982 by Brill.

AbstractAlthough the present publication does completely meet the requirements for an academic article, we have decided to publish it because of the insights it provides into the latest developments within the Kimbanguist Church in Congo. The author is a theologian who was Dean of the Kimbanguist Faculty of Theology in Lutendele near Kinshasa until mid 2003. He was deeply involved in the problems that arose in the beginning of the 21st century. He is also a person who is able to explain diligently the views of the different parties in the Kimbanguist Church. However, due to his own involvement in these developments the article has rather the character of a document written by a well-educated participant observer, who is very familiar with his subject, than that of a publication authored by a scholar who does his utmost to remain neutral.The document explains the theological, religious and contextual backdrops of the doctrine of the Trinity developed in the Kimbanguist Church, for in this church the persons of the Trinity are narrowly connected with the founder of the church and his family. Since 2001 these connections were even made more intense. Interestingly there are some Biblical reasons for it as well, but nonetheless the church seems to loose doctrinal familiarity with the other churches in the world through these new evolutions.

AbstractIn the personage and movement of Simon Kimbangu there arose in Lower Zaire a socio-political and religious awakening. This awakening signaled internal indigenous and external colonial dissatisfaction and structural critique. As Kimbangu's religious healing ministry intensified, so too did the movement spread and become diversified in more-religious to more-political nativistic movements. In the process, Kimbangu became the prophetic hero-figure of all pre-independent Zairian social movements. The methodological strategy herein is that of a diachronic "mapping out" of the major socio-historical factors which created, sustained, and energized the Kimbanguist and "pseudo-Kimbanguist" movements in their religious and political trajectories.

AbstractEpic yet eminently readable, penetrating and profoundly moving, ‘Congo’ traces the fate of one of the world's most devastated countries, second only to war-torn Somalia: the Democratic Republic of Congo. With a span of several hundred years and an enormous cast of characters, ‘Congo’ chronicles the most dramatic episodes of the nation’s history, the people and events that have determined Congo’s development – from the slave trade to the ivory and rubber booms; from the arrival of Henry Morton Stanley and his meeting with Dr Livingstone to the brutal regime of Belgium’s King Leopold II; from the struggle for independence to Mobutu's exploitative rule; and from Muhammad Ali and George Foreman’s world famous ‘Rumble in the Jungle’ to the civil war over natural resources that began in 1996 and still rages today. David Van Reybrouck interweaves his own family's history with the voices of a diverse range of individuals – charismatic dictators, feuding warlords, child-soldiers, elderly, female smugglers, and many in the African diaspora of Europe and China – to offer a deeply humane approach to political history, focusing squarely on the Congolese perspective in an attempt to return a nation's history to its people.

AbstractThis article analyzes some events related to the Kimbanguist church that have taken place in Portugal and in the Democratic Republic of Congo. It unearths a connection between an increasing feminization of practices and narratives within this church and the emergence of an ideology of return to Africa linked both to eschatological beliefs and to notions of 'mission,' 'example,' and 'success.' The article shows the advantage of a multi-sited fieldwork in the study of transnational religion, as well as the changing nature of religious institutions in today's world, in which socio-political dynamics in the migrants' new settings both affect and are affected by what happens in the headquarters of their religious institution. © 2011 Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden.

AbstractIt is both relevant and urgent to examine the way in which African people have struggled to cultivate justice, reconciliation and peace in their traditional life as well as in the midst of their contemporary experiences. Even though the words of justice, reconciliation and peace are strictly religious terms, the secular and religious worlds use them and need them equally. In this book, the author concentrates on the more religious dimensions of these terms. He draws from African Religion and Christianity in Africa (including Malagasy) where African religion has also been predominant. We cannot look at major religious themes in this region of Africa without taking into consideration these two religious traditions. This is a book that should be read by all concerned with justice, reconciliation and peace in Africa today.