Previous page | New search |
The free AfricaBib App for Android is available here
Periodical article | Leiden University catalogue | WorldCat |
Title: | Dancing for God or the Devil: Pentecostal Discourse on Popular Dance in Kinshasa |
Author: | Pype, Katrien |
Year: | 2006 |
Periodical: | Journal of Religion in Africa |
Volume: | 36 |
Issue: | 3-4 |
Pages: | 296-318 |
Language: | English |
Geographic term: | Congo (Democratic Republic of) |
Subjects: | Pentecostalism dance religious rituals Urbanization and Migration Religion and Witchcraft Architecture and the Arts Peoples of Africa (Ethnic Groups) |
External link: | https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/27594389.pdf |
Abstract: | This article studies the dance poetics and politics of Christians in contemporary Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo. For Kinois (inhabitants of Kinshasa), dance is one of the most important technologies to get in touch with an invisible Other, the divine or the occult. In sermons, and other modes of instruction, spiritual leaders inform their followers about the morality of songs and dances. These discourses reflect Pentecostal thought, and trace back the purity of specific body movements to the choreography's source of inspiration. As the specific movements of so-called sacred dances borrow from a wide array of cultural worlds, ranging from traditional ritual dances and popular urban dance to biblical tales, the religious leaders state that not just the body movements, but also the space where people dance and the accompanying songs, define the Christian or pagan identity of the dancer. Therefore, both the reflections upon dance movements and the dance events within these churches are discussed as moments in the construction of a Christian community. Bibliogr., notes, ref., sum. [Journal abstract] |