The Apocalyptic Interlude: Revealing Death in Kinshasa
Author(s): Filip De Boeck
Source: African Studies Review, Vol. 48, No. 2 (Sep., 2005), pp. 11-32
Published by: African Studies Association
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ASR FOCUS
in
of Political Time
and the Imagination
Mourning
Central Africa
Contemporary
Interlude:
The Apocalyptic
Revealing Death in Kinshasa
FilipDe Boeck
Abstract:
kind
takes
which
collective
against
brought
about
the
As
by God.
the Apocalypse
on the
focuses
is
Le
eschatologique
dans
le
dans
la vie
un
ach?vement
livre
qui
sera
Filip
Africa
1987
is a professor
Center
Research
Boeck
he
ronments
has
conducted
of
and
the
Catholic
extensive
field
in the Democratic
in Kinshasa's
completion
is not only
about
En
origine
un
point
de Kinshasa.
tant que
de
tel,
in Okwui
burg, Kinshasa,
Enwezor,
est
Lagos
(Hatje
Under
Cantz
d'une
la Bible,
plus
r?f?rence
de
Le
v?cu
temps
l'ach?vement
ultime,
le livre des R?v?lations
2 (September 2005), pp. 11-32
cultural
anthropology
of Leuven,
University
in both
research
urban
and
head
Siege: Four
Publishers,
African
Cities:
of
Belgium.
and
rural
Republic
ed.,
daily
apocalyptic
of Congo
His
Zaire).
(formerly
state
of
theoretical
interests
include
local
processes
subjectivities
collapse,
of culture
and youth
and the politics
sis, postcolonial
memory
processes,
tral Africa.
his recent
of the
is "Kinshasa:
Tales
Among
publications
City',"
article
in which
devenu
canevas
of
This
as
dans
au
and
understanding
presence
habitants
doom
of evil.
d'aujourd'hui
est
is projected
will
be
which
son
compar?
social
reference
in Kinshasa
le Kinshasa
des
48, Number
of
eschatological
in the Book
experience,
terms
prophetic
trouve
qui
par Dieu.
accompli
specific
particularly
the popular
Yet
and
et
collective
African Studies Review, Volume
De
everything,
dans
est
a
of Revelation
particuli?re
des R?v?lations,
? Kinshasa
quotidienne
everyday
into mythical
l'imagination
life
the omnipotent
on the
Congolese
temporalit?
bien
pr?cis?ment
de
de
of
point
of hope.
on
centers
translated
concept
omnipr?sent
a book
of millennialism
impact
constantly
R?sum?:
the Book
also
very much
of
of
completion
such,
and more
omnipresent
time
lived-in
it is essentially
destruction,
an
become
The
imagination.
canvas
of
the
esp?ce
has
is of a very
Kinshasa
in the Bible,
of departure
its point
of Revelation,
reality
interlude.
in contemporary
Temporality
and
Freetown,
the
Since
envi
current
of cri
in Cen
'Invisible
Johannes
2003).
11
12
ne
African
se
concentre
lypse
sur
tourne
livre
se traduit
et
la fatalit?
autour
sur
constamment
de
la destruction
la conception
Et pourtant,
d'esp?rance.
du mill?narisme
quotidienne
sur
seulement
principalement
l'impact
interlude
pas
un
tiellement
Review
Studies
la notion
du mal.
congolaise,
l'exp?rience
en termes
mythiques
mais
de
l'apoca
se concentre
populaire
Cet
article
dans
et
essen
c'est
laquelle
proph?tiques
la r?alit?
comme
proph?tique.
Les morts
qui
aussi malheureux
n'ont
les vivants
n'ont
qui
pas
vivants
de
sont malheureux,
que
pas
de morts.
are
the living
the dead
(Without
as
as
unhappy
the dead.)
the living without
unhappy,
(Sony Labou Tansi, 1979)
Introduction:
Apocalyptic
This
and
article
time
The Place of Death
Interlude
intends
in one
to explore
of Africa's
in the Realm
the changing
largest
cities,
place
Kinshasa,
of the
and meaning
of
capital
the
of death
Democra
Kinshasa
of Congo.1 As in other cities around the continent,
tic Republic
as propagated
ismarked by the rise of Christian fundamentalism
by a great
churches and other "miracle" churches of spiritual
number of Pentecostal
the
these new churches have become
Since the early nineties,
awakening.2
to
of
their
norm rather than the exception.
hundreds
thousands
Drawing
come to supplant other, often more
prayer meetings,
they have gradually
that sprang up
and independent
churches
syncretic, prayer movements
suc
the long life of the Mobutist
reign. They have also been very
during
identified
in attracting a great number of Christians who previously
"mother" churches.
themselves with the traditional Catholic and Protestant
the city of Kin
faith that has overtaken
This new strong wave of flourishing
cessful
shasa
and
Congo
as a whole
is set
against
the
backdrop
of
a socioeconomic
conditions
of
and political context marked by deep crisis, war, and material
the
harsh
and
Without
doubt,
lack,
any
living
poverty.
hunger,
hardship,
the country have contributed
dramati
that prevail throughout
conditions
new church movements.
cally to the rapid spread of these
is what happens
this article addresses
One of the central questions
so incredibly hard that
of life become
conditions
when people's material
I will try to
of what constitutes
their very conceptions
reality are affected.
Interlude:
The Apocalyptic
13
in Kinshasa
Death
Revealing
provide some answers to that question by looking at the changed place of
time scale that
the apocalyptic
death in this urban world and by analyzing
and that profoundly
the churches have introduced
pervades daily life in
to make sense of its own crisis. In
a city that feverishly attempts
Kinshasa,
an
of daily urban reality,
the religious
such
urban context,
transfiguration
its juxtapositions
and
of the passage of
experience
more precisely
in the Book
from the
switch
astonishing
with
as an
described
the
site where
or
overproduction
to a disturbing
expression
in the "telescoped"
contradictions
generated
time and of events as laid out in the Bible, and
a constant and often
of Revelation,
produces
social to the semiotic, leading to what could be
that
an
unmooring
unmooring
becomes
of
"overheating"
of the social
most
that
meaning
imagination.
tangible.
Death
has
gives
Death
is
become
so omnipresent
in Kinshasa, and in Congo as a whole,
that the labor of loss
and mourning
has ceased to be meaningful.
Invaded by an ever increasing
amount of dead that cannot be put to rest, the society of the living has
them.
stopped mourning
By focusing upon the newly emerging place of death in the urban Con
I will analyze how the changed
value of death, and the
golese context,
I
of
call
the
affects on the city's
what
interlude,"
experience
"apocalyptic
to
life
its
and
and
and
above
all,
daily
capacity
symbolize
produce meaning
sense.
I will
in
changed
argue
the
that
common
structures
of
themselves
meaning
have
process.
"Siting" the Imaginary
the supremacy of the symbolic in relation
L?vi-Strauss and Lacan postulate
to the imaginary. In this respect the signified
is, to some extent, subordi
nated to the signifier; symbols are imbued with a larger reality value than
that is, the levels of the imaginary and of what
that which
they symbolize,
Lacan calls "the real" (that which is neither
imaginary nor symbolic). More
a
has
offered
Godelier
(1996)
recently
critique of these classic interpreta
tions in which he turns around their primacy. For Godelier,
the levels of the
are
and
the
real
materializations
of
the
(re)cre
symbolic
imaginary, which
ates and institutionalizes
Here
struc
the
society.
symbolic is not a mental
ture but an internalized
social structure, deriving from a social logic that is
unconscious
but that constantly externalizes
itself as social essence
in the
domains
of sexuality, power, and politics.
It is the concentration
of the
three orders of the imaginary, the symbolic, and the r?el that makes
social
life
the
of
it
social
but
is
of
the
the
reality,
people,
register
imaginary that
offers the fixed points from which a society invents itself.
But what happens
if the very nature of the imaginary
field
of
social
organized
practices has become disorganized
least
to
some
ity, to produce
extent,
its
localizing
sociality? The
force
imaginary
and
its
capacity
is the dimension
as flexible but
and has lost, at
to create
continu
of the invisible,
14
African
Studies
Review
but what if the invisible becomes
more alive than the living? What
visible, and the dead replace and become
if the imaginary is no longer the socially
crosses
the boundaries
but
and
productive
phantasmagoric
constantly
invades the real in an unmediated,
if
What
the
way?
nonsymbolic
imaginary
is no longer the irr?el but the indiscernibleness between
r?el and irr?el (see
Deleuze
the
1990, quoted by Bayart 1996:138)? What
if, in other words,
dual and therefore nonalienated
with
the
until
which
double,
relationship
most notably
in local Congolese
in
recently certainly existed
experience,
as
an
relation to the ancestor
also
the
institutionalized
of
witch,
(but
figure
and leads to alienation
instead? If death, as the dou
crisis), is problematic
to the realm of the imaginary, and if the imagi
ble of the living, belongs
as
thus
the
life and death, what then
between
nary
operates
disjunction
ceases to
for a societal constellation
that distinction
does it mean
when
exist?
In an insightful
cartoons,
and things which
the
"despite
nary world
notion
scale
remarks
upon
indicated
of
transformations
the
a
complex
a
meaning,"
general
is related
tree
with
to
the
its
ruptures
an
"autochthonous
urban
imagi
a
and
Sartre,
to capture
constant
that
the "imaginary,"
Lacan,
catchword
speech
assumes
discontinuities,
includes
and
of
experience
generally,
that
the social scientist's
subconscious,
the
More
(2001:146).
in Cameroonian
but he nevertheless
and
genealogical
has become
Castoriadis,
above,
new
the
exactly
I have
has remained"
with
in which
on the "thing" and its double
chapter
Mbembe
the ways
of
networks
alterations
a
of
also
(and increasingly
rural) landscape.
hybridized
postcolonial
has developed
the concept of the imagi
(1996), for example,
Appadurai
as an organized field of social practices
nary, or more broadly, imagination,
In the same vein Bayart (1996:143), while
in new global cultural processes.
of political action, describes
the imagi
the cultural dimensions
discussing
as
nary
between
the
dimension
tradition
and
out
of
innovation.
which
a
emerges
Understood
as
continuous
such,
the
dialogue
imaginary,
he
between
the past, the present,
interaction?interaction
adds, is primarily
a
future.
But
it
is
also
interaction
between
social
of
and the projection
are
or
of
between
which
actors,
societies, the relations
selectively shaped by
The mediating
their respective
consciousnesses."
qualities of
"imagining
the imaginary turn it into an institutionalizing
social force through which
a society confronts
and thereby
and mutations,
and absorbs
changes
of
the dissolution
defines and authors itself anew (De Boeck 2000). With
more
locations for research
traditional anthropological
(see Gupta 8c Fer
1997), the imaginary as alternative
guson 1997a, 1997b; Olwig 8c Hastrup
ana
for more detailed
"field site" therefore presents novel opportunities
cur
that
African
is
transformations
of
the
society
multiple
lytic scrutiny
cease
the
In
like
urban
Kinshasa,
imaginary
settings
rently undergoing.
itswitchcraft,
lessly creates its own level of autonomy, with all of its excesses,
of social life. This new "siting" of the city's imaginary forms
its diabolization
the
undercurrent
that
runs
throughout
this
article.
Interlude:
The Apocalyptic
in Kinshasa
Death
Revealing
15
A City of Death
For
some
quite
time
now,
death,
as
as
and
metaphor
reality,
seems
to have
in Congo. Death has acquired new meanings
in the
omnipresent
not
but
there.
death
flooded
the
has
realm,
Real,
religious
only
tangible
become
to
country
such
left to mourn
an
extent
that
say
people
that
"there
aren't
tears
enough
all the dead'
(see also De Boeck 1998:50). The long and spec
tacular breakup of the Zairean state, combined with the spillover from con
its borders, most notably
flicts along
in Rwanda, Uganda,
and Angola,
even
of
to
death
and
contributed
the banaliza
further,
opened up spaces
tion of the material
and symbolic usages of violence and death invented in
state. This is obviously
earlier periods of the (post)colonial
the case in a
as
of
violence
the
machete
and the
produced
growing economy
through
rebels
1998, Rwandan- and Ugandan-backed
bayonet. And when, in August
was
invaded Kinshasa's
to
death
violent
the
heart
of
the
streets,
brought
communes
In
the
of
Masina
and
citizens,
capital.
Ndjili particularly,
nationalist
discourse against the intruding
spurred on by the governmental
started to track down and kill the rebels. The technology
of
"cockroaches,"
a
had
earlier
when
child
Kabila's
year
necklacing?which
already emerged
soldiers walked into the city and the Kinois vented their anger and frustra
tion at Mobutu's
some of his
ruinous
and burning
reign by molesting
an
agents?became
inextricable
of
part
Kinshasa's
reality
and
collective
imaginary.
of course, had diffused
itself through
the city's veins long
Violence,
before. In 1991 and 1993 two waves of massive and frenzied
looting swept
across
Kinshasa
and
parts
large
of
the
country,
devastating
much
of
the
in the span of a couple of days. Around
infrastructure
the
city's economic
same period
the masked
death squads commonly
known as
paramilitary
hibous ("owls," because
became active
they usually operated after nightfall)
in Kinshasa. More generally,
the militarization
of daily life in the postcolo
nial "space of death" (Taussig 1992) that Congo has become
is illustrated
in the church context,
by the increasing use of the military
vocabulary
where
sades
garrisons
preachers
and
refer
of God,
such
to
as
armies
Kafuta
Sony
as
themselves
of
"generals"
"Rockman"
of
church
cru
launch
evangelical
communities
that
are
salvation.
The alternative
itself on stage, the
space in which Kinshasa performs
popular music scene, has given rise to another kind of violence, grounded
in the competition
between different
orchestras.
Inevitably, the chronicle
of Congo's music has always been also a social history of this turbulent
city.
linked to and rooted in the realities of the lives of the urban
Intimately
young, this music emerged
together with the city in the 1940s and 1950s. It
canvas of social and
formed
the acoustic
the
political
developments,
of
the
times
in
and
which
dance
disorder
became
rhythm
increasingly
intertwined. Against
this social, political,
and economic
bands
backdrop,
an
and orchestras
and
in
endless
musical
battle
for
emerged
split up
pub
16
African
lie recognition.
ments
of
Review
Studies
The history
Kinshasa's
of the many meanderings
and
camps
competing
and musical
orchestras
of
almost
realign
reads
a
like
or
of
schism and continuity,
anthropology
shifting patterns
political
fusion and fission. The history ranges from the earliest generation
of stars
to Congo's
like Wendo,
fourth musical
Bowane, and Kabasele,
generation,
the orchestra
around
which
emerged with a group of young musicians
in the late 1980s. In between
is situated the rise and fall of
Wenge M?sica
Congo
music.
popular
In Kinshasa,
the second half of the 1990s was marked
by the splinter
of
the
M?sica
into
several
rival
orchestras.
The most
original Wenge
ing
are
of
these
M?sica
Maison
M?re
and
prominent
Wenge
Wenge M?sica
two
of
the
band's
BCBG, headed
extremely popu
respectively
by
original
lar lead singers, Werrason
and
Forest")
Their
eign."
B.
J.
music
(nicknamed
also
Mpiana,
translates
banyama, the "King of the
mokonziya
as
known
a whole
"Souverain
imaginary
"First
the
1er,"
of war,
Sover
and
power,
political
In
into an embedded
youth vocabulary and choreography.
and through dance, the juvenile body thus appears as a subversive site, as a
the violence
and death
locus that reflects, and reflects upon,
corporeal
ethnic
violence
by official
generated
have
been
cultural
postcolonial
characterized
by
some
as
and political
as
necropolitical,
which
grammars,
the
of
work
death
(Mbembe 2002:640).
for social and political action.
Indeed, death itself has become a model
For example, on March 9, 2000, in eastern Congo, where rebels had buried
an
number
unknown
of
women
the
alive,
women
of
the
Kivu
occupied
province declared a four-day "mourning" period to protest the daily realities
of violence and poverty in which they had to live. On the first day the women
at home,
stayed
weeping,
and
lamenting,
to eat.
refusing
For
the
next
three
a sign of sorrow. On the
days they dressed in black and covered their heads,
to
in Kinshasa, Etienne
thousands
of
kilometers
the
west,
6,
2000,
April,
et
le
Pour
la
D?mocratie
Tshisekedi's UDPS
(L'Union
Progr?s Social) oppo
for the nth time, a "dead city day" (journ?e ville morte)
sition party announced,
to
the
protest
warfare
continuing
in
In
Congo.
this
where,
country
for many
years now, political action has been translated into the creation of a "dead
ceremonies
(malanga) have become
city," and where funerals and mourning
criticism
Villers
8c Omasombo
the motor of social and political
2004;
(de
in
been
described
the local press as a
Kinshasa
has
sometimes
Vangu 1997),
a cit? cimeti?re, the term the playwright Nzey Van Musala
(n.d.) has
necropolis,
for the capital
coined
become?a
teries
country
are
overcrowded
of this "thanatocracy"
citizens
whose
and
where
are
more
corpses
(Yamb 1997)
dead
are
than
simply
alive,
that Congo
whose
abandoned
has
ceme
anony
(Grootaers 1998).
mously at the entrance of mortuaries
a metaphor
to speak about certain
Not only has death thus become
areas of daily life in Kinshasa
but
the
country in its totality has
(Biaya 1998),
a
a
become
(De Boeck 1998),
place in which one constantly
"postmortem"
inhabits
two worlds:
"that of the dead
and
that of the "not-so-alive"
(pas
The Apocalyptic
Interlude:
17
in Kinshasa
Death
Revealing
(Labou Tansi 1979:17), or "a place and a time of half
tout-?~fait-vivants)
death, or, if one prefers, half-lif?' (Mbembe 2001:197). The broader sociopo
litical crisis has created a general atmosphere
of collusion,
familiarity, and
a
between
the
the
in
movement
and
dead
of
interchangeableness
living
a
literal
and
as
that
zombification
permeates
generalized
quite
society
That
is why RDC
whole.
du
has
(R?publique
D?mocratique
Congo)
in popular
of
become,
speech, Rd?c?s, the "deceased" or "dead" Republic
the "country
Congo,
m?me
r?pare
les
that has died"
cadavres"
(mboka ekufi) and where,
("even
are
corpses
say, "on
people
In
repaired").
a
one
sense,
could
that has
argue that death is the only tangible kind of "democracy"
so far. Papa Nova, a
been installed
one
in Congo
in
of Kin
shopkeeper
onto the wall of his small
shasa's suburbs, has painted
pharmacy-shop:
"Rich and Poor Equality in Death?Cemetery"
("Riche et pauvre ?galit? ?
la mort?cimeti?re").
It
is, however,
of
symptomatic
the
eco
social,
deep
crisis which Congo
is undergoing
that death in itself
nomic, and political
can no longer be
an
and
posited
given
place.
unproblematic
Invaded by an ever increasing number of dead that cannot be put to
or even remembering
rest, the society of the living has stopped mourning
them. Death itself has been banalized,
often through laughter. Okolia mpau,
the Kinois jokingly address their dead: 'You will eat the spade," you will end
in the hole we dig for you. In the process, death itself has become
dese
crated and commodified:
aWoman
to
in a Used
Attempt
Bury
Cemeteries.
Kinshasa,
10,
January
2001,
in One
of Kinshasa's
Dug Up
In the night
of December,
31,
of the commune
of
neighborhood
street
in Bwanga
Kimbanseke,
Coffin
2002.
Kinshasa,
21, Mikondo
a
identi
27 and not otherwise
man,
young
aged
a used
which
had apparently
been
unearthed
coffin,
to
in order
of his wife, who
the body
at the
died
bury
home
brought
in a local cemetery,
childbirth
age of 17, after
fied,
in Kinshasa's
next
General
The
Hospital_
to our
the members
of the bereaved
fam
informant,
morning,
according
were
to go to the morgue
to prepare
the corpse
for bur
ily
getting
ready
to their
ial. Much
that the coffin
they noticed
surprise
brought
along
by
their
in-law was old, broken
in several
and covered
with
red earth.
places,
Inside,
the
provide
an
attempt
explanation
to escape
in the Mikondo
According
which
youngsters
woman
deceased
Siforco,
release,
as
January
state
the wrath
awaiting
coffin
of
him
is
in
10, 2002)
the
in
on
the
torn
coffin,
the youth
for
having
presently
An
unearthing
was
coffin
of
neighborhood.
to some,
this event
specializes
was buried
located
the
to the
from
the penalty
indicate
that the
sources
of
to embellish
used
and
borhood,
Jumbo
started.
cloth
an
kept
official
is linked
and
January
Sunday,
commune
of Masina,
of
and
dirty.
the widower
a
at
the
reselling
used
6, 2002,
Kinshasa.
neigh
grave. Our
station
of
police
investigation
to a criminal
in
fled,
the Mikondo
desecrated
to
Asked
has
network
coffins.
in the
been
of
The
cemetery
Press
(ACP
18
African
Studies
Review
This
"pillaging of death" illustrates the fact that the intrinsic quality of
rest
has changed. The desecrated
dead have become
increasingly
death
no
and
less,
remain
longer
with
resonate
cities
stories
silent
in
their
rumors
and
The
graves.
of
streets
dead,
returning
of
Congo's
"nocturnal
of
spouses" (?poux/?pouses de nuit) who return at night to have sex with the wid
owed partner they left behind, or of dead people who were spotted digging
in Angola. Everywhere,
it seems, the dead revive and multi
for diamonds
concerts
to
to the popular
tunes of Kin's
At
attend
dance
ply.
night, they
orchestras.
Places such as Rond Point Victoire,
the heart of the Matonge
are said to be as crowded as
in the commune
of Kalamu,
neighborhood
numerous
are
are attracted by Matonge's
of
because
dead
the
who
they
vibrant nightlife. At night, also, the many roadblocks
that are erected on
to be manned
the city's main
traffic arteries are believed
by soldiers from
return to protect
the deceased
sometimes
the "second world." Although
more
left
and assist the family members
their inter
behind,
they
frequently
At best they are just annoying.
ventions are less benevolent.
case of "pillaging of death" has been the emergence
of a new
Another
streets:
Ekobo
in
ritual
called
Kinshasa's
funerary
was
as a
of certain
conceived
the beliefs
tribes, Ekobo
originally
Following
to the attacks
means
return
to preserve
of
and protect
persons
exposed
as a means
as well
to finance
the burial
from
evil,
payments
ing dead
within
who
the family.
stop innocent
be
say will
they
funeral
wake_In
at one,
or
"Halte
?
["Stop
the
de Villers,
Ekobo
has
become,
people
used
for
however,
street
in the
to extort
coffee,
sugar
buying
one refuses
to pay up,
one.
harm
(Elima newspaper,
case
physically
la pratique
ill?gale
and
illegal
et
d?gradante
mortuary
degrading
du
of delinquents
the practice
from
them, which
money
and
firewood
these
youngsters
September
rite mortuaire
ritual
'Ekobo'"],
during
throw
21-22,
the
dirt
1991,
'Ekobo,'"
quoted
in
1992:192-94)
similar practices
illustrate is the fact that the man
become monopolized
of death has increasingly
agement
by the young.
Whereas
before, until the late 1970s and early 1980s, children,
standing at
a
were
of life,
called inside the house whenever
funeral pro
the beginning
What
Ekobo
and
in the street for fear that they would be contaminated
cession passed
by
the owners and the caretakers of death. They
death, they have now become
are the ones who have taken control of death as the object of an important
social
traffic.
They
are
also
the
ones
who
control
the
commercialization
of
some of the cemeteries
of the city, children forcefully kid
death. Around
rela
them out of the hands of the deceased's
nap the coffins, snatching
tives, and return the body only after the bereft family has paid them a fee.
one of the largest in Kinshasa,
of Kintambo,
is
the cemetery
Officially,
to be buried
continue
there in a
closed for lack of space, and yet people
tombstones
clandestine
and bury a
way. Youngsters
get paid to demolish
Interlude:
The Apocalyptic
new
on
corpse
on
and
live
of
top
an
old
one.
These
take
drink,
dance,
young
19
in Kinshasa
Death
Revealing
drugs,
tombstones.
the
nature of public and private space in the
Due also to the changed
ceremonies
around the dead body take place in
urban context
(mourning
of the street for lack of space in the compounds,
for example),
the middle
as well as to the fact that death no longer primarily knocks at the elders'
have become
less mutually
exclusive. AIDS has
doors, death and childhood
a great deal to this profound
contributed
shift. Urban
social life emerges
a
new
of
and
that
often
illness
remains invis
through
cartography
suffering
ible and only surfaces through the death of the sufferers, who are increas
a contami
ingly children and youngsters. With AIDS, death has become
even
illness
those
who
have
started
their
lives.
only just
nating
touching
The changed character of funeral rituals is also partly due to the fact
death occurs outside of a kin
that, for an increasing number of people,
embedded
in altered structures of soli
network. Death has become
and
of
of
relations
This is illustrated by the
gerontocracy.
darity,
kinship
of
the
the
maternal
whose
noko,
uncle,
changing
position
authority has
in
most
urban
matters
diminished
in
the
related to
context,
greatly
notably
death. Said one informant during a mourning
in
ceremony
Camp Luka, a
based
popular
in the white man's
Today,
we come
the village
where
lem
Today,
useless
and
arose
in
the
the
considered
to Kintambo
[the urban
village
cit?],
the maternal
from,
family,
people
has
lost that
uncle
thing,
for whom
next
of Kinshasa
neighborhood
on
called
status.
by many
traditional
uncle
him
"owner
have
sance.
People
He
become
the
the
third
uncle
mourning
he was the first
person,"
are now
three. The
They
flee him
for fear he will
multiplied.
funeral.
the
ended
no
uncle
uncle
received
addresses
longer
who
is
speaks
Cataphar
funerary
[from
gifts from
to the
preacher
for
the
uncle
and
family,
who
"lifted
The
period].
responsible.
actual
uncle
ask
the
and
changed.
a chief.
If a
prob
advice
and guidance.
for
a
Instead
the
funerals
notes,
The
for
fear
September
"multiplication
the changed place
of being
accused
of
the deceased
we
when
the
was
uncle
palm
the
the uncles
Today,
a nui
is considered
to
contribution
the
family.
preacher
directs
the mourning
ceremony.
funeral
Before,
catafalque,
chapel].
the attendants
the funeral.
during
to
and
go
gifts mainly
Cataphar,
location
of the draped
The
and
chapel.
preacher
have
become
the new uncles,
whereas
the real uncle
these
In
the
things
it was
the uncle
who
addressed
body,
was
it
returned
from
the burial
the
place,
[formally
of the dead
have
things
was
a
has become
city, the uncle
as a sorcerer,
all
who
pray
by
especially
are satanic.
we buried
a
when
Before,
In
dead
branch"
cemetery:
for
the
And
the
Now
the payment
of
funeral
chapel
now
person's
the
has
hides
during
death.
(Field
2000)
of the uncles" in this mortuary
to death itself.
accorded
context
also points
to
20
African
and Time
Death
Review
Studies
in Popular
and Prayer
Culture
one
A Saturday night in Kinshasa, May 2000: In the Mbuji-Mayi-Kananga,
a
out
of
of the bars of the moment,
that
the
bounds
puts
beyond
sign
place
for
armed
soldiers,
a
concrete
leads
stairway
to
a
terrace.
rooftop
The
of Bana OK, the heirs to one of the oldest Kinshasa-based
orches
a
are
concert.
for
late
in
OK
Bathed
Franco's
tras,
Jazz,
getting ready
night
a glow of yellow, red, and blue lights, the Mbuji-Mayi-Kananga
the
occupies
one of
in Masina,
three levels of a building
along the avenue Lumumba
as the "Peo
also
known
Kinshasa's most densely populated
neighborhoods,
after the band has played a
of China." Around midnight,
ple's Republic
members
of
couple
tunes
to warm
up
the
audience,
starts
everyone
to
dancing
its
soon
back at first, the glistening
bodies
rolling rumba rhythms. Holding
more
more
in
between
and
fervor
tables and white plastic gar
dance with
to the delight of the street chil
den chairs. From the terrace, and much
sounds of the music drift out into the night, a
dren below, the electrifying
tidal wave of sound rolling out over the endless sea of this vast cit?1s corru
gated iron roofs. As on other nights, Bana OK's playlist consists of the songs
The
that have come to form part of Kin's rich collective musical memory.3
crowd back into the sixties and seventies,
band's songs propel the dancing
as a time when the future
a period that is now looked upon with nostalgia
still
looked
bright,
modernity's
were
promises
still within
Belle was still Kin kiesse, the city of joy, or Kin makambo,
Boeck &Plissart
2004).
Iwas listening to the music on that warm,
While
attention
my
night,
was
caught
the
by
orchestra's
and
reach,
the turbulent
effervescent
atalaku,
the
Kin-la
city (De
Kinshasa
who
person
the rumba
crowd with his slogans and shouts during
the dancing
soukous' fast dancing part (sehen) (see White
2004). In his shouts I could
incites
discern
a
repeated
to
reference
the
number
666.
In
the
context
of
con
has always gen
temporary Kinois urbanity, the city's typical rumba-soukous
an oneiric
In
and enjoyment.
erated and represented
space of pleasure
and
ludic
these arenas of popular
culture, dancing,
sexuality
drinking,
in a never-ending
and rooted
the city's inhabitants
defined
"now," a
et
chairs
du
de
des
"ivre
space
sang"
l'espoir
euphoric postindependence
see also
and blood")
(Yoka 1999:164;
("drunk with the hope of bodies
Nlandu
2002), from which death was firmly excluded. As Sam Mangwana,
music
another
scene, sings in a famous
legendary figure of the Congolese
Let
Me Work," released on
"Zela Ngai Nasala"
1960s song entitled
("Wait,
"When will be the day I
the album "Festival des Maquisards"
by Sonodisc),
die? I don't know. I want to live a crazy life, a life without worry, together
with my friends, I ignore when my death will come, mother."
Today,
however,
this
very
same
site
of
pleasure,
in which
time was redefined
and in which
crushed and obliterated
one of the main
an Eternal Now, has become
locales,
death
as a moment
along
with
was
of
the
Interlude:
The Apocalyptic
"enchanting"
spaces
and
are
mortality
of Christian
such,
of
spaces
these
between
appearance,
two
spaces,
there
and
for
Kinshasa
These
part of itself in the bar and the church.
lic
in which
fundamentalism,
As
reintroduced.
temporality
the city's two main
form
churches
many
21
a fundamental
reveals
a
exists
also
in Kinshasa
Death
Revealing
considerable
have
own
their
pub
overlap
orchestras
into a frenzied dance
the sites of the religious gathering
that transform
tunes but replacing
the secular lyrics
hall, using the rhythms of popular
ones.
It
is
the
with more
increasing
religious
through
theatricality of the
in
and
the
both
these
that
also,
spaces,
f?te
city
folie, pleasure and psychosis,
ludic and the lethal become
interlocked
and open up into the dimension
of death, now unde
that underlies
all of Kinshasa's
reality: the dimension
the city: in the visible
niable. Death has become
omnipresent
throughout
form of funeral wakes
that
transform
houses
and streets into
(matanga)
or
more
in
of
and
its
invisible
sites
form, that of
mercy,
mourning
public
the "second city" (deuxi?me cit?), a shadow city that is constantly present as
a parallel world of nocturnal
its presence
and evil forces and makes
felt in
in the form of "witch-chil
the minds and lives of most Kinois, for example
dren"
street
and
to be
considered
children,
of
representatives
a "dead
soci
ety" (soci?t? morte).
of temporality, and thus of death, in contemporary
The reintroduction
nature and takes its point of
is of a very specific eschatological
Kinshasa
more
in
in the Book of Revelation,
the
and
Bible,
departure
particularly
an omnipresent
in Kinshasa's
reference
which has become
of
collec
point
was
over
tive imagination.
The number
which
shouted
the
666,
being
rooftops
of Masina
by
the
atalaku
of
Bana
OK,
referred,
of
to
course,
the
Beast mentioned
in the Book of Revelation
(Rev. 13:18: "This calls for wis
dom: let him who has understanding
reckon the number of the beast, for
it is a human
number,
its number
is six hundred
Christian
traditions of the
damentalist
in
the
African
urban
locale and
up
of
millennarianism
growth
throughout
taken to be the vicarius filii
commonly
and
sixty-six").
In
the
fun
countless churches
that have sprung
to the luxuriant
that bear witness
is
Africa, the Beast (the Antichrist)
Dei or the rex sacerdotulus, the Pope
and the Church of Rome. More generally,
the Beast refers to Satan and his
It is especially
in Chapters
8-19 of the Book of Revelation
that
Satan occupies an important place. The opening of the seventh seal ushers
in angels and trumpet blasts that, together with vivid descriptions
of
of judgment directed
plagues, torment, and great woes, represent messages
demons.
the seventh and last trumpet calls
against Satan's system of things. Before
the thousand-year
forth great voices that proclaim
of God and
Kingdom
there is a whole
interlude describing
the war between
diabolic
Christ,
swarms and the hosts of heaven.
are executed
In this interval judgments
against
political
beasts,
false
(Babylon
religion
systems and doomed
prototypes
of
the Antichrist.
and its great whore)
and against ungodly
unbelievers,
symbolized
by dreadful wild
Satan,
bound
to rise
again
after
a thou
22
African
Studies
Review
to a final test, will be finally dis
sand years in order to submit mankind
a
of
in
of
and
lake
fire,
posed
along with death, hell, his demons,
destroyed
and any rebels on earth who follow him.
to the number
of Bana OK, from
666, the musicians
By referring
within
the hedonistic
the linkage
also
evident
dance,
in one
of Kinshasa's
death,
Morts,
small Lemba-based
orchestra,
up by the city's biggest
movements
of
zombies.
thus producing
This linkage is
doom,
recent
of Death."
the "Chamber
picked
were
and enjoyment,
and judgment.
site of dance
between
crazes
dance
as La
known
Salle
In this dance, which was launched
Laviniora
but has since
Esth?tique,
bands,
Popular
music
the dancers
imitate
culture
opens
thus
des
by a
been
the robotlike
up
a
space
of
as well as an eschatological
the audience
into the
space, plunging
in the
of
of
time
and
the
the
end
abyss
linking
apocalyptic
description
to the realities of everyday life as experienced
Book of Revelation
by the
of the Kinois, in
inhabitants of Kinshasa today. In this collective experience
which stress is predominantly
(a common
put on the "death of the world"
was
na
to die in
is
"mokili
ekokufa
"the
l'an
world
2000,"
going
saying
death
the current
2000"),
starvation,
violence,
(war,
of life in the Congolese
and very real hardships
social
looting,
are
breakdown)
capital
interpreted
in
light of this end. In it the lived-in time of everyday life in the city is pro
a completion
of everything,
jected against the canvas of the completion
is already
that will be brought
about by God and that, although
hidden,
not
Him.
the
Book
of
Revelation
is
about
doom
As
such,
present with
only
but it is also essentially a book of hope, a symbol of possi
and destruction,
ble
recommencement.
wash
your
heart
one
As
and
to
Kinois
start
a new
put
phase
it: "the
of
vision
apocalyptic
life."
is a way
to
in the Glorious Millennial
This message
of resurrection
and entrance
a
is
stressed
is
that
also
message
Reign
strongly
by many of the churches. A
Bible
Tower
and
Tract
Watchtower pamphlet
(Watch
Society [Jehovah's Wit
was
in Kinshasa under
circulated
which
1, 1999),
nesses] ,December
widely
thus stated: "True, Revelation
the Apocalypse?"
does contain judgment messages
against the wicked. But in their public wit
on the wonderful
hope set out in the
nessing, God's servants focus mainly
or Revelation.
Thus they do not
that in the Apocalypse,
Bible, including
words found therein?
add to or take anything away from the prophetic
the title "Should You Fear
Revelation
22: 18, 19."
con
of most in the Congolese
yet, the lived experience
postcolony
are
in
the
churches'
that
contradicts
these
glad tidings
expressed
stantly
the judg
of hope. In the Book of Revelation,
creation of such geographies
a cloud
in
to come is announced
the
ment
the
of
of
Son
Man,
coming
by
And
is preceded
with great power and glory. His coming,
though,
by terrors,
and his final victory over
interlude between his preliminary
and by a magic
in which Satan
Satan. Life for most in Congo situates itself in this interlude
reigns.
For
some
others,
the world
has
arrived
at
the
end
of
the
thousand
Interlude:
The Apocalyptic
23
in Kinshasa
Death
Revealing
in which Satan is briefly
and thus at the moment
year day of judgment
centers
of the Apocalypse
released again. Thus the popular understanding
to the
on doom and the omnipotent
of
evil,
presence
thereby contributing
life
in
of
demonization
rapid
everyday
Congo.
is one in which the realities of the
As such, the Congolese
experience
"in between"
celebrated
and the interstitial, which are so much
by post
are
translated
into mythical
and
colonial
theorists
constantly
today,
rience
and
and
In
time.
moment
this
and
occur
condemnation,
the
specific
the
space-time,
of
salvation
or
the Antichrist,
The
interlude
to expe
in which
space
presence
complex
seem
Congolese
simultaneously.
of the apocalyptic
the dynamics
which
Most
as lived in an intermediate
revivalist
the
interlude.
apocalyptic
their existence
doom,
ing
as an
terms
prophetic
is not
that of real
the
between
chronology
in
scope
temporal
unfolds
sav
var
in the Book of Revelation
ious phases announced
(the first and second
of
the
and
second
release
of
Christ,
Satan) has collapsed
presence
Coming
come
moments
into a confusing
in
all
of
these
which
somehow
present
in what is often a swirling conceptual
and existential
imbroglio,
out
of
the
of
the
narrative
linear, though
arising
explosion
complex,
in
is
outlined
the
Book
of
which
Revelation.
chronology
of the Eglise
"When we enter the year 2000," said Vero, a member
in
Libre
the
fall
of
1999,
(EELDA), speaking
Evang?lique
d'Afrique
together
the heavens
down
and
their
will open
seat Himself
on
come
God will descend.
He will
Then,
gates.
to
the royal throne.
will
sit
down
His
Jesus
right
Moses
left
and
Eliah
with
the
(for example
to His
the prophets
The judgment
After
the judgment
the good
will commence.
peo
angels).
on earth.
to heaven.
without
sins
will
rise
The
sinners
will
Behind
stay
ple
on earth Hell
close
heaven
will
will be established.
itself, and here
Jesus,
and
There
Fire will burn
will
throw
suffering.
everything.
People
are in heaven
the fire. They will wage war. Those
who
will
No more
of food
delicious
and
experience
joys.
suffering,
plenty
singing,
in the
the first judgment
Satan will
establish
himself
joy upon
joy. After
start his
The world
transform
and
and will
will
into a Hell,
world,
reign.
will
be much
into
themselves
the Bible
come
longer
respect
the
of
the end
end
of
their
the world.
the world
That
wars
The
start,
is what
we
tells us
Bible
the
end
that when
children
enters,
live
that
we
is why
we
no
see
parents.
today,
we will have
of
breakdown
when
Then,
afterwards,
authority.
on earth,
a
a
Hell
here
Satan will
introduce
system with
stamp.
will
have
the
number
666.
It
is
Satan's
number.
The
is
stamp
stamp
a
like
on
about
wars,
looting,
entered
The
talks
towards
laissez-passer,
arm. Without
our
a
Satan will put a stamp with
the number
permit.
the number
666 you won't
receive
food. Without
666
666
you won't be able to buy things. Everybody with the 666 mark will be able
to circulate
Satan
ber
where,
with
666
and
freely
the number
accumulate
666 will
goods
receive
food
in your
continue
you will
body
to eat will have
things
disappeared.
at will.
Those
for free.
to
are
who
suffer.
Famine
Suffering
will
will
be
saved
by
the num
But without
be every
tremendous.
24
African
of
Because
no
this
suffering
as before.
be
longer
of
those
fering
are
who
to suffer
accept
down
will come
will
Review
Studies
to wear
and
refuse
into
this world
the
with
proceed
to kill
death
will
However,
you will want
yourself.
be the end of the world.
The
suf
It will no longer
not on Satan's
side will be eternal.
But
those who
the
the
for
666
sign will
second
time,
be
saved
when
for at that moment
Jesus
he
were
a
'I was
'You, who
you?'
judgment:
I
to my neighbors.'
'And I was a musician,
I
I was rich,
At
the
that
moment,
poor.'
helped
for
the number
666, will be condemned
mark,
final
the word
preaching
preacher,
made
dance."And
people
everyone
ever. And
Satan's
wearing
then
the world
the water,
under
the world
and
the
things:
the church
the year
of
will
earth.
the
create
of
spiritual
and
the Africans
2000,
with
(Conversation
will
God
author,
destroyed
be like
one.
another
churches
of
be
It will
come
And
that
above.
meaning
suffer
refused
within
Kinshasa
those
who
we witness
Satan's
refuse
in
drowned
will
destroy
these new
all
churches,
Kimbanguist
a
Mpungu.
the world
destroy
1999,
September
be
God
At
at
the
start
midnight.
Kinshasa)
and
contradictions
stamp,
oscillations
that I pointed
and hell
of hope
will
suffering
be
eternal,
this account
thus gives
they will be saved in the end. Although
to the current crisis in which most Kinois find themselves
(those
and yet
who
For
time:
is why
and
down
will
Satan
the
awakening,
their God Nzambi
account
the
Vero's
fully illustrates
and chronologies
the geographies
between
out
and
in Noah's
a contract
to
sign
the Devil's
reign.
with
As
such,
it also
situates
squarely
social
collective
imag
Satan),
Kinshasa's
churches. This
Christian
of the fundamentalist
the message
inary echoes
a
entitled
"Who Really
in
Watchtower
is
theme
1992
pamphlet
developed
a
was
in
French
translation
circulated
the
which
Dominates
World?",
widely
a hand
shows
the
title
the
1990s.
Above
in
late
the
in Kinshasa
pamphlet
on
answer
to
is
the
the
three
the
and
page
question
globe,
holding
revealed:
"The
whole
is in
world
the
of
power
the
evil
that
one,..
ancient
serpent, who is called the Devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world"
of evil
of the globalization
12: 9)." This message
(1 John 5:19; Revelation
fundamentalism
is
Christian
(and jointly of God) which
by
propagated
in which
the Con
(and which,
ironically, is the only form of globalization
a
a
can
claim
popular
leading role) has become
golese really take part and
and almost obsessive
theme in the city's social imaginary. With meticulous
and tries to expel the Forces
detail, Kinshasa
imagines, describes,
life world is continuously
the contemporary
For many in Kinshasa,
as an
God
which
a
Armaggeddon,
(see Book
is called
place
of Revelation
in Hebrew
(mondepandemonium),
Ar-m?-ged'don").
of the multiple
"second
or
demons
in
gather
16:16: "And they assembled
referred
is constantly
Armaggedon,
(deuxi?me monde),
the
where
city"
"fourth
"invisible" worlds
Kinshasa,
their
war
of Evil.
viewed
against
them at the place
as
self-proclaimed
to by its inhabitants as a "second world"
world"
(deuxi?me cit?), "pandemonium
dimension"
of what
(quatri?me
is referred
dimension,
i.e.,
to as kindokinisme).
one
Interlude:
The Apocalyptic
The
in Kinshasa
Death
"New World"
between
of Death
Place
Revealing
and
25
"Second
World"
on one's interpretation
of the apocalyptic
is either about to happen
(e.g., on January
to some) or lies already in the past, meaning
Depending
of Judgment
according
lives in the grip of Satan.
out
sins.
a
Bibiche,
Says
In the first case,
twenty-year-old
is near
salvation
student,
time scale, the Day
1, 2000, or in 2050,
that the world now
for those with
a conversation
during
we
had:
There
citate.
a flood.
be
will
all die.
There
Those
Water
an
be
will
will
sins will
with
be plentiful,
everywhere.
a clean
Those
with
night.
in the water
down
forever.
eternal
go
then
Heaven
we'll
resus
will
will
fall
This will be
any more.
upon
recognize
the century
of our death.
Sinners
will die,
those who
committed
adultery,
to
those with AIDS,
those who
those who
dance
music
drink,
('the
worldy
men
tunes of the
banzembo ya mokili). More
than 500.000
will die,
country,'
women.
All
and 3 million
those who won't
the Word
will die. Before
obey
down
and
us,
Christ's
Second
and
hunger
witches
will
Congo
today.
we won't
And
heart
Coming,
the
famine,
encroach
each
wars
will
churches
us. All
upon
be
of
we
everywhere,
will
prophets
multiply
fought
false
of
other
these
things
can
already
be
live
will
and
the
seen
in
In the second case, one already lives in this drowned world, in the grip
of the forces of Evil (and indeed, Bibiche's description
of war, famine, reli
gious
text).
and
fanaticism,
Here,
however,
witchcraft
true
sound
is not
hope
entirely
enough
absent
in
either,
the
Congolese
because
con
one
can
still be saved in a distant future, when Christ will descend
for the second
time and rescue
those without
Satan's stamp: the 666 sign. For many
a vision of a (nearby or distant)
Eanois, who seem to be caught between
a
constant
mokili
and
New World
the
intrusion of a second world of
(
y sika)
demons
and
devils,
of
both
the diffuse
time
scales
time
seem
scale of
to coexist.
the apocalyptic
is the
interlude
Typical
that
in
death
the
lived
world of many Congolese.
changed place
occupies
As Vero expressed
in the interview I quoted from above, not only is death,
in the apocalyptic
interlude, no longer as before, it is no longer the end of
the world either. The theme of the "living dead," for example,
is very much
alive in the minds and experience
of most Kinois.
near Lemba Terminus,
In April 2001 I visited a friend in his homestead
a crowded and
market
where
cambistes, illicit money
square
young
seething
one
await
their
On
of
the
clients.
changers,
garden walls in my friend's
a
black
had
that served as a black
square
somebody
compound
painted
board for the children. One of the little nieces of the household,
fourteen
a
to
had
written
of
the
draft
she
had
Mimi,
essay
prepare for
year-old
just
school. The topic she had chosen for her essay was the following:
26
"The
Topic:
In
the
Man
Review
Studies
African
are not
dead
ever
of this world,
history
ends with
death.
Man
to the Bible
According
next
few
lines we will
to their
above,
connecting
this
according
in a way.
This
also
while
somewhere
upon
that have
a
for
waiting
see
"second
of
judgment
forgotten.
the dead will
not
their
In the
dead
as we
immortal,
death.
are
dead
upon
world."
Judgment.
are not
dead
be
that
their
the
comment
the
the Last
never
will
before
that
will
in
The
we will
posed
illustrates
we
topic
active
thought.
made
them
which
the life of
today,
dead when
he no
until
but
lives,
until
this
person's
to the Bible,
that
he
today's
are
acts
logic
to the acts
its creation
when
they
not dead
are
they
elaborate
actions
preceding
a
illustrated
since
is alive
in analyzing
not dead,
lives. However,
longer
are
the dead
this fact:
due
dead."
These
acts
really
dead.
have
And
by
be judged
never
die,
are
They
acts.
previous
of the Bible passages
that Mimi was referring to is no doubt John 5:
not
marvel at this; for the hour is coming when all who are in
28-29: "Do
the tombs will hear his voice and come forth, those who have done good,
One
to
resurrection
the
of
tion of judgment."
11:
John
themselves
Similar
on
11-14,
to a deep
death
the
stantly
of
be
of
movements
have
of
messages
resurrec
the
include
quoted,
where
a resurrection
prayer
to
evil,
Lazarus,
compares
Jesus
in God which
both
the
just
these
a
contributed
the
and
great
of the living and the dead by con
interchangeableness
these
done
24: 15: "having a hope
will
and
churches
on
focusing
passages
there
have
that are frequently
resurrection
that
to the growing
deal
who
those
sleep, and Acts
accept,
new
The
unjust."
and
life,
as
resurrection
framed
with
the
spe
cific religious time frame that pervades Congo
today.
can be witnessed
in all the r?veil or revival
This religious zombification
ist churches,
ing
are
excerpts
member
Congo),
accounts
where
from
returnees
of
an
interview
with
from
death
Mama
de
of the church CADC
(Communaut?
who recounts how she died and returned
abound.
The
follow
a schoolteacher
Nsasa,
and
de Dieu
l'Assembl?e
to the living:
are many
tenants.
I live there
in which
One
day, every
compound
were
a
was
I
to
Children
home
alone.
had
off
gone
prayer
campaign.
body
near
I put my
the
chair
Towards
the evening
outside.
outside,
playing
rooms
were
closed.
tenants'
of the other
The
doors
and windows
door.
In the
Nobody
times:
house,
Then
was
'Don't
but
there
be
lock
the door,
I heard
God's
to
put you
sleep
Afterwards
your
Tell
them before
me.
kneel
voice
to make
for
again:
God,
pray.'
'Don't
who
I did
be
you see things.
remain.
The
will
called
who
me
three
inside
the
is calling
you. Go
a
so and
for
time.
long
prayed
to
I want
It is me, God.
afraid.
I will
take your breath
[your life].
for you.
sing and pray
living will
not
to
return
to life.
will
you,
bury you, you
them not to search
school.
Tell
of your
the director
body
not to mourn
landlord
and
your
if you go missing
you
this
about
who
told me
Tell
and
a voice
I heard
Then
It is me,
afraid.
for
two
coming
ir three
event,
days.'
my
When
spirit
was
I heard
no
His
longer
voice
of
this
au
The Apocalyptic
world.
My
the people
God....
Interlude:
was
spirit
what
gone,
had
voice
my
muted.
to me.
happened
next
The
I went
and
told
day
this was the work
of
said
Everybody
27
in Kinshasa
Death
Revealing
for the event
to
I gave my
later, I was anxiously
Days
waiting
happen.
to a woman
and my
shoes
who
leads
the prayer
for these
group,
no
me
to me.
to the
I saw a light.
Then
It guided
belonged
things
longer
saw them
was
It was
I
church.
and
with
people
packed
everybody
praying.
am I?
their voices
In which
world
pray but I could
very vaguely.
only hear
are
on my
In which
I fell asleep
contem
world
chair while
they living?
watch
I heard
and at that very moment
halted
prayer
light. Then
I
I fell
three
times.
three
times:
Jesus,
Jesus,
Jesus.
replied
was dead,
moment
I
At
that
but
breath
my
ground
immediately.
this
plating
some
call me
onto
the
was
still
deacons
rushed
because
my breath
From
heaven
'Amen',
since
had
they
me
put
me
touched
taken
only
return
coffin.
Then
arrived
on
start
I had
praying
been
me
a
preacher
the
and
I was
Satan.
still
arms,
my
I couldn't
rigid.
asked whether
they
me.
beneath
the
head.
answer
should
a final
they uttered
days had passed
as if
cold,
body
somebody
The
around
my
people
body
standing
to cry and
and
the women
started
cold,
beg
had
lived
They
in Ngaba
Two
become
were
to close
ready
the
lid of my
of Kinshasa]
[a neighborhood
to
ordered
guided
by the Spirit. He
people
to life so that I could
back
of what
bear witness
to
me
bring
shown
in heaven.
put me
of dead
with
people
were
dressed
They
ated
and
preacher
my
was
He
spot.
world
in the world.
who
The
feet,
they
and when
prayed,
and I was dead_
and my
me,
refrigerator.
felt the
and
to let me
God
a
in
had
When
They
interrupted
I saw the whole
to leave.
my
massaged
it had become
They
but
head.
my
was
a visa
have
yet
me.
my body
voice had
left me.
my
I nodded
for me
pray
if I didn't
towards
to move
tried
They
them
as
there,
back
chains
In the
evening
in the world.
On
around
their
of
my
arms,
as
in black,
in mourning,
voice was freed,
dead
the
second
back
way
their
neck
while
to
descended
they
I could
but my
the
and
voyage
I finished
I was
liber
day, God
I crossed
groups
and their ankles.
speak.
I started
to
wrote
I
down
what
preacher
everything
to
dead
and
the
started
again,
preacher
to the world.
on the third
for good
And
finally,
about my
speak
told him. When
to God
to return me
pray
a miracle
me.
an arm first and
Imoved
and resuscitated
day, God worked
then a leg. The preacher
said:
'let us pray, for she is returning.'
When
they
a
were
ears
ended
with
'Amen!'
And
with
the sec
my
prayer
unplugged.
ond
'Amen!'
On
the third
I stood
'Amen!'
my
eyes opened.
up. A dis
came
out of my
me
odor
fled away and watched
gusting
body.
Everybody
a distance,
from
to lead me
but
the preacher
ordered
the women
into a
some water
house
and wash
and clothe me. They
to drink
gave me
nearby
and
blessed
great difficulty.
n't circulated,
and
started
some
While
food
which
I was
intestines
my
to
give witness
dead
had
they gave
the blood
become
of God's
me
which
also,
and
hard,
miracle.
the water
but
slowly
I swallowed
with
in my
body had
I returned
to life
(Fieldnotes,
notebooks
78
/78bis)
In
contemporary
borderline
into
Kinshasa,
the "second
children,
world"
too,
are
of evil with
considered
as much
to
ease
cross
the
as Mama
28
African Studies Review
Nsasa's
between
passage
life
and
on
death,
her
way
to heaven
up
and
back
(see De Boeck
dren between
8c De Boeck 2005). Increasingly,
2004, Honwana
also, chil
are
four
accused
of
and
ages
eighteen
causing,
through
as well as the illness or death of other
and mishaps,
witchcraft, misfortunes
In other cases little
children and adults in their family and neighborhood.
are
of
themselves
into
beautiful
suspected
transforming
girls
stunningly
women
to lure their own fathers and uncles
into their bed, to snatch away
or even death. Chil
their testicles or penis, and to cause their impotence
are also believed
dren
attacks
their
among
in
four-year-olds
to be at the origin
and
relatives
the
"first
world,"
into
themselves
to be
appear
second
nocturnal,
or heart
or
threeworld
they
to many
in turn
children.
These
streets
trans
Kin.
of
the
Others
through
or
crocodiles,
serpents,
"mystic"
the
cancer,
birth
have themselves
already given
become witch-children
roaming
form
parents;
in
but
of madness,
others
wata
mami
sirens.
these hidden
and open accusations
erupt into vio
Frequently
suspicions
the accused child's family. Often
the child in question
lent conflict within
is
in some
beaten,
severely
extreme
cases
even
killed,
by
or
members
family
such forms of extreme
(De Boeck & Plissart 2004:170) Although
neighbors
no
means
are
most
of
such
the rule,
violence
by
alleged witch-children
and
(called sheta, tsor, or tshor, from the French sorcier, witch) are disowned
and end up in the street, where
they often team up with other
repudiated
abandoned
children.
The
of the Imaginary
The Changing Nature
Conclusion:
character
of the forms in which violence
nightmarish
as
of the qualities
in
well
the
transformations
appear
daily life,
oneiric,
death
realities
of
constitutes
what
life
and
death,
are
characteristic
as a whole
that Congolese
society
deeper alterations
roots of these changes,
out going into the historical
evolution
sis of
on
may,
sense,
or
of
one
level,
important
be
There
representation.
is not
what
is
"really"
there,
or more
as a
is a continuous
of the links between
signifier and
multiplication
of the factual
1996:92), an interchangeableness
of the signs in
stant reminder of the arbitrariness
that
in short, the widespread
what you see
feeling
is there
Iwould
summarized
of
is undergoing.
argue
and
and
some
With
that this
cri
generalized
rupturing
and/or
(see De Boeck
signified
a con
and the fictional,
the lived world. There
is,
is not what you see, what
important,
is not
what
matters
in other words,
the "crisis" situates itself in the
In urban Congo,
and disjunction
of
function
and
(such as the
junction
qualities
changing
in
role of the
hence
the
life
and
and
between
death),
changing
disjunction
a
in
Put
different
that
which
way, the soci
operates
disjunction.
imaginary,
as
most
is
also
it
and
etal crisis in postcolonial
Congo,
poignantly
expressed
most.
the increasingly
revolves around
in the space of prayer, essentially
prob
lematic positing or "siting" of the double
(for example, death as the dou
The Apocalyptic
Interlude:
Revealing
Death
29
in Kinshasa
ble of the living, or the double as the living and familiar figure of death).
seems to have changed
in the slippage between
visible and
Something
its elili, as it is called in Lingala,
invisible, between
reality and its double,
that
is,
its shadow,
specter,
or
reflection,
image.
one hand, something
has altered the significance
of that elili, the
seems
to
in
of
the
it
often
have
become
unmediated
that
symbol,
quality
a
a way, has
of
The
in
rather
than
reality
representation
reality.
symbol,
ceased to symbolize, but has become
instead,
ontological
through a sever
On
the mechanisms
of doubling,
of junction
and
ing of the ties that operate
is
On
the
other
its
double.
annihilated
hand,
reality
disjunction.
by
Reality
into each other, have lost their capacity to
and its mirror
image collapse
exist simultaneously.
What may be observed here is, in a way, the liquida
as elsewhere
in Africa,
In Congo,
tion of the double.
there has always
in a rather
lurked,
way,
unproblematic
another
reality
the
underneath
sur
and stagnation,
the visible world. Movement
social or physical
and
the
diurnal
and
the
have
death,
nocturnal,
reproduction
always existed
in and through each other, and the crossing from one world into the other
even though it sometimes proved to be
has always been easy to effectuate,
face
of
dangerous.
Today,
however,
within
the
specific
space-time
of
the
apocalyp
seems to push aside and
tic interlude,
this other, second world increasingly
take over the first world of daily reality. The invasion of the space of the liv
of this more general change as is, for exam
ing by the dead is symptomatic
the
invasion
of
the
first
world
ple,
by the second in the form of witch-chil
dren and zombies. A term that is currently used in Lingala to describe
this
this quality of mounting
Unheimlichkeit and elusiveness
of the
change,
In
seems
is
the
to
that
Kinshasa
world,
mystique.
postcolonial
Afrique fant?me
common
to designate
have become,
it is increasingly
and
people, objects,
to place, interpret, and attribute meaning
situations as mystique,
difficult
to.
In summary, what this contribution
has intended
to illustrate, through
a focus on the Apocalypse,
we call it cri
is the changing nature?should
sis??of
the local imaginary, or better: of the qualities of junction
and dis
the
and
the
between
of
and
the
junction
imaginary
symbolic,
epistemolog
ical breach that accompanies
these alterations
in Congo today. This breach
is basically appearing
in what is a growing
indiscernibleness
between
the
first and the second world, or between
and
its
In
the
Con
double.
reality
the first world of social reality is formed only in relation to
golese context,
a second world, a mirror
image that is rooted in a collective
imaginary. And
are
no
the
of
in
yet
qualities
reality
Congo
longer those of Lacan 's r?el
of "appearance"
in a city like Kinshasa,
I would
(hence the importance
to the
the first, comparable
add). Instead, the second world has become
the first economic
way in which the informal second economy has become
of doubling
and mirroring,
and the
reality. It is clear that the processes
of symbolization
itself, have changed dramat
qualities of the structuration
of their previously unproblematic
ically and, as a result, have lost much
30
Studies
African
Review
context.
in the current Congolese
The
the
character
linkages among
of imaginary, symbolic, and real have lost their simultaneity;
they
or weakened
and can no longer be trusted or taken for
have disappeared
ceased to be one of
granted. The relation with the double has somehow
to mystique
and
has
from
and
turned
familiar
exchange
negotiation,
instead. What needs to be understood
much better in order to grasp the
orders
of
realities
nature
of
such
and
changing,
collective
power,
stability,
transformations,
postcolonial
the
thus
historical,
to
its relation
is the precise
however,
character
of
its
"realism,"
symbolization?its
its capac
form,
imagic
ity to fix ontology.
Acknowledgments
in 2002 at the 45th African Studies
of this article was presented
as
a
of
for the
Association
part
"Memory and Mourning
meeting
panel,
I thank
Traumatic Past," organized by Bob White and Bogumil Jewsiewicki.
Peter Geschiere,
them as well as Jan-Lodewijk
David Newbury,
Grootaers,
A version
Michael
and
Lambek,
on
remarks
earlier
three
of
this
for
reviewers
anonymous
versions
comments
their
and
article.
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Notes
1.
Since
have
1987,1
in Congo.
settings
shasa.
The
material
between
8c Plissart,
critic
the 9th
research
See
Corten
Laurent
Stone
4.
For
a
field
I have
years,
article
was
The
Biennial
Tonda
Trinh
and
field
regular
in a book
with
the
urban
in Kin
trips
(De Boeck
architect
and
com
Imaginary
City,"
won
at
the Golden
Lion
The
for Architecture,
Institute
rural
research
doing
during
culminated
"Kinshasa:
exhibition,
Architecture
in Venice,
September
Research-Flanders
(2001),
(2002);
and
from
(2000),
Robbins
2004.
Recent
(FWO).
Grootaers
(2001),
a
comparative
and Palmer
per
(1997),
(2000).
introduction
to
is derived
from
music,
Congolese
term
the Lingala
is significant
reality
been
mainly
collected
for Scientific
by the Fund
sponsored
and Marshall-Fratani
Gifford
(2001),
neologism
of
formations
in both
research
in Kinshasa
My work
an exhibition
that I co-curated
(2000), and Weber
good
Kindokinisme
the
2004.
this
(2003),
(1998),
Meyer
see Hall,
and
Schuyler,
spective
3.
for
International
was
extensive
In recent
and
2004)
Van
Synghel.
by the Flemish
Koen
missioned
2.
and
1997
conducted
constantly
in that
seem
it illustrates
to
require
see
Stewart
kindoki,
how
new
2000.
"witchcraft."
the
The
use
unpredictable
frameworks.
conceptual
of
trans