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Kongo and the King of the Americans

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 November 2008

Wyatt MacGaffey
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Extract

In this article, I try to translate what America means to a MuKongo, the ordinary inhabitant of the province of Kongo Central in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The subject has the advantage of being to some extent marginal among Kongo beliefs, and therefore more readily isolable, but it is not without relevance to international affairs.

Type
Articles
Information
The Journal of Modern African Studies , Volume 6 , Issue 2 , August 1968 , pp. 171 - 181
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1968

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References

Page 171 note 1 Fortes, M. and Dieterlen, G., African Systems of Thought (London, 1965), pp. 34–47;Google ScholarGoody, J., review of Griaule's, M.Conversations with Ogotemmêli, in American Anthropologist (Menasha, Wisconsin), LXIX, 1967, pp. 239–41.Google Scholar

Page 171 note 2 Fortes and Dieterlen, p. 37.

Page 171 note 3 Douglas, M., ‘Social and Religious Symbolism of the Lele of the Kasai’, in ZaÏre (Brussels), IX, 1955, pp. 385–402;Google Scholar‘Animals in Lele Religious Symbolism’, in Africa (London), XXVII, 1957, pp. 46–58.Google Scholar

Page 172 note 1 Cf. Malinowski, B., Magic, Science and Religion, and Other Essays (New York, 1948), pp. 239–40.Google Scholar

Page 173 note 1 MacGaffey, W., ‘Autobiography of a Prophet’, in Cahiers économiques et sociaux (Kinshasa), IV, 1966, pp. 231–5.Google Scholar

Page 174 note 1 I gratefully acknowledge the support of the Foreign Area Fellowship Program, New York. The Program is not in any way responsible for the views expressed here.

Page 174 note 2 For a similar experience, see Wannyn, R. L., L'Art ancien du meéal au Bas-Congo (Champles, Belgium, 1961).Google Scholar

Page 175 note 1 Nsi yibalukidi; from balula, to change, to reverse. The verb is used, for example, to describe the ‘rebirth’ of initiates in certain rites, and euphemistically for ‘to die’.

Page 175 note 2 The idiom of the period is on record in the nationalist press, particularly Kongo dia Ngunga, principal organ of the Kongo political party, ABAKO.

Page 175 note 3 This is a proverb, equivalent to ‘East is East, and West is West…’

Page 175 note 4 Archives of the Cataracts District, Thysville.

Page 175 note 5 Andersson, E., Messianic Popular Movements in the Lower Congo (Uppsala, 1958).Google Scholar

Page 176 note 1 Raymaekers, P., ‘L'Eglise de Jésus-Christ sur la terre par le prophète Simon Kimbangu—contribution à l'étude des mouvements messianiques dans le Bas-Congo’, in Zaīre, XIII, 1959, pp. 677–756.Google Scholar

Page 176 note 2 The classical ethnography of the BaKongo, preoccupied with the phenomenon of matrilineal descent, overlooks this essential point. For a good recent analysis, see Doutreloux, A., L'Ombre des fétiches: société et culture yombe (Louvain, 1967), ch. v.Google Scholar

Page 176 note 3 The terrestrial and historical Mbanza Kongo is San Salvador in Angola. See Cuvelier, J. M., L'Ancien Royaume de Congo (Brussels, 1946).Google Scholar

Page 176 note 4 Raymaekers, op. cit. p. 728. During and after the world wars the role was allotted by some to the Germans; Tata Alemani appeared in certain messianic predictions, and one or two prophets took the name ‘Hitler’.

Page 176 note 5 The newspaper Kimbanguisme (Kinshasa), 15 06 1960, gives a version of the story.Google Scholar

Page 177 note 1 Claridge, G. Cyril, Wild Bush Tribes of Tropical Africa (London, 1922), p. 147.Google Scholar

Page 177 note 2 Kongo dia Ngunga (Kinshasa), 1 10 1960.Google Scholar

Page 177 note 3 For example, ‘Pray to your brethren who were sold in the ivory and rubber to the country of the Americans. The Lord will send them to this country to teach crafts and give skills surpassing those of the whites.’ This prophecy, given to me in 1966, was said to date from 1921. Cf. J. Wing, Van, ‘Kimbanguisme vu par un témoin’, in Zaïre, XII, 1958, p. 600.Google Scholar

Page 178 note 1 It is in the headlines added by the editorial staff that one finds the expression ‘Ameérique du Sud’, which is never used in the text to refer to the Southern States.

Page 178 note 2 MacGaffey, op. cit. p. 235.

Page 179 note 1 Malinowski, op. cit. pp. 252–3.

Page 180 note 1 A full account of the significance of these pairs, particularly son: father, would take us far beyond the scope of this essay. One may simply note in passing Laman's remark, ‘That the Kongo are descended from a white chief is still a current tradition.’ His explanation, however, that ‘the ancestor in question was probably a Berber’, tells us more about European than African mythology. Laman, K. E., The Kongo 1 (Uppsala, 1953), pp. 9 and 13.Google Scholar

Page 180 note 2 I find one case in my notes in which (by a slip of the tongue?) the Upper Congo was referred to as Mputu.

Page 180 note 3 Comhaire, J., ‘Sociétés secrètes et mouvements prophétiques au Congo belge’, in Africa, XXV, 1955, p. 57.Google Scholar

Page 180 note 4 Verhaegen, B., ‘Les Rébellions populaires au Congo en 1964’, in Cahiers d'études africairses (Paris), VII, 2, 1967, pp. 345–9.Google Scholar

Page 181 note 1 Biebuyck, D., ‘La Société kumu face au Kitawala’, in Zaïre, XI, 1957, pp. 7–40.Google Scholar

Page 181 note 2 Paulus, J. P., ‘Le Kitawala au Congo beige’, in Revue de I'Inslitut de Sociologie Solvay (Brussels), 1956, pp. 257–70.Google Scholar The author of the article suspects that Watchtower is an agent of American imperialism.

Page 181 note 3 Bentley, W. Holman, Pioneering on the Congo, 1 (London, 1900), p. 252.Google Scholar