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Noel_Moukala
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« on: August 11, 2004, 06:30:37 PM »

In this pathway of dehumanisation people became lost. Money became the God and profit was the end game!
Noel


Kimbangu, Simon
c. 1887 to 1951
The Church of Jesus Christ on Earth
Democratic Republic of Congo

Prophet Simon Kimbangu was the most important of the prophet founders in the independent church movement. The Church of Jesus Christ on Earth by the Prophet Simon Kimbangu is one of the largest of such communities and was the first both to establish a theological school and to be admitted to the World Council of Churches. Little of this was foreshadowed by Kimbangu's life, however, most of which was endured in prison.


The outlines of his life are simple. Although Kimbangu's father was a traditional religious leader, Simon was converted by the Baptist Missionary Society in 1915. He worked for several years as a catechist, a religious teacher who prepares candidates for baptism, and then had a vision in which God gave him a divine commission to preach and heal. To escape the divine command, he fled to Léopoldville, the capital of the Belgian Congo, where he did migrant work. In 1921 he cured a sick woman and returned to the Lower Congo region to preach. This mission, which lasted only six months, had astounding effects. He drew crowds, to the extent that workers left the plantations to hear him speak and hospital beds were emptied of those hoping for cures. The word spread that an ngunza (prophet) and mvuluzi (apostle, messiah) was among the Congo people. Kimbangu cured the sick and was said to raise the dead. His village, Nkamba, was renamed New Jerusalem. The mission became a mass movement and began to take on nationalist overtones, disturbing both the Baptists and the Belgian colonial authorities. His healing ministry had a powerful impact, as followers proclaimed his cures and miracles. In all this were echoes of the messianism of KIMPA Vita two centuries earlier.

Kimbangu employed Christian symbolism, seeing himself as a Christ figure. He appointed 12 apostles to assist him and laid down three moral rules: the abolition of all traditional religious symbols, the eradication of erotic dancing and the destruction of dance drums, and the end of polygamy. He opposed witchcraft and sorcery. To the shock of the missionaries, who had worked toward these goals for years with little result, Kimbangu's disciples conformed to his rules without a murmur.

Africans often believed that the missionaries held back the secrets of Christianity that were the source of European power and wealth, and therefore Kimbangu's leadership provided a way to unlock these secrets by using a prophet who had talked to God. Kimbangu identified God with nzambi, the Congo supreme being, and preached God's closeness to his people.

The movement also fed on anti-European feeling and thus aroused the Belgian government's concern. Prodded by missionaries, especially the Catholics, the government panicked. Machine guns were posted in the capital in expectation of an African uprising. The first attempt to take Kimbangu failed when he slipped away from a rally, resulting in stories of his miracle-working. Kimbangu turned himself in to authorities, was charged with sedition, and was sentenced to death. King Leopold II* commuted the sentence to life imprisonment with 120 lashes, and Kimbangu was sent a thousand miles away, where he died after 30 years in isolation from his followers.

If the Belgians thought that this would silence the movement, they were mistaken. During his trial, Kimbangu assumed the stance of the martyred Christ during his passion; in detention his figure took on iconic proportions. Even traditional Christians admired his acceptance of his fate, his obvious prayerful piety, and the evidence of his deep personal holiness. Although he could not preach in prison, his demeanor was patient and loving, and he shared his meager food rations with other prisoners. His followers begged him to use his miraculous powers to escape but continued to build his movement without him. The Belgians cracked down on Kimbanguists, but the church went underground, led by Kimbangu's son, Joseph DIANGIENDA. Several related sects soon appeared, all acknowledging Kimbangu as their spiritual father. Kimbangu also became a symbol of Congolese nationalism, and Kimbanguism fostered group cohesion. By diminishing the power of magic and witchcraft, it helped to develop mutual trust and community. It also challenged the authority of the local chiefs, who were seen - quite rightly - as the lackeys of the Belgian authorities.

A church council was established in 1956, five years after Kimbangu's death, and his three sons, led by Diangienda, took over. In 1991, President MOBUTU Sese Seko, who had legalized the church, posthumously amnestied Kimbangu and awarded him the National Order of the Leopard.

Norbert C. Brockman

*DACB editor's note: King Albert I, not Leopold II, was the Belgian sovereign at the time of Kimbangu's sentencing.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Bibliography:

Dictionary of African Biography. Algonac, MI, and New York: Reference Publications, vol. 1, 1977; vol. 2, 1979.
Lipschutz, Mark R., and R. Kent Rasmussen. Dictionary of African Historical Biography. 2nd edition. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1986.
Ewechue, Ralph (ed.). Makers of Modern Africa. 2nd edition. London: Africa Books, 1991.

Additional Reading: Martin, Marie-Louise. Kimbangu: An African Prophet and His Church (1976).



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

This article is reproduced, with permission, from An African Biographical Dictionary, copyright © 1994, edited by Norbert C. Brockman, Santa Barbara, California. All rights reserved.


http://www.gospelcom.net/dacb/stories/demrepcongo/kimbangu1_simon.html
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Noel_Moukala
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« Reply #1 on: August 12, 2004, 03:16:41 PM »

Simon Kimbangu (which means the one who reveals hidden things), was born in the lower Congo in 1887 when the Berlin conference for dividing up the African continent was just ending.

Between 1921 and 1951 he announced, by chronological order, the following:

the liberation of Africans throughout the first nominal independence of the 60s
he announced that dictators would be in power in Africa afterwards
the rise of murderous wars everywhere in Africa not to long after the independence
the exodus of many young Africans towards occidental countries to escape from oppression and extreme poverty
then the heroic and hard conquest of the second independence (Dipanda Dianzole), led, according to the Messiah Kimbangu (as he was named), by a powerful Man who will be spiritually engaged with a highly important mission that will make him a great political, religious and scientific leader. This powerful leader is called in Kikongo Nkua Tulendo. This leader, who is at the same time an experienced Politician King and Prophet, will reestablish the broken link between Yahweh and the black People and will restore true peace and harmony. He will come with a powerful message in a Book, this book will be rejected at first but will end up being accepted by all. Kimbangu announces the coming of this Great Leader and asked his people to wait for him and to follow him when he will come !
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Bantu_Kelani
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Posts: 2063


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« Reply #2 on: August 30, 2004, 01:03:16 AM »

Quote

then the heroic and hard conquest of the second independence (Dipanda Dianzole), led, according to the Messiah Kimbangu (as he was named), by a powerful Man who will be spiritually engaged with a highly important mission that will make him a great political, religious and scientific leader. This powerful leader is called in Kikongo Nkua Tulendo. This leader, who is at the same time an experienced Politician King and Prophet, will reestablish the broken link between Yahweh and the black People and will restore true peace and harmony. He will come with a powerful message in a Book, this book will be rejected at first but will end up being accepted by all. Kimbangu announces the coming of this Great Leader and asked his people to wait for him and to follow him when he will come !

sigh..

Since you can't think far based the perspective of the Judeo-Christian ideology Mr. Noel Moukala, it's clear you are exposing to the public of this forum distorted prophecies. The coming of "one man" will not make a difference. If Simon Kimbangu allegedly said so, then he wasn't a true mage or a prophet for he should have known that bringing lasting liberation to African peoples the world over is each African man and woman responsibility. The fight against oppression, manipulation and sexism must first be within self.. Innately, mentally it's only the self that prepares self for all phases of struggle against the oppressors in all directions.. So, IMO, this Kongo mythological leader "Nkua Tulendo" is not coming. This concept is not "a man" as regards to physical, but mental and a spiritual development, it's IMO a full consciousness of the ability of all Black peoples to communicate with or to be aware of  the liberating wisdom of the Other World and the ancestors.

B.K
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We should first show solidarity with each other. We are Africans. We are black. Our first priority is ourselves.
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