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A historical examination of primal religion's role in the indigenous appropriation of European Catholicism in the Antonian movement in the kingdom of Kongo.
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Primal Religious Influences in the Antonian Movement (1704-1706):
Lessons for the Western Church
Final Research Project
MH505 – Issues in the History of Christian Mission
Fuller Theological Seminary
Dr. Jehu Hanciles
June 13, 2008
Matthew Lumpkin
Fuller Box# 449
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1. Introduction
In August of 1704, at no more than twenty years old, Dona Beatriz Kimpa Vita was
transformed from the restless daughter of a noble family in the fractured Kingdom of Kongo into
a visionary leader seeking to unite her people and heal her nation. She would attempt this not by
military strength or political influence but by spiritual power. This paper will argue that the
Antonian movement led by Dona Beatriz was the shaped by the indigenous appropriation of
Christianity by the Kongolese people from within their primal religious worldview. Further, the
Christianity the Kongolese embraced was also strongly influenced by primal religion but from
the European context. As such this narrative is instructive for contemporary missionary
endeavors especially when engaging peoples strongly influenced by a primal worldview.
2. Primal Religion
2.1 Defining Primal Religion
Before moving into analysis of the historical narrative, it is helpful to clarify what the
term “primal religion” means. The term is used here to refer to the basic world-view and
practices that are or have been present in all human societies. Primal religion can be seen most
clearly prior to these societies’ encounter with any of the world’s “great” religions that build
upon these primal foundations. Andrew Walls advocates the term “primal” over “traditional,”
“tribal,” “animistic,” or “primitive” religion both to avoid the negative baggage of those terms
and to emphasize this perspective’s “historical priority” and its “basic, elemental nature.” 1 It
would be misleading to speak of primal religion as one unified movement since the religious
expression it describes is commonly found in a wide variety of contexts. Yet there is striking
1Andrew Walls, “Africa and Christian Identity” in Mission Focus: Current Issues, ed. Wilbert R. Shenk
(Scottdate, PA: Herald Press, 1980), 212-13.
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uniformity both in practice and theological orientation among an extremely broad swath of
people, independent of one another.2
Harold Turner offers six key elements that describe this uniformity in the primal religious
worldview: 1.) a sense of kinship with all of nature, 2.) a sense of man’s finitude, weakness,
sinfulness and need of a power beyond his own, 3.) a deep belief in a “spiritual world of powers
or beings more powerful and ultimate than [one]self,” of both good and evil intent, 4.) a belief
that man can engage in relationship with benevolent spiritual powers for aid and protection, 5.) a
deep sense of the reality of the afterlife and the ongoing relationship between the “living dead”
and the “living living,” and finally, 6.) a deep conviction about the sacramental nature of the
universe where there are no sharp disjunctions between the physical and the spiritual.3
2.2 Primal Religion in Europe
It is tempting, particularly in the West, to identify primal religion with something dying
or already gone: the superstition of a bygone age, or a necessary evolutionary step to be passed
through and left behind. However, Walls and Taylor both suggest that primal religion remain,
underlying all other religions that build upon them.4 In fact, primal religion is not dying after
exposure to economic development, science or even the world’s great religions. Instead people
are finding new modes of expression and new religious means of meeting the same primal needs
2 For a sampling of this continuity among communities in far flung corners of the world, compare
examinations of primal religious expression in North American Indian, African, and Pacific contexts in John R. Hinnells, ed. A Handbook of Living Religions (NY: Penguin Books, 1984), 392-438, with analysis from the World Council of Churches consultation on primal religion in 1973 in John B. Taylor, ed. Primal world-views: Christian Invovlement in Dialogue with Traditional Thought Forms (Ibadan, Nigeria: Daystar Press, 1976), 72-122.
3 Harold W. Turner, “The Primal Religions of the World and their Study,” in Victor Hayes, ed. Australian Esays in World Religions, (Bedford Park: Australian Association for World Religions), 27-37 cited in Kwame Bediako, Jesus and the Gospel in Africa: History and Experience (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 2004), 87-88.
4 Andrew Walls, “Africa and Christian Identity,” 252; John B. Taylor, ed. Primal World-Views, v.
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and concerns.5
Heirs to European heritage also commonly associate primal religion only with the
indigenous people of the areas their ancestors colonized: tribal Africans, Asians, and Native
Americans, for example. Yet it is crucial to our understanding of the Antonian movement that
we recognize the influence of European (particularly Germanic, Celtic, Anglo-Saxon, Frankish
and Norse) primal religion on Catholic Christianity.6 Walls argues as these peoples became
Christian they did so from within their primal religious universe. “Saints and martyrs quietly
replaced the local spirits. The symbols changed, the directions and motives of religious practice
remained. Power and protection were still sought but sought now from God.”7 Also retained
was the sense of good and evil spiritual forces at work just beneath the surface of everyday life
and the popular hope to gain safety and benefit from them. The Church became the repository of
this spiritual power and priests the administrators and gatekeepers thereof.8 Yet primal religious
values were not merely to be found among the uneducated masses. Even the clergy seemed to be
caught up in the primal milieu, prescribing a sprinkling of holy water to “ward off enemies,” or
utilizing religious objects (the crucifix, the host, relics etc.) to gain healing, protection or spiritual
power.9
But the priests were not without competition in their assertions of spiritual power. In rural
village areas there were many practitioners of “magic,” which came to be described as
5 Harold Turner, “New Religious Movements in Primal Societies,” in John R. Hinnells, ed. A Handbook of Living Religions, 439-449.
6 While these influences occurred a great deal earlier than the historical scope of this paper (from the fifth century AD onward), they highlight universality of primal religious influences upon Christianity in general and in particular the manner in which the gospel is appropriated from within the existing worldview by primal societies. Further, these primal influences in European Christianity have direct bearing on the Antonian movement. For a detailed analysis of German primal influences and appropriations of Christianity see James C. Russell, The Germanization of Early Medieval Christianity: A Sociohistorical Approach to Religious Transformation (NY / Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1994), 209-214.
7 Andrew Walls, “Christianity,” in John R. Hinnells, ed. A Handbook of Living Religions, 62. 8 Ibid, 64-65. 9 James C. Russel, The Germanization of Medieval Christianity, 221.
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“witchcraft,” by the church. These practices might also be described as primal religious
expression intended to provide protection, relief from disease or infertility.10 In response, the
church began to insist that all claims to or exercise of spiritual power (even for benevolent
reasons such as healing) that did not come through officially recognized Church authority
(priests, appeal to the saints, relics etc.) necessarily suggested involvement with the Devil or his
demons. This teaching led to an upswing in persecution, trials and burning of individuals
accused of witchcraft in the mid sixteenth century (1550-1570).11 These trends in the European
appropriation of Christianity from a primal world-view would have an impact upon Christinity's
appropriation in Africa and especially upon a young noble-woman named Dona Beatriz Kimpa
Vita.
3. The Dona Beatriz Kimpa Vita Narrative
3.1 The Kongo Context
Since the baptism of King Joao I in 1491, the Kongo had been a Christian kingdom.12 His
son and successor, Afonso I, ruling from 1509-43 worked tirelessly to nurture the new faith
among his court and the wider populace. In the centuries to follow, as Portugal’s trading
relationship with Kongo grew, so Christianity grew in influence and the church in power, all the
time overseen by European missionaries. Yet tensions, especially over the slave trade and
Kongolese sovereignty eventually exploded in devastating war with Portugal (1670’s and
10 Often these pracices were hold-overs from pre-Christian fertility cults associated with agriculture and
child-birth. Robert Muchembled, “Witchcraft, Popular Culture and Christianity,” in Forster, Robert and Orest Ranum, eds. Ritual, Religion, and the Sacred: Selections from the Annales: Economies, Societies, Civilsations. Vol. 7. (Baltimore, MD / London, U.K.: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1982), 223-224.
11 Ibid, 226. 12 John Kelly Thornton, The Kongolese Saint Anthony: Dona Beatriz Kimpa Vita and the Antonian
Movement (Cambridge, U.K. ; New York : Cambridge University Press, 1998), 45.
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1680’s).13
In the aftermath, the kingdom was divided by skirmishes between rival factions, each
challenging then King Pedro IV’s claim to power.14 The capital, Sao Salvador, was in disarray
and Pedro retreated to the mountains. The Kongolese people lived with the constant threat of
war and the collective frustration of the fall of their great kingdom.
While Christianity had been established for over two-hundred years in Kongo it was
initially more influential among the royal family and court officials. Yet, from the 1645 arrival
of the Italian branch of Franciscans (called “Capuchins” for their hooded habit), Christianity had
become more deeply embedded in the religious, political and commercial life of the people.15
Still, primal religion supplied the spiritual world-view as well as many of the points of contact
through which Christianity was being appropriated. For example, the Catholic ritual of baptism
at the time called for a pinch of salt to be placed on the tongue of the initiate. Because of a pre-
existing primal belief that evil spirits (and evil people) dislike salt, the protection that came from
it was understood as the true blessing or power of baptism which came to be known as “eating
salt.”16
As is often the case in primal societies, primal religious expression continued to thrive
along-side the Church (just as it had in Europe) which was seen as a new agency laying claim to
ancient and pre-existent spiritual power. The Kongolese had an established rubric for assessing
claims to spiritual power and their motivations. Primal religious specialists in Kongo can be
described in two basic categories: nganga and ndoki. Both utilized personal spiritual power to
13 Carl Sundberg, “Christianity in Dialogue with African History and Culture” in Swedish Missiological
Times 92, 3 (2004), 337. 14 Kevin Ward, “Africa,” in A World History of Christianity, ed. Adrian Hastings (Grand Rapids, MI /
Cambridge, U.K.: Eardman’s Publishing Company, 1999), 201-202. 15 Ibid. 16 John K. Thornton, The Kongolese Saint Anthony, 18.
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seek the “Other World” of gods, spirits and ancestors to gain power, both used the same sorts of
religious objects (fetishes, talismans etc.), and both received pay for their work. The key
difference between the two is one of intent. The nganga used supernatural powers for healing
and restoration while the ndoki used these same powers for evil ends usually motivated by
selfishness or greed.17 This community value of seeing spiritual power as basically neutral and
discerning between “healers” and “witches” based upon how those with spiritual gifts use their
power and what this reveals of their intent seems to animate much of Dona Beatriz’ later
thinking.
3.2 Dona Beatriz’ Religious Life
Dona Beatriz was baptized into the church (and “ate salt”) as an infant like most children
of the nobles. Between age eight and her teen years, Dona Beatriz began to have visions. Visitors
from the “Other World,” who Thornton identifies as nkitas, or spirits, took the form of two white
children who came to visit Beatriz, play with her and give her gifts. The children she saw were
“white” in the sense that white was the color identified with the spirit world, just as black was
identified with this world. These visions became a sign that she was spiritually gifted and she
began to be known for this and for her virtuous reputation.18 While still an adolescent, she was
initiated as a nganga of a particular type called a nganga marinda, whose focus was on solving
social problems in addition to individual ones. This office came with great respect because of its
orientation towards social benevolence as opposed to the individualism and greed understood to
17 Ibid, 71. For further discussion of the breadth of roles the nganga might fill including “a creator of
meaning and a potential prophet,” see Matthew Schoffeleers, “Christ in African Folk Theology: the Nganga Paradigm,” in Religion in Africa: Experience and Expression, ed. Thomas Blakely, 73-88 (London, U.K.; Portsmouth, NH: James Curry, Heinemann, 1994), 79.
18 I have chosen here to rely more heavily upon Thornton than on other sources as he relies most heavily upon the primary sources, especially Father Bernardo Da Gallo’s correspondence with the Vatican and notes from his extensive hearing of Dona Beatriz’ confession in July of 1706.. Ibid, 26-27.
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motivate ndokis.19
After becoming a nganga marinda, Dona Beatriz was further initiated into a rather
unique expression of primal religion known as a kimpasi or “suffering” society. While diagnosis
and treatment of problems originating in the spirit world were central to the nganga’s role, the
kimpasi society was created explicitly for the purpose of diagnosing and healing social and
corporate ills, when the community was experiencing great distress or suffering.20 Given the
fractured and volatile political situation during Dona Beatriz’ childhood and her recognized
spiritual gifts, she was a natural candidate for this elite group.
The initiation involved a number of other adolescents under the supervision of an elder
nganga who organized the society’s formation on behalf of the people. The initiates would
construct an outdoor enclosure in the forest or other deserted place that would serve as the focus
of spiritual power. It would be filled with a number of spiritually powerful objects, or nkisis.
These often included censers, candles and other paraphernalia from church worship practices. In
the center of the enclosure, a cross was placed atop an altar. The cross had already been a potent
symbol of the intersection between the two worlds in Kongolese primal religion and had only
become more prominent since the arrival of Christianity.
For our discussion, the most crucial element of the kimpasi initiation is the ritualized
death and resurrection of the initiates. After falling into a deep trance, understood to be death,
initiates were treated carefully by the elder nganga and revived. Yet they were no longer
believed to be the same persons who had died. While “dead” their bodies had been possessed by
nkitas or spirits who would then work through them to heal whatever societal problems that had
precipitated the formation of the society. These nkitas also gave the initiates power to detect,
19 Ibid, 54. 20 Ibid, 55-56; See also Carl Sundberg, “Christianity in Dialogue,” 338.
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calm and repel evil supernatural forces. While possession by nkitas was common for ngangas, it
was always temporary. The possession of the kimpasi initiates, however, was considered
permanent. Initiates were even exempted from incest taboos because they were understood to no
longer be the same person. Though in practice those posessed retained much of their original
personality.21 The experience of this particular sort of possession by a benevolent spirit for the
purpose of diagnosing and treating social problems is clearly the pattern through which Dona
Beatriz understood her later experience with the spirit of Saint Anthony of Padua, patron saint of
Portugal and perhaps the most venerated saint in Kongo.
3.3 The Kongolese Religious Ethic
Dona Beatriz temporarily forsook her vocation as a nganga for a time during which the
Capuchins were actively characterizing all spiritual power except that of the church as explicitly
demonic and evil and hence equal to the practices of the ndokis, or witches.22 In this they seem to
be consistent with the positions taken by the European clergy in Europe with regards to primal
religion and “witchcraft” there. Thornton asserts that this argument, rooted in European
theology, was never broadly accepted by the Kongolese who continued to judge individuals
claiming nganga status by how they used their power-- either benevolently or for personal
advantage. “It was the purposes and intentions of those using the power that counted, not the
simple possession of the power or the nature of the beings in the Other World who were
consulted and carried out the work…”23 The Capuchin priests’ claim to be ngangas while
21 Ibid. 22 Sundberg argues that the Cappuchins did not distinguish between the more benevolent healing role of the
nganga and the more malevolent role of the ndoki who use their spiritual power to do harm, condemning them both. Yet, Ward asserts that early in their campaigns (c1645) to destroy nkisi, or primal religious objects, the Cappuchin friars referred to themselves as nganga, fitting into the primal religious worldview still prevalent among most Kongolese. This points to the ignorance of the nuances of Kongolese primal religion on the part of the Capuchins. Carl Sundberg, “Christianity in Dialouge,” 338; Kevin Ward, “Africa,” 202.
23 John K. Thornton, The Kongolese St. Anthony, 71.
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simultaneously denouncing all other religious specialists also raised Kongolese suspicions. They
might very well be powerful ngangas engaged in battle against evil ndokis, but their tenacious
demands for exclusive respect and their frequent involvement in political intrigues seemed to
suggest they were using their spiritual power for their own goals rather than the good of the
community.24
The Kongolese people’s frustration grew with the continuing skirmishes between rival
claimants to power while several Capuchins tried and failed to mediate a peace process. Many
felt that if exiled King Pedro IV would return from Mt. Kibangu to occupy the capital, Sao
Salvador, some fifty kilometers east, that the Kingdom would unite around him. Yet this would
involve considerable risk to Pedro and he sought to gain explicit Church support from the
Capuchins before such bold a move.25 At this time, all over the Kingdom people began to see
visions (some of Mary, others of “white children”) calling for repentance from the violence and
fragmentation of the kingdom, and for a return to the abandoned capital by the people and by
King Pedro. 26 One such woman, named Mafuta, preached against the use of nkisis or objects of
spiritual power commonly used by ngangas and ndokis. She also included in this category
Bibles, crosses, and other objects associated with the church because these were also commonly
utilized as nkisis. She taught that all of these had been polluted by evil, selfish intention and
should be burned as part of a greater purging of evil from the land.27
3.4 Saint Anthony as Nkita
In August of 1704 Dona Beatriz fell ill. Sick with fever for days, she believed she was
24 Ibid, 74-75. 25 For a detailed description of the complex political dance Pedro IV was negotiating see John K. Thornton,
The Kongolese Saint Anthony, 59-69; See also Carl Sundberg, “Christianity in Dialouge,” 338-339. 26 Carl Sundberg, “Christianity in Dialouge,” 339. 27 John K. Thornton, The Kongolese St. Anthony, 108.
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dying. Suddenly, she saw a vision of a man in the blue hood of the Capuchin monks who
identified himself as:
“Saint Anthony, firstborn son of the Faith and of Saint Francis. I have been sent from God to your head to preach to the people. You are to move to the restoration of the Kingdom of Kongo forward and you must tell all who threaten you that dire punishments from God await them.”28
He went on to describe his journey to her, inhabiting the “heads” of several Kongolese
but repeatedly being confronted by “a Reverend Father” and having to flee. He then “merged”
with her and Dona Beatriz awoke ready to fulfill the mission. One of her first actions was to
climb Mt. Kimbangu to speak to the king and rebuke him for his reluctance to re-occupy Sao
Salvador. When she gained audience with him her manner was other-wordly as she walked in on
her toes and slowly circled the king with a wide grin.29 She wasted no time denouncing his lack
of resolve to unite the kingdom and asserted that Father Bernardo Da Gallo, one of the
Capuchins whose support Pedro IV had been courting, was “jealous and envious,” (tantamount
to calling him an ndoki). She went on to say that his intent to censure Mafuta betrayed his desire
to ensure that there would be no black saints in the Kongo. To this remarkably audacious
confrontation, King Pedro said nothing.30
After staying several days at the King's palace, Dona Beatriz set out on foot traveling
through the country-side preaching. She echoed Mafuta’s teaching on nkisis and added to it
radical devotion to St. Anthony and a re-imagining of Christian history. She taught that Mary
and Jesus were Kongolese, substituting Sao Salvador for Bethlehem and the northern city of
Nsundi for Nazareth. Thornton argues that this likely sprang from her mounting suspicion that
the Capuchins’ had misrepresented of church history by populating it solely with Europeans as a
28 Ibid, 111. 29 Adrian Hastings, The Church in Africa 1450-1950 (Oxford: U.K.: Clarendon Press, 1994), 105. 30 John K. Thornton, The Kongolese Saint Anthongy, 111.
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means of bolstering their demands for respect.31 Amidst implicit and explicit assertions of
European racial superiority from European church, Dona Beatriz asserted the legitimacy of
Kongolese ethnic and national identity as a Christian people. This dynamic can be observed in
other mass movements, particularly in response to European colonial evangelization.32 In the
indigenous appropriation of the gospel there is a universal and pressing need to express the
validity and equality of one’s own people before God.
Dona Beatriz’ message resonated strongly with the Kongolese. Thousands came to hear
her preach and followed her as she traveled. As her popular support grew, so did the quandary
Pedro IV and Da Gallo faced on how to handle this mutual challenge to their respective domains
of authority.33 With characteristic political sensitivity, Pedro asked Da Gallo to examine Beatriz
to discern the identity of her possessor and thereby ascertain the validity of her message. Here
we have the two conflicting religious world-views side by side. To Da Gallo, a European
(though one who spoke Kongolese and had spent considerable time there) the question is
preposterous. He simply had no category for spiritual possession other than demonic. Yet for
Pedro, it was an open question as to whether or not this nganga marinda might very well be
possessed by the spirit of the most venerated saint in his Kingdom. He was appealing to Da
Gallo, as a religious specialist, having laid claim to spiritual power to discern ndoki, to answer
this question. While on the political level, the only way Pedro could hope oppose such a
powerful mass movement of his people was with backing from the church’s considerable
authority. Pedro could not act without Da Gallo’s opinion.
3.5 Confrontation with Father Da Gallo
31 Ibid, 112-113. 32 Cf. the Virgin of Guadalupe movement two hundred years earlier in Mexico. 33 Ibid, 118.
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It is possible that Dona Beatriz approached her meeting with Da Gallo in hopes that he
might come to accept the divine origin of her mission and offer his support. After all, he had
been lobbying Pedro to re-occupy Sao Salvador as a mans of unifying the kingdom as well. It
quickly became clear that Da Gallo had no such intention. She met him in the palace chapel
under the protection and supervision of the King’s aids. Beatriz’ manner was similar to when she
first spoke to Pedro: swaying, tip-toe gait, “bulging eyes,” and ocassionaly strange, esoteric
speech.34
Their conversation consisted primarily of questions posed by Da Gallo, who periodically
exploded into tirades in response to Beatriz’ answers. Beatriz, on the other hand took the
opportunity to attempt to clarify that her critique was not of the Capuchins or the Church and its
symbols, but of those individuals who were suspect of being motivated by self-interest over the
common good. The subtle differences between the spiritual world-views of Da Gallo and Dona
Beatriz came into sharp focus-- primal-influenced European Christianity versus primal-
influenced African Christianity. Da Gallo asked how Dona Beatriz could be Saint Anthony and
also be a woman. She took this as an opportunity to explain that Saint Anthony had “come into
[her] head” possessing and replacing her. She then offered the overwhelming joy of the masses
at her preaching as proof of the legitimacy of her benevolence and possession by the benevolent
spirit, Anthony. Yet, because Da Gallo apparently still had not grasped this fundamental ethic of
discerning intent by positive community benefit, her argument was lost upon him and he ended
the meeting, fully convinced that she was possessed by the Devil. 35
Dona Beatriz went on preaching and leading the Kongolese in a popular movement back
to Sao Salvador (which she now identified with New Jerusalem) but Da Gallo and Pedro were
34 Thornton suggests her unusual manner of speaking was learned from the Kimpasi society who were known to use archaic and arcane forms of Kongolese language. Ibid, 121.
35 Ibid, 123.
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now committed to opposing her, though they had to tread carefully given her popular support.
One key element of her teaching that began to emerge was an emphasis on the intent behind
religious sacraments like marriage, confession, and especially baptism. It was not the ritual itself
that contained the power or the blessing but the right inner motive of the participant to receive it
with good intent rather than simply to gain more blessing for oneself. Therefore a reliance upon
the church and its priests was no longer necessary.36 This teaching, seemingly derived from the
aforementioned ethic further aggravated the relationship between the Antonians, as they came to
be called, and the official church.
Over the two years in which her movement grew, Dona Beatriz began sending out male
preachers from her inner circle to spread her message. One man whom she called “St. John,”
became particularly close to her and she became pregnant by him. This was kept secret until she
went away to birth the child. Within hours of birth, she and the baby’s father were found and
arrested. They were tried and condemned to burning by Pedro IV under Kongolese, not Church
authority. During the trial Dona Beatriz made an emotional appeal to be re-baptized, feeling
great sorrow for her “sins” of betraying her followers by her pregnancy and deception about it.37
However, she insisted that her possession was legitimate and her teachings were from God. She
and “St. John” were burned as heretics in July of 1706.38 The Capuchins argued successfully
that the child should be spared.39
3.5 Primal Religious Influences
In this narrative the influence of African primal religion is pervasive.40 First, it provided
36 Ibid, 149-151. 37 Ibid, 181. 38 Kevin Ward, “Africa,” 203. 39 John K. Thornton, The Kongolese Saint Anthony, 182-183. 40 I use the phrase “African primal religion” here, and “European primal religion later” to refer to the
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the spiritual contour of the world-view held by the Kongolese. It supplied the category and role
of nganga that was adopted by the Capuchin priests as well as the concept of spiritual power,
that they laid exclusive claim to. It provided the concept of ancestral spiritual beings, nkitas,
who were readily identified with the saints of Catholicism for their familiar role of divine
mediation and provision of help. This not only made Dona Beatriz’ possession by St. Anthony a
plausible claim to the Kongolese but also lay behind the intense felt need for Kongolese saints as
a surrogate for ancestral advocates, as expressed in her revision of Christian history.
African primal religion also supplied the conceptual basis (in the kimpasi society) for the
sort of long-term possession by an nkita as a means of getting divine help discerning and healing
spiritually rooted problems. It was at the core of the central Kongolese religious and social ethic
of judging any assertions of spiritual power or demands for status by the intent of the actor for
the benefit of himself or the common good. This was closely related to the belief in the spiritual
power of certain religious objects or nkisi. It is important to note that Dona Beatriz did not
condemn the use of these objects because of any inherent evil to their power (as the Capuchins
taught). Instead, she agreed with Mafuta that, though formerly neutral, they had been so
corrupted by selfish intent that their further use would only sow more division. This reflects not
so much a challenge to African primal religion as a call for reform and obedience to a central
teaching that arose from it.
The influence of European primal religion in this narrative is also far reaching, yet more
subtle. It can be seen in the priests’ belief in overlapping boundaries between spirit and physical
worlds as well as the presence of the benevolent dead (saints) who could offer aid and mediation
to higher spiritual authority (intercession). Further, their belief in the inherent spiritual power of
pervasive and near universal dynamics of primal religion as they have emerged in the particularities of the African and European contexts. While there are some contextual differences it seems clear that I am describing the same root phenomena that is “basic and essential” to all humanity.
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certain religious objects such as the host, the crucifix, relics, holy water and the Bible, among
others, reveals a certain primal sensibility regarding these items. This is likely why these items
were so readily taken up as nkisi by nganga and ndoki alike.
It is important to notice that Da Gallo did not doubt the sincerity of Dona Beatriz’ belief,
nor the plausibility that she was possessed and thereby exercising spiritual power (manifested in
healings and other signs associated with her ministry). He only disagreed about the source of her
spiritual power. Since her religious experience took an unfamiliar form (spirit possession) alien
to the range of primal expression recognized by the European church it was automatically
associated with the Devil. Ultimately the church’s exclusive claim to benevolent spiritual power
and corresponding demonization of any other spiritual claims is rooted in its prior reaction to
primal religious expression in European life. It is not surprising then that Dona Beatriz met the
same fate of many in Europe charged with implicit association with the Devil by nature of their
involvement with primal religious expression.
The narrative of Dona Beatriz and the Antonian movement is rife with examples of
primal religious expression coming from both the African and European contexts. Primal
religion provided the basic mental categories and worldviews from which both groups
appropriated Christianity. The central conflict between the church and the Antonian movement,
while containing political dimensions, cannot be properly understood apart from conflicts over
who had the authority to exercise spiritual power and how any individual exercising that power
was to be judged as a benevolent or malevolent.
4. Anaylsis and Lessons for Contemporary Missions
4.1 Relevance for Today
What makes the short spiritual career of this young Kongolese woman worth our attention?
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What might we learn from this episode in history that is relevant to the church and contemporary
missions today? First, it is worth our attention because Dona Beatriz was not the last to attempt
to exegete the Christian gospel brought by outsiders in distinctly African and primal terms.
There is considerable literature documenting a steady stream of prophets and healers emerging
from the African context.41 Primal religion has shaped the development of Christianity in Africa,
just as it did in Europe, and continues to have profound impact upon the African expression of
Christianity today.42 In light of the growing awareness of the shift in the center of Christianity
from Europe and the United States to the global south (especially Africa), the church in the West
cannot afford to ignore the ongoing influence of primal religious thinking upon what have
become, and by all projections will continue to be “the new faces of Christianity.” 43
In his 2006 book by the that name, Philip Jenkins points to the distinctly primal way in
which many African Christians use the Bible as an nkisi, or religious object with spiritual power
to heal, protect against evil spirits, and even ensure safe travel merely by its presence. Its words
have taken on the authority of the ancestor who “cannot be questioned.”44 Primal religion also
fosters a deep connection between African culture and the Bible because of the primal heritage it
shares with Israel.
This leads us to the second reason an awareness of primal religion is crucial to today’s
church: it is the interpretive key to the many aspects of the canon that seem confusing and
obscure to contemporary readers in the West. This is illustrated when Kwame Bediako, a
41 For a survey of African Christianity see Kevin Ward, “Africa,”; See also Thomas Blakely, ed., Religion in Africa: Experience and Expression (London, U.K.; Portsmouth, NH: James Curry, Heinemann, 1994).
42 Harold Turner asserts that there as many as ten thousand, primal Christian movements with ten million members active in Africa today. Harold W. Turner, Religious Movements in Primal Societies (Elkhart, IN: Mission Focus Publications 1989), 9.
43 Philip Jenkins, The New Faces of Christianity: Believing the Bible in the Global South (Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2006), ix.
44 Zablon Nthamburi and Douglas Waruta, “Biblical Hermeneutics in the African Instituted Churches,” in Hanna W. Kinoti and John M. Waliggo, eds., The Bible in African Christianity (Nairobi, Kenya: Acton, 1997), 40-57 at 51 cited in ibid, 35.
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historian of African religion from Ghana, claims the epistle to the Hebrews as “our epistle,” due
to its resonance with a culture familiar with theological concepts such as “sacrifice, priestly
mediation and ancestral function.”45 These resonances truly run throughout the breadth of the
canon. Jenkins’ text is replete with citations of a broad range of Africans who have found deep
connection with shared elements between ancient Israel in scripture and life in Africa including:
relational dynamics of polygamous households, protracted tribal conflict, spirit possession and
the ever-present need to visit a religious specialist or seer among others.46 Gillian Bediako goes
on to assert that a fresh reading of scripture from a primal perspective is likely to recover biblical
emphases that have been omitted in Western theological discourse.47
4.2 Re-Orientation of Western Church Toward Primal Religion
It is clear from the narrative of the Antonian Movement that the European priests’ desire
to control both the exercise of spiritual power and the indigenous appropriation of the faith
characterized their engagement with the Kongolese. Further, their arrogant demands for respect
were largely responsible for popular distrust and suspicion about them. One need not look far to
find similar dynamics in western mission today. The overt political power and foreign
governmental influence of the Capuchins have been replaced by the tools of finance and a
presumption of cultural superiority and “doctrinal purity.” This is often expressed as anxiety
among many church leaders in the West about the “syncretism” of African Initiated Churches
and other grass-roots movements expressing indigenous appropriations of the gospel from the
primal worldview.
Yet the very term “syncretism” is laden with the assumption that the Christianity brought
45 Kwame Bediako, Jesus and the Gospel in Africa: History and Experience, 27-30. 46 Philip Jenkins, The New Faces of Christiantiy, 47ff. 47 Gillian Bediako, “Primal Religion and Christian Faith: Antagonists or Soul-Mates?” in Journal of
African Christian Thought. 3, 1. (2000): 12-16 at 14.
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by the foreign missionary is itself “pure” and uninfluenced by non-Christian religion. This
understanding lacks an appreciation for the European primal heritage and its influence on the
development of Western Christianity. In addition, since primal religion is so deeply entrenched
in the narrative of scripture it should not be surprising that we find its influences pervasive in the
development of Christian history even up to this day.48 The false dichotomy between the
westerner or foreigner’s “pure” Christianity and the “pagan” or “syncretistic” compromise of that
purity is a profound over-simplification.49 It suggests the false possibility that anyone may come
to faith apart from their prior assumptions about the world, regardless of whether they are primal,
modern, post-modern or any other. The reality of the appropriation of the gospel by individuals,
groups, societies and cultures is much more complex, as we have seen in the Dona Beatriz
narrative, and it takes shape over the course of centuries. The western church should move away
this language and the freight of a-cultural superiority it suggests toward a historical appreciation
of the “process of fresh combinations and permutations” by which Christianity has always
expanded: through the indigenous appropriation of the Christian message and the long term
incarnation of the gospel into the particularities of any given society.50
Gillian Bediako argues that the primal perspective actually has some much needed
correctives to offer Western Christianity and it may do so in the ferment of engagement between
48 For a detailed analysis of primal religion within the canon of scripture through the lens of William Robertson Smith, see Gillian M. Bediako, Primal Religion and the Bible: William Robertson Smith and his Heritage, in Journal for the Study of the Old Testament Supplement Series, David J. A. Clines and Philip R. Davies, eds. (Sheffield, U.K.: Sheffield Academic Press Ltd, 1997), 246.
49 Birgit Meyer offers a persuasive argument that what has been called “syncretism” is really the result of vernacular processes of “translation and diablolization.” She pays particular attention to the formative influence that the common foreign missionary choice to identify all spiritual powers with the Devil and his demons leaving only one creator God, who is then identified with the Christian God. This dynamic is strongly at work in the Dona Beatriz narrative and further underlines the multi-layered complexity that is unhelpfully papered-over by the language of syncretism. Birgit Meyer, “Translation and diabolization in the appropriation of Protestantism in Africa,” 45-68 in Charles Stewart and Rosalind Shaw eds., Syncretism/Anti-Syncretism: The Politics of Religious Synthesis (New York, NY / London, U.K.: Routledge, 1994), 63-64.
50 For a splendid and eloquent description of the expanding “multicultural horizon” of early Christianity as a normative pattern for later Christian expansion see Lamin Sanneh, Disciples of all Nations: Pillars of World Christianity (Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2008), 3-12 at 12.
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African theologians and their Western counter-parts.51 While this may not be fully persuasive to
some, it suggests that primal religion is much like other “basic and essential” aspects of human
expression such as language and culture. If this is the case then perhaps primal religion can be
seen as similarly neutral in terms of its possible contribution or detriment to Christian faith-- it
all depends upon how Christians may understand the gospel to affirm, reject, reinterpret or
otherwise redeem those aspects of themselves that were present when they began to follow
Christ.
Yet many are still rightly concerned about the propagation of heresy and doctrinal error
among Christians influenced by primal religious views. This concern must be tempered by two
recognitions. First, foreigners from the West have been attempting to control the shape of
Christianity as it has expanded in the global south since the early 1500’s. While it is undeniable
that foreign missions movements have been instrumental in bringing the gospel message to the
fertile soil of primal religion, the growth of the church in that soil has regularly taken surprising
and often disturbing (at least to the foreigners) turns. This has occurred despite concerted
attempts to bring the indigenous church in line with more western sensibilities. This goal of a
foreign controlled church is both illusory and wrong-headed.
Instead (and second), we must learn to trust both the Holy Spirit and the indigenous
Christians in their work of sorting out truth from error.52 Those who are heirs to a primal
heritage are the best equipped to assess its true meaning and character. Too often the foreigner
has been all too ready to dismiss as demonic those things which he has never properly
understood. We in the West must first recognize our own accretion of influences unconsciously
51 Ibid, 15. 52 Harold Turner optimistically points out that “dead churches don’t produce heresies,” as he highlights the
vitality of the African theological discourse among the laity as well as the academics. Harold W. Turner, Religious Movements in Primal Societies, 18.
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incorporated into our faith. Only then may we come, on even footing, into ecumenical,
international relationship with individuals and churches influence by the primal world-view in a
mutual attempt to discover the gifts and liabilities of our particular viewpoints.53
5 Conclusion
This paper has attempted to point out the pervasive influence of primal religion both from
the European and African contexts, present in the historical narrative of Dona Beatriz’ Antonian
movement. From there some implications of the ongoing influence of primal religion in the
indigenous appropriation of Christianity in Africa and the global south were suggested. These
included a re-orientation of the Western church towards primal religion from hostility to
neutrality and even appreciation. This re-orientation would be based on primal religion's
presence in our canon of scripture, its broad influence in church history and within the new
Christian populations centers, and the contributions and corrections it may have for a waning
Western church. This re-orientation would consist of a recognition of primal religious influences
within the European heritage and a corresponding move away from the language of “syncretism”
towards that of “appropriation” and “incarnation.” Western missions must abandon the position
of illusory control over mission churches and replace it with relationship that places western
Churches on equal footing with our southern counterparts in relationships of equality and
mutuality that should characterize the global body of Christ.
53 Ibid, 21.
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_______. “Primal Religion and Christian Faith: Antagonists or Soul-Mates?” in Journal of African Christian Thought. 3, 1. (2000): 12-16.
Bediako, Kwame. Jesus and the Gospel in Africa: History and Experience. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 2004.
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Hastings, Adrian. The Church in Africa 1450-1950. Oxford: U.K.: Clarendon Press, 1994.
Jenkins, Philip. The New Faces of Christianity: Believing the Bible in the Global South. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2006.
Meyer, Birgit. “Translation and diabolization in the appropriation of Protestantism in Africa.” 45-68 in Stewart, Charles and Rosalind Shaw eds. Syncretism/Anti-Syncretism: The Politics of Religious Synthesis. New York, NY / London, U.K.: Routledge, 1994.
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_______, ed. Primal World Views: Christian Involvement in Dialogue with Traditional Thought Forms. Ibadan, Nigeria: Daystar Press, 1976.
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______. “The Primal Religions of the World and their Study,” in Victor Hayes, ed. Australian Essays in World Religions, (Bedford Park: Australian Association for World Religions), 27-37 cited in Kwame Bediako, Jesus and the Gospel in Africa: History and Experience. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 2004.
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