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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 01 January 2020
This essay describes a religious freedom controversy that developed between the world wars in the Belgian colony of the Congo, where Protestant missionaries complained that Catholic priests were abusing Congolese Protestants and that the Belgian government favored the Catholics. The history of this campaign demonstrates how humanitarian discourses of religious freedom—and with them competing configurations of church and state—took shape in colonial contexts. From the beginnings of the European scramble for Africa, Protestant and Catholic missionaries had helped formulate the “civilizing” mission and the humanitarian policies—against slavery, for free trade, and for religious freedom—that served to justify the European and U.S. empires of the time. Protestant missionaries in the Congo challenged the privileges granted to Catholic institutions by appealing to religious freedom guarantees in colonial and international law. In response, Belgian authorities and Catholic missionaries elaborated a church-state arrangement that limited “foreign” missions in the name of Belgian national unity. Both groups, however, rejected Native Congolese religious movements—which refused the authority of the colonial church(es) along with the colonial state—as “political” and so beyond the bounds of legitimate “religion.” Our analysis shows how competing configurations of church and state emerged dialogically in this colonial context and how alternative Congolese movements ultimately challenged Belgian colonial rule.
1 The one British Catholic mission in the Belgian Congo was also considered a “national” mission, indicating the degree to which the distinction of national versus foreign matched sectarian divisions. The Belgian Protestant missionary organization had missions in the Belgian colony of Ruanda-Urundi but not in Congo.
2 Minutes from the Congo Protestant Council Meeting, 13–19 Feb. 1931, p. 7, box 289, fiche 93, Papers of the International Missionary Council-Conference of British Missionary Societies, SOAS, London (hereafter, IMC-CBMS, SOAS).
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21 Congo Missionary Conference 1909: A Report of the Fifth General Conference of Missionaries of the Protestant Societies Working in Congoland Held at Kinchassa, Stanley Pool, Congo State, September 14–19, 1909 (Bongadanga, Congo State: Congo Balolo Mission Press, 1909), 3–4, 8.
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37 “L'Avenir Colonial, dans un article … écrit que le Kimbanguisme n'est autre que le garvéyisme ou le movement hostile surtout aux Belges. Laisser prier ce mouvement, c'est laisser s'organiser ce mouvement hostile, c'est permettre la propaganda, c'est livrer tout le pays au Kibangisme.” Quoted in Augustin Bita Lihun Nzundu, Missions Catholiques et Protestantes Face Au Colonialisme et Aux Aspirations Du Peuple Autochtone à l'autonomie et à l'indépendance Politique Au Congo Belge (1908–1960): Effort de Synthèse (Roma: Pontificia Università gregoriana, 2013), 421.
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41 Congo Missionary Conference: A Report of the Eighth Congo General Conference of Protestant Missionaries, Held at Bolenge, District de l'Equateur, Congo, Belge, October 29–November 7, 1921 (Haut Congo, Congo Belge: Baptist Mission Press, 1921), 201.
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47 Noting the newspaper's popularity and reach among “the middle classes in the Flemish provinces,” the CPC circulated the article to all of its members so they could respond to the “untruth,” which most Belgian papers had already retracted, that Mwana Lesa was affiliated with the Protestant missions. ‘“Protestantism in the Congo.’”
48 Henri Anêt, “Le Massacreur du Katanga,” Congo Mission News (Apr. 1926), back of cover, translation by the authors.
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