Navigating ethnicity, nationalism and Pan-Africanism – Kimbanguists, identity and colonial borders

Congolese nationalism, Kongo ethnic identity and Pan-Africanism as well as of their global missional views reveals layers and complex patterns of relationship between all these. What facilitates the simultaneous subscribing to all these layers is an openness of identities (Kimbanguist national, ethnic, etc.), as well as a tendency to see the world as consisting of interdependent areas and human communities with their holy city, Nkamba, in the centre.

http://www.hts.org.za Open Access lines of statements not primarily intended to express opinions about identities.

On national, linguistic and cultural borders
That African national borders were drawn by the colonialists with no respect for cultural and linguistic realities on the ground is repeated almost any time national borders are discussed in Africa. Whilst this is an historical and political fact, there also often seems to be the implied idea that the colonialists enjoyed national unity and properly placed borders in Europe. However, rather than naturally existing, nations have been produced even in Europe (e.g. Anderson 2006).
Inasmuch as European borders seem to tally with cultural and linguistic borders, it is often an outcome of genocide like the Holocaust, forced migration like in 1923 between Greece and Turkey or in Central Europe after the Second World War, coercion and faking national unity. At the time of the revolution in late 18th-century France, only half of the population could speak French and only one in 10 fluently (Hobsbawm 1992:60). Similar developments have taken place all over Europe. Finally, there is also a tendency to conceal national minorities and their languages, which creates a faked sense of national unity.
National borders marking state sovereignty are an expression of violence and also an act of violence as such. As markers of territorial sovereignty, they refer to the state monopoly of violence within the territory. The term 'territory' contains also a reference to violence: in Latin, it may have the same root as 'terror', stemming from the fact that the owner of a territory is the one with means to frighten intruders away (Elden 2009:xxviii-xxx). Borders are not only markers of violence but also acts of violence in the sense and to the extent that they forcefully separate people and areas from each other (Brambilla & Jones 2020:288-292). Territorial state borders spill through the concept of national state over to cultural and linguistic borders.
The African national borders as a form of violence are thus not an exception. What is somewhat exceptional with African borders is that their drawing was so abrupt, and the local populations, even the elites, often played absolutely no role in it.
National borders cannot follow cultural-linguistic borders because the latter are fuzzy. Quite often, before the codification of languages in written forms, often in relation to the translation of the Bible, there is a gradual shift through dialects and pidgins between languages. Even sharp linguistic borders are often violent, resulting from the repression of minority languages and deviating dialects.
However, all borders also contain the dimension of unification within the bordered area -violent or non-violent (Brambilla & Jones 2020:289, 292). States forge unity -political, administrative and, in the case of ethnonational states, also linguistic and cultural unity. In both cases, the insiders of the ethnicity and/or language form an imagined community binding the members together.
Thus, to conclude, national and linguistic-ethnic clear-cut borders are constructed in a negotiation of power. In colonial situations, no representatives of the people living in the area, not even the elite, are involved. Additionally, the nature of borders, be they national or linguistic, is violent. This is because borders are there for control and exclusion. This is a reality that many Africans are painfully aware of. In the following, I will analyse how the Kimbanguists decolonially reclaim their power of negotiating borders -national, ethnic and religious ones -and reconstruct them, thereby constructing the dimensions of their identity as Africans and Christians. In this manner, they participate in the shaping of political ideologies that facilitate the construction of imagined communities -in this case, ideally without violence.

Kimbanguism as an African reaction to the Gospel and colonialism
The Kimbanguist church is amongst the largest African Initiated Churches, with members probably numbering over 20 million. 2 It has a very strong following amongst the Bakongo and neighbouring ethnic groups, but its membership extends beyond that and is global, with a heavy concentration amongst the African diaspora. The church is centrally governed by the chef spirituel, Simon Kimbangu Kiangani, who is the founding prophet Simon Kimbangu's grandson.
There are numerous splinter groups that also consider Simon Kimbangu as their prophet or saviour. The Kimbanguist church has recently been expelled from the World Council of Churches (WCC) as heterodox because of its teaching that Simon Kimbangu was an incarnation of the Holy Spirit (Simon forthcoming). 3.This is his year of birth as estimated by historians; the Kimbanguists consider 12 September 1887 as his birthday (Mokoko 2017:62).
because the Belgian troops soon came after him, and after a short period of underground activity, he surrendered himself into the hands of the colonialists. He was condemned to death for high treason after a highly irregular military court case, one of the irregularities being a lack of a defence lawyer. By then, King Leopold's African businesses had become an embarrassment for the colonial movement, and the other colonisers shed light on atrocities in the Free State to distract attention from their own felonies. Thus, when Protestant missionaries raised the alarm on the Kimbangu-case -he was a convert of theirs, after all -international attention was secured. Simon Kimbangu's capital punishment was transformed into a life sentence, which he served largely in solitary confinement until his death in 1951. 5 Were the Belgians totally mistaken in considering Kimbangu as a political threat? Today's Kimbanguists usually emphasise the apolitical nature of his vision and ministry, which often goes hand in hand with arguing for the utter injustice and even meaninglessness of the conviction (Diangienda 1984:67;Fwd Stockholm 2014-11-09:14). At the same time, however, one of the most repeated of his prophesies is that 'the black will become white, and the white will become black' (Fwd Nkamba 2015-07-13:13). Even if these words are interpreted in different ways, the common denominator in interpretations is that Africans will no longer be under white people, be it in terms of politics, economy, technology or anything else (Diangienda 1984:82;Mangoyo n.d.:6;Martin 1971:116;Mokoko 2017:66; see also Ustorf 1975:186-187). That was a dangerous message from the point of view of the colonialist exploiters. It was in their interest to keep the population so subdued under tyranny that they would have no hope for the better. In that sense, the colonial authorities' fear of Simon Kimbangu was understandable, especially considering the colonial administration's constant paranoia (Hunt 2016).
Kimbangu never encouraged violent forms of resistance, but still, after his imprisonment, his followers were divided into different streams: the pacifist and (at least seemingly) apolitical Kimbanguists and more militant Ngunzists, who agitated for independence from the colonial yoke. 6 What made even the pacifist Kimbanguists only seemingly apolitical is the fact that in the Kongo worldview, politics and religion are inseparable (see Diangienda 1984:122, 127, 166-167). In the kingdom of Kongo, the king had sacral duties (Mokoko 2017:18-19). The first notable Christianinspired prophet, Kimpa Vita, saw the restoration of the Kongo kingdom as her major goal and attempted to do just that until she was burned at the stake in 1706 (Thornton 1998 Diangienda (1984) for an inside view and Ustorf (1975) for a historical-critical outsider's view.
Today, Simon Kimbangu is seen primarily as a religious figure by the Kimbanguists whilst the larger society sees him as a notable early figure in the struggle for freedom (see Mokoko 2017:76-78, 229). The Kimbanguists acknowledge his importance for the independence movement (Diangienda 1984:7) and the overlapping of the independence movement's and the Kimbanguists' goals, whilst emphasising the mutual independence. The first church leader, Simon Kimbangu's son Diangienda, expresses the basic argument well: 'Even if the goals are shared -in terms of freedom and independencebetween us and the politicians, our struggle is not theirs '. 7 It is noteworthy that the first satellite sent by the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) into outer space was called . This can be well argued from a historical and cultural perspective, but it makes him inevitably political in the colonial gaze. Kimbanguism is distinctively a Kongo-based movement. Its original and holy language is the language of Simon Kimbangu, Kikongo. Even though other languages are also used, Kikongo holds a special place and is sometimes depicted as the language of the future eschatological kingdom. 10 Most of the central religious terminology is in Kikongo, but the lyrics of the revealed songs (chants captés) allegedly coming directly from God are in various languages (Molyneux 1990:153, 156-157, 161-162). Furthermore, the religious praxis is thoroughly, and most probably consciously, multilingual. Therefore, the Kikongo linguistic preference is not exclusive in the sense of putting off people of other linguistic backgrounds. The practical purpose of communication takes precedence over the theological, cultural and historical preference for Kikongo. Therefore, despite the Kongo cultural predominance in his presentation of the Kimbanguist history and faith, the then-chef spirituel Diangienda (1984) points out that the Kimbanguists 'respect the culture and identity of every human group' (p. 286).

Kimbanguism as a Kongolese and Congolese African Christian movement
By placing Kimbangu in the continuum starting with Kimpa Vita, the spiritual genealogy is also clearly anchored in the Kongo heritage, and Kongo becomes a specific location of God's revelation (I Stockholm 2015-05-24:6-11). Simon Kimbangu's symbolic world -actions, sayings and the material objects related to his ministry -portray a confluence of Kongo and biblical imaginary. This is hardly surprising, considering that the Mukongo Simon Kimbangu had a Baptist biblicist background. A good example of this confluence is the staff (mvuala) that he cut of wood near Nkamba (Fwd Nkamba 2015-07-15:6). This staff has supernatural qualities, so that it confers upon its holder sacred power, and it can even move to places by itself ( Another, very visible, expression of the desire for Kongo reunification is the building of a major construction, the house of the three kings, for the presidents of the three countries in Nkamba. The idea is that the three presidents would come and visit Nkamba at the same time and stay in that building together. 13 There is a strong implication of the historical undivided Kongo kingdom, whose borders were constantly shifting but practically always at least reached the area of these three countries of today. The prayer and the song do not make any claims about specific areas belonging to the Kongo kingdom but only stress the unity of the three (see Mokoko 2017:187, 239-240, 245). On the other hand, the house of the three kings implies a different approach. The authority of the Kongo kings is now divided between the three presidents in spite of the fact that one could not imagine even in their wildest dreams that at any given time all of them would come from a Kongo cultural background. 14 Yet, they represent the authority and the hope for all major Kongo areas being once again united in one country. This is an implicit protest against the borders as violence -this time against the Kongo ethnic identity. These hopes are linked to eschatological views where the Kingdom of God and the reunited Kongo kingdom float together to become the end of times and the start of God's reign (see Mokoko 2017:245).
However, borders are not only divisive violence; for those inside them they are also a unifying factor (Brambilla & Jones 2020:289 14.On the balance concerning ethnicity, see Mokoko (2017:189-192 What becomes evident from the above is that the Kimbanguist vision is not to restore the Kongo kingdom and secede from the DRC, Angola and Congo Brazzaville but rather to unite the three. In this manner, the colonial borders are not only seen as a divisive negative factor but also a uniting reality between the different ethnicities (see Kina-Kuntala 2009:61). This unifying approach becomes visible also in the possibly consciously vague use of the terms 'Kongo' and 'Congo'. You cannot hear the difference, and because one does not define the meaning, the hearer is free to interpret it as either or both. For the Mukongo, the term boosts their ethnic identity yet still includes all Congolese ethnicities.
One often gets a strong feeling that the difference between 'Kongo' and 'Congo' is not even important because of the conspicuous lack of definition when people speak of 'Kongo' or 'Congo', with only the context of the word sometimes revealing that it is a question of one or the other. Furthermore, Kimbanguist literature does not always make the distinction in spelling like recent academic studies do. Clear references to 'Kongo' are often spelled with a C. 15 The centre of the world is Nkamba, at any rate. Adam and Eve were created there, at an exact spot that is shown to visitors. 16 Simon Kimbangu was born and carried out his ministry there. Today's Kimbanguists believe that he is an incarnation of the Holy Spirit (with one of his three sons as another, and the present church leader and grandson, Simon Kimbangu Kiangani, as Simon Kimbangu's reincarnation and thereby an 15. Bazizidi (2012:256) refers to the Kingdom of Kongo and the DRC as possible locations of Kimbanguist eschatological hope, expressing the ambiguity. For example, Mokoko (2017:187) quotes a divinely inspired song in translation, which clearly refers to the Kongo kingdom as 'the initial Congo', spelled with a C by Mokoko.

Being Pan-African and Christian
The fact that the colonial borders are not supposed to be replaced by ethnically based borders is in itself a nod towards Pan-Africanism. In fact, the colonialists accused Simon Kimbangu and Kimbanguists of Pan-Africanism. No matter the unifying ideas concerning Africans Simon Kimbangu may have had, he and his closest followers probably had no connection to Pan-Africanists. However, because Pan-Africanism was clearly a political movement directed against colonialism and racism, the colonialists in the Belgian Congo were alarmed about even slight hints towards such thinking and action (cf. Nzongola-Ntalaja 2002:49;Ustorf 1975:159-163).
What is clear, however, is that both Simon Kimbangu and his followers, including those today, pay special attention to the issue of race (see e.g. Molyneux 1990:167 (Thornton 1998). The Ngunzists shared the Kimbanguist roots and their attention to race but chose a more militant approach (Andersson 1958).
In the Kongo cosmology, where nothing happens by chance, the Africans' miserable fate begs a metaphysical explanation. One such is the myth of Ham's/Canaan's curse (Gn 9:20-25).
In this biblical narrative, Noah curses his son Ham's offspring because he shamed Noah. In the colonial interpretation, Ham was dark skinned. This interpretation has long historical roots, and this fact has led to a blame game on who is the culprit for introducing the racist interpretation of this text (Knust 2014:399-406). Therefore, black people would be servants and slaves of white people forever. The Kimbanguists, instead of rejecting this interpretation, embraced it and assumed a special African responsibility for sin (Fwd Stockholm 2017-07-09:4). This would, in turn, be the explanation of the fate of Africans and also for the coming of the incarnation of the Holy Spirit just in Africa. Simon Kimbangu came to redeem his people from this special curse. In this manner, the myth used to oppress the Africans is subversively turned upside down, and it becomes proof of Africans' central role in salvation history. Adam and Eve, created in Nkamba, were black (Bazizidi 2012:254-255;Mokoko 2017:182, 240). They sinned and thereby caused the depravity of the whole of humanity. To amend this situation, God sent his Son, Jesus of Nazareth. 18 Adam, Eve, Cain and Ham were black, sinned and especially the last drew a curse upon all his black descendants (Melice 2001:42). The chosen people are the bridge between God and the nations. When God wants to manifest himself to the world, he does it through his people. And when the people and the nations are in need of something, they go through the people of God … Israel's great difficulty was that they were not really able to do this … Today, then, God has given the gift and favour to his people … God has manifested Himself in the Old Both peoples have gone through a history of immense suffering and oppression, and both have received God's incarnations to save people from their sin. However, the Jews turned away from Jesus, which led God to choose the Bakongo as the people amongst whom the next incarnation(s) would take place. 20 This could be counted as replacement theology. However, even here, the ethnic element overlaps and becomes diluted into the ecclesiastic dimension, because the chosen people can likewise be counted as the Kimbanguists irrespective of their ethnic background (Bazizidi 2012:300-301, 445 This may be the reason why African-American visitors to Nkamba receive special attention, in addition to the fact that their involvement also appears as the fulfilment of Simon Kimbangu's prophesies. 21 The importance of links to African Americans emphasises the Pan-African nature of Kimbanguism (Mokoko 2017:247-254). This Pan-Africanism covers all people of African origin, wherever they are and however culturally distant from today's Africa they might be. The Pan-African ethos of Kimbanguism appears primarily as the Pan-Africanism of black Africans and their descendants.
picture with them and me. One popular narrative that I heard several times was about a Korean lady called Kim who saw Simon Kimbangu in a vision. At first, she thought that the dark figure was a demon. However, she became convinced later that he was Kimbangu, previously unknown to her, who proposed that she should visit Nkamba, which she did (Fgi Nkamba 2015-07-12:12-13;Fwd Stockholm 2014-11-9:10 Balz (2004). Compare to the earlier situation described by Molyneux (1990:170-174). Molyneux's (1990:178) question of whether the Kimbanguist theological flexibility will remain in the process of increasing literalisation must be answered in the negative.
towards the Kimbanguists for many decades. Another reason for the importance of WCC membership was that, in that manner, the Kimbanguists have been able to see themselves as an important international player in ecumenical relations. It is a matter of respect and selfesteem. This dimension has been visible, for example, when Kimbanguists have pointed out that they only cooperate with churches belonging to the WCC. Here, the point has been to mark the difference to the other African Initiated Churches. Many of them are now charismatic and pejoratively called 'churches of binzambinzambi [small gods or spirits]' (Fwd Kinshasa 2015-07-18:6-7). Therefore, the WCC decision to cancel the Kimbanguist membership in the organisation in 2020 on doctrinal grounds was a major blow to the self-image of this church (see Simon forthcoming).

The subversive, empowering and multifaceted nature of the Kimbanguist identity
Identity is always in the making. It never only exists but is negotiated, narrated and enacted all the time. Amongst the Kimbanguists, there are some approaches and techniques of negotiation, narration and enaction that at first seem contradictory but at a closer look reveal a pattern. The Kimbanguists are overtly anticolonial. For example, they keep the memory of Belgian colonial atrocities alive in their ritual life, oral narrations, publications and the large Simon Kimbangu museum in Nkamba. At the same time, however, they still adopt the colonially drawn borders, the existence of races and Christianity, including even some of its most toxic myths, which were used to uphold the colonial system, like the curse of Ham.
This duality of condemning colonialism and adopting its consequences forms a creative third space (Bhabha 2004).
Kimbanguists do not engage in a direct fight against the windmills of dominion but rather use its myths, ideologies and organisational structures against the powers that be. The Kimbanguist use of colonial heritage is subversive appropriation: colonial borders become uniting borderscapes instead of separating the people; racial theories and the curse of Ham prove the special position and responsibility of the black race in human history; the white man's religion turns into an inclusive faith when the colonial white Jesus is complemented with a Mukongo incarnation of the Holy Spirit and so on. The tables are turned, and the power of the colony is subverted to construct the Kimbanguist narrative of human history and destiny.
Fitting to their anticolonial stance, the Kimbanguists present themselves, quite logically, as victims of various kinds of colonial atrocities. Yet this victimhood does not rob them of their agency; quite the contrary. Just like their paradigmatic personality, Simon Kimbangu, can be described to have undergone active suffering for the sake of the others, thereby imitating Jesus of Nazareth (Ustorf 1975), so do the Kimbanguists place themselves in the position of active victims. In this way, the Kimbanguists assume the role of constructors of their identity. They are active sufferers in the third space.
The resulting identity is radically inclusive in the sense that it appropriates the colonial heritage but combines it with a Kongo religious-political agenda, thereby giving it a liberative twist. In this identity, the Kongo ethnic, Congolese national, Pan-African and universal Christian dimensions of identity are like concentric circles or ripples in the water. 23 The borders between these dimensions are porous and belonging to the dimensions is not fixed but negotiable.
For the Kimbanguists, decolonial identity does not just happen but is created through rituals, narratives and interaction with the surrounding societies. Whilst the Kimbanguists are very aware of the survival of the colonial structures and ideologies of old, including the colonisation of the mind, it is hard to say to what extent their creation of the third space and the resulting decolonial identity is conscious.