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‘MBOKA MUNDELE’: AFRICANITY, RELIGIOUS PLURALISM AND THE MILITARIZATION OF PROPHETS IN BRAZZAVILLE AND KINSHASASarah Demart and Joseph TondaAfricaAfrica / Volume 86 / Issue 02 / May 2016, pp 195-214ABSTRACTIn recent decades, Kinshasa and Brazzaville have given rise to movements of prophecy, messianic fervour and revival (Pentecostalist in nature) in the field of religion. The patterns of liberation and deliverance that can be discerned here reflect forms of identity politics in which Africanity, in the ethnic and national sense, is not only a major issue, but a component that is increasingly associated with armed conflict. These processes express a radical paradigm shift that we place within the context of the relationship between Africanity and religious pluralism that has become evident in these two religious areas in recent years. The term ‘Mboka Mundele’ (the village or country of the Whites) points to an experience of ‘colonial modernity’, and allows us to describe in objective terms the current urban context in which these ‘businessmen of God’ emerge. Fernando Kutino, Ntoumi, Yaucat Guendi and Ne Muanda Nsemi are four major politico-religious figures who embody an ideology of Africanity related to complex types of ‘magic’ and processes of pluralization.RÉSUMÉDepuis quelques décennies, les champs religieux kinois et brazzavillois donnent à voir des mouvements prophétiques, messianiques et de réveil (pentecôtistes) dont les schémas de libération et de délivrance traduisent des politiques identitaires pour lesquelles l'africanité, au sens ethnique et national, est non seulement un enjeu majeur, mais une composante de plus en plus associée à des conflits armés. Ces dynamiques expriment un changement de paradigme radical que l'on met en perspective au regard du rapport entre africanité et pluralisation religieuse qui se donne à voir, depuis quelques années, dans ces deux champs religieux. Significative de l'expérience de la « modernité coloniale », l'expression Mboka Mundele (le village ou pays des Blancs) nous permettra d'objectiver le contexte urbain actuel au sein duquel émergent ces « hommes d'affaires de Dieu ». Fernando Kutino, Ntoumi, Yaucat Guendi et Ne Muanda Nsemi sont quatre figures politico-religieuses majeures dont on verra qu'elles incarnent une idéologie de l'africanité liée à des « magies » et à des processus de pluralisation complexes.Sarah Demart is a social scientist at the Centre d’Études de l'Ethnicité et des Migrations (CEDEM) at the University of Liège, Belgium and the Interculturalism, Migration and Minorities Research Centre at KU Leuven, Belgium. Her thesis on religious revival in Congo is the subject of a forthcoming work, ‘Les territoires de la délivrance: l'enchevêtrement spatio-temporel du Réveil congolais en RDC et diaspora’, being published by Karthala in 2016. She has also published a series of articles in the Revue Européenne des Migrations Internationales (2008; 2013), Cahiers d’Études Africaines (2013), Cahiers de la Méditerranée (2008), African Diaspora (2013), SociologieS (2014; 2016) and Brussels Studies (2013). Her current research focuses on postcolonial legacies in Belgium as the former colonial metropolis of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Email: sarah.demart@ulg.ac.beJoseph Tonda is a professor of sociology and anthropology, and a writer. He teaches at the University of Libreville, Gabon, having formerly held a position at the University of Brazzaville, Congo, where he headed the Department of Sociology between 1991 and 1997. His research focuses on the violence of the imaginaires of power in the fields of religion, politics and the body. He has published several articles in international journals, and his key work, Le Souverain modern: le Corps du pouvoir en Afrique centrale (Congo, Gabon), was published by Karthala in Paris in 2005. This work was preceded by La Guérison divine en Afrique centrale (Congo, Gabon) (Paris: Karthala, 2002). He is also the co-editor, with Jean-Pierre Missié, of Les Églises et la société congolaise d'aujourd'hui (Paris: L'Harmattan, 2006). In December 2015, Karthala published his book L'Impérialisme postcolonial. His first novel, Chiens de foudre, was published in Libreville in 2013, by ODEM Editions. This translated article represents his first major publication in English. Email: josephtonda@yahoo.fr