Kimbanguism

Officially known as the Church of Jesus Christ on Earth by His Special Envoy Simon Kimbangu, Kimbanguism is one of the largest independent Christian church communities in Africa. Simon Kimbangu, a religious leader native to Africa's Congo region, inspired its creation. The Kimbanguist church was founded in 1921 after Kimbangu led a six-month preaching mission that drew large crowds and eventually grew into a mass movement with both religious and political overtones. Kimbanguism is a branch of the African Indigenous Churches (also known as African Initiated Churches or African Independent Churches), a group of Christian churches that was established by Indigenous Africans rather than missionaries from other parts of the world. Kimbanguism is thought to be the first modern African independent church to establish its own official school of theology.

The origins of the Kimbanguist movement can be traced to 1915 when Kimbangu was converted to Christianity by the Baptist Missionary Society. After his conversion, Kimbangu spent several years as a religious teacher, introducing new initiates to the tenets of Christianity and preparing them to receive the sacrament of baptism. During this time, Kimbangu claimed to have a vision in which God bestowed him with divine healing powers and commanded him to conduct a preaching mission. Embarking on this mission in 1921, Kimbangu allegedly cured several sick people of their afflictions. Word of his apparent healing powers spread rapidly, and over the course of his six-month ministry, Kimbangu attracted large groups of followers. This raised the suspicion of Belgian colonial authorities, who feared the movement would erupt into a widespread uprising. Kimbangu was jailed in September 1921 and spent the rest of his life in prison; however, he remained an inspirational figure to his followers, who continued to build the church in his absence.

History

During the time of Kimbangu's ministry, Belgium held colonial control of the African Congo. Religious representatives known as missionaries were deployed to convert the Indigenous population to Christianity as part of an ongoing effort to integrate the local people into the European way of life. The Indigenous people were widely suspicious of these missionaries. Even some African Christian converts believed the missionaries were intentionally hoarding important religious secrets to subjugate the Indigenous population under their authority.

Kimbangu's ministry posed a direct threat to the colonial power hierarchy, and his status as a native of Africa gave the local population an alternative to the church leadership of European missionaries. In addition, Kimbangu's followers viewed him as a direct link to God and the religious secrets they believed the missionaries were withholding from them. Anti-European sentiment became a salient feature of the Kimbanguist movement, although Kimbangu had not challenged the authority of the established church or the colonial government; he was simply doing what God had commanded him to do.

Kimbangu's alleged powers included the ability to heal the sick and raise the dead, and the increasingly large crowds he drew began to worry Belgian authorities. While many of the Protestant missionaries working in the Belgian Congo did not view Kimbangu as a threat, the region's Catholic leaders considered him a subversive figure and pressed for him to be arrested. Members of the colonial government eventually capitulated to the demands of the Catholic missionaries and made their first attempt to capture Kimbangu in June 1921. However, their efforts failed, and Kimbangu continued his ministry in secret for several months before turning himself in. He was initially sentenced to death but was commuted to life in prison.

Kimbangu spent the rest of his life in jail but remained an inspirational figure. Kimbanguism was outlawed, but followers secretly practiced the fledgling faith. It continued to grow in affiliated sects under the leadership of Kimbangu's wife, Muile Marie, and son, Joseph Diangienda. By the middle of the twentieth century, a growing movement for political independence swept across the Belgian Congo, and the various Kimbanguist sects merged into a unified church. Kimbangu emerged as a major symbol of Congolese nationalist sentiment, and the religion was legalized by Congolese President Mobutu Sese Seko after the country achieved independence from Belgium.

Beliefs

According to Kimbanguist beliefs, Kimbangu was specially chosen by the Holy Spirit as the leader of an African Pentecost. In Christian theology, the Pentecost marks the occasion when the Holy Spirit descended on the apostles after the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Kimbangu was seen to hold a status that put him on equal footing with the original followers of Jesus Christ.

Kimbangu's ministry began in the Congolese village of Nkamba, where he was said to have performed several miraculous feats of healing, including curing a woman of paralysis, restoring sight to a blind man, and regenerating the body of a young girl with a physical disability. As word of his apparent powers spread, Kimbangu began attracting a growing number of followers and was later said to have resurrected a child who had been dead for three days. His influence in the Belgian Congo grew to unprecedented levels.

The major tenets of Kimbangu's teachings denounced fetishism and sexual deviance while promoting the Christian principles of monogamy, moral obedience, and love for one's enemies. Followers also rejected the traditional African practices of magic and witchcraft, abstained from alcohol, tobacco, and dance, and adhered to a strict puritanical code of ethical conduct. Kimbangu was defined by his humility and did not view himself as the founder of a new church; that dignity was bestowed on him by his followers during his imprisonment and after his death in 1951.

Organization

After gaining legal recognition in 1959, the Kimbanguist church adopted a centralized, hierarchical structure led by Diangienda and Kimbangu's other two sons. The village of Nkamba, where Kimbangu's ministry had begun, was subsequently renamed New Jerusalem. Kimbangu was buried in the village, which remained a site of major importance to the religion's adherents, who comprise 10 percent of the population of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. In the twenty-first century, the Church of Jesus Christ on Earth by His Special Envoy Simon Kimbangu retained its centralized hierarchy but had withdrawn from being an officially recognized member of the World Council of Churches in 2021 over a disagreement in theology.

Bibliography

"African Indigenous Churches—Chapter Fifteen: The Kimbanguist Church." Institute for Religious Research, 11 May 2011, irr.org/african-indigenous-churches-chapter-fifteen. Accessed 3 Jan. 2025.

Anderson, Allan H. African Reformation: African Initiated Christianity in the 20th Century. African World Press, 2001.

“Congo, Democratic Republic of the - The World Factbook.” CIA, 20 Dec. 2024, www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/countries/congo-democratic-republic-of-the. Accessed 3 Jan. 2025.

Diangienda, Joseph, and Peter Manicom. Out of Africa: Kimbanguism. Christian Education Movement, 1979.

Nzongola-Ntalaja, Georges. The Congo: From Leopold to Kabila: A People's History. Zed Books, 2002.

Simon, B. “The Relations Between the Kimbanguist and the World Council of Churches: Past and Present.” Kimbanguism 100 Years On, edited by A. N. Ngudiankama, Palgrave Macmillan, 2023. African Histories and Modernities, doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-37031-1‗5. Accessed 3 Jan. 2025.