Abstract EN:

Kimbanguism, a religious movement which stemmed from a non-violent African reaction to European colonialism, has become an important mainstream church in Central Africa since 1959. After the classic studies made by Georges Balandier, which provided an analysis of the movement in its colonial context, the two reference books on Kimbanguism were written by Swiss theologian Marie-Louise Martin and American sociologist Susan Asch. Since Balandier's analyses and twenty years after the publication of Martin's and Asch's works, the Kimbanguist church has not remained enclosed in the conceptual patterns displayed by these authors, and has not limited itself to Africa either. It has become a liberated religious space, where Kimbangu's successors have not only set up essential elements for a reconstruction of Black identity, but also given their church a universal dimension. The thesis statement informing this dissertation is precisely to analyze the elements contributing in the construction of a new Black identity among the Kimbanguists, while giving a complete account of this religion from its cradle-the Congo-to its settlement in Europe, and noticeably in France. How is the Kimbanguist community inscribed in the French host society? How do Kimbanguist immigrants live their faith in a non-Kimbanguist environment? How does the Kimbanguist believer perceive him/herself vis-à-vis the native French? These are the main questions this dissertation is attempting to answer.