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The Implantation of Kimbanguism in Kisangani, Zaire

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 January 2009

Wyatt MacGaffey
Wyatt MacGaffey
Affiliation:
Haverford College
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Extract

Based 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.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of African History , Volume 23 , Issue 3 , July 1982 , pp. 381 - 394
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1982

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References

1 The Church of Jesus Christ on the Earth by the Prophet Simon Kimbangu (EJCSK), the largest Kimbanguist organization, was founded in 1957, officially recognized in 1959, and admitted to the World Council of Churches in 1969. It is an international church, claiming membership of several million in at least nine countries. See Martin, Marie-Louise, Kimbangu: An African Prophet and his Church (London, 1975).Google Scholar

2 Muntu-Monji, Munayi, ‘La déportation et le séjour des Kimbanguistes dans le Kasai-Lukenie (1921–1960)’, Zaire-Afrique, no. 119 (1977), 555–73Google Scholar; ‘Le prosélytisme des sectes parmis les acculturés du Kwilu-Kwango et du Kasai (1941–1960)’, Zaire-Afrique, no. 123 (1978), 135–53.Google Scholar

3 MacGaffey, Wyatt, ‘Corporation theory and political change: the case of Zaire’, in Neuman, S., ed., Small States and Segmented Societies (New York, 1976).Google Scholar

4 Research was conducted in Lower Zaire in 1964–6 and 1970, and in Kisangani from October 1979 to June 1980. During these periods I frequently participated in Kimbanguist affairs. Discussions were conducted in Kikongo, French and Swahili, as appropriate. I am especially grateful for the willing collaboration of the following people, but remain responsible for the use made of their information: Bamba Kimbangu, Kongo, student, born in Lowa, Protestant (BMS), Kisangani; Bofoe Emile, Topoke, Kimbanguist catechist, Kisangani; Bosalo, Topoke, Kimbanguist pastor, Kisangani; Dr John Car-rington, retired BMS missionary, Salisbury, England; Limbaya Libeta Maurice, Soko, former supervisor at Lowa, Catholic, Kisangani; Mambu Masakidi, Kongo, Kimbanguist pastor, Kisangani; Ngandi Lusambu Aloise, Lokele, retired administrator, Catholic, Kisangani; Soka Tuti dia Mvula, Kongo, Kimbanguist pastor, Kisangani; Tokwaulu Henri, Lokele, retired nurse, Protestant (BMS), Kisangani; Wawina Georges, Lokele, Kimbanguist pastor, Kisangani. I am also indebted to Dr Carrington for information from BMS records, and to Professor Benoît Verhaegen for material from colonial archives.

5 Irvine, Cecilia, ‘The birth of the Kimbanguist movement in the Bas Zaire 1921’, Journal of Religion in Africa, VI, 1 (1974), 23–76CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Andersson, Efraim, Messianic Popular Movements in the Lower Congo (Uppsala, 1958)Google Scholar; MacGaffey, W. ‘Kimbanguism, an African Christianity’, Africa Report, XXI, 1 (1976), 40–3.Google Scholar

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12 Dragon, J. Mvwama, letter (in Swahili) to Mboliya Tengai, no. 388 (12 1939)Google Scholar, translated W.M.

13 Government of Belgian Congo, AIMO, Prov. Stanleyville, Rapport Annuel 1945.

14 Mentioned in Martin, , Kimbangu, 61.Google Scholar

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16 If we assume that he was ten in 1890 he must have been one of the older members of the congregation.

17 La Voix du Congolais, no. 106 (01 1955), 190–1.Google Scholar

18 Lists of notables for the late 1940s and early 1950s include no one mentioned by my informants as an early adherent of Kimbanguism. Of the 18 distinguished Lokele évolués listed by Lokomba Baruti, all are Catholic-educated, mostly by the Marist Brothers, except one whose schooling is not indicated. Yakutu, Lokomba Baruti wa, ‘Kisangani, centre urbain, et les Lokele’, in Verhaegen, Benoît, ed., Kisangani 1876–1976: Histoire d'une Ville (Kinshasa, 1975), I, 78–83.Google Scholar

19 AIMO, District de Stanleyville, Rapport Annuel 1952.

20 Kimbangu is said to have seven outward appearances.

21 This incident is the source of a Kimbanguist song popular in Lower Zaire in the 1960s: Tata Simon kafwidi ko,/Dimosi diazima, dimosi diateemuna [Tata Simon is not dead,/One eye closed, one eye open], MacGaffey, W., ‘Cultural roots of Kongo prophetism’, History of Religion, XVII, 2 (1977), 188.Google Scholar

22 Together with Luvunina, Kuyowa is mentioned in a letter from BMS missionaries in Ngombe to Dupuis, the local administrator, in 1921; the letter describes them as ‘men of upright character’, who ‘have served our church, actuated with pure and unselfish Christian motives, for many years’. Libert, E., ‘Les missionnaires chrétiens face au mouvement kimbanguiste: documents contemporains (1921)’, Etudes d'Histoire africaine, II (1971), 147.Google Scholar

23 Mikaala Mandombe, one of the first four followers of Kimbangu, received the power of healing in 1921. Raymaekers, Paul, Histoire de Simon Kimbangu, prophète, d'après les écrivains Nfinangani et Nzungu, 1921 (Kinshasa 1971), 45–6Google Scholar; see also Martin, , Kimbangu, 58–60.Google Scholar

24 Andersson, , Messianic Movements, 229n.Google Scholar

25 Janzen, John M. and MacGaffey, Wyatt, An Anthology of Kongo Religion (Lawrence, Kansas, 1974), nos. 22, 48.Google Scholar

26 Janzen, and MacGaffey, , Anthology, nos. 15, 17, 18.Google Scholar

27 AIMO, Dist. Stan., 1953, 1954.Google Scholar

28 Desroche, H. and Raymaekers, P., ‘Départ d'un prophète, arrivée d'une église’, Archives de Sciences Sociales des Religions, XLII (1976), 117–62.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

29 Kimbanguisme 1, 2 (15 05 1960)Google Scholar for examples.

30 Baruti, Lokomba, ‘Kisangani’, 84–6.Google Scholar

31 Williame, Jean-Claude, Patrimonialism and Political Change in the Congo (Palo Alto, California, 1972).Google Scholar

32 Martin, , Kimbangu, 107.Google Scholar

33 In 1960, Lumumba offered to make Kimbanguism the state church, but EJCSK, regarding itself as dedicated to morality rather than politics, declined. Interview with Bena Silu, chef de cabinet to His Excellency Diangienda ku Ntima, 31 March 1980.

34 AIMO, Terr, de Stanleyville, Rapport Annuel, 1955.Google Scholar

35 Janzen, and MacGaffey, , Anthology, no. 27.Google Scholar

36 Soka Kapita was not mentioned in any other context.

37 Janzen, and MacGaffey, , Anthology, 2–4.Google Scholar

38 Desroche and Raymaekers, ‘Départ d'un prophète’.

39 Most of the dozen or so popular churches in Kisangani in 1980 (all formally illegal) were of Kasai origin; none was local, except Kitawala.