Continuity and Change in the Luba Christian Movement, Katanga, Belgian Congo c.1915-50 By DAVID MAXWELL Emmanuel College, Cambridge E-mail
[email protected] In the wake of the First World War a movement of popular Christianity took force amongst the Luba speaking peoples of southeast Katanga, Belgian Congo. The movement shared many characteristics with others that traversed Africa in the same era described by Adrian Hastings in his magisterial The Church Africa.1 Katangese popular Christianity bore particular resemblance to the better known Congolese movement which occurred amongst the Bakongo in the 1920s in which the prophet and former Baptist catechist, Simon Kimbangu, was the most prominent of a number of actors.2 At first glance Luba popular Christianity represented a seismic shift in CAM = Central African Missions (fomerly Congo Evangelisic Mission), Preston. CEMR = Congo Evangelistic Missionary Report CSSp = Archives de la Congrégation des Pères du Saint Esprit, Paris, France RW = Report of Work SADU = Springer Archives, Drew University, USA I am grateful Joel Cabrita, John Lonsdale and Emma Wild-Wood for comments on earlier drafts of this paper. This research was supported by the Nuffield Foundation and the Economic and Social Research Council: [RES-00023-1535]. 1 A. Hastings, The Church in Africa, 1450 – 1950, Oxford 1994, 454-6 2 There were earlier smaller waves of conversion amongst the Bakongo: W. MacGaffey, Modern Congo prophets, Bloomington, 1983; J-L Vellut, Simon Kimbangu. 1921: de la prédication à la déportation. Les Sources. Vol. 1. Fonds missionnaires protestants, Brussels 2005; J. Stengers and J. 1 religious belief and practice.