And the Messiah Arrived. Re-reading Balandier and African Prophetism in the Postcolony
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.5380/cam.v10i2.17937Keywords:
Georges Balandier, Religião, Profetismo, Congo, AngolaAbstract
One of the most impacting theories in the anthropology of Africa of the last decades has been Georges Balandier’s theorization of the “colonial situation”, and namely his portrait of the development of messianic and prophetic religious movements with a strong political accent in the Lower Congo region. In this article I propose to revisit Balandier’s main theories through the case study of two prophetic movements of this region – Kimbanguism and Tokoism – with which, together with my colleague Ramon Sarró, I have developed fieldwork in Portugal and Angola. This essay is also an appraisal of the current pertinence of Balandier’s proposals for the study of these movements in contemporary transnational and postcolonial times.
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