¹ Zaire is the term used to designate the area of the Congo (Zaire) basin that became the Independent Congo State in 1885, the Belgian Congo in 1908, the independent Democratic Republic of the Congo in 1960, and the Republic of Zaire in 1967.

² In this paper, Central Africa includes Zaire, the northern parts of Angola and Zambia, the People's Republic of the Congo, the Republic of Gabon and parts of the United Republic of the Cameroons and the Central African Republic. Central African common culture may in fact cover a wider area than is included here.

³ The most useful single collection of data were the archives of the former province of Luluabourg (Kananga). Other archives were consulted in numerous local government posts and missionary centers throughout Zaire. We also conducted interviews with African informants about religious movements in different regions of the country. And we benefited from the similar research of other social scientists in Congo and Zambia, as well as Zaire. In these ways we gathered materials on some thirty movements. We found that other observers overrepresented the number of separate religious movements, because they failed to recognize that as a movement traveled from one area to another it often underwent alterations, including a name change. Our data encompass all religious movements known to exist in the southern half and the northwest quarter of Zaire; they are less complete for the northeast region. Relevant writings by the authors include: Craemer, Willy De, Jamaa and Ecclesia: a Charismatic Movement in the Congolese Catholic Church (Ph.D. thesis, Harvard University, 1974);Google ScholarFox, Renée C., Willy De Craemer and Jean—Marie Ribeaucourt, “ 'The Second Independence': A Case Study of the Kwilu Rebellion in the Congo,” Comparative Studies in Society and History, VIII: 1(10. 1965), pp. 78–109;CrossRefGoogle ScholarFox, Renée C., “Traditionality and Modernity in the 1964 Congo Rebellion” (1969), unpublished manuscript;Google ScholarVansina, Jan, “Les mouvements religieux kuba (Kasai) a l'epoque coloniale,” Etudes d'Histoire africaine, II (1971), pp. 155–87;Google ScholarVansina, Jan, “Lukoshi/Lupambula: Histoire d'un culte religieux dansles regions du Kasai et du Kwango (1920–1970),” Etudes d'Histoire africaine, V (1973), pp. 51–97.Google Scholar

⁴ Douglas, Mary, Purity and Danger (New York: Frederick A. Praeger, 1966), p. 171.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

⁵ The case of one's own malignant thoughts and feelings is explained as theresult of evil actions by others who have twisted one's personality. The notion of“responsibility” as it occurs in West European languages does not closely fit anyCentral African semantic field.

⁶ In the anthropological literature, two major distinctions have been made between witchcraft and sorcery: witchcraft is defined as relying purely on internal psychic power to harm, sorcery as making use of objects to do so. The second distinction made is that witchcraft is an unconscious action, sorcery a conscious one. In some instances, the two sets of distinctions have been intermingled. The first is derived from the Azande case, as set forth by E.E. Evans—Pritchard. Mary Douglas contends that it is difficult to maintain when discussing widely different cultures.See Douglas, M., Introduction, Witchcraft Confessions and Accusations (London: Tavistock, ASA Monographs no. 9, 1970), pp. xxvii–xxix. However, for most of the culture area with which we are concerned the first distinction does hold.Google Scholar

⁷ Taylor, John V., The Primal Vision (London: SCM Press, 1965), p. 192.Google Scholar

⁸ Closeness of kinship implies dense, multiplex and ambivalent relationships. They often give rise to great tension which, in Central African culture, may be expressed in witchcraft accusations or suspicions.

⁹ The quoted phrases come from a Pende proverb: “The mask is blind, but there is an intelligence inside it.”

¹⁰ The notion of culture used here owes much to Clifford Geertz,“The Impact of the Concept of Culture on the Concept of Man,” in New Views of the Nature of Man, ed. Platt, J. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1966), pp. 93–118,Google Scholar and to Jack Goody in Goody, J. and Watt, M., eds., Literacy in Traditional Societies (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1968), pp. 6–7, 28, 57.Google Scholar

¹¹ Common to Central Africa is the notion that some harmful substance is hidden in the body of the witch that will give him (her) his (her) powers. The location of this substance varies. It can be in the stomach, liver, knee or in the calf of the leg. Common to the peoples of the Equatorial forest, from Gabon to Tturi, is the belief that it is hidden in the stomach (called everywhere likundu, or a related word).

¹² They cannot be explained by “independent invention” but presuppose diffusion. The semantics involved support this contention: some words are common Bantu, as the famous *—dòg—, “to bewitch” and its derivates. See Guthrie, M., Comparative Bantu (London: Gregg, 1970), vol. 3, C.S. 644.Google Scholar

¹³ The matrilineal belt offers a rare opportunity to follow the spread of women, because their clan names traveled with them. Similar names are found from the Atlantic Ocean to the Kasai and from the Lualaba to the Luangwa—conclusive proof of a thorough exchange of women among the communities of the whole area. See Vansina, Jan, “Probing the Past of the Lower Kwilu Peoples,” Paideuma, XIX–XX (1973–1974), pp. 345–9;Google ScholarCunnison, Ian, The Luapula Peoples of Northern Rhodesia (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1959), pp. 62, 158.Google Scholar The situation was probably identical in patrilineal areas. Some evidence of this was found by Hulstaert, G., Les Mongo: Aperçu général(Tervuren: Musée Royal de l'Afrique Centrale, 1961), Archives d'Ethnographie, no. 5, pp. 16–17.Google Scholar

¹⁴ For an historical example of the exchange of charms between traders, see Vansina, Jan, The Tio Kingdom of the Middle Congo, 1880–1892 (London: Oxford University Press, 1973), p. 263.Google Scholar This was done between trading partners for mutual protection. Frobenius, L., Im Schatten des Kongo Staates (Berlin, 1907), p. 122Google Scholar tells how Bamputu traders who had been robbed by Bambala put up a charm in the Bambala village. This caused panic and the Bambala not only returned the stolen goods but paid to have the traders' charm removed.

¹⁵ The clearing of forest or woodland for fields and village sites creates better conditions for anopheles (malaria), glossina (sleeping sickness) and perhaps for aedes Aegypti (yellow fever) flies. Standing water, as in the hollows of banana leaves, favors anopheles. Agricultural villages are sedentary, and in settled conditions dysenteries and helminthiases are much more common than among nomads, because of bacterial pollution of water and sand in the village and near its spring.

¹⁶ Characteristically, it was at this stage in the development of a religious movement that the Belgian colonial administration became concerned about its existence. Government officials looked especially for signs of a hierarchical structure. They interpreted hierarchy to mean that the movement was sufficiently well organized to constitute a threat to colonial authority. Thus, once they had classified a movement as hierarchical, they were likely to take action to curtail or suppress it.See Piron, P. and Devos, J., Codes et Lois du Congo beige (Brussels: Larcier, 1954), vol. II, p. 875,Google Scholar and especially the ordinance of 25 August 1937 as cited under 6b “ou toute secte hiérarchisée.” A list of movements outlawed as of the end of 1953 follows on pp. 875–6.Google Scholar The general attitude towards such movements is indicated by the extract of the handbook for colonial officers (Receuil á I'usage des agents duservice territorial) also cited here.

¹⁷ Kongo ngolo, Nyanga karamo, Kuba poloo, Tio mpolo, etc. The semantic content as described by Daniel Biebuyck for the Nyanga is characteristic. “Karamo is derived from irama, to recover, to heal. It means good health, force, salvation, good life. Karamo is the current greeting among the Nyanga; it is also the central theme in invocations, prayers and cultural practices. To have karamo means to be healthy, to be wise, to be successful in hunting, to entertain smooth relationships.” See Biebuyck, D., The Mwindo Epic (Los Angeles: University of California Los Angeles Press, 1969), pp. 34–5. Identical statements could be made about the other peoples, except that personal salvation (an interlacustrine trait) does not exist in the Central African religious culture. (The Nyanga border on East African cultures.)Google Scholar

¹⁸ The two movements that show a cargo cult type preoccupation with wealth are Kimbanguism (as reflected in some of its later hymns) and Tupelepele. In both cases, this aspect seems to have been influenced by the difficult economic conditions in the then Belgian Congo during the Great Depression of the early 1930s. For the case of the Tupelepele see: Gize, Sikitele, La revoke pende (M.A. thesis, Lovanium University, 1971), pp. 76–120Google Scholar and Gize, Sikitele, “Les racines de la revoltepende de 1931,” Etudes d'Histoire africaine, V (1973), pp. 99–153, especially pp.127–41.Google Scholar

¹⁹ In the context of this article, myth is defined as a narrative connected with a body of rituals. Myths explaining the emergence of a movement changed easily during its diffusion without affecting the ritual-symbol complex itself, showing that the link between myth and the core of the movement was fairly loose.

²⁰ The Jatnaa is an example of such an exceptional Central African religious movement that does not include charms. We attribute this to the fact that, to an unusual degree, it has absorbed mystical Christian elements. Perhaps some mystic lodges of the Sufic brotherhoods in Central Africa are also movements without charms. They need to be studied in greater detail.

²¹ It has not yet been possible to ascertain all the rules that govern these combinations. Free association is the moving force in the reasoning by analogy. But not all associations are acceptable. There are other rules. The dynamic extensions allowed by the rules and the generative limits imposed on the creation of derived symbols have yet to be described. Frazer's categories of sympathetic magic or magic by analogy miss the point and so do the structural transformation procedures of Lévi—Strauss, to mention but two of the better—known authors.

²² For an analysis of the 1964 Congo Rebellion, see Young, M. Crawford, “Rebellion and the Congo,” in Rotberg, Robert I., ed., Rebellion in Black Africa (New York: Oxford University Press, 1971), pp. 209–45, as well as R. C. Fox, W. De Craemer and J.—M. Ribeaucourt, “'The Second Independence'” and R. C. Fox, “Traditionality and Modernity in the 1964 Rebellion,” already cited. For a collection of primary documents on the rebellion see, Benoît Verhaegen, Rébellions au Congo, Volumes I and II (Brussels: Centre de Recherche et d'Information Socio—Politiques, 1966 and 1969).Google Scholar

²³ The next step is for the statue to acquire a personal name. Then perhaps a short myth may arise around the name, or a statue of the opposite sex will be made, for the sake of harmony. It too will acquire a name. This kind of evolution did take place among the Bakuba.

²⁴ See Vansina, Jan, “Lukoshi/Lupambula: Histoire d'un culte religieux dans les régions du Kasai et du Kwango (1920–1970),” Etudes d'Histoire africaine, V(1973), pp. 51—97, especially pp. 56, 59, 68–9.Google Scholar