Simon Kimbangu

Simon Kimbangu (1887-1951), Congolese religious leader. Simon Kimbangu was born in Nkamba, a small town in Central Africa. His homeland had once been one of the most powerful nations in Africa, but by the late 1800s it was weakened from centuries of European and East African efforts to conquer the region and enslave its inhabitants. Two years before Kimbangu’s birth, European countries and the United States held a conference to divide all of Africa between them, and the king of Belgium claimed the Congo as his personal property and used private companies to conquer it. The Congolese people were enslaved and forced to harvest natural resources such as rubber and gold, and those who resisted were beaten, killed, or had a hand severed. As a result, an estimated 10 million people died between 1885 and 1908. The Belgians also tried to convert the Congolese to Christianity, but even those who did were closely supervised by white religious leaders.

Although it is difficult to separate some of the legends about Kimbangu from what actually happened, according to one story, when he was an infant his mother had protected a missionary from harm and was blessed with the promise that “her child would do the work of God.” He began having religious visions as a young child and was educated in a Baptist missionary school. In 1917 or 1918, he felt a calling to ministry and spent several years as a religious teacher. He then, as he described to his followers, spoke directly with God, who told him to heal the sick and declared “I am Christ. My servants are unfaithful. I have chosen you to bear witness before your brethren and convert them. Tend my flock.” Kimbangu was initially reluctant and instead moved to the colonial capital of Leopoldville (now Kinshasa), where he worked at an oil refinery, but another vision encouraged him to return home and begin his own ministry in 1921. Over the next few months, his ministry grew rapidly and drew thousands of people from all over the Congo to Nkamba, which became known as “New Jerusalem,” to join the Ngunza (“prophet” in the Kikongo language).  His followers believed that he had the power to cure illness and resurrect the dead through faith healings. This was especially attractive in a region that had been devastated by colonial rule, World War I, and a global influenza pandemic. Additionally, his strict moral code, which banned practices such as drinking, smoking, and polygamy, brought a sense of stability to many people’s lives. He also blended traditional and European practices in a way that resonated with many and made them proud of their heritage. For instance, his white robes symbolized both Christian notions of purity and the Congolese tradition in which white was the color of the dead, making some believe that the ancestors would help restore the Congo to glory, and his staff had a black flag tied to it and was called “The Staff of the Rule of the Blacks.” In one sermon he declared “God had promised Simon Kimbangu that, whenever your enemies confront you, it is you who shall speak: I will send the Prince of Angels, Gabriel, to defend you. Thus God did not renege on his promise when the Whiteman arrived.”

The Belgian authorities, though, saw his movement as a threat. Some of his followers preached that the Congolese should refuse to pay their colonial taxes or even overthrow the colonial government, and although Kimbangu himself never stated these things, he was still accused of believing them. By preaching that God had called him to lead his movement, he implied that white religious leaders were not necessary and should not be in charge. The simple fact that an African man had become more important in the Congo than any colonial leader made him dangerous to colonialism. When one government official came to confront him, Kimbangu read him the story of David and Goliath. Another story held that when soldiers came, he told one to “keep still” and the man was unable to move; he then told another “Have you come to fight God? Who are you looking for? Truly, I know that others are relying on their knives to make me suffer, but the Lord God knows all the plans of men; he sees them like small flowers.” The authorities finally tried to arrest him, killing several members of his flock in the process, but he escaped and continued preaching in hiding. Kimbangu finally turned himself in and was tried before a military court for disturbing the peace and undermining public security. During the trial, which violated numerous Belgian legal rules (for instance, Kimbangu was not allowed an attorney), he told the judge “the Spirit took a black to do God’s work, because the whites were discontented with the work of God.” He was found guilty and sentenced to death by 120 lashes, but this sentence was protested by prominent Europeans, so the king of Belgium commuted it to life in prison. He was sent to the Elisabethville prison and banned from seeing his family or anyone else. Many of his followers were also imprisoned or exiled to remote areas of the Congo, and his movement was outlawed, but it continued to grow under the leadership of his sons and others. So did the anticolonial movement, which was inspired in part by his example but was also increasing throughout Africa and the rest of the world. In 1959 the Belgian government finally gave legal recognition to what was then known as the Kimbanguist Church. A year later, the Congo gained its independence; it is now known as the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Simon Kimbangu did not live to see these events, as he died in prison in 1951 after thirty years of confinement. Today the Kimbanguist Church (officially called the Église de Jésus-Christ sur Terre par le Prophète Simon Kimbangu, or Church of Jesus Christ on Earth by the Prophet Simon Kimbangu) is the third largest religious group in the Congo, one of the largest African-founded religious groups on the entire continent, and the first independent African church to be admitted to the World Council of Churches.

©David Brodnax, Sr.