Lumpkin 1 

 
 

Primal Religious Influences in the Antonian Movement (1704-1706):

Lessons for the Western Church
 
 
 

Final Research Project 
 
 
 

MH505 – Issues in the History of Christian Mission 
Fuller Theological Seminary 
 

 
Dr. Jehu Hanciles 
 
 

 
June 13, 2008 
 

 
 
Matthew Lumpkin 
Fuller Box# 449 

 
 
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1. Introduction

In August of 1704, at no more than twenty years old, Dona Beatriz Kimpa Vita was

transformed from the restless daughter of a noble family in the fractured Kingdom of Kongo into

a visionary leader seeking to unite her people and heal her nation. She would attempt this not by

military strength or political influence but by spiritual power. This paper will argue that the

Antonian movement led by Dona Beatriz was the shaped by the indigenous appropriation of

Christianity by the Kongolese people from within their primal religious worldview. Further, the

Christianity the Kongolese embraced was also strongly influenced by primal religion but from

the European context. As such this narrative is instructive for contemporary missionary

endeavors especially when engaging peoples strongly influenced by a primal worldview.

2. Primal Religion

2.1 Defining Primal Religion

Before moving into analysis of the historical narrative, it is helpful to clarify what the

term “primal religion” means. The term is used here to refer to the basic world-view and

practices that are or have been present in all human societies. Primal religion can be seen most

clearly prior to these societies’ encounter with any of the world’s “great” religions that build

upon these primal foundations. Andrew Walls advocates the term “primal” over “traditional,”

“tribal,” “animistic,” or “primitive” religion both to avoid the negative baggage of those terms

and to emphasize this perspective’s “historical priority” and its “basic, elemental nature.” 1 It

would be misleading to speak of primal religion as one unified movement since the religious

expression it describes is commonly found in a wide variety of contexts. Yet there is striking

                                                        
1
Andrew Walls, “Africa and Christian Identity” in Mission Focus: Current Issues, ed. Wilbert R. Shenk
(Scottdate, PA: Herald Press, 1980), 212-13.
 Lumpkin 3 
 
uniformity both in practice and theological orientation among an extremely broad swath of

people, independent of one another.2

Harold Turner offers six key elements that describe this uniformity in the primal religious

worldview: 1.) a sense of kinship with all of nature, 2.) a sense of man’s finitude, weakness,

sinfulness and need of a power beyond his own, 3.) a deep belief in a “spiritual world of powers

or beings more powerful and ultimate than [one]self,” of both good and evil intent, 4.) a belief

that man can engage in relationship with benevolent spiritual powers for aid and protection, 5.) a

deep sense of the reality of the afterlife and the ongoing relationship between the “living dead”

and the “living living,” and finally, 6.) a deep conviction about the sacramental nature of the

universe where there are no sharp disjunctions between the physical and the spiritual.3

2.2 Primal Religion in Europe

It is tempting, particularly in the West, to identify primal religion with something dying

or already gone: the superstition of a bygone age, or a necessary evolutionary step to be passed

through and left behind. However, Walls and Taylor both suggest that primal religion remain,

underlying all other religions that build upon them.4 In fact, primal religion is not dying after

exposure to economic development, science or even the world’s great religions. Instead people

are finding new modes of expression and new religious means of meeting the same primal needs

                                                        
2
For a sampling of this continuity among communities in far flung corners of the world, compare
examinations of primal religious expression in North American Indian, African, and Pacific contexts in John R.
Hinnells, ed. A Handbook of Living Religions (NY: Penguin Books, 1984), 392-438, with analysis from the World
Council of Churches consultation on primal religion in 1973 in John B. Taylor, ed. Primal world-views: Christian
Invovlement in Dialogue with Traditional Thought Forms (Ibadan, Nigeria: Daystar Press, 1976), 72-122.
3
Harold W. Turner, “The Primal Religions of the World and their Study,” in Victor Hayes, ed. Australian
Esays in World Religions, (Bedford Park: Australian Association for World Religions), 27-37 cited in Kwame
Bediako, Jesus and the Gospel in Africa: History and Experience (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 2004), 87-88.
4
Andrew Walls, “Africa and Christian Identity,” 252; John B. Taylor, ed. Primal World-Views, v.
 Lumpkin 4 
 
and concerns.5

Heirs to European heritage also commonly associate primal religion only with the

indigenous people of the areas their ancestors colonized: tribal Africans, Asians, and Native

Americans, for example. Yet it is crucial to our understanding of the Antonian movement that

we recognize the influence of European (particularly Germanic, Celtic, Anglo-Saxon, Frankish

and Norse) primal religion on Catholic Christianity.6 Walls argues as these peoples became

Christian they did so from within their primal religious universe. “Saints and martyrs quietly

replaced the local spirits. The symbols changed, the directions and motives of religious practice

remained. Power and protection were still sought but sought now from God.”7 Also retained

was the sense of good and evil spiritual forces at work just beneath the surface of everyday life

and the popular hope to gain safety and benefit from them. The Church became the repository of

this spiritual power and priests the administrators and gatekeepers thereof.8 Yet primal religious

values were not merely to be found among the uneducated masses. Even the clergy seemed to be

caught up in the primal milieu, prescribing a sprinkling of holy water to “ward off enemies,” or

utilizing religious objects (the crucifix, the host, relics etc.) to gain healing, protection or spiritual

power.9

But the priests were not without competition in their assertions of spiritual power. In rural

village areas there were many practitioners of “magic,” which came to be described as
                                                        
5
Harold Turner, “New Religious Movements in Primal Societies,” in John R. Hinnells, ed. A Handbook of
Living Religions, 439-449.
6
While these influences occurred a great deal earlier than the historical scope of this paper (from the fifth
century AD onward), they highlight universality of primal religious influences upon Christianity in general and in
particular the manner in which the gospel is appropriated from within the existing worldview by primal societies.
Further, these primal influences in European Christianity have direct bearing on the Antonian movement. For a
detailed analysis of German primal influences and appropriations of Christianity see James C. Russell, The
Germanization of Early Medieval Christianity: A Sociohistorical Approach to Religious Transformation (NY /
Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1994), 209-214.
7
Andrew Walls, “Christianity,” in John R. Hinnells, ed. A Handbook of Living Religions, 62.
8
Ibid, 64-65.
9
James C. Russel, The Germanization of Medieval Christianity, 221.
 Lumpkin 5 
 
“witchcraft,” by the church. These practices might also be described as primal religious

expression intended to provide protection, relief from disease or infertility.10 In response, the

church began to insist that all claims to or exercise of spiritual power (even for benevolent

reasons such as healing) that did not come through officially recognized Church authority

(priests, appeal to the saints, relics etc.) necessarily suggested involvement with the Devil or his

demons. This teaching led to an upswing in persecution, trials and burning of individuals

accused of witchcraft in the mid sixteenth century (1550-1570).11 These trends in the European

appropriation of Christianity from a primal world-view would have an impact upon Christinity's

appropriation in Africa and especially upon a young noble-woman named Dona Beatriz Kimpa

Vita.

3. The Dona Beatriz Kimpa Vita Narrative

3.1 The Kongo Context

Since the baptism of King Joao I in 1491, the Kongo had been a Christian kingdom.12 His

son and successor, Afonso I, ruling from 1509-43 worked tirelessly to nurture the new faith

among his court and the wider populace. In the centuries to follow, as Portugal’s trading

relationship with Kongo grew, so Christianity grew in influence and the church in power, all the

time overseen by European missionaries. Yet tensions, especially over the slave trade and

Kongolese sovereignty eventually exploded in devastating war with Portugal (1670’s and

                                                        
10
Often these pracices were hold-overs from pre-Christian fertility cults associated with agriculture and
child-birth. Robert Muchembled, “Witchcraft, Popular Culture and Christianity,” in Forster, Robert and Orest
Ranum, eds. Ritual, Religion, and the Sacred: Selections from the Annales: Economies, Societies, Civilsations.
Vol. 7. (Baltimore, MD / London, U.K.: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1982), 223-224.
11
Ibid, 226.
12
John Kelly Thornton, The Kongolese Saint Anthony: Dona Beatriz Kimpa Vita and the Antonian
Movement (Cambridge, U.K. ; New York : Cambridge University Press, 1998), 45.
 Lumpkin 6 
 
1680’s).13

In the aftermath, the kingdom was divided by skirmishes between rival factions, each

challenging then King Pedro IV’s claim to power.14 The capital, Sao Salvador, was in disarray

and Pedro retreated to the mountains. The Kongolese people lived with the constant threat of

war and the collective frustration of the fall of their great kingdom.

While Christianity had been established for over two-hundred years in Kongo it was

initially more influential among the royal family and court officials. Yet, from the 1645 arrival

of the Italian branch of Franciscans (called “Capuchins” for their hooded habit), Christianity had

become more deeply embedded in the religious, political and commercial life of the people.15

Still, primal religion supplied the spiritual world-view as well as many of the points of contact

through which Christianity was being appropriated. For example, the Catholic ritual of baptism

at the time called for a pinch of salt to be placed on the tongue of the initiate. Because of a pre-

existing primal belief that evil spirits (and evil people) dislike salt, the protection that came from

it was understood as the true blessing or power of baptism which came to be known as “eating

salt.”16

As is often the case in primal societies, primal religious expression continued to thrive

along-side the Church (just as it had in Europe) which was seen as a new agency laying claim to

ancient and pre-existent spiritual power. The Kongolese had an established rubric for assessing

claims to spiritual power and their motivations. Primal religious specialists in Kongo can be

described in two basic categories: nganga and ndoki. Both utilized personal spiritual power to
                                                        
13
Carl Sundberg, “Christianity in Dialogue with African History and Culture” in Swedish Missiological
Times 92, 3 (2004), 337.
14
Kevin Ward, “Africa,” in A World History of Christianity, ed. Adrian Hastings (Grand Rapids, MI /
Cambridge, U.K.: Eardman’s Publishing Company, 1999), 201-202.
15
Ibid.
16
John K. Thornton, The Kongolese Saint Anthony, 18.
 Lumpkin 7 
 
seek the “Other World” of gods, spirits and ancestors to gain power, both used the same sorts of

religious objects (fetishes, talismans etc.), and both received pay for their work. The key

difference between the two is one of intent. The nganga used supernatural powers for healing

and restoration while the ndoki used these same powers for evil ends usually motivated by

selfishness or greed.17 This community value of seeing spiritual power as basically neutral and

discerning between “healers” and “witches” based upon how those with spiritual gifts use their

power and what this reveals of their intent seems to animate much of Dona Beatriz’ later

thinking.

3.2 Dona Beatriz’ Religious Life

Dona Beatriz was baptized into the church (and “ate salt”) as an infant like most children

of the nobles. Between age eight and her teen years, Dona Beatriz began to have visions. Visitors

from the “Other World,” who Thornton identifies as nkitas, or spirits, took the form of two white

children who came to visit Beatriz, play with her and give her gifts. The children she saw were

“white” in the sense that white was the color identified with the spirit world, just as black was

identified with this world. These visions became a sign that she was spiritually gifted and she

began to be known for this and for her virtuous reputation.18 While still an adolescent, she was

initiated as a nganga of a particular type called a nganga marinda, whose focus was on solving

social problems in addition to individual ones. This office came with great respect because of its

orientation towards social benevolence as opposed to the individualism and greed understood to

                                                        
17
Ibid, 71. For further discussion of the breadth of roles the nganga might fill including “a creator of
meaning and a potential prophet,” see Matthew Schoffeleers, “Christ in African Folk Theology: the Nganga
Paradigm,” in Religion in Africa: Experience and Expression, ed. Thomas Blakely, 73-88 (London, U.K.;
Portsmouth, NH: James Curry, Heinemann, 1994), 79.
18
I have chosen here to rely more heavily upon Thornton than on other sources as he relies most heavily
upon the primary sources, especially Father Bernardo Da Gallo’s correspondence with the Vatican and notes from
his extensive hearing of Dona Beatriz’ confession in July of 1706.. Ibid, 26-27.
 Lumpkin 8 
 
motivate ndokis.19

After becoming a nganga marinda, Dona Beatriz was further initiated into a rather

unique expression of primal religion known as a kimpasi or “suffering” society. While diagnosis

and treatment of problems originating in the spirit world were central to the nganga’s role, the

kimpasi society was created explicitly for the purpose of diagnosing and healing social and

corporate ills, when the community was experiencing great distress or suffering.20 Given the

fractured and volatile political situation during Dona Beatriz’ childhood and her recognized

spiritual gifts, she was a natural candidate for this elite group.

The initiation involved a number of other adolescents under the supervision of an elder

nganga who organized the society’s formation on behalf of the people. The initiates would

construct an outdoor enclosure in the forest or other deserted place that would serve as the focus

of spiritual power. It would be filled with a number of spiritually powerful objects, or nkisis.

These often included censers, candles and other paraphernalia from church worship practices. In

the center of the enclosure, a cross was placed atop an altar. The cross had already been a potent

symbol of the intersection between the two worlds in Kongolese primal religion and had only

become more prominent since the arrival of Christianity.

For our discussion, the most crucial element of the kimpasi initiation is the ritualized

death and resurrection of the initiates. After falling into a deep trance, understood to be death,

initiates were treated carefully by the elder nganga and revived. Yet they were no longer

believed to be the same persons who had died. While “dead” their bodies had been possessed by

nkitas or spirits who would then work through them to heal whatever societal problems that had

precipitated the formation of the society. These nkitas also gave the initiates power to detect,
                                                        
19
Ibid, 54.
20
Ibid, 55-56; See also Carl Sundberg, “Christianity in Dialogue,” 338.
 Lumpkin 9 
 
calm and repel evil supernatural forces. While possession by nkitas was common for ngangas, it

was always temporary. The possession of the kimpasi initiates, however, was considered

permanent. Initiates were even exempted from incest taboos because they were understood to no

longer be the same person. Though in practice those posessed retained much of their original

personality.21 The experience of this particular sort of possession by a benevolent spirit for the

purpose of diagnosing and treating social problems is clearly the pattern through which Dona

Beatriz understood her later experience with the spirit of Saint Anthony of Padua, patron saint of

Portugal and perhaps the most venerated saint in Kongo.

3.3 The Kongolese Religious Ethic

Dona Beatriz temporarily forsook her vocation as a nganga for a time during which the

Capuchins were actively characterizing all spiritual power except that of the church as explicitly

demonic and evil and hence equal to the practices of the ndokis, or witches.22 In this they seem to

be consistent with the positions taken by the European clergy in Europe with regards to primal

religion and “witchcraft” there. Thornton asserts that this argument, rooted in European

theology, was never broadly accepted by the Kongolese who continued to judge individuals

claiming nganga status by how they used their power-- either benevolently or for personal

advantage. “It was the purposes and intentions of those using the power that counted, not the

simple possession of the power or the nature of the beings in the Other World who were

consulted and carried out the work…”23 The Capuchin priests’ claim to be ngangas while

                                                        
21
Ibid.
22
Sundberg argues that the Cappuchins did not distinguish between the more benevolent healing role of the
nganga and the more malevolent role of the ndoki who use their spiritual power to do harm, condemning them both.
Yet, Ward asserts that early in their campaigns (c1645) to destroy nkisi, or primal religious objects, the Cappuchin
friars referred to themselves as nganga, fitting into the primal religious worldview still prevalent among most
Kongolese. This points to the ignorance of the nuances of Kongolese primal religion on the part of the Capuchins.
Carl Sundberg, “Christianity in Dialouge,” 338; Kevin Ward, “Africa,” 202.
23
John K. Thornton, The Kongolese St. Anthony, 71.
 Lumpkin 10 
 
simultaneously denouncing all other religious specialists also raised Kongolese suspicions. They

might very well be powerful ngangas engaged in battle against evil ndokis, but their tenacious

demands for exclusive respect and their frequent involvement in political intrigues seemed to

suggest they were using their spiritual power for their own goals rather than the good of the

community.24

The Kongolese people’s frustration grew with the continuing skirmishes between rival

claimants to power while several Capuchins tried and failed to mediate a peace process. Many

felt that if exiled King Pedro IV would return from Mt. Kibangu to occupy the capital, Sao

Salvador, some fifty kilometers east, that the Kingdom would unite around him. Yet this would

involve considerable risk to Pedro and he sought to gain explicit Church support from the

Capuchins before such bold a move.25 At this time, all over the Kingdom people began to see

visions (some of Mary, others of “white children”) calling for repentance from the violence and

fragmentation of the kingdom, and for a return to the abandoned capital by the people and by

King Pedro. 26 One such woman, named Mafuta, preached against the use of nkisis or objects of

spiritual power commonly used by ngangas and ndokis. She also included in this category

Bibles, crosses, and other objects associated with the church because these were also commonly

utilized as nkisis. She taught that all of these had been polluted by evil, selfish intention and

should be burned as part of a greater purging of evil from the land.27

3.4 Saint Anthony as Nkita

In August of 1704 Dona Beatriz fell ill. Sick with fever for days, she believed she was

                                                        
24
Ibid, 74-75.
25
For a detailed description of the complex political dance Pedro IV was negotiating see John K. Thornton,
The Kongolese Saint Anthony, 59-69; See also Carl Sundberg, “Christianity in Dialouge,” 338-339.
26
Carl Sundberg, “Christianity in Dialouge,” 339.
27
John K. Thornton, The Kongolese St. Anthony, 108.
 Lumpkin 11 
 
dying. Suddenly, she saw a vision of a man in the blue hood of the Capuchin monks who

identified himself as:

“Saint Anthony, firstborn son of the Faith and of Saint Francis. I have been sent from
God to your head to preach to the people. You are to move to the restoration of the Kingdom of
Kongo forward and you must tell all who threaten you that dire punishments from God await
them.”28

He went on to describe his journey to her, inhabiting the “heads” of several Kongolese

but repeatedly being confronted by “a Reverend Father” and having to flee. He then “merged”

with her and Dona Beatriz awoke ready to fulfill the mission. One of her first actions was to

climb Mt. Kimbangu to speak to the king and rebuke him for his reluctance to re-occupy Sao

Salvador. When she gained audience with him her manner was other-wordly as she walked in on

her toes and slowly circled the king with a wide grin.29 She wasted no time denouncing his lack

of resolve to unite the kingdom and asserted that Father Bernardo Da Gallo, one of the

Capuchins whose support Pedro IV had been courting, was “jealous and envious,” (tantamount

to calling him an ndoki). She went on to say that his intent to censure Mafuta betrayed his desire

to ensure that there would be no black saints in the Kongo. To this remarkably audacious

confrontation, King Pedro said nothing.30

After staying several days at the King's palace, Dona Beatriz set out on foot traveling

through the country-side preaching. She echoed Mafuta’s teaching on nkisis and added to it

radical devotion to St. Anthony and a re-imagining of Christian history. She taught that Mary

and Jesus were Kongolese, substituting Sao Salvador for Bethlehem and the northern city of

Nsundi for Nazareth. Thornton argues that this likely sprang from her mounting suspicion that

the Capuchins’ had misrepresented of church history by populating it solely with Europeans as a

                                                        
28
Ibid, 111.
29
Adrian Hastings, The Church in Africa 1450-1950 (Oxford: U.K.: Clarendon Press, 1994), 105.
30
John K. Thornton, The Kongolese Saint Anthongy, 111.
 Lumpkin 12 
 
means of bolstering their demands for respect.31 Amidst implicit and explicit assertions of

European racial superiority from European church, Dona Beatriz asserted the legitimacy of

Kongolese ethnic and national identity as a Christian people. This dynamic can be observed in

other mass movements, particularly in response to European colonial evangelization.32 In the

indigenous appropriation of the gospel there is a universal and pressing need to express the

validity and equality of one’s own people before God.

Dona Beatriz’ message resonated strongly with the Kongolese. Thousands came to hear

her preach and followed her as she traveled. As her popular support grew, so did the quandary

Pedro IV and Da Gallo faced on how to handle this mutual challenge to their respective domains

of authority.33 With characteristic political sensitivity, Pedro asked Da Gallo to examine Beatriz

to discern the identity of her possessor and thereby ascertain the validity of her message. Here

we have the two conflicting religious world-views side by side. To Da Gallo, a European

(though one who spoke Kongolese and had spent considerable time there) the question is

preposterous. He simply had no category for spiritual possession other than demonic. Yet for

Pedro, it was an open question as to whether or not this nganga marinda might very well be

possessed by the spirit of the most venerated saint in his Kingdom. He was appealing to Da

Gallo, as a religious specialist, having laid claim to spiritual power to discern ndoki, to answer

this question. While on the political level, the only way Pedro could hope oppose such a

powerful mass movement of his people was with backing from the church’s considerable

authority. Pedro could not act without Da Gallo’s opinion.

3.5 Confrontation with Father Da Gallo

                                                        
31
Ibid, 112-113.
32
Cf. the Virgin of Guadalupe movement two hundred years earlier in Mexico.
33
Ibid, 118.
 Lumpkin 13 
 
It is possible that Dona Beatriz approached her meeting with Da Gallo in hopes that he

might come to accept the divine origin of her mission and offer his support. After all, he had

been lobbying Pedro to re-occupy Sao Salvador as a mans of unifying the kingdom as well. It

quickly became clear that Da Gallo had no such intention. She met him in the palace chapel

under the protection and supervision of the King’s aids. Beatriz’ manner was similar to when she

first spoke to Pedro: swaying, tip-toe gait, “bulging eyes,” and ocassionaly strange, esoteric

speech.34

Their conversation consisted primarily of questions posed by Da Gallo, who periodically

exploded into tirades in response to Beatriz’ answers. Beatriz, on the other hand took the

opportunity to attempt to clarify that her critique was not of the Capuchins or the Church and its

symbols, but of those individuals who were suspect of being motivated by self-interest over the

common good. The subtle differences between the spiritual world-views of Da Gallo and Dona

Beatriz came into sharp focus-- primal-influenced European Christianity versus primal-

influenced African Christianity. Da Gallo asked how Dona Beatriz could be Saint Anthony and

also be a woman. She took this as an opportunity to explain that Saint Anthony had “come into

[her] head” possessing and replacing her. She then offered the overwhelming joy of the masses

at her preaching as proof of the legitimacy of her benevolence and possession by the benevolent

spirit, Anthony. Yet, because Da Gallo apparently still had not grasped this fundamental ethic of

discerning intent by positive community benefit, her argument was lost upon him and he ended

the meeting, fully convinced that she was possessed by the Devil. 35

Dona Beatriz went on preaching and leading the Kongolese in a popular movement back

to Sao Salvador (which she now identified with New Jerusalem) but Da Gallo and Pedro were
                                                        
34
Thornton suggests her unusual manner of speaking was learned from the Kimpasi society who were
known to use archaic and arcane forms of Kongolese language. Ibid, 121.
35
Ibid, 123.
 Lumpkin 14 
 
now committed to opposing her, though they had to tread carefully given her popular support.

One key element of her teaching that began to emerge was an emphasis on the intent behind

religious sacraments like marriage, confession, and especially baptism. It was not the ritual itself

that contained the power or the blessing but the right inner motive of the participant to receive it

with good intent rather than simply to gain more blessing for oneself. Therefore a reliance upon

the church and its priests was no longer necessary.36 This teaching, seemingly derived from the

aforementioned ethic further aggravated the relationship between the Antonians, as they came to

be called, and the official church.

Over the two years in which her movement grew, Dona Beatriz began sending out male

preachers from her inner circle to spread her message. One man whom she called “St. John,”

became particularly close to her and she became pregnant by him. This was kept secret until she

went away to birth the child. Within hours of birth, she and the baby’s father were found and

arrested. They were tried and condemned to burning by Pedro IV under Kongolese, not Church

authority. During the trial Dona Beatriz made an emotional appeal to be re-baptized, feeling

great sorrow for her “sins” of betraying her followers by her pregnancy and deception about it.37

However, she insisted that her possession was legitimate and her teachings were from God. She

and “St. John” were burned as heretics in July of 1706.38 The Capuchins argued successfully

that the child should be spared.39

3.5 Primal Religious Influences

In this narrative the influence of African primal religion is pervasive.40 First, it provided

                                                        
36
Ibid, 149-151.
37
Ibid, 181.
38
Kevin Ward, “Africa,” 203.
39
John K. Thornton, The Kongolese Saint Anthony, 182-183.
40
I use the phrase “African primal religion” here, and “European primal religion later” to refer to the
 Lumpkin 15 
 
the spiritual contour of the world-view held by the Kongolese. It supplied the category and role

of nganga that was adopted by the Capuchin priests as well as the concept of spiritual power,

that they laid exclusive claim to. It provided the concept of ancestral spiritual beings, nkitas,

who were readily identified with the saints of Catholicism for their familiar role of divine

mediation and provision of help. This not only made Dona Beatriz’ possession by St. Anthony a

plausible claim to the Kongolese but also lay behind the intense felt need for Kongolese saints as

a surrogate for ancestral advocates, as expressed in her revision of Christian history.

African primal religion also supplied the conceptual basis (in the kimpasi society) for the

sort of long-term possession by an nkita as a means of getting divine help discerning and healing

spiritually rooted problems. It was at the core of the central Kongolese religious and social ethic

of judging any assertions of spiritual power or demands for status by the intent of the actor for

the benefit of himself or the common good. This was closely related to the belief in the spiritual

power of certain religious objects or nkisi. It is important to note that Dona Beatriz did not

condemn the use of these objects because of any inherent evil to their power (as the Capuchins

taught). Instead, she agreed with Mafuta that, though formerly neutral, they had been so

corrupted by selfish intent that their further use would only sow more division. This reflects not

so much a challenge to African primal religion as a call for reform and obedience to a central

teaching that arose from it.

The influence of European primal religion in this narrative is also far reaching, yet more

subtle. It can be seen in the priests’ belief in overlapping boundaries between spirit and physical

worlds as well as the presence of the benevolent dead (saints) who could offer aid and mediation

to higher spiritual authority (intercession). Further, their belief in the inherent spiritual power of
                                                        
pervasive and near universal dynamics of primal religion as they have emerged in the particularities of the African
and European contexts. While there are some contextual differences it seems clear that I am describing the same
root phenomena that is “basic and essential” to all humanity.
 Lumpkin 16 
 
certain religious objects such as the host, the crucifix, relics, holy water and the Bible, among

others, reveals a certain primal sensibility regarding these items. This is likely why these items

were so readily taken up as nkisi by nganga and ndoki alike.

It is important to notice that Da Gallo did not doubt the sincerity of Dona Beatriz’ belief,

nor the plausibility that she was possessed and thereby exercising spiritual power (manifested in

healings and other signs associated with her ministry). He only disagreed about the source of her

spiritual power. Since her religious experience took an unfamiliar form (spirit possession) alien

to the range of primal expression recognized by the European church it was automatically

associated with the Devil. Ultimately the church’s exclusive claim to benevolent spiritual power

and corresponding demonization of any other spiritual claims is rooted in its prior reaction to

primal religious expression in European life. It is not surprising then that Dona Beatriz met the

same fate of many in Europe charged with implicit association with the Devil by nature of their

involvement with primal religious expression.

The narrative of Dona Beatriz and the Antonian movement is rife with examples of

primal religious expression coming from both the African and European contexts. Primal

religion provided the basic mental categories and worldviews from which both groups

appropriated Christianity. The central conflict between the church and the Antonian movement,

while containing political dimensions, cannot be properly understood apart from conflicts over

who had the authority to exercise spiritual power and how any individual exercising that power

was to be judged as a benevolent or malevolent.

4. Anaylsis and Lessons for Contemporary Missions

4.1 Relevance for Today

What makes the short spiritual career of this young Kongolese woman worth our attention?
 Lumpkin 17 
 
What might we learn from this episode in history that is relevant to the church and contemporary

missions today? First, it is worth our attention because Dona Beatriz was not the last to attempt

to exegete the Christian gospel brought by outsiders in distinctly African and primal terms.

There is considerable literature documenting a steady stream of prophets and healers emerging

from the African context.41 Primal religion has shaped the development of Christianity in Africa,

just as it did in Europe, and continues to have profound impact upon the African expression of

Christianity today.42 In light of the growing awareness of the shift in the center of Christianity

from Europe and the United States to the global south (especially Africa), the church in the West

cannot afford to ignore the ongoing influence of primal religious thinking upon what have

become, and by all projections will continue to be “the new faces of Christianity.” 43

In his 2006 book by the that name, Philip Jenkins points to the distinctly primal way in

which many African Christians use the Bible as an nkisi, or religious object with spiritual power

to heal, protect against evil spirits, and even ensure safe travel merely by its presence. Its words

have taken on the authority of the ancestor who “cannot be questioned.”44 Primal religion also

fosters a deep connection between African culture and the Bible because of the primal heritage it

shares with Israel.

This leads us to the second reason an awareness of primal religion is crucial to today’s

church: it is the interpretive key to the many aspects of the canon that seem confusing and

obscure to contemporary readers in the West. This is illustrated when Kwame Bediako, a
                                                        
41
For a survey of African Christianity see Kevin Ward, “Africa,”; See also Thomas Blakely, ed., Religion
in Africa: Experience and Expression (London, U.K.; Portsmouth, NH: James Curry, Heinemann, 1994).
42
Harold Turner asserts that there as many as ten thousand, primal Christian movements with ten million
members active in Africa today. Harold W. Turner, Religious Movements in Primal Societies (Elkhart, IN: Mission
Focus Publications 1989), 9.
43
Philip Jenkins, The New Faces of Christianity: Believing the Bible in the Global South (Oxford, UK:
Oxford University Press, 2006), ix.
44
Zablon Nthamburi and Douglas Waruta, “Biblical Hermeneutics in the African Instituted Churches,” in
Hanna W. Kinoti and John M. Waliggo, eds., The Bible in African Christianity (Nairobi, Kenya: Acton, 1997), 40-
57 at 51 cited in ibid, 35.
 Lumpkin 18 
 
historian of African religion from Ghana, claims the epistle to the Hebrews as “our epistle,” due

to its resonance with a culture familiar with theological concepts such as “sacrifice, priestly

mediation and ancestral function.”45 These resonances truly run throughout the breadth of the

canon. Jenkins’ text is replete with citations of a broad range of Africans who have found deep

connection with shared elements between ancient Israel in scripture and life in Africa including:

relational dynamics of polygamous households, protracted tribal conflict, spirit possession and

the ever-present need to visit a religious specialist or seer among others.46 Gillian Bediako goes

on to assert that a fresh reading of scripture from a primal perspective is likely to recover biblical

emphases that have been omitted in Western theological discourse.47

4.2 Re-Orientation of Western Church Toward Primal Religion

It is clear from the narrative of the Antonian Movement that the European priests’ desire

to control both the exercise of spiritual power and the indigenous appropriation of the faith

characterized their engagement with the Kongolese. Further, their arrogant demands for respect

were largely responsible for popular distrust and suspicion about them. One need not look far to

find similar dynamics in western mission today. The overt political power and foreign

governmental influence of the Capuchins have been replaced by the tools of finance and a

presumption of cultural superiority and “doctrinal purity.” This is often expressed as anxiety

among many church leaders in the West about the “syncretism” of African Initiated Churches

and other grass-roots movements expressing indigenous appropriations of the gospel from the

primal worldview.

Yet the very term “syncretism” is laden with the assumption that the Christianity brought
                                                        
45
Kwame Bediako, Jesus and the Gospel in Africa: History and Experience, 27-30.
46
Philip Jenkins, The New Faces of Christiantiy, 47ff.
47
Gillian Bediako, “Primal Religion and Christian Faith: Antagonists or Soul-Mates?” in Journal of
African Christian Thought. 3, 1. (2000): 12-16 at 14.
 Lumpkin 19 
 
by the foreign missionary is itself “pure” and uninfluenced by non-Christian religion. This

understanding lacks an appreciation for the European primal heritage and its influence on the

development of Western Christianity. In addition, since primal religion is so deeply entrenched

in the narrative of scripture it should not be surprising that we find its influences pervasive in the

development of Christian history even up to this day.48 The false dichotomy between the

westerner or foreigner’s “pure” Christianity and the “pagan” or “syncretistic” compromise of that

purity is a profound over-simplification.49 It suggests the false possibility that anyone may come

to faith apart from their prior assumptions about the world, regardless of whether they are primal,

modern, post-modern or any other. The reality of the appropriation of the gospel by individuals,

groups, societies and cultures is much more complex, as we have seen in the Dona Beatriz

narrative, and it takes shape over the course of centuries. The western church should move away

this language and the freight of a-cultural superiority it suggests toward a historical appreciation

of the “process of fresh combinations and permutations” by which Christianity has always

expanded: through the indigenous appropriation of the Christian message and the long term

incarnation of the gospel into the particularities of any given society.50

Gillian Bediako argues that the primal perspective actually has some much needed

correctives to offer Western Christianity and it may do so in the ferment of engagement between
                                                        
48
For a detailed analysis of primal religion within the canon of scripture through the lens of William
Robertson Smith, see Gillian M. Bediako, Primal Religion and the Bible: William Robertson Smith and his
Heritage, in Journal for the Study of the Old Testament Supplement Series, David J. A. Clines and Philip R. Davies,
eds. (Sheffield, U.K.: Sheffield Academic Press Ltd, 1997), 246.
49
Birgit Meyer offers a persuasive argument that what has been called “syncretism” is really the result of
vernacular processes of “translation and diablolization.” She pays particular attention to the formative influence that
the common foreign missionary choice to identify all spiritual powers with the Devil and his demons leaving only
one creator God, who is then identified with the Christian God. This dynamic is strongly at work in the Dona
Beatriz narrative and further underlines the multi-layered complexity that is unhelpfully papered-over by the
language of syncretism. Birgit Meyer, “Translation and diabolization in the appropriation of Protestantism in
Africa,” 45-68 in Charles Stewart and Rosalind Shaw eds., Syncretism/Anti-Syncretism: The Politics of Religious
Synthesis (New York, NY / London, U.K.: Routledge, 1994), 63-64.
50
For a splendid and eloquent description of the expanding “multicultural horizon” of early Christianity as
a normative pattern for later Christian expansion see Lamin Sanneh, Disciples of all Nations: Pillars of World
Christianity (Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2008), 3-12 at 12.
 Lumpkin 20 
 
African theologians and their Western counter-parts.51 While this may not be fully persuasive to

some, it suggests that primal religion is much like other “basic and essential” aspects of human

expression such as language and culture. If this is the case then perhaps primal religion can be

seen as similarly neutral in terms of its possible contribution or detriment to Christian faith-- it

all depends upon how Christians may understand the gospel to affirm, reject, reinterpret or

otherwise redeem those aspects of themselves that were present when they began to follow

Christ.

Yet many are still rightly concerned about the propagation of heresy and doctrinal error

among Christians influenced by primal religious views. This concern must be tempered by two

recognitions. First, foreigners from the West have been attempting to control the shape of

Christianity as it has expanded in the global south since the early 1500’s. While it is undeniable

that foreign missions movements have been instrumental in bringing the gospel message to the

fertile soil of primal religion, the growth of the church in that soil has regularly taken surprising

and often disturbing (at least to the foreigners) turns. This has occurred despite concerted

attempts to bring the indigenous church in line with more western sensibilities. This goal of a

foreign controlled church is both illusory and wrong-headed.

Instead (and second), we must learn to trust both the Holy Spirit and the indigenous

Christians in their work of sorting out truth from error.52 Those who are heirs to a primal

heritage are the best equipped to assess its true meaning and character. Too often the foreigner

has been all too ready to dismiss as demonic those things which he has never properly

understood. We in the West must first recognize our own accretion of influences unconsciously

                                                        
51
Ibid, 15.
52
Harold Turner optimistically points out that “dead churches don’t produce heresies,” as he highlights the
vitality of the African theological discourse among the laity as well as the academics. Harold W. Turner, Religious
Movements in Primal Societies, 18.
 Lumpkin 21 
 
incorporated into our faith. Only then may we come, on even footing, into ecumenical,

international relationship with individuals and churches influence by the primal world-view in a

mutual attempt to discover the gifts and liabilities of our particular viewpoints.53

5 Conclusion

This paper has attempted to point out the pervasive influence of primal religion both from

the European and African contexts, present in the historical narrative of Dona Beatriz’ Antonian

movement. From there some implications of the ongoing influence of primal religion in the

indigenous appropriation of Christianity in Africa and the global south were suggested. These

included a re-orientation of the Western church towards primal religion from hostility to

neutrality and even appreciation. This re-orientation would be based on primal religion's

presence in our canon of scripture, its broad influence in church history and within the new

Christian populations centers, and the contributions and corrections it may have for a waning

Western church. This re-orientation would consist of a recognition of primal religious influences

within the European heritage and a corresponding move away from the language of “syncretism”

towards that of “appropriation” and “incarnation.” Western missions must abandon the position

of illusory control over mission churches and replace it with relationship that places western

Churches on equal footing with our southern counterparts in relationships of equality and

mutuality that should characterize the global body of Christ.

                                                        
53
Ibid, 21.
 Lumpkin 22 
 
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